Founded in 1897, San Diego State University (SDSU) is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the area
SDSU is a member of the American Association of State College universities as it offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in over 151 different fields and is the leader in the California State University system in awarding Ph.D. or Ed.D degrees. The College is the third-oldest in the California State University system and boast of more than 200,000 alumni. SDSU has been deemed as a "Research university with high research activity" by the Carnegie Foundation. This is the only CSU campus that has been given this honorable classification, which places it among the top 200 higher education facilities in the nation.
Recently, SDSU has become a member of Oak Ridge Associated Universities which is a national organization of universities that promotes science and technology education and research. It has also been deemed as the fifth most popular "party school" in the May 2006 issue of Playboy, which some consider to be more of an honor than others.
The School grounds consist of many academic buildings along with a huge dome library called the "infodome." There is also a new underground trolley station that links the SDSU campus with the metropolitan are of San Diego.
