Imperial College London

Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, medicine and business. Formerly a constituent college of the federal University of London, Imperial became fully independent in 2007, the 100th anniversary of its founding.

Imperial's main campus is located in the South Kensington area of central London on the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. It has additional campuses in the Chelsea, Hammersmith and Paddington areas of central London. With a total of 525,233 square metres of operational property, it has one of the largest estates of any higher education institution in the UK. 

Imperial is organised into four main academic units – Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College Faculty of Engineering and the Imperial College Business School – within which there are over 40 departments, institutes and research centres.

Imperial has around 13,500 full-time students and 3,330 academic and research staff and had a total income of 705 million in 2010/11, of which 299 million was from research grants and contracts. Imperial is a major centre for biomedical research and is a founding member of the Imperial College Healthcare academic health science centre.

It is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world, ranking 24th in the world (and 5th in Europe) in the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities, 6th in the world (and 4th in Europe) in the 2012 QS World University Rankings and 8th in the world (and 3rd in Europe) in the 2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.There are currently 14 Nobel Prize winners and two Fields Medal winners amongst Imperial's alumni and current and former faculty.

Imperial is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of MBAs, the European University Association, the G5, the IDEA League, the League of European Research Universities, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Russell Group. It forms part of the "golden triangle" of British universities.

Admissions statistics:

For the 2007–08 academic year, Imperial College had a total full-time student body of 12,319: 8,741 undergraduate students and 3,578 postgraduates. In addition there were 1,036 part-time students, all postgraduates. 39% of all full-time students come from outside the European Union, around 13% of the International students has the Chinese nationality. The Average age in Imperial College is 23 for Post Grad. Imperial's male:female ratio for undergraduate students is uneven at approximately 64:36 overall and 5:1 in some engineering courses. However, medicine has an approximate 1:1 ratio with biology degrees tending to be higher

For the 2007–08 academic year, Imperial College had a total full-time student body of 12,319: 8,741 undergraduate students and 3,578 postgraduates. In addition there were 1,036 part-time students, all postgraduates. 39% of all full-time students come from outside the European Union, around 13% of the International students has the Chinese nationality. The Average age in Imperial College is 23 for Post Grad.

Imperial is among the most selective universities in the UK. From 1999 to 2009, the overall acceptance rate of Imperial College programmes has been consistently below 20% and, in 2009, the acceptance rate of the college for undergraduates was 15.3%. The acceptance rate for postgraduate courses was 19.5%.

Imperial, along with University College London and the University of Cambridge was one of the first universities in the UK to make use of the A* grade at A Level for admissions, with engineering and physics courses requiring an A* in Mathematics. Aeronautical Engineering is the course with the highest entry standards requiring an A* in Mathematics (A grades in every single module) and an A* in Physics and another A grade at A Level (Further Mathematics preferred). Mathematics courses themselves require A* grades in Mathematics and Further Mathematics, along with another A grade at A Level.

Cornell University

History:

Cornell's founders are Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865 as the result of a New York State Senate bill that named the university as the state's land grant institution. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment. Fellow senator and experienced educator Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president. During the next three years, White oversaw the construction of the initial two buildings and traveled around the globe to attract students and faculty.The university was inaugurated on October 7, 1868, and 412 men were enrolled the next day.

Cornell continued to be a technological innovator applying its research to its own campus as well as to outreach efforts. For example, it was one of the first university campuses to use electricity to light the grounds from a water-powered dynamo in 1883.Since 1894, Cornell has included state-funded statutory colleges and has also administered research and extension activities that have been jointly funded by state and federal matching funds. Cornell has had an active alumni since its earliest classes and was one of the first universities to include alumni-elected representatives on its Board of Trustees.

Cornell expanded significantly, particularly since World War II, with its student population in Ithaca growing to its current count of about 20,000 students. The faculty also expanded, and by the century's end, the university had more than 3,400 faculty members.The school also increased its breadth of course offerings. Today the university has wide-ranging programs and offers more than 4,000 courses. Cornell received national attention in April 1969 when African American students occupied Willard Straight Hall in protest over alleged racism.The crisis resulted in the resignation of President James A. Perkins and the restructuring of university governance.

Since 2000, Cornell has been expanding its international programs. In 2004, the university opened the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the first American medical school outside of the United States. It continues to forge partnerships with major institutions in India, Singapore, and the People's Republic of China.The university, with its high international profile, claims to be "the first transnational university".not in citation given On March 9, 2004, Cornell and Stanford laid the cornerstone for a new Bridging the Rift Center located on the Israel – Jordan border.

Admissions statistics:

For the 2006 – 07 academic year, Cornell had 901 registered student organizations. These clubs and organizations run the gamut from kayaking to full-armor jousting, from varsity and club sports and a cappella groups to improvisational theatre, from political clubs and publications to chess and video game clubs. They are subsidized financially by academic departments and/or the Student Assembly and the Graduate & Professional Student Assembly, two student-run organizations with a collective budget of $3.0 million per year. 

Cornell United Religious Work is a collaboration among many diverse religious traditions, helping to provide spiritual resources throughout a student's time at college. Cornell hosts a large fraternity and sorority system, with 70 chapters involving 33% of male and 24% of female undergraduates. During the 2004–05 academic year, the Greek system committed 21,668 community service and advocacy hours and raised $176,547 in philanthropic efforts.However, the administration has expressed concerns over student misconduct in the system. In 2004–05, of the 251 social events registered with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, 37 (15%) resulted in a complaint. In that same year, there were five reported instances of property destruction, five reports of bias, three hazing incidents, and various other allegations.