Yale University

With over 11,000 students and 275 campus buildings, Yale dwarfs many of its rivals. But then it has always thought big - as the new millennium dawned its president declared that Yale's priority is still "to educate America's future leaders". Situated in New Haven, Connecticut, about 20 per cent of Yale undergraduates major in the sciences, 35 per cent in the social sciences and 45 per cent in the arts and humanities.

Founded in 1701, its college system drew inspiration from the one in place at England's Oxbridge universities and, like the Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, there is also the Yale-Harvard competition. Of the 2006-07 freshman class, almost one in ten were international students. All US presidents since 1989 have been Yale men, perhaps Democrat nomination hopeful Hilary Clinton's campaign managers drew inspiration from the fact that she studied there. The university also has an artistic side - its school of drama has produced many celebrated Hollywood and Broadway stars: literature graduate Jodie Foster being one of them.