Loras College

Loras College is a Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students and is the oldest post-secondary institution in the state of Iowa. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It is one of four four-year post-secondary institutions in the City of Dubuque, one of four Catholic colleges in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and one of six Catholic colleges in the state of Iowa.

Loras College, a liberal arts college, was founded in 1839 by the Most Rev. Bishop Mathias Loras, first bishop of Dubuque, who established Saint Raphael's Seminary to educate young men for the priesthood with the expressed intention of also providing an opportunity for higher education to the citizens of the area. Loras later became President of the college. The college has functioned under several different names: Saint Raphael's Seminary and later Saint Raphael's Academy (1839–1850), Mount St. Bernard's College and Seminary (1850–1860), St. Joseph's College (1873–1914), Dubuque College (1914–1920), and Columbia College (1920–1939).The present name was adopted during the school's centennial in 1939. That same year, the national Catholic honor society, Delta Epsilon Sigma was founded at the college, by Father Fitzgerald. From the time of its founding, the college has devoted its faculty and facilities to an undergraduate program; it conferred the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees.

Loras offers 49 majors, 11 stand-alone minors, and nine pre-professional programs for undergraduates. Undergraduates can also participate in summer classes, internships, field experience, study abroad, and much more.

For graduate programs, Loras offers a Master of Arts in clinical or general psychology, school counseling, education STEM, and a master's degree Business Administration with a focus on business analytics.

Loras sits on a 65-acre (260,000 m2) campus located atop several hills in Dubuque. The grounds are bounded by Loras Boulevard on the south, Kirkwood Street on the north, Henion Street on the east, and Alta Vista Street on the west. The campus is surrounded by residential neighborhoods on all sides, some of which are among the most historic in the city. The college consists of 23 buildings, 2 athletic fields, a stadium, and 5 tennis courts. Because of its high location, several of the buildings provide excellent views of Downtown Dubuque and the Mississippi River.