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Boston University


Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 in Vermont as a Methodist seminary, then transferred to New Hampshire in 1847, to Brookline, Massachusetts in 1867, and finally moved to its present campus along the Charles River in Boston in 1928. It should not be confused with Boston College, an entirely separate university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

The university, with over 3,000 faculty and nearly 30,000 students, represents the fourth largest private university in the nation, and offers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. The university operates on two urban campuses, the main campus on the Charles River in Boston's Back Bay, and the Boston University Medical Center in Boston's South End neighborhood.

Contents

Academics

Boston University includes Colleges of Fine Arts, Arts and Sciences, Communication, Engineering, General Studies, and Health and Rehabilitation; Schools of Education, Dentistry, Hospitality Administration, Law, Medicine, Management, Music, Public Health, Social Work, Theatre Arts, and Visual Arts; as well as the prestigious University Professors program.

Campus and Facilities


The university's main Charles River Campus follows Commonwealth Avenue and the Green Line, beginning near Kenmore Square and continuing for over a mile and a half to its end near the border of Boston's Allston neighborhood. The Boston University Bridge over the Charles River into Cambridge represents the dividing line between East Campus, where most schools and classroom buildings are concentrated, and West Campus, home to several athletic facilities and playing fields, the large West Campus dorm, and the new John Hancock Student Village complex.

Student Housing

Originally a commuter school, the university now guarantees the option of on-campus housing for all undergraduate students, a challenge considering the size of its undergraduate population and the urban setting. 76% of the undergraduate population currently lives on campus, and the school's housing system is the nation's 10th largest.

In order to house its students the university has bought up and converted several former hotels (including the Myles Standish Hotel on Kenmore Square, home for a time to Babe Ruth) as well as brownstone apartments along tree-lined Bay State Road and in an area across the Mass Pike known as South Campus. Larger dormitory-style housing is more common amongst university freshmen and sophomores, with the large Warren Towers and West Campus dorms each housing well over 1,000 students.

John Hancock Student Village

Other Facilities

The Mugar Memorial Library archive houses Isaac Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward, where they consume 464 boxes on 232 feet (71 meters) of shelf space. The Mugar Memorial Library also contains documents from distinguished alum Martin Luther King Jr.

Athletics

Boston University's Terriers compete in basketball, cross country, golf, ice hockey, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and wrestling, while the Lady Terriers compete in basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, and track. The school's athletic teams compete in the America East, Hockey East, and Colonial Athletic Association conferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. Boston University recently constructed the new Agganis Arena , which opened on January 3, 2005 with a men's hockey game between the Terriers and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Boston University People

External link

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