Cornell University

Cornell has rather grand aspirations, its motto being to "serve society by educating the leaders of tomorrow and extending the frontiers of knowledge". This it does with much success, by casting its net far and wide - the New York-based university has students from fifty states and 122 countries. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, it has grown to a stage where it has 13,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students.

A fair number of these will go on to become doctors, as Cornell produces more graduates that go on to become doctors than any other university in the country. Its most famous ex-student is probably Dr Spock - not the pointy-eared man from Star Trek but the genuine doctor whose book on childhood illnesses is still consulted by hypochondriac parents all over the globe.