San Juan is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 342,259. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico.
The University of Puerto Rico is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 44,200 students and approximately 4,450 faculty members. UPR has the largest and most diverse academic offerings in the commonwealth, with 472 academic programs of which 32 lead to a doctorate.
The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus is a public land-grant research university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus in the University of Puerto Rico system in terms of student population and it was Puerto Rico's first public university campus.
The University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus — Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Médicas (UPR-RCM) in Spanish— is a public health sciences-oriented university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is part of the University of Puerto Rico System and is located on the grounds of the Puerto Rico Medical Center.
The Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR) is a private university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. PUPR offers technical degrees with a special focus on engineering professions.
The Inter American University of Puerto Rico is a private Christian university with its main campus in San Germán, Puerto Rico. It also has campuses in Aguadilla, Arecibo, Barranquitas, Bayamón, Fajardo, Guayama, Ponce, and San Juan. The university also has three professional schools: School of Optometry, School of Law, and the School of Aeronautics. The Inter offers academic programs in 11 teaching units. It was founded in San Germán in 1912. The San Germán campus is also the home to the Inter American School, a private co-educational college-preparatory school.
Albizu University is a private university with its main campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a branch campus in Miami, Florida, and an additional instructional location in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. It focuses on psychology, health, education, and human services.
The Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU), formerly Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences, is a private, for-profit university in Ponce, Puerto Rico and St. Louis, Missouri. It awards graduate degrees in Medicine (MD), Clinical Psychology (PsyD and PhD), Biomedical Sciences (PhD), Medical Sciences (MS), and Public Health (MPH and DrPH). The university has 360 students in its medical school and, as of 11 February 2019, was authorized to increase the student body at the medical school to 600 which, when fully in place, will make it the largest private medical school in Puerto Rico and one of the largest under the American flag.
The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music is a public conservatory in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It has hosted a number of international musicians as students as well as faculty, and has a longstanding relationship with the classical music movement in Puerto Rico, including the annual Casals Festival and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO).
Education in Puerto Rico is overseen by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Education Council. The Department oversees all elementary and secondary public education while the Council oversees all academic standards and issues licenses to educational institutions wishing to operate or establish themselves in Puerto Rico.
Río Piedras is a populous district of San Juan, and former town and municipality of Puerto Rico, which was merged with the municipality of San Juan in 1951. The district today is composed of various barrios such as Pueblo and Universidad. The historic town was founded in 1714 as El Roble, it was given municipality rights in 1823, and since 1903 it has been the home of the University of Puerto Rico's main campus, earning the popular name of Ciudad Universitaria today. The downtown and historic center of Río Piedras is officially known as the Pueblo barrio of the municipality of San Juan.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico is a private Roman Catholic university with its main campus in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It provides courses leading to Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees in education, business administration, the sciences, and arts and humanities. It also has campuses in Arecibo and Mayagüez, as well as a satellite extension in Coamo. It is also home to a School of Law and a School of Architecture. The university also founded a medical school, Escuela de Medicina de Ponce, in 1977, but in 1980 became an independent entity that eventually became the Ponce Health Sciences University.
Colegio Ponceño is a Roman Catholic, Piarist, pre K-12 preparatory school located in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The institution "has been recognized by the College Board as the best among public and private schools in Puerto Rico during the last 14 years." It has been regarded as one of the "most prestigious private schools in the city [of Ponce]."
La Milla de Oro is both the popular name given to the main central business district of San Juan and a nickname given to the sections of Juan Ponce de León Avenue and Luis Muñoz Rivera Avenue that cross Hato Rey Norte from north to south. It encompasses the largest agglomeration of corporate investment, banking and finance institutions in the Caribbean. The headquarters of Puerto Rico's largest retail investment bank, Popular, Inc., are located at Popular Center in 208 Juan Ponce de León Ave. La Milla de Oro is served by the Tren Urbano stations of Hato Rey, Roosevelt, Domenech and Piñero stations in addition to numerous bus routes with connections to Río Piedras, Plaza Las Américas, Santurce and Old San Juan.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture is an institution of higher learning granting degrees in the field of architecture. It is located in the Ponce Historic Zone, across from Plaza Las Delicias. It was established in 2009. Together with the School of Law, it is one of two semi-autonomous professional colleges of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico (PCUPR) in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. In 2010, the school won an award from the Southern Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce for Valor del Año en Educacion. The school is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). It has a teaching staff of 40 and a student body of 300. The current dean of the school is Luis Badillo Lozano.
Commonwealth–Parkville School (CPS), founded in 1952, and incorporated in Puerto Rico, is a private, college preparatory day school. It is a non-sectarian, not-for-profit, co-educational institution governed by a board of directors. CPS provides an integrated PPK–12 curriculum in English with a strong program in Spanish. It is located on two campuses: Parkville Campus in Guaynabo, PR, and Commonwealth Campus in Hato Rey, San Juan, PR.
NUC University, is the largest for-profit private university in Puerto Rico with its main campus in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The university was founded in 1982 as the National College, and offers undergraduate studies and graduate studies in health, business administration, education, information technology, and criminal justice.
Dr. Manuel Martínez Maldonado, MD; MACP, an internist and nephrologist, administrator, educator, poet and author, has authored numerous scientific publications and edited several books. His research interests are the regulation of body fluids and the pathophysiology of blood pressure and its effects on the kidneys. He also focuses on the renin angiotensin system, a hormone system that helps regulate long-term blood pressure and blood volume in the body and which is controlled primarily by the kidneys. His clinical research has included polycycstic kidney disease, renal stones and hypercalcemia. Martinez-Maldonado has occupied numerous positions, including Vice President for Research at Oregon Health and Sciences University (1998-2000), President and Dean of the Ponce School of Medicine (2000–2006). He was the executive vice president for research at the University of Louisville from 2000 to 2009.
