It was known as that back in my day
. It started with the Pharmacy program (a one of a kind 6 year PharmD, the only of it's kind in the US), and has continued with the engineering school and biology pre-med programs. It had the high admissions standards (and high tuition to go along with it) long before all the other small schools did. I expect there to be graduate programs within 10 years (aside form the law school).