Thursday, May 7, 2009

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a Jesuit private university located in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Father John Carroll founded the school in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. While the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the American Civil War under the leadership of university president Patrick Francis Healy. Georgetown is the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United States, and its religious heritage is used to define the institution. The university's endorsement of Catholic viewpoints has caused controversy at times.

www.georgetown.edu



Georgetown's three urban campuses feature traditional collegiate architecture and layout, but prize their green spaces and environmental commitment. The main campus is known for Healy Hall, a designated National Historic Landmark. Academically, Georgetown is divided into four undergraduate schools and four graduate schools, with nationally recognized programs and faculty in international relations, government, law, medicine, and business.

The student body is noted for its pluralism and political activism, as well as its sizable international contingent. Campus groups include the nation's oldest student dramatic society and the largest student-run business. Georgetown's most notable alumni, such as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have served in various levels of government in the United States and abroad. The Georgetown athletics teams are nicknamed "the Hoyas", made famous by their men's basketball team, which leads the Big East Conference with seven tournament championships.

History

Founded in 1789, the same year the U.S. Constitution took effect, Georgetown University is the nation's oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. Today, Georgetown is a major international research university that embodies its founding principles in the diversity of our students, faculty, and staff, our commitment to justice and the common good, our intellectual openness, and our international character.

Campuses

Georgetown University has three campuses in Washington, D.C.: the undergraduate campus, the Medical Center, and the Law Center. The undergraduate campus and Medical Center are together in the Georgetown neighborhood and form the main campus. Georgetown also operates a facility in Doha, Qatar, and villas in Alanya, Turkey and Fiesole, Italy. Other centers are located around Washington, D.C., including the Center for Continuing and Professional Education at Clarendon in Arlington, Virginia. In their campus layout, Georgetown's administrators consistently used the traditional quadrangle design.

Research

Georgetown University is a self-described "student-centered research university" considered by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to have "very high research activity". As of 2007, Georgetown's libraries hold 2,435,298 items and 31,196 serials in seven buildings, with most in Lauinger Library. Additionally, the Law School campus includes the nation's fifth largest law library. Georgetown faculty conduct research in hundreds of subjects, but have priorities in the fields of religion, ethics, science, public policy, and cancer medicine. Cross-institutional research is performed with Columbia University and Virginia Tech.


In 2007, the school received about $14.8 million in federal funds for research, with sixty-four percent from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense. Georgetown University Medical Center received an additional $118.4 million from these and other government sources.

Georgetown's Vincent Lombardi Cancer Center is one of 41 research-intensive comprehensive cancer centers in the United States. Centers which conduct and sponsor research at Georgetown include the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and the Woodstock Theological Center. In 2006, researchers at Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center developed the breakthrough HPV vaccine for cervical cancer. Regular publications include the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Georgetown Law Weekly, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Public Policy Review.

Reputation

With 18,700 applications and 3,371 admitted for the class of 2012, Georgetown has an overall undergraduate acceptance rate of eighteen percent. As The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2007 states, "only Stanford and a handful of Ivy League schools are tougher to get into than Georgetown." As of 2008, Georgetown's graduate schools have acceptance rates of twenty-nine percent to the MBA program, twenty-three percent to the Law Center, and only three percent to the School of Medicine. A National Bureau of Economic Research study on revealed preference of U.S. colleges showed that Georgetown is the 16th most-preferred choice. In 2008, Georgetown Universtiy was ranked 110th in the THES world university rankings, and twenty-third in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.

Faculty

As of 2007, Georgetown University employs approximately 1,268 full-time and 689 part-time faculty members across its three Washington, D.C. campuses, with an additional thirty-two at SFS-Qatar. The faculty comprises leading academics and notable political and business leaders, and are predominantly male by a two-to-one margin. Politically, Georgetown University's faculty members give more support to liberal candidates, and while their donation patterns are generally consistent with those of other American university faculties, they gave more than average to Barack Obama's presidential campaign.


The current faculty includes scholars such as the former President of the American Philological Association James J. O'Donnell, theologians John Haught and Thomas M. King, and social activist Sam Marullo. Many former politicians choose to teach at Georgetown, including U.S. Agency for International Development administrator Andrew Natsios, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, and CIA director George Tenet. Internationally, the school attracts numerous former ambassadors and heads of state, such as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Ambassador-at-Large Robert Gallucci, President of the Government of Spain José María Aznar, and President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

Georgetown University was ranked 110th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking

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