"Harvard College is an exclusive Ivy Organization research college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with concerning 6,800 undergraduate students as well as about 14,000 postgraduate students. Developed in 1636 as well as named for its initial benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, Harvard is the USA' oldest organization of greater knowing and also among one of the most prominent in the world.

The Massachusetts Great as well as General Court authorized Harvard's starting. In its early years, Harvard University largely educated Congregational as well as Unitarian clergy, although it has actually never ever been officially associated with any denomination. Its curriculum and trainee body were slowly secularized throughout the 18th century, as well as by the 19th century, Harvard had actually become the main cultural facility among Boston elites. [9] [10] Adhering To the American Civil War, Head Of State Charles W. Eliot's lengthy tenure (1869-- 1909) changed the university and also associated expert institutions into a contemporary research college; Harvard was a founding member of the Organization of American Universities in 1900. A. Lawrence Lowell, who succeeded Eliot, more changed the undergraduate curriculum as well as embarked on aggressive growth of Harvard's land holdings as well as physical campus. James Bryant Conant led the university with the Great Clinical Depression and also The Second World War; he started to liberalize admissions after the war.

The university is composed of eleven major scholastic systems-- ten faculties as well as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study-- with universities throughout Greater Boston: its 209-acre (85 ha) original undergraduate university is fixated Harvard Yard in Cambridge, 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Boston; the business school as well as several athletics facilities, consisting of Harvard Arena, are throughout the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and also the medical, oral, as well as public health institutions remain in Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's endowment is valued at $40.9 billion, making it the biggest of any scholastic organization. While the small expense of presence is high, the college's endowment allows it to offer generous, no-loan financial aid bundles and also make use of need-blind admission. The Harvard Library is the globe's largest scholastic library system, comprising 79 private libraries holding concerning 20.4 million things.

Harvard's alumni consist of 8 U.S. presidents, more than 30 foreign heads of state, 188 living billionaires, 369 Rhodes Scholars, as well as 252 Marshall Scholars. Since March 2020, 160 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medalists, as well as 14 Turing Award champions have actually been affiliated as trainees, faculty, or researchers. Additionally, Harvard students and also graduates have actually won 10 Academy Honors, 48 Pulitzer Prizes, as well as 108 Olympic medals (46 gold, 41 silver, as well as 21 bronze), and established many noteworthy business worldwide."