The University of Pittsburgh is a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is commonly referred to as Pitt, and was founded in 1787 as the Pittsburgh Academy.
The university has been ranked by several publications as a top university in the United States. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences as No. 4 among all universities in North America and No. 5 among all universities worldwide. It has a strong athletics program and is well known for its football team. The University also has strong programs in the humanities and sciences, but it is best known for its contributions to the field of medicine, having produced several Nobel Prize winners.
In fact, The University of Pittsburgh’s history can be traced back to its founding as the Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a Presbyterian minister from western Pennsylvania who wanted to establish a school to train clergymen for frontier churches that had no formal education system at the time. Brackenridge was an abolitionist who helped establish the first anti-slavery society in America, and he also participated in debates regarding slavery with his friend Thomas Jefferson while they were both living in Paris during their time abroad working as diplomats representing America during its early days as an independent nation.
