Syracuse University is a private institution that was founded in 1870. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 14,798, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 708 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Syracuse University's ranking in the 2014 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 62.

Few schools are associated with a color as strongly as Syracuse University is. A brilliant shade of orange is tied into campus life, manifesting itself in student media outlets such as The Daily Orange, the student-run newspaper, and CitrusTV, the television channel. The school’s sports teams are known simply as The Orange, and are cheered on in the NCAA Division I Big East Conference by school mascot Otto the Orange.