It was revived in 1873 by an enterprising educator, Henry Baker Brown, as the Northern Indiana Normal School. Many alumni from this period achieved distinction in their fields as governors, legislators, scientists, business leaders and other professionals. The Association, an Indiana Corporation composed of men and women affiliated largely with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, is an independent organization actively promoting higher education in the Christian context. The heart of an academic institution is its students and faculty. Valparaiso University's student body is selected from a large number of applicants from all states in the nation and from many foreign countries.
Major contingents come, too, from both East and West coasts.
National and diverse in its student body, the University is still a distinctively Midwestern institution which enjoys the friendliness and hard work characteristic of the region. Almost 69 per cent of the students come from the upper fifth of their high school graduating classes. Approximately fifty National Merit Scholars enroll at the University in any given year, a figure which places Valparaiso University in the upper 4 per cent of the nation's schools in such enrollment. Educated at leading research universities, they are competent in their fields. They care about students, an attitude made visible by the frequent individual consultations they invite.