Boston University, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. The university is composed of 15 schools and colleges. Professional degrees are awarded at the School of Law, the School of Medicine, the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Management. A range of graduate degree programs are available in education, engineering, and the arts and sciences. The university operates internship programs in cities around the world, including Washington, D.C., London, Moscow, Peking (Beijing), Madrid, Paris, and Sydney, Australia, and also has study-abroad opportunities in Europe, Israel, Central and South America, and Africa. The Center for Computational Science is home to the SGI/Cray Origin2000, a parallel supercomputer. Mugar Memorial Library and its branches house about 1.9 million volumes; its archives include the papers of Franz Liszt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Robert Frost. Total enrollment is about 30,000.
Boston University began as a Methodist theological school in Vermont in 1839. The school moved to Boston in 1867. The university was one of the first American institutions of higher education to accept African-American and international students and the first in the state to award degrees to women; Helen Magill White became the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. when she graduated from Boston University. Noteworthy alumni include Martin Luther King, Jr., James Lawson, Franz Kline, Barbara Jordan, Edward Brooke, Anna Howard Shaw, and David Hemery.