Madras Christian College, established by John Anderson, a Scottish missionary in 1837, is one of the oldest and finest colleges of the Indian sub-continent. Started as a small school in Georgetown, (then) Madras, it has since grown into an institution par excellence, with sixteen academic departments offering under-graduate, graduate and even research degrees. Affiliated to the University of Madras, it was one of the first colleges in the country to receive autonomy. Since 1937, the college functions from an amazingly beautiful campus at Tambaram, near Chennai. Its 375 acre campus, famous for its deer and trees, has a lake, which is an angler's paradise. The residential system on campus is that of semi-autonomous halls, where the staff and the students live in close fellowship. The Hall system of the Madras Christian College has produced such men of outstanding ability, commitment and integrity that the people of the land even today refer to its students as the Gentlemen of MCC!