Boston University

Boston University (most commonly referred to as BU or otherwise known as Boston U.) is a private research university located inBoston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but is historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

The university has more than 3,800 faculty members and 33,000 students, and is one of Boston's largest employers. It offersbachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through eighteen schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore andAllston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is in Boston's South End neighborhood.

BU is categorized as an RU/VH Research University (very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and the Association of American Universities.

The university counts seven Nobel Laureates, twenty-three Pulitzer Prize winners, nine Academy Award winners, and several Emmyand Tony Award winners among its faculty and alumni. BU also has MacArthur, Sloan, and Guggenheim Fellowship holders as well as American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences members among its past and present graduates and faculty.

The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA's Division I. BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League, and Hockey Eastconferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. Boston University is well known for men's hockey, in which it has won five national championships, most recently in 2009.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 theCharles River into Cambridge represents the dividing line between Main 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.

As a result of its continual expansion, the Charles River campus contains an array of architecturally diverse buildings. The College of Arts and Sciences, Marsh Chapel (site of the Marsh Chapel Experiment), and the School of Theology buildings are the university's most recognizable and were built in the late-1930s and 1940s in collegiate gothic style. A sizable amount of the campus is traditional Boston brownstone, especially at Bay State Road and South Campus where BU has acquired almost every townhouse those areas offer. The buildings are primarily dormitories but many also serve as various institutes as well as department offices. From the 1960s–1980s many contemporary buildings were constructed including the Mugar Library, BU Law School and Warren Towers, all of which were built in thebrutalist style of architecture. The Metcalf Science Center for Science and Engineering, constructed in 1983, might more accurately be described as Structural Expressionism. Morse Auditorium, adjacent, stands in stark architectural contrast, as it was constructed as a Jewish temple. The most recent additions to BU's campus are the Photonics Center, Life Science and Engineering Building, The Student Village (which includes the FitRec Center and Agganis Arena), and the School of Management. All these buildings were built in brick, a few with a substantial amount of brownstone.