University of San Francisco, USA

A private Catholic university founded in 1855 by the Society of Jesus (aka Jesuits), usf has acquired an excellent reputation for rigorous scholarship Sited in one of America’s most famous cities, the University of San Francisco (USF) has built itself a good reputation for delivering education characterised by rigorous scholarship and integration of real-life issues with classroom learning. The US News and World Report (2007) ranks USF among the top 135 national univerities in the US, and among top 20 in terms of international students and cultural diversity of its student body. Moreover the Wall Street Journal ranks USF’s MBA programme among the top 100 in the world. At USF the teacher-student ratio is an enviable 1:14 with 93 percent of faculty boasting doctoral or postgrad qualifications. The student headcount is 8,568, including 430 international students from 75 countries worldwide. A private Catholic university founded way back in 1855 by the Society of Jesus (aka Jesuits), USF was San Francisco’s first institution of higher learning. Started as the St. Ignatius Academy, USF received a charter from the state of California to confer degrees in 1859 and was renamed St. Ignatius College. To celebrate its diamond jubilee in 1930, St. Ignatius College changed its name to the University of San Francisco. A males-only insitution for most of its history, USF became fully co-educational in 1964. “USF is committed to becoming internationally recognised as a premier Jesuit Catholic urban university with a global perspective that educates leaders who will fashion a more humane and just world. Currently, we are in the midst of a $175 million capital expenditure campaign, the largest in the university’s history. When completed, the infrastructure will further enable USF to educate students with the brains to make a difference and the hearts to want to do so,” says Stephen A. Privett, SJ, president of USF. San Francisco. Sited on the tip of San Francisco Peninsula, with the Pacific Ocean to the west, the San Francisco Bay to the east, and the Golden Gate bridge to the north, Frisco (pop. 744,000) is the fourth largest city in California. A popular international tourism destination renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills (there are 50 hills within city limits), an eclectic mix of Victorian and contemporary architecture, parks and its peninsular character, the city has many famous landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, its cable cars, Coit Tower, and Chinatown. It’s also home to six Fortune 500 companies, major information and biotechnology businesses, famous museums and top architecture, design and media firms. From the city centre, Silicon Valley, the hub of the information technology industry worldwide, is less than an hour’s drive. San Francisco’s Mediterranean climate, characterised by mild wet winters and warm dry summers, is strongly influenced by cool currents of the Pacific Ocean. The combination of cold ocean water and high heat of the California mainland creates the city’s characteristic fog that can shroud the western half of the city all day during the spring and early summer. Summertime temperatures peak to 21°C while in…