With many institutions of higher education in the San Francisco region, potential students have a variety of opportunities to choose from.
These campuses hold historical significance as well as a current reverence and can be visited by anyone interested in art, history and the foundations of education.
University of San Francisco
This school began as Saint Ignatius Academy, part of a Jesuit order, in 1855 with three students. By 1862, the institution was chartered by the state to commission degrees and enrollment had increased to 457, comprised mostly of Irish and Italian immigrants. The small college began to grow steadily until the 1906 earthquake, devastating the institution as well as most of the city.
After reconstruction and a move to another location in the city, the college was renamed the University of San Francisco in 1930. Since then several prominent Californians have graduated from the university, including Senators, Supreme Court Justices, Pulitzer Prize winners and Olympic medalists.
Today, the private university houses six colleges with a total of about 8,700 students and remains only one of 28 Jesuit Catholic colleges and universities in the United States.
San Francisco State University
This public university began as San Francisco State Normal School in 1899. However, it did not award its first Bachelor's degree until 1923. With much destruction in the 1906 earthquake, the school was forced to move from their Nob Hill location to Buchanan and Haight Streets.
The university has changed names three times before settling on the current one in 1974. In 1921 it was named San Francisco State Teachers College, and then San Francisco State College in 1935. Upon attaining university status in 1972, it was named California State University, San Francisco.
The institution currently has about 30,000 students enrolled, with over 100 areas of study from eight academic colleges.
San Francisco Art Institute
The Art Institute, founded in 1871, has been the educational backbone to many famous artists and writers over the years, with students such as Eadweard Muybridge and Annie Liebovitz, and instructors like Dorthea Lange.
The school was started by artists of the San Francisco Art Association and was originally named The California School of Design. By 1916 it was known as California School of Fine Arts, but then renamed San Francisco Art Institute in 1961.
After 1961 the school included not only painting and sculpture, but also performance, conceptual art, typography, graphic art, and documentary.
