Yale has grown and evolved Yale was founded as a “Collegiate School” in 1701 to preserve the tradition of for 300-plus years, passing European liberal education in the New World. In 1718 the school was renamed “Yale College” in gratitude for the donations of Welsh merchant Elihu Yale. many milestones and forging In the 19th Century the institution added several graduate and professional traditions along the way. schools, becoming “Yale University” in 1887. In addition to the undergraduate College, Yale established schools of Medicine, Divinity, Graduate Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Fine Arts, Music, Forestry and Environmental Studies, Public Health, Nursing, Drama, Architecture, and Management. Today, Yale University, which is comprised of Yale College (providing under- graduate programs), along with 13 graduate & professional schools, boasts over 12,000 students and 4,900 faculty from all 50 states, as well as 120 foreign countries. Additionally, what started as a small collegiate school in a residential area of New Haven now comprises 450 acres and over 260 buildings, as well as other landholdings not attached with the central New Haven campus.