New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. Founded in 1831, NYU is the largest private, nonprofit institution of higher education in the United States, with an enrollment of more than 40,000. Recently approved by the board, Polytechnic University, previously known as College of Engineering & Technology of NYU, will be combined back with NYU in May, extending the curiculla of NYU.

NYU consists of 16 schools, colleges, and divisions, located in six centers throughout Manhattan. NYU operates study abroad facilities in London, Paris, Florence, Prague, Madrid, Berlin, Accra, Shanghai, will have facilities in Singapore by fall 2007, and has just announced facilities slated to open Spring 2008 in Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv.

Most recently, the government of the United Arab Emirates has announced plans to fund a campus abroad for NYU in the capital city of Abu Dhabi, the first of its kind to be established abroad by a major U.S. research university, which is set to receive students by 2010. Additional proposed sites are being finalized in the Persian Gulf Region and the Middle East.

For four consecutive years NYU has been ranked as America's "#1 dream school" by The Princeton Review. NYU counts 31 Nobel Prize winners; 2 Abel Prize winners; 9 National Medal of Science recipients; 12 Pulitzer Prize winners; 19 Academy Award winners (more than any other American university); Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winners; and MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowship holders among its past and present graduates and faculty.

Despite having an urban campus, NYU has an active student body — some of the first fraternities in the country were formed at NYU. Also, university traditions take place every year among the various clubs and twenty-one undergraduate residence halls. With 12,500 residents, NYU has the seventh largest university housing system in the U.S. and the largest among private schools.

NYU's sports teams are called the Violets, the colors being the trademarked hue "NYU Violet" and white; the school mascot is the bobcat. Almost all sporting teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and the University Athletic Association. While NYU has had All-American football players, it has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s.