Columbia University is a coeducational Ivy League school located in New York City, New York. Columbia was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of King George II of Great Britain. It later changed its name to Columbia College and then Columbia University.

Columbia's campus is in the heart of the city with the main part of the campus occupying 32 acres in picturesque Morningside Heights. The university has three undergraduate institutions: Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of General Studies. The university also has 13 graduate and professional schools and a school of continuing education. Although all of its schools enjoy excellent reputations, the university's business school, law school, and medicine school are ranked among the top in the country.   

Berkeley is the flagship campus of the University of California. The school was founded in Berkeley, California, in 1868 when twocolleges merged. The school is often called simply Berkeley, Cal-Berkeley, or UC Berkeley.

Berkeley is considered one of the top public universities in the world, and its graduates and faculty have won many prestigious awards. Faculty, researchers, and graduates of Berkeley have won 65 Nobel Prizes, 69 Academy Awards, and seven Pulitzer Prizes along with numerous other awards and honors. Some of the university's famous alumni include Earl Warren, Steven Chu, Steve Wozniak, Gregory Peck, and Robert McNamara.

The University of Pennsylvania, also known as UPenn, is a coeducational Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740 and is located in an area of West Philadelphia known as University City, several miles from downtown Philadelphia.

UPenn has four undergraduate schools as well as a number of graduate programs and interdisciplinary programs. All of University of Pennsylvania's 12 schools are within walking distance of each other. The geographic unity is unique among the Ivy League universities and is indicative of UPenn's interdisciplinary approach to education. The university is noted for its expansive lawns and beautiful architecture. The architecture of many of the buildings is in the style of Collegiate Gothic. In addition to the main campus, the University of Pennsylvania owns the Morris Arboretum, located on 92 acres in northwestern Pennsylvania.