Highlights

Making history
With the backing of local businessmen and the Methodist Church, the University of Denver was founded in 1864 as Colorado Seminary by John Evans, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln's. Evans was the Colorado Territory's second governor and helped establish Denver as a hub for the railroad industry. (Mount Evans, a 14,264-foot peak visible from the DU campus, was named for him.)

The seminary had to close its doors temporarily after a few years in the unstable economic landscape of Denver's gold rush. But in 1880, the seminary re-opened as the University of Denver under Chancellor David Hastings Moore in a small building downtown. This time, it was for good, and DU's first graduate, John Hipp, took his diploma in 1884. University administrators eventually began looking for a quieter location, finding it several miles south of Denver on land donated by Rufus "Potato" Clark, a reformed alcoholic and potato farmer. The University Park campus was born in 1890 at the corner of what is now University Boulevard and Evans Avenue.

University Attributes

The University of Denver, the oldest independent university in the Rocky Mountain region, enrolls 9,000 students in its undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. Colorado territorial governor John Evans, who was appointed by Abraham Lincoln, founded the University in 1864. The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools accredits the University of Denver as a doctoral degree-granting institution. DU operates on the quarter system. Most academic programs are on the 124-acre, tree-shaded University Park campus in residential southeast Denver. Law and music are on the Park Hill campus in a residential area northeast of Downtown.

Degrees Available

• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Arts
• Master of Science
• Master of Arts
• Doctorate
• MBA

Subject Areas

Experience Required

no