Cornell University, New York, United States

Cornell was one of the first institutions of higher education in the United States to offer advanced degrees with graduate study included in the curriculum at its founding.

As early as 1868-69, the Cornell Register described requirements for four advanced degrees: M.S., M.A., Ph.D., and an advanced degree in civil engineering. Cornell awarded an M.S. degree in botany in 1870 to David Starr Jordan, who went on to become the first president of Stanford University.  Cornell's first Ph.D. was awarded in 1872 to Henry Turner Eddy, just seven years after the founding of the university. At that time there were fewer than two hundred graduate students in the United States.