Harvard University
The Massachusetts General Court voted to establish New College in 1636. Nathaniel Eaton became the institution's first headmaster the following year. John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman who had emigrated from England, died on his deathbed in 1638. He bequeathed £780 and a library of some 320 volumes to the emerging college. The school received its new name, Harvard College, in 1639. A 1643 publication defined the college's purpose as advancing learning and perpetuating it to posterity. The text stated the goal was dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when present ministers shall lie in the dust. The curriculum conformed to the tenets of Puritanism while never formally affiliating with any particular Protestant denomination. Increase Mather served as the sixth president from 1681 until 1701. John Leverett became the seventh president in 1708 and was the first president who was not also a clergyman. The earliest known official seal featured three open books arranged around a central chevron. This design symbolized the pursuit of learning under divine guidance. The motto IN CHRISTI GLORIAM appeared prominently on the seal encircled by Latin inscriptions.
Charles William Eliot led the university from 1869 to 1909 as its twenty-first president. He decreased the historically favored position of Christianity in the curriculum. Eliot opened the institution to student self-direction during his long tenure. His motivations stemmed primarily from Transcendentalist and Unitarian convictions influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Harvard began admitting women in small numbers to graduate schools in the late nineteenth century. James B. Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II. He liberalized admissions after the war ended. A 1945 report titled General Education in a Free Society remained one of the most important works in curriculum studies. Women were first admitted to the medical school that same year. Between 1945 and 1960, admissions standardized to open the university to a more diverse group of students. Special exams developed so veterans could be considered for admission marked this shift. No longer drawing mostly from prestigious prep schools in New England, the undergraduate college became accessible to striving middle class students from public schools. Many more Jews and Catholics were admitted though Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians remained underrepresented. Radcliffe College emerged as the female counterpart of Harvard College becoming one of the most prominent schools in the nation for women. In 1999, Radcliffe was formally merged into Harvard University.
The main campus centers on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It extends about three miles west-northwest of downtown Boston. Massachusetts Hall stands between 1718 and 1720 as the university's oldest still standing building. Memorial Church dedicated and opened in 1932 sits on Harvard Yard. The Yard houses four libraries including Houghton, Lamont, Pusey, and Widener. Upperclassmen live in twelve residential houses located south of Harvard Yard near the Charles River. Three additional houses sit on the Radcliffe Quadrangle which formerly housed Radcliffe College students. Each house functions as a community of undergraduates, faculty deans, and resident tutors with its own dining hall. A second campus exists across the John W. Weeks Bridge in the Allston section of Boston. Plans include new construction and renovation for the Business School and graduate student housing. The Science and Engineering Complex expanded into Allston in 2021 covering more than 500,000 square feet. The third campus lies in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston. Several affiliated hospitals reside there including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Additional affiliates like Massachusetts General Hospital are located throughout Greater Boston.
Harvard maintains thirteen schools offering undergraduate and professional degrees. Harvard College serves 7,000 to 7,500 undergraduates with a liberal arts focus. The median class size is 12 students though some introductory courses have large enrollments. Undergraduates normally take 16 credit hours per semester for a total of 128 credit hours. Harvard Law School was founded in 1817 using a bequest from Isaac Royall Jr. It remains the oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell developed the case method of teaching law starting in the 1870s. This curriculum set the national standard and was copied widely in the United States. Harvard Business School opened its doors in 1908 and quickly built close relationships with the corporate world. By 1949 nearly half of all holders of the MBA degree in the U.S. were alumni of this school. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers founded in 1913. It became fully autonomous in 1946 when it separated from Harvard Medical School. The Kennedy School has an endowment of $1.7 billion as of 2021. Its alumni include seventeen heads of state or government.
Harvard holds the largest university endowment in the world valued at about thirty-nine billion dollars as of 2023. About five percent of investment income is annually distributed to fund operations. Only twenty-two percent of revenue comes from students' tuition, fees, room, and board. A poor performance in fiscal year 2016 forced a 4.4% cut in the number of graduate students funded by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. During the recession of 2007, 2009, the institution suffered significant losses that forced large budget cuts. Construction on the Allston Science Complex temporarily halted during those difficult years. Student-led campaigns have advocated divesting the endowment since the 1970s. Activists erected a symbolic shanty town on Harvard Yard during the late 1980s disinvestment movement. They blockaded a speech by South African Vice Consul Duke Kent-Brown. The university eventually reduced its South African holdings by one hundred million out of a total between 1986 and 1987. Endowment income remains critical for funding degree and financial aid programs across all faculties.
Harvard alumni include eight U.S. presidents and 188 living billionaires according to recent studies. The institution counts 162 Nobel laureates among its graduates. There are also forty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners and seven Fields Medal recipients. Alumni hold ten Academy Awards and 108 Olympic medals including 46 gold medal winners. A 2025 study of 6,141 of the most influential people in the world found Harvard alumni massively overrepresented among the global elite. Since 2011, Times Higher Education World University Rankings has placed Harvard first in the world each year. The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Harvard first annually from 2003 until 2023. Foreign Policy magazine ranks Harvard best in the world at the undergraduate level. It places second globally at the graduate level behind Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service. The engineering school ranked third-best in the world for engineering and technology by Times Higher Education in 2019. The university topped both the University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2019, 20 and Mines ParisTech Professional Ranking of World Universities in 2011. Annual polls done by The Princeton Review consistently name Harvard among the top two dream colleges in the United States.
Claudine Gay resigned as president in January 2024 after allegations of antisemitism and plagiarism. Alan Garber served as interim president before being appointed thirty-first president through the end of the 2026, 27 academic year. In February 2025 Leo Terrell announced an investigation into Harvard as part of a broader Department of Justice probe. The federal government threatened to withhold nearly nine billion dollars unless policies changed following student protests against the Gaza war. The Department of Homeland Security subsequently threatened to revoke eligibility to host international students. Harvard filed a lawsuit arguing that freezing funds was unconstitutional. On the 30th of June 2025, a Trump administration investigation found violations of federal civil rights law regarding Jewish student protection. US District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled on the 3rd of September 2025, that the administration illegally froze more than $2 billion in research funding. She stated the administration violated free-speech rights as well as the US Civil Rights Act. Education secretary Linda McMahon informed President Garber in May 2025 that grant funding would cease until compliance occurred. The State Department ordered all embassies to conduct comprehensive vetting of online presence for anyone seeking to visit from abroad.
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Common questions
When was Harvard University established and who named it?
The Massachusetts General Court voted to establish New College in 1636. The institution received its new name, Harvard College, in 1639 after John Harvard bequeathed his library and money on his deathbed that same year.
Who served as the first president of Harvard University and when did he start?
Nathaniel Eaton became the institution's first headmaster in 1637. He led the college before John Harvard died in 1638 and the school was renamed.
Where is the main campus of Harvard University located and what are its key features?
The main campus centers on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It extends about three miles west-northwest of downtown Boston and houses four libraries including Houghton, Lamont, Pusey, and Widener.
How much is the current endowment value of Harvard University as of 2023?
Harvard holds the largest university endowment in the world valued at about thirty-nine billion dollars as of 2023. Only twenty-two percent of revenue comes from students' tuition, fees, room, and board.
When did Claudine Gay resign as president of Harvard University and who succeeded her?
Claudine Gay resigned as president in January 2024 after allegations of antisemitism and plagiarism. Alan Garber served as interim president before being appointed thirty-first president through the end of the 2026, 27 academic year.