Howard University is a private, historically Black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1867, it educates students from diverse backgrounds at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. The institution operates 14 schools and colleges offering 143 programs of study, spanning medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, nursing, architecture, religion, law, music, social work and education, alongside the social sciences, arts and humanities.
Research activity covers nanotechnology, human genome research and atmospheric science, alongside scholarship in the social sciences and humanities. The College of Medicine trains physicians for medically underserved communities, while the School of Law has produced more than 4,000 graduates, including the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, in over 150 years of advocacy for social justice. Howard has produced more on-campus African American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States, along with four Rhodes Scholars, 12 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright recipients.
The university's stated motto is Veritas et Utilitas, or Truth and Service. Its stated commitments include educating students from diverse backgrounds, producing Black professionals across many fields, and combining cutting-edge scholarship with excellence in the social sciences, arts and humanities.
