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Many foreign visitors to the United States of America, especially those with pre-college-age children thinking about studying abroad, are interested in touring its famous universities. This article is a short overview of top-tier university tourism in the U.S. Keep in mind that every university listed below has extensive information for visitors (especially prospective students) on its website, which should be considered the most up-to-date source of information.

[edit] East Coast Universities

With the exception of Berkeley, Stanford, Notre Dame, and the University of Chicago, and a handful of others, the most renowned universities in the U.S. are clustered in New England and the East Coast of the U.S.

[edit] Logistics

Nearly all of the East Coast universites are easily reachable by the Boston-Washington Amtrak Northeast Corridor rail line, although it is much faster to fly between far-flung cities on the Corridor (Boston to Washington is a 90-minute flight versus an eight-hour train ride.) Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. and cities between are also served by commercial bus lines, the cheapest of which are Chinatown bus services, which travel between the Chinatowns in the four major cities. Road travel, whether by bus or by car, may not be the best option for the farthest-flung points. Car travel can be a nightmare in tangled cities like Boston. Renting or driving, however, does afford one the most freedom of movement.

[edit] Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Starting from the North and working down the coast, one could begin in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city which abuts Boston, Massachusetts and houses two of the most famous schools in the world, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [1]. Arriving by train from the south will bring you to South Station, which connects directly to MIT and Harvard on the Red Line subway. Arrival by plane will bring you to Logan Airport, from which Cambridge can be reached by car, or by train by taking the Blue Line to Government Center, the Green Line to Park Street, and the Red Line to Harvard or Kendall/MIT.

MIT's main entrance is located at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, just across the Charles River from Boston. Perversely, the Red Line subway stop (Kendall) for MIT is located nowhere near the main enterance; those arriving by train will have to walk east (away from the skyscrapers of Boston) down Main Street to Vassar Street, pass by the postmodern Stata Center, then turn left (south) on Massachusetts Avenue where it crosses Vassar.

Once you reach the 77 Mass Ave enterance, the MIT student center is directly across the street. Offices for visiting prospective students are located within the 77 Mass. Ave buildings; visitors are advised to check MIT's website for visitors ([2]) in advance. North on Mass Ave. is the MIT Museum, which includes an exhibit by the pioneering Tech Model Railroad Club.

[edit] Harvard University

Two Red Line stops away from MIT is Harvard University [3]. Harvard's landmark location is Harvard Yard, the heart of Harvard College (the undergraduate arm of Harvard University), and the home of the College's freshman dormitories, the mammoth Widener Library, and the statue of John Harvard (a favorite with tourists). The Yard is directly adjacent to the Harvard Red Line station. Across Massachusetts Avenue from the train station is the Harvard Coop, a three-building university store housing a cafe, a bookstore, and mountains of Harvard paraphanelia. Harvard Square's profusion of bookstores and coffee shops merit a discussion of their own, which may be found in the Cambridge article.

Harvard maintains a website for visitors at [4].

[edit] Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College[5]] is located in the small town setting of Hanover, New Hampshire. An Ivy League member founded in 1769, it bears the name "college" due to its focus on undergraduate studies, but is a University with highly respected graduate schools in Arts & Sciences, Medicine, Engineering (Thayer) and Business (Tuck).

Dartmouth can be reached by bus from Boston or by Amtrak's Vermonter line to nearby White River Junction, Vermont. From Boston by car (about 2.5 hours), take Interstate 93 to Interstate 89 to Rt. 120. Hanover is about a five hour drive from New York City.

[edit] Yale University

Yale University[6]] is in New Haven, Connecticut.

[edit] Columbia University

Columbia University[7] is at 115h & Broadway in New York City.

[edit] Princeton University

Princeton University [8] is located in Princeton, New Jersey; the article on the town carries more detailed information about the school. The campus can be reached by car or train from nearby New York City in about an hour, depending on traffic or train frequency.

[edit] University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania [9], informally known as Penn is located in the western region of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Penn campus is accessible by Amtrak and very close Amtrak's 30th Street Station. Penn is integrated into Philadelphia's urban transport grid, making it easily accessible by bus, subway, and car. Penn spans from 40th St to 32nd St, with the core of the campus between Walnut and Spruce streets.

[edit] Georgetown University

Georgetown University [10], is in Washington, DC and is the oldest Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789. The university is located in the historic Georgetown neighborhood in northwest Washington. Georgetown's campus is a combination of Gothic revival and Georgian styles. The highlight of the campus is Healy Hall which contains Gaston Hall, a richly decorated auditorium where world leaders often come to speak.

[edit] The West Coast

[edit] Stanford University

Stanford University [11] is reachable from the San Francisco, California airport, either by airport shuttle bus (SuperShuttle) or by car, or by a transfer from BART (starting at the San Francisco Airport) to the rail line Caltrain at the Millbrae stop, then continuing on to Palo Alto on Caltrain. The "Marguerite" shuttle travels throughout Palo Alto serving the Stanford campus. An alternative is the smaller San Jose, California airport, which is closer to the Stanford campus than SFO.

[edit] University of California, Berkeley

UC Berkeley [12] is reachable from the San Francisco, California airport as well as the Oakland, California airport. From San Francisco International Airport, take the BART train [13] to the Downtown Berkeley stop. From Oakland International Airport, drive or take a shuttle ($2 USD) to the Oakland Coliseum/Airport BART stop, which you can then take to the Downtown Berkeley stop.

[edit] The Midwest

[edit] University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame [14] is a Catholic university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, a city adjacent to the northern border of South Bend. The university was founded in 1842 by the French priest, Fr. Edward Sorin. A popular joke says that Fr. Sorin was headed west to establish a university when he stopped in South Bend one winter and decided to wait for the sky to clear up. As South Bend is bemoaned for being unnaturally cloudy, Fr. Sorin never left from South Bend.

Despite this, Notre Dame is renowned for a picturesque campus as briefly shown in the movie, Rudy. Popular attractions include the Oxford-inspired South Dining Hall (ranked the second-best campus food in the nation), the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the Lakes of St. Mary and St. Joseph, University of Notre Dame Stadium (the House that Rock Built), the Grotto, the Main Building with its namesake Golden Dome, and the Hesburgh Library, famous for its colossal "Word of Life" mosaic commonly referred to as "Touchdown Jesus".

Notre Dame is about and hour and a half East of Chicago on the 80-90 Indiana Tollway. The entrance is just a short drive from the interstate and there is plenty of signage along the way. Campus tours are run regularly out of the Office of Admissions and the Eck Visitor Center.

[edit] Michigan State University

Michigan State [15] is the nation's pioneer land grant university, located in East Lansing, Michigan.

[edit] University of Michigan

The University of Michigan [16] is one of the best public Universities in the U.S. Its main campus is in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[edit] University of Chicago

The University of Chicago [17] is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Founded in 1890 by oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, the University of Chicago held its first classes on October 1, 1892. Chicago was one of the first universities in the country to be conceived as a combination of the American interdisciplinary liberal arts college and the German research university.

The University of Chicago is widely recognized as one of the world's foremost universities. The university is affiliated with 79 Nobel Prize laureates. Historically, the university is noted for its unique undergraduate core curriculum as well as other educational innovations pioneered by Robert Maynard Hutchins in the 1930s (including the academic quarter system), and for influential academic movements such as the "Chicago School of Economics", the "Chicago School of Sociology," the "Chicago School of Literary Criticism," and the law and economics movement in legal analysis.

The University of Chicago was the site of the world's first man-made self-sustaining nuclear reaction. It is also home to the largest university press in the United States. The University of Chicago pioneered the "Great Books" system of learning, still practiced at St. John's and other colleges, a much stricter version of the core.

[edit] Northwestern University

Northwestern [18] is renowned for its journalism and theater programs, both of which have produced countless nationally known figures.

[edit] The South

[edit] Duke University

Duke [19], the South's most prestigious university, is located in Durham, North Carolina. The Gothic-inspired Duke Chapel is the tallest building on campus and is the University's most notable landmark. Just south of the Chapel on Chapel Drive is the Undergraduate Admissions Office, where tours of the university are offered on a daily basis. Duke maintains website for visitors that provides more detailed information. Duke's campus can be reached off exits from the 15-501 freeway.

[edit] Emory University

Emory [20]

[edit] Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Tech [21]

[edit] Rice University

Rice University [22]

[edit] University of Virginia

UVA [23]

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