UNIVERSITY OF COLUMBIA

The University of British Columbia, commonly referred to as UBC, is a public research university with campuses and facilities in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1908 as the McGill University College of British Columbia, the university became independent and adopted its current name in 1915. It is British Columbia's oldest institution of higher learning and has over 60,000 students at its Vancouver and Okanagan Valley campuses.[7] Most students are enrolled in five larger Faculties: Arts, Science, Medicine, Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business.[8] UBC's 4.02 km2 (993-acre) Vancouver campus is within the University Endowment Lands, about 10 km (6 mi) west of Downtown Vancouver.[9] The 2.09 km2 (516-acre) Okanagan campus, acquired in 2005, is in Kelowna. UBC's admission standards are among the most rigorous in Canada, and according to the annual rankings compiled by Maclean's and U.S. News and World Report the university consistently ranks among the top three research universities nationwide.[10] In 2015 U.S. News and World Report and Times Higher Education ranked UBC among the 20 best public universities worldwide.[11][12] With an annual research budget valued at $564 million, UBC funds 8,442 projects as of 2014.[5] Faculty, alumni, and researchers have received seven Nobel Prizes, 69 Rhodes Scholarships, 65 Olympic medals, 8 memberships in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and 208 fellowships to the Royal Society of Canada.[5] The university has also educated three Canadian prime ministers, most recently Justin Trudeau, the incumbent.[13]

STANDFORD UNIVERSITY

Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University,[8] is a private research university in Stanford, California. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, former Governor of and U.S. Senator from California and railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford admitted its first students on October 1, 1891[2][3] as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Tuition was free until 1920.[9][10] The university struggled financially after Leland Stanford's 1893 death and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.[11] Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley.[12] The main campus is in northern Santa Clara Valley adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere.[7][13] Its 8,180-acre (3,310 ha)[13] campus is one of the largest in the United States.[note 1] The university is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.[16] There are three academic schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. It has gained 109 NCAA team championships,[17] the second-most for a university, 476 individual championships, the most in Division I,[18] and has won the NACDA Directors' Cup, recognizing the university with the best overall athletic team achievement, for 22 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995.[19] Stanford faculty and alumni have founded many companies and companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world (see List of Stanford University people § Company founders).[20] It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires, 17 astronauts, and 20 Turing Award laureates.[note 2] It is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress.

HAVARD UNIVERSITY!

Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US) established in 1636. It's considered among the world's most prestigious universities.[6][7][8][9][10][11] Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soon thereafter named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning,[12] and the Harvard Corporation (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) is its first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites.[13][14] Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.[15] James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. The University is organized into eleven separate academic units—ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area:[16] its 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Boston; the business school and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools are in the Longwood Medical Area.[17] Harvard's $37.6 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution.[3] Harvard is a large, highly residential research university.[18] The nominal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages.[19] It operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 million volumes.[20][21][22] Harvard's alumni include eight U.S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, 335 Rhodes Scholars, and 242 Marshall Scholars.[23][24][25] To date, some 150 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medalists and 13 Turing Award winners have been affiliated as students, faculty, or staff.[26]