Université Tulane

Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it was turned into a comprehensive public university as the University of Louisiana by the state legislature in 1847. The institution became private under the endowments of Paul Tulane and Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1884 and 1887. The Tulane University Law School and Tulane University Medical School are, respectively, the 12th oldest law school and 15th oldest medical school in the United States. Tulane has been a member of the Association of American Universities since 1958 and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It has an overall acceptance rate of 8.4%. Alumni include twelve governors of Louisiana; one Chief Justice of the United States; various members of Congress, including a Speaker of the U.S. House; two Surgeons General of the United States; 23 Marshall Scholars; 18 Rhodes Scholars; 15 Truman Scholars; 155 Fulbright Scholars; four living billionaires; and a former President of Costa Rica. Two Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university. The university was founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 partly as a response to the fears of smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera in the United States. The university became the second medical school in the South, and the 15th in the United States at the time. In 1847, the state legislature established the school as the University of Louisiana, a public university, and the law department was added to the university. Subsequently, in 1851, the university established its first academic department. The first president chosen for the new university was Francis Lister Hawks, an Episcopal priest and prominent citizen of New Orleans at the time. The university was closed from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War. After reopening, it went through a period of financial challenges because of an extended agricultural depression in the South which affected the nation's economy.