Carnegie Mellon University (also known as CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It began as the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1900. In 1912, the school became Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. The University's main campus is three miles (5 km) from Downtown Pittsburgh and abuts the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in the city's Oakland neighborhood.

The University has seven colleges and schools: the Carnegie Institute of Technology (engineering), the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the Tepper School of Business, the School of Computer Science, and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management.

Since its inception, Carnegie Mellon has grown into a world-renowned institution, with numerous programs that are frequently ranked among the best in the world. In the most recent release of the Top 200 World Universities by Times Higher Education, Carnegie Mellon was ranked 20th overall and 7th in technology. In the 2009 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate program 22nd in the nation amongst national research universities, and in the 2009 edition its graduate programs in Computer Science 4th, Engineering 7th, Business 17th, Public Affairs 10th, Fine Arts 7th, and Psychology 9th. The university attracts students from all 50 U.S. states and 93 countries and was named one of the "New Ivies" by Newsweek in 2006. Peer institutions of Carnegie Mellon include Caltech, Cornell, Duke, Emory, Georgia Tech, MIT, Northwestern, Penn, Princeton, Rice, RPI, Stanford, and Washington University.

History

Post-Civil War industrialists accumulated unprecedented wealth and were eager to found institutions in their names. Washington Duke at Duke University, Leland Stanford at Stanford University (for his late son), John D. Rockefeller at the University of Chicago, Cornelius Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt University, and Phoebe Hearst at the University of California, Berkeley were just a few. Carnegie Mellon University was one such school.

Carnegie Technical Schools was founded in 1900 in Pittsburgh by the Scottish American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who wrote the time-honored words "My heart is in the work" when he donated the funds to create the institution. Carnegie's vision was to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class Pittsburghers. The name was changed to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912, and the school began offering four-year degrees. In 1967, it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, Carnegie founded Carnegie Mellon's coordinate women's college, Margaret Morrison Carnegie College in 1903 (the college closed in 1973).