University of Alaska Fairbanks Kiya McClenton

When most people think of Alaska, the first things that come to mind are usually snow, cold weather, and even the wilderness. If you enjoy these things, the University of Alaska Fairbanks would be a great college to go to. UAF is a public research university located in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was founded in 1917. The original name of this university was the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, but the name was later changed to the University of Alaska in 1935, and finally the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1975. UAF offers many major research units, such as the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, the Geophysical Institute, the International Arctic Research Center, the Institute of Arctic Biology, the Institute of Marine Science, and the Institute of Northern Engineering. UAF also offers an honors program, which was created in 1983, that provides additional opportunities for students to prepare for professional school admission. Like many other universities, UAF has an athletics program. The college’s sports teams are called the Alaska Nanooks, which means “polar bears” in Inupiaq, and their colors are blue and gold. Their mascot is nationally known as the “Hockeybear”. One their most popular sports is hockey, which gets a lot of attention in Alaska. Other sports include: men & women’s basketball, cross country, women’s volleyball, and men & women’s skiing. The average SAT scores for UAF are 570 for math and 579 for reading. As for GPAs, the average GPA to get into UAF is 3.21.