Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and sciences and also provides graduate research in many academic disciplines, granting PhD degrees primarily in the sciences and mathematics. Wesleyan is the second most productive liberal arts college in the United States in the number of undergraduates who go on to earn PhDs in all fields of study. Founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the now secular university was the first institution of higher education to be named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. About twenty unrelated colleges and universities were subsequently named after Wesley. Wesleyan, along with Amherst and Williams Colleges, is a member of the historic Little Three colleges and has long been known as one of the Little Ivies. Wesleyan was founded as an all-male Methodist college in 1831.