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Washington University in St. Louis

1 Brookings Dr, St. Louis, MO

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Washington University in St. Louis, founded in 1853 and named for George Washington, is consistently ranked among the top research universities in the country, and its Olin Business School and School of Medicine have each built reputations rivaling far more nationally famous private universities. The university's endowment per student ranks among the highest of any American research university, funding substantial financial aid and research infrastructure that's let WashU compete directly with Ivy League and other elite private universities for top faculty and applicants despite being less broadly known outside academic circles. WashU's medical school and its affiliated Barnes-Jewish Hospital form one of the largest academic medical research complexes in the country, and the university's biomedical research funding regularly ranks among the top handful of American universities, reflecting a research strength that WashU has built with less mainstream public name recognition than its academic standing would suggest. The university's architecturally uniform, Collegiate Gothic campus, built largely from local Missouri limestone, gives Washington University one of the more visually distinctive private research university campuses in the Midwest, and its combination of genuine Ivy League-caliber academics with a somewhat lower public profile has made it a frequently cited example of an "underrated" elite American university.

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