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Valparaiso University, known colloquially as Valpo, is a regionally accredited private university located in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. The university is a coed, four-year, private institution that enrolls about 4,500 students from over 50 countries.
Covering 350 acres, Valpo’s campus is approximately one hour southeast of Chicago. The city of Valparaiso is part of the Chicago metropolitan area and has a population of about 32,000 residents.
Valpo consists of five undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, and a law school. It is the largest independent Lutheran university in the United States and is home to the second-largest collegiate chapel in the world, the Chapel of the Resurrection.
Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso University was founded in 1859 as one of the first coeducation colleges in the United States. Due to reverses brought about by the Civil War, the college was forced to close its doors in 1871. Two years later it was revived by educator Henry Baker Brown and named Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. At the turn of the 20th century, Brown changed the college's name to Valparaiso College, and shortly after it was rechartered as Valparaiso University. Initially founded by Methodists, in 1925 the school was purchased by the Lutheran University Association, which continues to operate it today