Vanderbilt University  (also known informally as Vandy) is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 1873. The university is named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowments despite having never been to the South. Vanderbilt hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War.

Today, Vanderbilt enrolls approximately 12,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and over 90 foreign countries in four undergraduate and six graduate and professional schools. Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, Freedom Forum First Amendment Centre, Dyer Observatory, and Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, the only Level I trauma center in Middle Tennessee. With the exception of the off-campus observatory and satellite medical clinics, all of the university’s facilities are situated on its 330-acre (1.3 km2) campus in the heart of Nashville, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from downtown. Despite its urban surroundings, the campus itself is a national arboretum and features over 300 different species of trees and shrubs.

As of 2015, Vanderbilt had an enrolment of 6,851 undergraduate and 5,874 graduate and professional students, for a total of 12,725 students. Students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries attend Vanderbilt, with 66% of the total student body coming from outside the Southeast.

Vanderbilt lets undergraduates choose between 70 majors, or create their own, in its four undergraduate schools and colleges: the College of Arts and Science, the School of Engineering, Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and Blair School of Music. The university also has six graduate and professional schools, including the Divinity School, Graduate School, Law School, School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Owen Graduate School of Management.

Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines, and the university consistently ranks among the top 20 research institutions in the United States. In 2013, Vanderbilt University was ranked 9th in the country in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Its Institute for Space and Defence Electronics, housed in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, includes the largest academic facility in the world involved in radiation-effects research.

In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vanderbilt 15th among all national universities. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vanderbilt first in the nation in the fields of special education, educational administration, and audiology. The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Vanderbilt as the 49th-best university in the world.

The university recognizes nearly 500 student organizations, ranging from academic major societies and honoraries to recreational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the Vanderbilt Sailing Club. Notable alumni and affiliates include two Vice Presidents of the United States, 25 Rhodes Scholars, seven Nobel Prize laureates, Fields Medal winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Emmy Award winners, and Academy Award winners.

The  University of Virginia  (UVA, U.Va. or Virginia), is a research university founded by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and located in Charlottesville, Virginia. UVA is known for its historic foundations, student-run honour code, and secret societies. UVA is labelled one of the original “Public Ivies,” a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education  comparable to those of the Ivy League.

Its initial Board of Visitors included U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Monroe was the sitting President of the United States at the time of UVA’s founding; Jefferson and Madison were the first two rectors. UVA was established in 1819, with its Academical Village and original courses of study conceived and designed by Jefferson. UNESCO designated UVA a World Heritage Site in 1987, an honour shared with nearby Monticello.

Since 1904, UVA has held membership in the Association of American Universities for research-focused institutions and was the first university of the American South to attain membership. The university is classified as Very High Research Activity in the Carnegie Classification and is considered its state’s flagship research university by the AAU and the College Board. The university is affiliated with 7 Nobel Laureates, and has produced seven NASA astronauts, seven Marshall Scholars, four Churchill Scholars, 29 Truman Scholars, and 51 Rhodes Scholars, the most of any state-affiliated institution in the U.S.

While UVA is a public university supported in part by the Commonwealth of Virginia, the university receives far more funding from private sources than public. Students come to attend the university in Charlottesville from all 50 states and 147 countries. UVA additionally operates the College at Wise in the far south-western corner of the state, and previously operated George Mason University and the University of Mary Washington as branch campuses until 1972.

Virginia’s athletic teams are known as the Cavaliers, and since 1953 have competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference of Division I of the NCAA. After winning an ACC-record three NCAA titles (the College Cup in soccer, the College World Series in baseball, and the NCAA Tennis Championships) in a single academic year, UVA was awarded the Capital One Cup for the top overall men’s sports program in the nation for 2015. The Cavaliers have won 31 national titles overall, including 23 in men’s sports. Counting only NCAA sanctioned championships UVA has won a total of 23 NCAA titles, with 16 in men’s sports, ranking first in the ACC.

UVA offers 48 bachelor’s degrees, 94 master’s degrees, 55 doctoral degrees, 6 educational specialist degrees, and 2 first-professional degrees (Medicine and Law) to its students. It has never bestowed honorary degrees. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation offers four-year full- tuition scholarships based on regional, international, and at-large competitions. Students are nominated by their high schools, interviewed, and then invited to weekend-long series of tests of character, aptitude, and general suitability. Approximately 3% of those nominated successfully earn the scholarship. Echols Scholars (College of Arts and Sciences) and Rodman Scholars (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), which include 6-7% of undergraduate students, receive no financial benefits, but are entitled to special advisors,

priority course registration, residence in designated dorms and fewer curricular constraints
than other students.