MS in Biology

Villanova University is a private Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania and one of two Augustinian institutions of higher learning in the United States (the other being Merrimack College).The university traces its roots to the old Saint Augustine's Church, Philadelphia, which the Augustinian friars of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova founded in 1796, and to its parish school, Saint Augustine's Academy, which was established in 1811. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".In October 1841, two Irish Augustinian friars from Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia, with the intention of starting a school, purchased 200 acres in Radnor Township, known as "Belle Air", the estate of the late John Rudolph, a merchant of Burlington, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The school, which was called the "Augustinian College of Villanova", opened in 1842.Besides the novitiate and college, the Augustinians had pastoral care of Catholics living within a fifteen mile radius. Bishop Francis Kenrick dedicated the chapel in 1844. Parished at Berwyn, Bryn Mawr, and Wayne developed from the Villanova mission.