Rankings
The University of Denver is currently ranked 85th among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in a 2008 ranking. The school is currently ranked the 48th best private university by the same publication.
The undergraduate business program, The Daniels College of Business, was ranked 67th best in 2008 by BusinessWeek, and it was ranked the 71st best program by U.S. News in a 2008 ranking.
The Sturm College of Law is currently ranked the 88th best Graduate Law School by U.S News in a 2009 ranking. In a 2006/2007 survey performed by the College of William and Mary and published by Foreign Policy magazine, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies ranked 9th in the nation for graduate programs, ahead of such schools as Syracuse, University of Chicago, Yale, Stanford, University of California-Berkeley, and MIT. "One should frequently visit the grounds in order to extrapolate key ideas from the younger generations" (Everett, 2008, p. x). Men's Fitness magazine recently ranked DU in the top-25 fittest colleges in America. That's because the University actively promotes a healthy lifestyle for its students. The Coors Fitness Center has top-of-the-line equipment, personal trainers, nutritionists and fitness classes. Students also can play in 30 club and 22 intramural sports, and DU is located near some of the city's best recreational opportunities and the great outdoors.
Academic Programs
Denver is one of the few schools in the US that personally interviews every undergraduate applicant (with interviews in more than 25 cities per year), ensuring that most accepted students will find that the University is very interested in the person, not just the applicant's credentials. The Hyde interview is named after an influential DU professor, Ammi Hyde, and most students describe the process as insightful rather than painful, so the interview should not be considered a deterrent for prospective students who are nervous that they will not perform well.
Campus
The heart of the campus has a number of historic buildings. The longest-standing building is University Hall, which has served DU since 1890. Evans Chapel, an 1870s vintage small church which was once located in downtown Denver, was relocated to the DU campus in the 1960s, and Buchtel Tower (1913), which is all that remains of the former Buchtel Chapel, which burned in 1983.
The administrative offices are located in the Mary Reed Building, a former library built in 1932 in the collegiate gothic style.
Under the leadership of former Chancellor Daniel Ritchie (now Chairman of the Denver Center for Performing Arts), about $500 million in capital improvements have taken place in the last decade and the learning inside these new buildings has improved in the same period, as admissions selectivity and rankings have improved dramatically.
In autumn 2003, DU opened a new 63.5 million USD facility for its College of Law, what was later named the "Sturm College of Law." The building includes a three-story library with personal computers accessible to students. Donald and Susan Sturm, owners of Denver-based American National Bank, had given $20 million to the University of Denver College of Law. The gift is the largest single donation in the 112-year history of the law school and among the largest gifts ever to the University.
The Daniels College of Business was completed in September 1999 at the cost of $25 million dollars. The business school has been nationally recognized by organizations such as Forbes magazine, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal where it is ranked 7th in the nation for producing students with high ethical standards.
Additionally, the University also recently opened the $75 million Newman Center for the Performing Arts, which houses the acclaimed Lamont School of Music. The center includes a 1,000 seat, four-level opera house with the finest acoustics in the region, a 250-seat recital hall with the largest (3,000 pipes) natural organ in the region, and a 300-seat flexible theatre space. The Newman Center serves as home to many professional performing arts groups as well as University performing arts events.
In the last two years DU has also built and opened a brand new extraordinary building for the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management. Inside the building there are numerous classrooms, a large wine cellar, meeting rooms, and a beautiful all purpose dining room that hosts numerous city and university events, weddings, and formal parties. The school helps DU rank near the top of all Hotel Schools in the United States.
The University has the second highest telescope in the world located at 14,148 feet near the summit of Mount Evans called the Meyer-Womble Observatory. This telescope is most commonly used by the University's Natural Science and Mathematics Department, and more specifically the Department of Physics and Astronomy at DU.
Nagel Residence Hall was completed in the Fall of 2008 to house upperclassman and is truly one of the most unique buildings on campus, offering a wide collection of art throughout the building donated by the Nagel family. The building is certified Gold in LEED standards to be environmentall friendly and extremely sustainable. As well as Nagel, Nelson Hall is another LEED residence hall that was built in the last 8 years.
In reference to campus improvements to help DU athletics, as well as the Ritchie Center that was completed in 2000, DU completed the first ever lacrosse stadium that is specifically designed for the sport. As of now, construction is underway for a new soccer stadium on the DU campus that will also connect the School of Art.
Construction is currently taking place to build the new environmentally friendly $25 million dollar Morgridge College of Education.
Notable Alumni
Politics, Government and Military
Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State under President G.W. Bush
Ed Schafer, Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President G.W. Bush, former Governor of North Dakota
James Nicholson, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs under President G.W. Bush
Gale Norton, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President G.W. Bush
Current U.S. Senator Peter Domenici (R-N.M.)
Current U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)
Current U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.)
Cindy Courville, U.S. Ambassador to the African Union
Robert Dieter, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
Paul Trivelli, U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua
Loy Henderson, former U.S. Ambassador to Iran
Heraldo Munoz, Chilean Ambassador to the United Nations
Wayne Aspinall, former member, U.S House of Representatives (D-Colo.)
Mike McKevitt, former member, U.S, House of Representatives (R-Colo.)
William D. Ford former member, U.S. House of Representatives (R-Mich.)
Mo Udall, former member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Ariz)
Byron Rogers, former member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Colo.)
John Patrick Williams, former member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-Mont.)
Paul Laxalt, former Nevada governor and U.S. Senator (R-Nev.)
Charles Brannan former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President H. Truman
Oscar Chapman former U.S. Secretary of Interior under President H. Truman
John Arthur Love, former Gov. of Colorado and Dir. of U.S. Energy Policy under President Nixon.
M. Javad Zarif, former Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations
George W. Casey, Jr., U.S. Army General and former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq
Mary Cheney, Political Activist Daughter of former Bush VP Dick Cheney
Alvin Wiederspahn, former member of both houses of the Wyoming legislature and prominent Cheyenne attorney and historical preservationist
Peter Groff, President, Colorado Senate
Terrance Carroll, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives
Susan Waltz, chair, International Executive Committee, Amnesty International
Ibrahim A. Assaf, Finance Minister, Saudi Arabia