Founded on November 4, 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest state-supported institutions of higher education on the Pacific Coast.

This Pacific Coast college is comprised of three campuses. The Seattle campus is made up of 17 schools and colleges for first-year undergraduates through doctoral candidates. The Bothell and Tacoma campuses offer diverse programs to upper-division undergraduates and to graduate students.

As an integral part of a large and diverse community, the University of Washington seeks broad representation of and encourages sustained participation in the community by its students, faculty, and staff. It serves both nontraditional and traditional students. Through its three-campus system and through education outreach, evening degrees, and distance learning, this Pacific Coast college extends education opportunities to many who would not otherwise have access.

The academic core of the University of Washington is its College of Arts and Sciences; the teaching and research of this Pacific Coast college's many professional schools provide essential complements to these programs in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural and mathematical sciences. Programs in law, medicine, forest resources, oceanography and fisheries, library science, and aeronautics are offered exclusively by the University of Washington. In addition, the University of Washington has assumed primary responsibility for the health science fields of dentistry and public health, and offers education and training in medicine for a multistate region of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

The University of Washington's schools and colleges of architecture and urban planning, business administration, education, engineering, nursing, pharmacy, public affairs, and social work have a long tradition of educating students for service to the region and the nation. These Pacific Coast colleges and schools make indispensable contributions to the state and, with the rest of the university, share a long tradition of educating undergraduate and graduate students toward achieving an excellence that well serves the state, the region, and the nation.