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Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a Catholic university in Georgetown, Washington, DC. It is the oldest Catholic university in the United States of America, and the first Jesuit one, having been founded on January 23, 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll.

Bachelors, master's, and doctoral programs are offered through the Georgetown College (liberal arts), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Law Center, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, the School for Summer and Continuing Education, and the Center for Professional Development.

Georgetown College received a federal charter in 1815. The Medical School was founded in 1850, and the Law Department (now Law Center) in 1870. The School of Nursing was founded in 1903. The School of Foreign Service (SFS) was founded in 1919 by Father Walsh in response to the need for institutions to train its youth for leadership in foreign commerce and diplomacy demonstrated during World War I. The School of Languages and Linguistics (now Faculty of Languages and Linguistics) was organized in 1949. The Georgetown School of Business was organized out of the SFS in 1955. It was renamed for Robert E. McDonough in 1999.

Famous alumni include Bill Clinton, Antonin Scalia, Frank Keating, John Podesta, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, John Dingell, Richard Durbin, Mickey Kantor, Maria Shriver, William Peter Blatty, Paul Tagliabue, Ted Leonsis, George Tenet, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, and Patrick Ewing.

The main campus located in and around 37th and O Streets, NW in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. The Law Center is located downtown on New Jersey Avenue. The school's sports teams are called the Hoyas - the name supposedly derives from an old mixed Latin and Greek chant of 'hoya saxa' that was repeated by students at football games long ago to celebrate the stalwart defense ("Hoya" translates from Greek as "what"; "Saxa" translates from Latin as "rocks"). The mascot is a bulldog named Jack. They participate in the NCAA's Division I. Most sports teams compete in the Big East Conference, though the football team competes in the Division I-AA Patriot League.

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