Valparaiso University is a university located in Valparaiso, Indiana. The university is affectionately called "Valpo" by its fans, students, and alumni, in part because people and organizations have trouble pronouncing "Valparaiso."

Valparaiso was founded in 1859 as Valparaiso Male and Female College, one of the first co-educational four-year institutions in the United States. Although forced to close in 1871, the school reopened two years later as the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. The school was renamed Valparaiso College in 1900 and gained its current university status in 1906. Valparaiso has been a Lutheran institution since 1925.

Valpo's colors are brown and gold. Valpo's school mascot is the Crusader. Valpo sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (I-AA for football) in the Mid-Continent Conference, except for football, in which they compete in the Pioneer Football League (the Mid-Continent Conference does not sponsor football). Valpo is well-known for its men's basketball head coach Homer Drew and his son Bryce Drew , who lead the team to its improbable Sweet Sixteen appearance in the 1998 NCAA basketball tournament.

Valparaiso belongs to a small and distinctive group of institutions of higher education that consistently receives national recognition for the quality of their educational programs. U.S. News & World Report regularly names Valparaiso as one of the best comprehensive universities in the midwest in its annual rankings of "America's Best Colleges." In addition, U.S. News ranked Valparaiso among the "best college values" based on a ratio of price to quality, and declared Valpo's College of Engineering as one of the nation's top 20 undergraduate-only engineering schools.

Valpo offers the following colleges:

Arts and Science
Business Administration
Christ College (Honors Program)
Engineering
Interdisciplinary Studies
Graduate School of Law
Nursing

External links and references

• Official website
• Law School Website