Top Universities in the United States

Universities in the United States offer a variety of approaches to educating their students. Among foreigners, the mere fact of entering an American university is considered a real achievement, but there are some institutions where it is especially prestigious to study, both for immigrants and for American citizens.

Stanford University, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, can be called one of the most sensational universities in the country. It is renowned for its great achievements in the field of research. Founded in the late 19th century, the university strives to uphold its own teaching traditions acquired during its long history. The university offers a wide variety of majors, with departments of philology, mathematics, sociology and many others. The university is considered the third most endowed university in the world, and it boasts dozens of distinguished alumni, including Nobel Prize winners, founders of corporations, world leaders and businessmen. The university’s prestige is also reflected in the competition – only 7 percent of applicants annually manage to get in.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT – is considered a leader among American universities in engineering and the exact sciences and is one of the top 20 in the world. It has been operating for more than 150 years, during which time the educational system has adopted the model of polytechnic universities in Europe. The pride of the university is the library of the newest generation, in which all the technical side was developed by the students and teachers of the university. Today there are many famous and successful people among the graduates of MIT.

Harvard is the oldest educational institution in the United States and has the richest library in the world. More than 40 Nobel laureates are among its alumni and faculty. The university is famous for its impressive endowment, which allows it to annually allocate quite a number of budget places and grants for its students. Today the university consists of 12 faculties with relative autonomy and includes the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. More than 21,000 American citizens and international students attend the university, of whom about 60 percent receive assistance from the university in the form of scholarships or other financial aid.

The University of Chicago (UChicago) is considered one of the most successful research institutions in the world. It was founded in 1890 by philanthropist John Rockefeller, who later recognized it as his “most successful investment. The university tries to combine centuries of teaching experience with innovative technologies, and its students are given a great deal of autonomy in choosing courses of study. Despite the fact that the university has more of a technical orientation, it is renowned for its active cultural life. Now the university has more than 13,000 students, 99% of whom are satisfied with their choice of institution.