The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is ranked among the top universities in the world academically. The “U of M” has the largest number of living alumni at 420,000, as well as having one of the largest research expenditures of any American university. In addition to having the oldest living alumni, it is the oldest university in the state of Michigan.

Originally founded in 1817 in Detroit when Michigan was still a territory, the campus moved to the city of Ann Arbor in 1837. In 2006, “US World & News Report” ranked the undergraduate division 25th in the United States and has placed a number of its professional and graduate programs in the top ten in the country. Those programs include; engineering, education, law, business, library science, political science, medicine, and sociology. In addition to academic greats, the university also excels in athletics. Michigan’s most notable teams are football, ice hockey, and basketball.

The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and one sophomore, taught by two professors. Eleven students graduated at the first graduation in 1845. By 1866, enrollment had grown to 1,205 students. Women weren’t admitted to college until 1870. Although it took so many years for the first women to be admitted, the University of Michigan was only the third school to do so. During the period from 1900 to 1920, many new facilities were built on campus. Those facilities include buildings for dental and pharmacy programs, Hill Auditorium, a chemistry building, a large hospital and library complex, a natural sciences building, and two residence halls. The University of Michigan became a major recipient of government grants for strategic research during the Cold War. During the 1970s, budget constraints hampered the physical development and academic standing of the university. When the 1980s arrived, more funds were dedicated to research in the social and physical sciences. During part of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, “U of M” devoted vast amounts of resources to renovating its massive hospital complex and upgrading academic facilities on North Campus.

The University of Michigan library system is one of the largest in the United States. It comprises 19 individual libraries with 24 separate collections, estimated at approximately 7.96 million volumes. The growth at the rate of volumes is about 150,000 each year. An elevated walkway on the central campus connects the two featured libraries (Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library and Shapiro Undergraduate Library).

The Ann Arbor campus is divided into a central campus, a north campus, and a south campus. Together, the three campuses include more than 300 major buildings, with a combined footprint of more than 29 million square feet. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is truly a wonderful school to visit or attend. Athletics alone strikes countless people a year, whether it’s in a live game or on television. This university attracts many students from all over the world every year, but only accepts the brightest high school students. The requirements to attend the University of Michigan are high, but that is why it has been one of the most successful schools in the county for over 100 years.