Harvard University

Harvard University is a private institution that was founded in 1636. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 7,240 (fall 2022), and the campus size is 5,076 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Harvard University's ranking in the 2024 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, #3. Its tuition and fees are $59,076.

Located outside Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University is made up of 12 graduate and professional schools, an undergraduate college and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Its schools include the top-ranked Business School and Medical School and the highly ranked Graduate Education School, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Law School and John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard is a private, nonprofit institution that was founded in 1636 colonial America by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The school was initially created to educate members of the clergy, according to the university’s archives. Harvard is named after a Puritan minister – John Harvard – who, in 1638, left his 400-book library and half of his estate to the young school. The first commencement ceremony at Harvard, held in 1642, had nine graduates.

Harvard's extensive library system houses the oldest collection in the U.S. and the largest academic library in the world. Beyond books, Harvard's athletic teams compete in the Ivy League, with an annual football match-up against rival Yale. On-campus residential housing is an integral part of student life, where freshmen live at the center of campus and upperclassmen live in 12 undergraduate houses. Eight U.S. presidents graduated from Harvard, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Other notable alumni include Henry David Thoreau and Helen Keller. Harvard also has the largest endowment of any school in the world.