Washington University in St. Louis
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| Washington University in St. Louis | |
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| Motto | Per veritatem vis (Strength through truth) |
| Established | 1853 |
| School type | Private |
| President | Mark S. Wrighton |
| Location | St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 169 acres (0.68 km²) |
| Enrollment | 7,188 undergraduate, 5,832 graduate |
| Faculty | 2,911 |
| Mascot | Bear |
| Endowment | US$4.4 billion |
| Official website | www.wustl.edu |
Washington University in St. Louis (nicknamed Wash. U. or WUSTL) is a private research university fifteen minutes west of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It includes schools of arts & sciences, law, business, medicine, social work, design & visual arts, and engineering. In the 2004 U.S. News & World Report rankings, its undergraduate program was tied for ninth in the nation; in the 2005 list, it was ranked 11th. WUSTL's medical school is ranked third in the nation and the social work school is ranked second. Tuition for both in-state and out-of-state undergraduates is $31,100.00.
The current Chancellor of the University is Dr. Mark S. Wrighton, a Florida State- and Caltech-trained chemist who was formerly provost at MIT. At $600,000 a year, he is the highest paid university head in the United States.
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Overview
History
Washington University was co-founded as a nonsectarian, private institution in 1853 by the Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the Nobel Prize laureate poet T. S. Eliot, and by St. Louis leader Wayman Crow. It desegregated its undergraduate divisions in May of 1952.
The university's original name at the time of foundation was "Eliot Seminary." The name was a tribute to St. Louis minister/teacher William Greenleaf Eliot. Eliot, however, was not in favor of the name, and in 1854, the Board of Trustees recommended changing the name to "Washington Institute in St. Louis." In 1857, the name was modified to simply "Washington University." Often confused with the other 17 institutions sharing the Washington name in their titles, the university again changed its name in 1976, adding the "in St. Louis" suffix to distinguish it.
Campus
The university's Hilltop campus is known for its gorgeous collegiate Gothic architecture. Its construction was accelerated through a profitable lease of several buildings to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Thanks to the efforts and influence of David R. Francis, an alumnus and former mayor of St. Louis, Missouri governor, and U.S. Interior Secretary, newly-constructed campus buildings on the edge of Forest Park became the Hilltop campus when the Fair was over. This included facilities used by the six-day 1904 World Olympics, such as Francis Field and Francis Gymnasium [1]. The campus is close to St. Louis' Delmar Loop.
Since 1995, more than 25 new buildings have been erected.
The campus was the venue for 3 Presidential debates: the first 1992 Presidential debate on October 11, 1992, the third 2000 Presidential debate on October 17, 2000, and the second 2004 Presidential debate on October 8, 2004. It was also scheduled to host one in 1996, but that debate was cancelled when the two candidates chose not to participate.
Athletics
WUSTL's sports teams are called the Bears. They participate in the University Athletic Association, an NCAA Division III conference. They were the NCAA Division III champions in women's basketball four years in a row, 1998-2001, and women's volleyball eight times, 1989, 1991-1996, and 2003.
Media
Washington University supports four student-run media outlets. The university's independent student newspaper, Student Life, is printed thrice weekly and is one of the oldest college newspapers in the nation. KWUR (90.3 FM) serves as the university's official radio station; the station also attracts a listenership in the immediately surrounding community due to its eclectic and free-form musical programming. Though KWUR offers streaming content through the Internet, the station only broadcasts at ten watts, and its applications to the FCC to increase its power have been unsuccessful as of 2005. WUTV is the university's closed-circuit television channel. Washington University Political Review, formed in 2004 from a merger of the school's liberal and conservative weeklies, is a nonpartisan journal featuring articles and columns from students and faculty. A variety of other publications also serve the university community, ranging from in-house academic journals to glossy alumni magazines to organization newsletters.
Schools
College of Arts & Sciences
The College of Arts & Sciences is the central undergraduate unit of the University with 330 tenured and tenure-track faculty along with over 100 research scientists, lecturers, artists in residence, and visitors serving about 3,000 undergraduates in 40 academic departments divided into divisions of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Undergraduates in the other schools meet general education requirements by taking courses in the College of Arts & Sciences. Many of these students have double majors or minors in an Arts & Sciences discipline as well as in their professional field.
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
The Graduate School serves over 1,500 students pursuing Masters and Ph.D. degrees. It is ranked highly in terms of time to degree and the rate at which it places its graduates. Some of its many notable programs include: Germanic Language and Literatures, Creative Writing, Political Science, and the interdisciplinary Philosophy-Neurosciences-Psychology.
School of Law
The School of Law is currently ranked twenty-fourth in the country (tied with the University of Notre Dame Law School) according to U.S. News & World Report. The law school's clincal training program is currently ranked third in the nation. The law school offers a full-time, day program, beginning in August, for the J.D. degree in a state-of-the-art building, Anheuser-Busch Hall (opened in 1997). The building combines traditional architecture, a five-story open-stacks library, and the latest wireless and other technologies. National Jurist ranked Washington University 4th among the "25 Most Wired Law Schools." The School of Law offers eight joint-degree programs, including JD/MSW, JD/East Asian Studies, and JD/MBA programs. The law school offers 3 semesters of courses in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, and requires at least 87 hours of coursework for graduation.
Olin School of Business
The John M. Olin School of Business is located in the heart of the Midwest, historic city St. Louis. Olin has been ranked in the Top 30 US MBA programs by BusinessWeek for years.
Olin School of Business was founded in 1917. The school was named after the entrepreneur John M. Olin in 1988. As one of the leading business schools in the United States, Olin obtained its reputation from strong research-oriented achievements and competitive graduates. The school provides degree programs in BSBA, MSBA, MBA, EMBA, and part-time programs in MBA and PhD degrees. In 2002, an Executive MBA program was established in Shanghai, in cooperation with Fudan University.
Olin has a network of about 13,000 alumni all over the world. Over the last several years, the school’s endowment has increased to $178 million (2004) and annual gifts average $12 million per year. Due to a donation from John E. Simon, [Simon Hall] was opened in 1986.
The flexible course arrangement is a factor attracting potential students. Undergraduates who pursue the accounting concentration can choose a five-year Master of Science program which is seeking CI certification in school. Graduate students can select electives from other areas in Washington University such as the Medical School and Law School.
School of Medicine
The School of Medicine is ranked third in the country according to U.S. News & World Report, behind Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University. It is the most selective medical school in the U.S., and is a world center for research in genomics, cancer, diabetes, etc.
The medical school partners with St. Louis Children's Hospital and Barnes-Jewish Hospital (part of BJC HealthCare), where all physicians are members of the school's faculty.
George Warren Brown School of Social Work
The George Warren Brown School of Social Work (commonly called GWB) is currently ranked second among Master of Social Work (MSW) programs in the United States. GWB also offers a Ph.D. in Social Work, in cooperation with the Graduate School. The school was named by Bettie Bofinger Brown for her husband - George Warren Brown - a St. Louis shoe manufacturing magnate and philanthropist. The school's dean is Edward Lawlor. It has a center for Native American research, as well as acclaimed scholars in social security, health, individual development accounts, etc.
School of Engineering and Applied Science
The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) was ranked 36th in the 2005 U.S. News undergraduate engineering program ratings.
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
Created in 2005, the Sam Fox School combines the strenths of art and architecture into a single school offering both undergraduate and graduate programs. Architecture offers BS and BA degrees as well as M.Arch. There is a combined six-year BS/M.Arch degree program as well as joint M.Arch programs with most of the other schools in the University. Art offers the BFA and MFA in Art in the context of a full university environment. Students take courses in the College of Arts & Sciences as well as courses in the School of Art to provide a well rounded background. One third of students in the school pursue a combined study degree program, second major, and/or minors in other undergraduate divisions at Washington University. U.S. News & World Report ranked the MFA program 21st in the nation.
See also
Official websites
- University
- School of Law
- School of Medicine
- School of Business
- School of Social Work
- School of Engineering & Applied Science
- School of Arts & Sciences
- Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (Art)
- Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (Architecture)
Further reading
- Ralph E. Morrow, Washington University in St. Louis: A History (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1996.)
- Candace O'Connor, Beginning a Great Work: Washington University in St. Louis, 1853-2003 (St. Louis: Washington University in St. Louis, 2003).
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