The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly called Georgia Tech, Tech, and GT) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It is a part of the University System of Georgia and has satellite campuses in Savannah, Georgia; Metz, France; Athlone, Ireland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore.

The educational institution was founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. Initially, it offered only a degree in mechanical engineering. By 1901, its curriculum had expanded to include electrical, civil, and chemical engineering. In 1948, the school changed its name to reflect its evolution from a trade school to a larger and more capable technical institute and research university.

Today, Georgia Tech is organized into six colleges and contains about 31 departments/units, with a strong emphasis on science and technology. It is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, management, the sciences, architecture, and liberal arts. Tech is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 public universities in the nation and is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities.

Georgia Tech's main campus occupies a large part of Midtown Atlanta, bordered by 10th Street to the north and by North Avenue to the south, placing it well in sight of the Atlanta skyline. In 1996, the campus was the site of the athletes' village and a venue for a number of athletic events for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The construction of the Olympic village, along with subsequent gentrification of the surrounding areas greatly enhanced the campus.

Student athletics, both organized and intramural, are an important part of student and alumni life. The school's intercollegiate competitive sports teams, the four-time football national champion Yellow Jackets, and the nationally recognized fight song "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech", have helped keep Georgia Tech in the national spotlight. Georgia Tech fields eight men's and seven women's teams that compete in the NCAA Division I athletics and the Football Bowl Subdivision. Georgia Tech is a member of the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference.



 

The University of Florida (commonly referred to as Florida, UF or U of F) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km²) campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853,^[6] and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906.^[7] It is regarded as a "Public Ivy" university—a distinguished category of the top public universities in the United States.^[8] The University of Florida is ranked fifty-eighth overall among all national universities, public and private, in the current 2012 U.S. News & World Report rankings^[9] and consistently ranks within the top 100 universities worldwide.^[10]

The University of Florida is an elected member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization composed of sixty-one American and Canadian research universities.^[11] It is one of three "research flagship universities" within the State University System of Florida, as designated by the Florida Legislature.^[12]

It is the second-largest Florida university by student population,^[13] and receives the highest academic marks in the state of Florida as measured by national and international rankings of American colleges and universities.^[14] The university is also the sixth largest single-campus university in the United States by student population, with 49,827 students enrolled for the fall 2010 semester.^[15] The University of Florida is home to sixteen academic colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. It offers multiple graduate professional programs—including business administration, engineering, law and medicine—on one contiguous campus, and administers 123 master's degree programs and seventy-six doctoral degree programs in eighty-seven schools and departments.^[16] As of the 2007–2008 academic year, Florida ranked twelfth among all institutions in the number of new National Merit Scholars enrolled.^[17] The university has an annual budget of approximately $4.3 billion.^[18]

The University of Florida's intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their "Florida Gators" nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In their 105-year history, the university's varsity sports teams have won twenty-six national team championships, twenty-one of which are NCAA titles, and Gator athletes have won 239 individual national championships.^[19]

 

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^[7] The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926, and consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and occupies a 650-acre (2.6 km²) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

LSU is the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System, and the largest institution of higher education in Louisiana in terms of student enrollment. In 2009, the University enrolled 21,000 undergraduate and 4,000 graduate students in 17 schools and colleges. Several of LSU's graduate schools, such as the E.J. Ourso College of Business and the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, have received national recognition in their respective fields of study.^[8] Designated as a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant institution, LSU is also noted for its extensive research facilities, operating some 800 sponsored research projects funded by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.^[9][10]

LSU's athletic department fields teams in 20 varsity sports (9 men's, 11 women's), and is a member of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the SEC (Southeastern Conference). LSU Tigers football began in 1893, with national championship wins in the 1958, 2003, and 2007 seasons. The University is represented on the field by its mascot, Mike the Tiger.^[11]





Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state.^[6]

Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College,^[7] a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1872, the college became the state's first public land-grant university under the Morrill Act and was renamed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama.^[8]

In 1892, the college became the first four-year coeducational school in the state. The curriculum at the university originally focused on arts and agriculture. This trend changed under the guidance of Dr. William Leroy Broun, who taught classics and sciences and believed both disciplines were important in the overall growth of the university and the individual.

The college was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1899, largely because of Dr. Broun’s influence.^[8] The college continued expanding, and in 1960 its name was officially changed to Auburn University to acknowledge the varied academic programs and larger curriculum of a major university. It had been popularly known as "Auburn" for many years.^[9] Auburn is among the few American universities designated as a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research center.