Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is America ’s only graduate-only, research-extensive university. Our nine graduate schools provide Ph.D.s and masters degrees to about 2200 students in 23 subjects. The CGU community is characterized by unusual diversity, collegiality, and environmental beauty. CGU is one of the seven Claremont Colleges, a consortium built on the Oxford model that The Fiske Guide has called “the most extraordinary assemblage of educational excellence in the nation.” Over two hundred professors from the other Claremont Colleges and from the Claremont School of Theology collaborate in our teaching and research. Our location in Southern California, the most ethnically diverse region in the United States , and alongside one of the fastest-growing areas, the Inland Empire, is a living laboratory for the study of important social trends, problems, and possibilities.Like other graduate institutions, Claremont Graduate University educates scholars, experts, and leaders and creates new knowledge through research. But CGU is nimble and free from many of the constraints faced by huge research universities. CGU can take distinctive approaches that produce an outsized impact on the world.Our tradition says, “Follow the problem.” This means that our research and teaching transcend academic boundaries. Our University disregards artificial divides between theory and application. We believe that academic rigor and addressing big questions can go together.CGU’s first president, James Blaisdell, once said, “The center of a college is in great conversation, and out of the talk of college life springs everything else.” Our tradition values talking and listening across the disciplines, and taking on the big issues of our times. In our seminar rooms and through our research, our University catalyzes great conversations that matter.“Great conversations that matter” is a metaphor for something special about teaching and research at Claremont Graduate University.Our graduate-only education takes place through small classes and seminars and close scholarly relationships between students and faculty. Our research aspires to advance knowledge and also to do something more: to convene leaders and scholars to tackle the most important problems facing our region and our world.Our teaching and research reach across the disciplines and out into the world, enabling the very best professors and graduate students to take topics and fields in new and fruitful directions. We define our research agenda, carry out our research, and consider its implications with diverse partners from government, business, and civil society. In both teaching and research, our trademark is the interchange of ideas-inclusive of diverse points of view and attentive to evidence-to catalyze new ways to address tomorrow’s challenges.