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Latin: Universitas Harvardiana[1][2] | |
Former names | Harvard College |
---|---|
Motto | Veritas (Latin)[3] |
Motto in English | "Truth" |
Type | Private research university |
Established | 1636[4] |
Founder | Massachusetts General Court |
Accreditation | NECHE |
Academic affiliations | |
Endowment | $50.7 billion (2023) Harvard Management Company, Inc.[5][6] |
President | Alan Garber |
Provost | John F. Manning[7] |
Academic staff | ~2,400 faculty members (and >10,400 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals)[8] |
Students | 21,278 (fall 2023)[9] |
Undergraduates | 7,110 (fall 2023)[9] |
Postgraduates | 14,168 (fall 2023)[9] |
Location | , United States 42°22′28″N 71°07′01″W / 42.37444°N 71.11694°W |
Campus | Midsize city[10], 209 acres (85 ha) |
Newspaper | The Harvard Crimson |
Colors | Crimson, white, and black[11] |
Nickname | Crimson |
Sporting affiliations | |
Mascot | John Harvard |
Website | harvard |
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Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded October 28, 1636, and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Its influence, wealth, and rankings have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.[12]
Harvard was founded and authorized by the Massachusetts General Court, the governing legislature of colonial-era Massachusetts Bay Colony.[13] While never formally affiliated with any denomination, Harvard trained Congregational clergy until its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized in the 18th century.
By the 19th century, Harvard emerged as the most prominent academic and cultural institution among the Boston elite.[14][15] Following the American Civil War, under Harvard president Charles William Eliot's long tenure from 1869 to 1909, Harvard developed multiple professional schools, which transformed it into a modern research university. In 1900, Harvard co-founded the Association of American Universities.[16] James B. Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II, and liberalized admissions after the war.
The university has ten academic faculties and a faculty attached to Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers study in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate academic disciplines, and other faculties offer graduate degrees, including professional degrees. Harvard has three campuses:[17] the main campus, a 209-acre (85 ha) in Cambridge centered on Harvard Yard; an adjoining campus immediately across Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and the medical campus in Boston's Longwood Medical Area.[18] Harvard's endowment, valued at $50.7 billion, makes it the wealthiest academic institution in the world.[5][6] Harvard Library, with more than 20 million volumes, is the world's largest academic library.
Harvard alumni, faculty, and researchers include 188 living billionaires, 8 U.S. presidents, 24 heads of state and 31 heads of government, founders of notable companies, Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, members of Congress, MacArthur Fellows, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Turing Award Recipients, Pulitzer Prize recipients, and Fulbright Scholars; by most metrics, Harvard University ranks among the top universities in the world in each of these categories.[Notes 1] Harvard students and alumni have also collectively won 10 Academy Awards and 110 Olympic medals, including 46 gold medals.
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: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), "At a Court holden September 8th, 1636 and continued by adjournment to the 28th of the 8th month (October, 1636)... the Court agreed to give £400 towards a School or College, whereof £200 to be paid next year...." Tercentenary dates: "Cambridge Birthday". Time. September 28, 1936. Archived from the original on December 5, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2006.: "Harvard claims birth on the day the Massachusetts Great and General Court convened to authorize its founding. This was Sept. 8, 1637 under the Julian calendar. Allowing for the ten-day advance of the Gregorian calendar, Tercentenary officials arrived at Sept. 18 as the date for the third and last big Day of the celebration;" "on Oct. 28, 1636 ... £400 for that 'school or college' [was voted by] the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony." Bicentennial date: Marvin Hightower (September 2, 2003). "Harvard Gazette: This Month in Harvard History". Harvard University. Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved September 15, 2006., "Sept. 8, 1836 – Some 1,100 to 1,300 alumni flock to Harvard's Bicentennial, at which a professional choir premieres "Fair Harvard." ... guest speaker Josiah Quincy Jr., Class of 1821, makes a motion, unanimously adopted, 'that this assembly of the Alumni be adjourned to meet at this place on September 8, 1936.'" Tercentary opening of Quincy's sealed package: The New York Times, September 9, 1936, p. 24, "Package Sealed in 1836 Opened at Harvard. It Held Letters Written at Bicentenary": "September 8th, 1936: As the first formal function in the celebration of Harvard's tercentenary, the Harvard Alumni Association witnessed the opening by President Conant of the 'mysterious' package sealed by President Josiah Quincy at the Harvard bicentennial in 1836."
Harvard's professional schools... won world prestige of a sort rarely seen among social institutions. [...] Harvard's age, wealth, quality, and prestige may well shield it from any conceivable vicissitudes.
... [Harvard's] tremendous institutional power and prestige [...] Within the nation's (arguably) most prestigious institution of higher learning ...
Harvard University, one of the world's most prestigious institutions of higher learning, was founded in Massachusetts in 1636.
The most prestigious college in the world, of course, is Harvard, and the gap between it and every other university is often underestimated.
Americans tend to think of colleges as falling somewhere on a vast hierarchy based largely on their status and brand recognition. At the top are the Harvards and the Stanfords, with their celebrated faculty, groundbreaking research, and perfectly manicured quads.
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