pronounced /skəˈnɛktədi/

a population of 61,821, making it the ninth-largest city in New York

In 1887, Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works to Schenectady. In 1892, Schenectady became the headquarters of the General Electric Company. Interestingly, when 5-digit ZIP codes were introduced by the U.S. Postal Service in the 1960s, the GE campus was assigned 12345, in spite of the fact that all the zip codes surrounding GE begin with 1230_.

Thomas Edison invented lightbulb there

Schenectady is home to WGY-AM, one of the first commercial radio stations in the United States. The station was named for its owner, General Electric (the G), and the city of Schenectady (the Y)

General Electric also generated the first regular television broadcasts in the United States in 1928

The city was once known as „The City that Lights and Hauls the World“ – a reference to two prominent businesses in the city, the Edison Electric Company (now known as General Electric), and the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).

About 16.8% of families and 20.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.5% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those age 65 or over.

Proctors Theater was also the site of one of the first public demonstrations of television, projecting an image from a studio at the GE plant a mile away

Central park was named after New York City's Central Park, the crowning achievement of the designer of both, Frederick Law Olmstead.

President Chester Arthur lived in Schenectady while attending Union College

President Jimmy Carter, a US Navy lieutenant at the time, began graduate studies in nuclear physics at Union College starting in March, 1953, but left in July, 1953 after his father's death to tend to the family peanut farm.

Ron Rivest, Turing award winner, the „R“ in RSA cryptography, born in Schenectady

Mickey Rourke was born in Schenectady

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923), mathematician, electrical engineer, developer of alternating current.born in schenectady

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) lived in Schenectady while working for GE in the early 1950s.

Union College is the oldest planned college campus in the United States.

one of the national’s oldest and most distinguished liberal arts colleges.

The film The Way We Were was filmed on location in Schenectady at Union College

In the 19th century, it became the „Mother of Fraternities“, as three of the earliest such organizations were established there.

Union College began enrolling women in 1970.

Union has the distinction of having had the longest serving college or university president in the history of the United States, Eliphalet Nott

Nott Memorial was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

The Union College radio station was among the very first wireless transmitters in the country to broadcast regularly scheduled programs

The weekly Concordiensis, the principal newspaper of Union College since 1877, is the thirteenth oldest student newspaper in the United States and the oldest continuously published newspaper in Schenectady

As of fall 2009, Union had a total of 2157 undergraduate students, with 520 freshmen (272 males and 248 females). Union received 4829 applications and admitted 1987, of which 520 enrolled, giving a 41% admittance rate and 26% enrollment rate.

2013: 2,220 students.

often used definition of local students: „preppy“ does not count for everyone, Union cares of having truly the defined America's „melting pot“ even among students.

Student Faculty ratio: 10:1

Most popular major: Biological Sciences

#58 best College in US (Forbes)

#13 college in US based on Return-On-Investments (PayScale)