Johns Hopkins holds many "firsts" in American education: it was the first university in the United States to put an emphasis
on research, founded on the German university model. As such, it was the first American university to teach through seminars,
instead of soley through lectures. The University was the first in America to offer an undergraduate major (as opposed to a
purely liberal arts curriculum) and the first American university to grant doctoral degrees. The Hopkins model set the standard
in the United States for most large research universities, particularly The University of Chicago.The University is named for Johns Hopkins, who left US$7,000,000 in his
1867 will for the foundation of the University and Johns Hopkins Hospital (at the time, it was the largest philanthropic bequest in United States history), the equivalent of approximately US$86,542,022 in the year
2003 (this personal gift only being surpassed by alumnus Michael
Bloomberg's total donation of US$100,000,000 during the 1990s). The University opened February 22, 1876, with the stated goal of "The encouragement of research
... and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society
where they dwell." The University's first president was visionary educator Daniel Coit Gilman, and its motto in Latin is
Veritas vos liberabit – "The truth shall make
you free". The undergraduate student population at Hopkins was all male until 1970, though
many graduate programs were integrated earlier.The University was designed from the start to marry scholarship and research, and graduate education has always been of key
importance. All students at Johns Hopkins are encouraged to pursue original research at the undergraduate and graduate levels,
and nearly 80% of Johns Hopkins undergradates produce research by the time of graduation. Johns Hopkins receives more federal
research grants than any other university in the United States, which is
vital considering its smaller endownment size relative to its peer institutions. The University is affiliated with 31 Nobel laureates. It boasts a wide spectrum in terms of its academic strength
covering various fields from international relations and art to humanities and social and natural sciences.In 1900, Johns Hopkins was one of only fourteen Ph.D.-granting universities to found the Association of American
Universities (AAU), along with Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, and other prominent institutions. The
AAU is an organization of elite research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and
education.In addition, people often mistakenly assume that Johns Hopkins' forename was "John" (much to the annoyance of alumni of the
University and other informed persons). His forename is from a family surname. His great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, married
Gerard Hopkins, who named their son Johns Hopkins, and whose name was passed on to his grandson born in 1795 (the University's
founder).In an excerpt from a commencement address from University President William R. Brody (May 2001):"In 1888, just 12 years after the university was founded, Mark Twain wrote about this university in a letter to a friend. He
said: "A few months ago I was told that the Johns Hopkins University had given me a degree. I naturally supposed this constituted
me a Member of the Faculty, and so I started in to help as I could there. I told them I believed they were perfectly competent to
run a college as far as the higher branches of education are concerned, but what they needed was a little help here and there
from a practical commercial man. I said the public is sensitive to little things, and they wouldn't have full confidence in a
college that didn't know how to spell the name 'John'."More than a century later, we continue to bestow our diplomas only upon individuals of outstanding capabilities and great
talent. And we continue to spell Johns with an 's'."