top colleges: 2016

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Ball State University

Ball State University, commonly referred to as Ball State or BSU, is a public coeducational research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States, with two satellite facilities in Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, industrialists and founders of the Ball Corporation, acquired the foreclosed Indiana Normal Institute for $35,100 and gave the school and surrounding land to Indiana. The Indiana General Assembly accepted it in the spring of 1918, with an initial 235 students enrolling at the Indiana State Normal School – Eastern Division on June 17, 1918.

Ball State is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a high research activity university and a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.The university is composed of seven academic colleges, including the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Communication, Information, and Media, the Miller College of Business, and Teachers College. Other institutions include Burris Laboratory School, the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, and the Center for Business and Economic Research.
Between 1905 and 1917, the school dropped the Palmer name and operated as the Indiana Normal College. It had two divisions, the Normal School for educating teachers and the College of Applied Sciences. The school had an average enrollment of about 200 students. Due to diminishing enrollment and lack of funding, school president Francis Ingler closed Indiana Normal College at the end of the 1906–1907 school year. Between 1907 and 1912, the campus sat unused. In 1912, a group of local investors led by Michael Kelly reopened the school as the Indiana Normal Institute. To pay for updated materials and refurbishing the once-abandoned Administration Building, the school operated under a mortgage from the Muncie Trust Company. Although the school had its largest student body with a peak enrollment of 806, officials could not maintain mortgage payments, and the school was forced to close once again in June 1917 when the Muncie Trust Company initiated foreclosure proceedings.

The Ball brothers from left to right: George, Lucius, Frank, Edmund, and William.
On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, local industrialists and founders of the Ball Corporation, bought the Indiana Normal Institute from foreclosure. The Ball Brothers also founded Ball Memorial Hospital and Minnetrista, and were the benefactors of Keuka College, founded by their uncle, George Harvey Ball.For $35,100, the Ball brothers bought the Administration Building and surrounding land. In early 1918, during the Indiana General Assembly's short session, state legislators accepted the gift of the school and land by the Ball Brothers. The state granted operating control of the Muncie campus and school buildings to the administrators of the Indiana State Normal School in Terre Haute. That same year, the Marion Normal Institute relocated to Muncie, adding its resources to what would officially be named the Indiana State Normal School – Eastern Division. An initial 235 students enrolled on June 17, 1918, with William W. Parsons assuming the role as first president of the university.

The close relationship between the Balls and the school led to an unofficial moniker for the college, with many students, faculty, and local politicians casually referring to the school as "Ball State," a shorthand alternative to its longer, official name. During the 1922 short session of the Indiana legislature, the state renamed the school as Ball Teachers College. This was in recognition to the Ball family's continuing beneficence to the institution. During this act, the state also reorganized its relationship with Terre Haute and established a separate local board of trustees for the Muncie campus. In 1924, Ball Teachers College's trustees hired Benjamin J. Burris as the successor to President Linnaeus N. Hines. The Ball brothers continued giving to the university and partially funded the construction of the Science Hall (now called Burkhardt Building) in 1924 and an addition to Ball Gymnasium in 1925. By the 1925–1926 school year, Ball State enrollment reached 991 students: 697 women and 294 men. Based on the school's close relationship with the Ball Corporation, a long-running nickname for the school was "Fruit Jar Tech."quadrangles. The original quadrangle, "Old Quad," anchors the south end of campus and includes most of the university's earliest academic buildings, Christy Woods, and the Wheeler-Thanhauser Orchid Collection and Species Bank. The focal points of the Old Quad are Beneficence and the Fine Arts Building, home to the David Owsley Museum of Art since 1935. The museum contains some 11,000 works valued at more than $40 million. The museum is currently under renovation that will expand the total exhibition space from 17,179-to-27,000-square-foot (1,596.0 to 2,508.4 m2). The Fine Arts Terrace, overlooking the Old Quad, hosts the annual spring commencement ceremonies.
Several modern campus buildings (early-1960s to early-1980s) have been built in Brutalist architecture, embracing blank walls and exposed concrete. Examples of this style include the Architecture Building, Bracken Library, and Whitinger Business Building. The Teachers College Building, built in 1968, is the tallest building on campus, at 10 floors and 138 feet (42 m).

Recent building additions and expansions (early-1990s to present) have shied away from Brutalist designs, and instead, have been built to respect the scale and style of the university's older Collegiate Gothic buildings. While red and brown brick accented by limestone have remained the favored façade materials, large windows have become more commonplace in buildings constructed since the late-1990s to emphasize natural lighting. Examples of this architecture include the Alumni Center, Art and Journalism Building, Music Instruction Building, and the David Letterman Communication and Media Building.
Bracken Library is the university's main library. Completed in 1975, Bracken houses five floors of classrooms, computer labs, private study suites, and video viewing suites. The library provides access to about 2.3 million books, periodicals, microforms, audiovisual materials, software, government publication maps, musical scores, archival records, and other information sources. Bracken Library hosts the Ball State University Digital Media Repository, an open access resource containing over 130,000 digital objects in 64 collections, as well as the Center for Middletown Studies. System branches include the Architecture Library and the Science–Health Science Library. Over 1.1 million visits were made throughout the University Libraries system between 2011 and 2012.

University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaiʻi system, formally as the University of Hawaiʻi and popularly known as U.H., is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment training center, three university centers, four education centers and various other research facilities distributed across six islands throughout the State of Hawaiʻi in the United States.

Colleges and universities:
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, founded as a land grant college under the terms of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts (known as "land-grant colleges" of public state universities especially in the West and Mid-West) in the United States, is the flagship institution of the University of Hawaiʻi system. It is well respected for its programs in Hawaiian/Pacific Studies, Astronomy, East Asian Languages and Literature, Asian Studies, Comparative Philosophy, Marine Science, Second Language Studies, along with Botany, Engineering, Ethnomusicology, Geophysics, Law, Business, Linguistics, Mathematics, and Medicine. The second-largest institution is the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo on the "Big Island" of Hawaiʻi, with over 3,000 students. The smaller University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu in Kapolei primarily serves students who reside on Honolulu's western and central suburban communities. The University of Hawaiʻi Community College system comprises four community colleges island campuses on O'ahu and one each on Maui, Kauaʻi, and Hawaiʻi. The schools were created to improve accessibility of courses to more Hawaiʻi residents and provide an affordable means of easing the transition from secondary school/high school to college for many students. University of Hawaiʻi education centers are located in more remote areas of the State and its several islands, supporting rural communities via distance education.

Universities:
University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa
University of Hawaiʻi, Hilo
University of Hawaiʻi, West Oʻahu
Colleges:
University of Hawai'i Maui College

Community colleges:
Hawaiʻi Community College
Honolulu Community College
Kapiʻolani Community College
Kauaʻi Community College
Leeward Community College
Windward Community College

Professional schools:
Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
John A. Burns School of Medicine
William S. Richardson School of Law
Shidler College of Business

Research facilities:
Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi
East-West Center
Haleakalā Observatory
Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute
Institute for Astronomy
Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
Institute of Marine Biology
Lyon Arboretum
Mauna Kea Observatory
W. M. Keck Observatory
Waikīkī Aquarium

University centers:
University of Hawaii Center West Hawaii
University of Hawaii Center Kauai
University of Hawaii Center Maui

Education centers:
Molokaʻi Education Center
Lānaʻi Education Center
Hana Education Center
Waiʻanae Education Center
Lāhainā Education Center

University of Guam

University of Guam (or Unibetsedåt Guåhan in Chamorro and commonly abbreviated as U.O.G.) is a four-year land-grant institution, located in the village of Mangilao on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and offers thirty-four degree programs at the undergraduate level and eleven master’s level programs.

Of the University’s 3,387 students, 91% are of Asian-Pacific Islander ethnicity, and nearly 69% are full-time (fall 2008 figures). A full-time faculty of about 180 supports the University’s mission of "Ina, Diskubre, Setbe"— which translates to "To Enlighten, to Discover, to Serve."
University Of Guam was founded in 1952 as a two-year teacher-training school known as the Territorial College of Guam, established by Governor Carlton Skinner.[3] In 1960, the college moved to the present campus in the central district of Mangilao. In 1965, the college was accredited as a four-year, degree granting institution. By 1968, enrollment had reached 1,800 students while staff and faculty totaled more than 130. It was designated as a land grant institution by the United States Congress in 1972.

Rosa Roberto Carter served as the President of the University of Guam from 1977 to 1983.
Schools:
View of Central Campus
RFK Library at sunset
The University of Guam offers bachelor's degrees in thirty-four areas and master's degrees in eleven areas:
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS)
Division of Humanistic Studies
Department of English and Applied Linguistics (D.E.A.L.)
Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Division of Communication and Fine Arts
College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS)
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Division of Natural Sciences
Division of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences
Division of Social Work
Pre-Engineering Program
Army ROTC
School of Business and Public Administration (SBPA)
Division of Business
Division of Public Administration
School of Education (SOE)
Division of Foundations, Educational Research and Human Studies
Division of Teacher Education and Public Service
School of Nursing and Health Sciences (SNHS)

President of University of Guam:
I. G. Andrews (1953–1970)
Pedro C. Sanchez (1970–1974)
Antonio C. Yamashita (1974–1977)
Rosa Roberto Carter (1977–1983)
Jose Q. Cruz (1983–1987)
Wilfredo P. Leon Guerrero (1987–1993)
John C. Salas (1993–1996)
Jose T. Nededog (1996–2000)
Harold L. Allen (2000–2008)
Robert A. Underwood (2008–present)

Adams State University

Adams State University (ASU) is a small, state-supported liberal arts university in Alamosa, Colorado, U.S., in the San Luis Valley, home to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. ASU offers undergraduate programs in physical and social sciences, in fine arts, business and nursing, and specializes in educator curricula in several disciplines. ASU also offers graduate degrees in, among others, history, art, business (MBA), and educator programs, including counselor education. There is also a postgraduate (PhD) program in counselor education. The University has an active athletic program, both in participatory sports and in athletics educator training; the Adams State Grizzlies intramural teams compete under the auspices of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
decades before obtaining the authorization to found Adams State Normal School in 1921, to provide higher education opportunities for teachers from remote and rural areas of Colorado, such as the San Luis Valley, and see them work in those same areas.

In 1926, Harriet Dalzell Hester became the university's first graduate. She became the school's first librarian and an Alamosa County school superintendent.

On May 22, 2012, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill changing the name from Adams State College to Adams State University. The change became official on August 7, 2012.
Campus[edit]
ASU is located in the heart of the San Luis Valley. All of the university's academic and residential buildings are located on its contiguous 90-acre (36.4-hectare) campus. Alamosa has a population of about 9,133.

Academic buildings:
The main administration building and oldest building on campus is Richardson Hall, named after the school's first president, Dr. Ira Richardson. The home of the math and science curriculum, Porter Hall, is named for alumnus William A. Porter, the creator of E-Trade and a major benefactor of the school. McDaniel Hall, named for donor and emeritus faculty member Dr. John McDaniel, is the main venue for English, psychology, history, sociology, and teacher education classes.

Campus edifices for the performing arts include the ASU Theater (erected in 2001), the Music Building (which underwent major renovations in 2011) and the Leon Memorial Concert Hall.

Athletic facilities:
There are two gyms and an indoor pool. The Rex Activity Center for student recreation includes weights, exercise bikes and a basketball court, and Plachy Hall includes the gym and indoor pool and field house as part of the Athletics Department.

The Rex Stadium has undergone major renovation including the addition of the Residence at the Rex. The new complex includes suites for game viewing. The new residence hall provides one of the most impressive views, with a view of Mount Blanca (one of the 14ers of Colorado) to the east and overlooking the track and football field to the west. A new $750,000 video-tron screen displays action and replays at one end of the field.

Residences:
There are currently six on-campus apartment complexes (Houtchens, McCurry, Moffat, Petteys, Savage and Residence at the Rex) that include private bedrooms for two to three students, a kitchen/living room and private bath, in addition to three traditional dormitory halls (Conour, Coronado and Girault). Most entering freshmen are housed in Coronado and Girault Halls.The main cafeteria, La Mesa Dining Hall, in the Student Union Building is newly renovated.

Athletics:

Athletics logo
Main article: Adams State Grizzlies
The school's sports teams are now called the Grizzlies and were formerly known as the Indians. They participate in the NCAA's Division II, and in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Athletic groups include:

Baseball: Men's NCAA Division II (restarted in 2012 after a 35-year hiatus)
Basketball: Men’s NCAA Division II, Women’s NCAA Division II, Men’s Intramural, Women’s Intramural
Cross-Country: Men's NCAA Division II, Women's NCAA Division II
Football: Men's NCAA Division II
Golf: Women's NCAA Division II
Indoor Track & Field: Women's NCAA Division II, Men's NCAA Division II
Lacrosse: Men's NCAA Division II, Women's NCAA Division II
Outdoor Track & Field: Women's NCAA Division II, Men's NCAA Division II
Soccer: Women's NCAA Division II, Men's NCAA Division II, co-ed Intramural
Softball: Women's NCAA Division II, co-ed Intramural
Swimming: Men's NCAA Division II, Women's NCAA Division II
Volleyball: Women's NCAA Division II, Men's Club, co-ed Intramural
Wrestling: Men's NCAA Division II

University of California

The University of California (UC) is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-system public higher education plan, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges System.

Governed by a semi-autonomous Board of Regents, the University of California has 10 campuses, a combined student body of 238,700 students, 19,700 faculty members, 135,900 staff members and over 1.6 million living alumni as of spring 2015.

The University of California was founded in 1868 in Berkeley, California. Its tenth and newest campus, UC Merced, opened for classes in fall 2005. Nine campuses enroll both undergraduate and graduate students; one campus, UC San Francisco, enrolls only graduate and professional students in the medical and health sciences. In addition, the UC Hastings College of Law, located in San Francisco, shares the "UC" name but is otherwise effectively unaffiliated with the UC system.
The University of California's second president, Daniel Coit Gilman, opened the Berkeley campus in September 1873. Earlier that year, Toland Medical College in San Francisco had agreed to become the University's "Medical Department"; it later evolved into UCSF. In 1878, the University established Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco as its first law school. The California Constitution was amended to designate Hastings as the "Law Department" of the University of California in consideration of a $100,000 gift from Serranus Clinton Hastings. It is now known as Hastings College of the Law. UC Hastings is the only University of California campus which is not governed by the Regents of the University of California.

In August 1882, a southern branch campus of the California State Normal School opened in Los Angeles. The southern branch campus would remain under administrative control of the San Jose State University (California's oldest public university campus, established in 1857) until 1919, when by act of the California state legislature the school merged with the University of California in Berkeley, California, and was renamed the Southern Branch of the University of California.This Southern Branch became UCLA in 1927. In 1944, the former Santa Barbara State College—renamed UC Santa Barbara—became the third general-education campus of the University of California system.

In 1905, the Legislature established a "University Farm School" at Davis and in 1907 a "Citrus Experiment Station" at Riverside as adjuncts to the College of Agriculture at Berkeley. In 1959, the Legislature promoted the "Farm" and "Experiment Station" to the rank of general campus, creating, respectively, UC Davis and UC Riverside.

In 1932, Will Keith Kellogg donated his Arabian horse ranch in Pomona, California, to the University of California system. However, the land remained largely unused and ownership was transferred to the California State University system in 1949. Kellogg's old ranch became the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

The San Diego campus was founded as a marine station in 1912 and, in 1959, became UCSD. UC established additional general campuses at Santa Cruz and Irvine in 1965. UC Merced opened in fall 2005.
University of California research on the SAT exam found that, after controlling for familial income and parental education, so-called achievement tests known as the SAT II had ten times more predictive ability of college aptitude than the SAT I.
Before 1986, students who wanted to apply to UC for undergraduate study could only apply to one campus. Students who were rejected at that campus that otherwise met the UC minimum eligibility requirements were redirected to another campus with available space. Students who didn't want to be redirected were refunded their application fees. In 1986, that system changed to the current "multiple filing" system, in which students can apply to as many or as few UC campuses as they want on one application, paying a fee for each campus. This significantly increased the number of applications to the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses, since students could choose a campus to attend after they received acceptance letters, without fear of being redirected to a campus they did not want to attend.

The University of California accepts fully eligible students from among the top one-eighth (1/8) of California public high school graduates through regular statewide admission, or the top 9% of any given high school class through Eligibility in the Local Context (see below). All eligible California high school students who apply are accepted to the University, though not necessarily to the campus of choice. Eligible students who are not accepted to the campus(es) of their choice are placed in the "referral pool", where campuses with open space may offer admission to those students; in 2003, 10% of students who received an offer through this referral process accepted it. In 2007, about 4,100 UC-eligible students who were not offered admission to their campus of choice were referred to UCR and UC Merced, the system's newest campus In 2015, all UC-eligible students rejected by their campus of choice were redirected to UC Merced, which is now the only campus that has space for all qualified applicants.

The old Undergraduate admissions are conducted on a two-phase basis. In the first phase, students are admitted based solely on academic achievement. This accounts for between 50 to 75% of the admissions. In the second phase, the university conducts a "comprehensive review" of the student's achievements, including extracurricular activities, essay, family history, and life challenges, to admit the remainder. Students who do not qualify for regular admission are "admitted by exception"; in 2002, approximately 2% of newly admitted undergraduates were admitted by exception.

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas completed its "Campaign for the 21st Century" in 2005, in which the university raised more than $1 billion for the school, used in part to create a new Honors College and significantly increase the university's endowment. Among these gifts were the largest donation given to a business school at the time ($50 million), and the largest gift given to a public university in America ($300 million), both given by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.

Total enrollment for the fall semester of 2014 was 26,237. The university campus comprises exactly 360 buildings on 512 acres (2.07 km2), including Old Main, the first permanent academic building erected, and The Inn at Carnall Hall, which serves as an on-campus hotel and restaurant facility. Academic programs are in excess of 200.
The university was established under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862. The university's founding also satisfied the provision in the Arkansas Constitution of 1868 that the General Assembly was to "establish and maintain a State University."

Location of the university was determined by bids from state towns and counties. The citizens of Fayetteville and Washington County. pledged $130,000 toward securing the university, a sum that proved to be more than other offers. This was in response to the competition created by the Arkansas General Assembly's Organic Act of 1871, providing for the "location, organization and maintenance of the Arkansas Industrial University with a normal department therein." Classes started on January 22, 1872.

Completed in 1875, Old Main, a two-towered brick building designed in the Second Empire style, was the primary instructional and administrative building. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its design was based on the plans for the main academic building at the University of Illinois, which has since burned down.However, the clock and bell towers were switched at Arkansas. The northern taller tower is the bell tower, and the southern shorter tower is the clock tower. One legend for the tower switch is that the taller tower was put to the north as a reminder of the Union victory during the Civil War. A second legend is that the contractor accidentally swapped the tower drawings after having had too much to drink. Although the southern tower was designed with clock faces, it never held a working clock until October 2005. The bell tower has always had some type of chime, initially a bell that was rung on the hour by student volunteers. Electronic chimes were installed in 1959. In addition to the regular chimes of the clock, the university's Alma Mater plays at 5 pm every day.Old Main housed many of the earliest classes taught at the university, and has served as the offices of every college within the university during its history. Today, in addition to hosting classes, it contains the restored Giffels Auditorium and historic displays, as well as the administrative offices of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The lawn at Old Main serves as an arboretum, with many of the trees native to the state of Arkansas found on the lawn. Sitting at the edge of the lawn is Spoofer's Stone, a place for couples to meet and pass notes. Students play soccer, cricket and touch football on the lawn's open green.

Beginning with the class of 1876, the names of students at University of Arkansas are inscribed in "Senior Walk" and wind across campus for more than five miles. The sidewalk is one of a kind nationally. More recently, the names of all the recipients of honorary degrees were also added, including such notables as J. Edgar Hoover, Queen Noor, President Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The University of Arkansas campus sweeps across hilltops on the western side of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Among the 130 buildings on the campus, 11 buildings have been added to the National Register of Historic Places individually, with most buildings in the historic core being named as contributing properties to the University of Arkansas Campus Historic District.

Construction began on Old Main in 1873 and was completed by 1875 in the Second Empire architectural style. Built with local brick and sandstone, Old Main serves as the university's signature building. The building has remained on campus despite its recommended removal in the 1925 master plan from the architects of Jamieson and Spearl. This plan included destruction of all existing campus buildings and reconstruction in the Collegiate Gothic style. Several buildings were built in this style near the core of campus, including the Vol Walker Hall, Engineering Hall, Chemistry Building, Agriculture Building, and Home Economics Building. The plan ran out of funds and was never completed, leading to a somewhat haphazard arrangement of buildings after the 1930s.

Arizona State University

Arizona State University (commonly referred to as ASU or Arizona State) is a public metropolitan research university located on five campuses across the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area,and four regional learning centers throughout Arizona. The 2016 university ratings by U.S. News & World Report rank ASU No. 1 among the Most Innovative Schools in America.

ASU is the largest public university by enrollment in the U.S. It has approximately 82,060 students enrolled in the year 2014 including 66,309 undergraduate and 15,751 graduate students.ASU's charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the "New American University" model created by ASU President Crow. It defines ASU as "a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves."

ASU is classified as a research university with very high research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Since 2005 ASU has been ranked among the top research universities, public and private, in the U.S. based on research output, innovation, development, research expenditures, number of awarded patents and awarded research grant proposals. The Center for Measuring University Performance currently ranks ASU 31st among top U.S. public research universities.ASU was classified as a Research I institute in 1994, making it one of the newest major research universities (public or private) in the nation.
In 1923 the school stopped offering high school courses and added a high school diploma to the admissions requirements. In 1925 the school became the Tempe State Teachers College and offered four-year Bachelor of Education degrees as well as two-year teaching certificates. In 1929, the legislature authorized Bachelor of Arts in Education degrees as well, and the school was renamed the Arizona State Teachers College. Under the 30-year tenure of president Arthur John Matthews the school was given all-college student status. The first dormitories built in the state were constructed under his supervision. Of the 18 buildings constructed while Matthews was president, six are still currently in use. Matthews envisioned an "evergreen campus," with many shrubs brought to the campus, and implemented the planting of Palm Walk, now a landmark of the Tempe campus. His legacy is being continued to this day with the main campus having been declared a nationally recognized arboretum.
Barrett, The Honors College is ranked among the top honors programs in the nation. Although there are no set minimum admissions criteria for Barrett College, the average GPA of Fall 2014 incoming freshmen was 3.80, with average SAT scores of 1300/1600 and ACT scores of 28.9.The Honors college enrolls 5,416 undergraduate students, with 409 National Merit Scholars.
The university's push to create various institutes has led to greater funding and an increase in the number of researchers in multiple fields. Among the most notable and famed institutes at ASU are: The Biodesign Institute, Institute of Human Origins, L. William Seidman Research Institute (W. P. Carey School of Business), the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Learning Sciences Institute, Herberger Research Institute, Hispanic Research Center, and the International Institute for Species Exploration. Much of the research conducted at ASU is considered cutting edge with its focus on interdisciplinarity.The Biodesign Institute for instance, conducts research on issues such as biomedical and healthcare outcomes as part of a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic to diagnose and treat rare diseases, including cancer. Biodesign Institute researchers have also developed various techniques for reading and detecting biosignatures which expanded in 2006 with an $18 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The institute also is heavily involved in sustainability research, primarily through reuse of CO2 via biological feedback and various biomasses (e.g. algae) to synthesize clean biofuels. Heliae is a Biodesign Institute spin-off and much of its business centers on Algal-derived, high value products. Furthermore, the institute is heavily involved in security research including technology that can detect biological and chemical changes in the air and water. The university has received more than $30.7 million in funding from the Department of Defense for adapting this technology for use in detecting the presence of biological and chemical weapons.

University of Alaska Southeast

The University of Alaska Southeast is a public, four year university that is part of the University of Alaska System. The main campus is located in Juneau, Alaska and the university has extended campuses in Sitka and Ketchikan. The University of Alaska Southeast is abbreviated as UA Southeast, Alaska Southeast, or UAS.

UAS was established on July 1, 1987 with the restructuring and consolidation of the former University of Alaska Juneau, Ketchikan Community College, and Islands Community College (Sitka).
Campuses:
Juneau
The University of Alaska Southeast’s main campus is located in Juneau. The majority of the campus lies between Auke Bay and Auke Lake. The campus consists of classrooms, studios, teaching and research labs, the Anderson Science building (North Pacific Marine Lab), the William A. Egan Library, housing, the Student Recreation Center (Charles Gamble Jr.-Donald Sperl Joint Use Facility), a bookstore, and office and administrative spaces. UAS also has a Technical Education Center, located in downtown Juneau, which consists of technical, construction and mechanical labs, a mine simulator, and classroom and office space. The Juneau campus offers Occupational Endorsements, Certificates, Associate, Baccalaureate, and Graduate degrees.

Sitka
The Sitka campus was founded as Sitka Community College in 1962. The campus awards Occupational Endorsements in administrative office support, network support technician, web development, network administration, healthcare information technology, residential and light construction, law enforcement, and welding; Certificates in computer information and office systems, accounting technician, healthcare privacy and security, small business management, fisheries technology, pre-nursing and pre-radiologic technician qualifications, and health information management coding specialist; and Associate degrees in health information management, general education, nursing (in partnership with the University of Alaska Anchorage), fisheries technology, apprenticeship technology, and health sciences.

Ketchikan
The Ketchikan campus is the oldest campus in Southeast Alaska, and was originally established as Ketchikan Community College in 1954. The campus awards Occupational Endorsements in administrative office support, network support technician, web development, network administration, marine transportation, residential and light construction, and welding; Certificates in computer information and office systems, accounting technician, small business management, fisheries technology, pre-nursing and pre-radiologic technician qualifications; and Associate degrees in general education, nursing (in partnership with the University of Alaska Anchorage), fisheries technology, apprenticeship technology and health sciences.
Master's Degrees:
Education
Elementary (M.A.T.)
Secondary (M.A.T.)
Educational Leadership (M.Ed.)
Educational Technology (M.Ed.)
Mathematics Education (K-8) (M.Ed.)
Reading (M.Ed.)
Special Education (M.Ed.)
Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)
Natural Resource Policy
Rural Development

University of Alaska Anchorage

The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a public research university located in Anchorage, Alaska. UAA also administers four community campuses spread across Southcentral Alaska. These include Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska–Susitna College, and Prince William Sound College. Between the community campuses and the main Anchorage campus, over 20,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are currently enrolled at UAA. This makes it the largest institution of higher learning in the University of Alaska System, as well as the state.

UAA's main campus is located approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of its downtown area in the University-Medical District, adjacent to the Alaska Native Medical Center, Alaska Pacific University and Providence Alaska Medical Center. Nestled among an extensive green belt, close to scenic Goose Lake Park, UAA has been recognized each of the past three years as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation. Much of the campus is connected by a network of paved, outdoor trails, as well as an elevated, indoor "spine" that extends east to west from Rasmuson Hall, continuing through the student union, and terminating inside the Consortium Library.
In the late 1960s, strong interest in establishing a four-year university in Anchorage brought about the birth of the University of Alaska, Anchorage Senior College (ASC). While ACC administered the lower division college, ASC administered upper division and graduate programs leading to baccalaureate and master’s degrees, as well as continuing education for professional programs. In 1971, the first commencement was held at Anchorage’s West High School, where 265 master’s, baccalaureate and associate degrees were awarded. ASC moved to the Consortium Library Building in 1973. The following year, when the first classroom and office facility was completed, daytime courses were offered for the first time. In 1977, ASC became a four- year university and was renamed the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UA,A). Ten years later, ACC and UA,A merged to become what is now known as the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).

Since 1987, the university has continued to grow and expand; it is increasingly a university of first choice. More than 200 programs, ranging from certificate programs to associate, baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees are offered at campuses in Anchorage and community campuses and extension centers throughout Southcentral Alaska. The university's mission is to discover and disseminate knowledge through teaching, research, engagement and creative expression.
The University of Alaska Anchorage currently partners with the University of Washington School of Law and Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon to provide qualified students with the opportunity to earn a baccalaureate degree and law degree on an accelerated schedule, typically in six years rather than the usual seven. These are often referred to as 3+3 programs or an Accelerated JD Program because students spend three years as undergraduates and three years in law school.
According to the College Board, as of July 2012 there were 16,577 undergraduates at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. Out of that number, 1,965 are first-time degree seeking freshmen. There are 970 graduate students.

The racial/ethnic breakdown of the student population is as follows:

58% White, 10% Two or more races, 7% American Indian/Alaska Native, 7% Asian, 7% Hispanic/Latino, 4% Black or African American, 5% Ethnicity unknown, and 2% Non-resident alien.

The average age of full-time students is 24.

The gender breakdown of the student population is 58% women and 42% men.

91% of matriculants to the university are considered Alaska residents, and 9% of matriculants are considered out-of-state residents.
The University of Alaska Anchorage is an open enrollment institution but remains selective with an acceptance rate of 75-80% between 2010-14. The student-faculty ratio at UAA is 12:1, and 53.1 percent of classes enroll fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at UAA include: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services; Health Professions and Related Programs; Engineering; Psychology; and Social Sciences. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 71.3 percent.

Troy University at Montgomery

Troy University at Montgomery is a satellite campus of Troy University and is located in Montgomery, Alabama. The campus is located in the western part of downtown, and includes the Rosa Parks Museum and Library, the Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts, and portions of the historic Bell Building. The university also operates the W.A. Gayle Planetarium in Oak Park.

The campus has its roots in extension courses offered at Maxwell Air Force Base in the 1950s. A separate Troy State College teaching center was established at Maxwell in 1965, which led to the creation of the present-day Montgomery Campus. In 1982, the Montgomery and Dothan campuses were granted independent accreditation, and the Troy State University System was formed. In April 2004, "State" was dropped from the University's name to reflect the institution's new, broader focus. In August 2005, all Troy campuses were reunified under one accreditation.Troy University at Montgomery offers 3 associate's degree programs, 11 bachelor's degree programs, 10 master's degree programs, and one doctoral program. The school also offers 2 education specialist programs.

The campus includes the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Communications & Fine Arts, the Sorrell College of Business, and the School of Nursing.
The majority of the classes offered on the Montgomery campus are evening classes. All of the degrees offered by the campus can be completed entirely through evening classes. Weekend, TV, and online courses are also available.

Troy University at Montgomery is located in downtown Montgomery. It consists of Whitley Hall, portions of the Bell Building, the Bartlett building, building 136, and the School of Nursing building. Classes are also held in the Rosa Parks Museum and Library. The Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts sits adjacent to Whitley Hall.