San Diego State University

Institution of California, San Diego (SDSU) is a public research university in the city of San Diego in the state of California. It was formerly known as San Diego Normal School when it was established in 1897. It is the third-oldest institution in the California State University (CSU) system, and it is also the southernmost. SDSU has a student body of 35,578 for the fall 2020 semester and an alumni base of more than 300,000 people.

It is categorised as "R2: Doctoral Universities – High Research Activity" according to the Carnegie Foundation. The university received $130 million in public and private financing for the 2015–16 fiscal year, resulting in a total of 707 awards, an increase from $120.6 million during the previous fiscal year. South Dakota State Institution has the greatest research production of any small research university in the United States in 2006 and 2007, according to the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index published by the Academic Analytics organisation of Stony Brook, New York. Just behind UC Berkeley, San Diego State University supports the second-highest number of Fulbright Scholars in the state of California. It has generated over 65 Fulbright student scholars since 2005, according to the institution.

Every year, the university contributes more than $2.4 billion to the San Diego economy. Additionally, more than 60% of SDSU graduates choose to stay in San Diego, making the institution a major educator of the region's labour force. SDSU is dedicated to serving the varied needs of the San Diego area, and it boasts one of the nation's top ten most ethnically and racially diverse student populations, as well as one of the top ten highest numbers of bachelor's degrees awarded to minority students. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) has granted accreditation to San Diego State University.

Established on March 13, 1897 as the San Diego Normal School, San Diego State University was originally intended to train local women to become primary school teachers in the San Diego area. There were 17 acres (6.9 hectares) of land available on Park Boulevard in University Heights for the facility to be built (now the headquarters of the San Diego Unified School District). At the time of its founding, the school had seven staff members and 91 pupils, and the curriculum was originally restricted to English, history, and arithmetic. Following its transformation into San Diego State Teachers College, which is "a four-year public school administered by the state Board of Education," the San Diego Normal School closed its doors in 1923.