Harvard University#Religion and philosophy

{{Main|History of Harvard University}}

{{see also|John Harvard (clergyman)|Nathaniel Eaton|Increase Mather}}

File:A Westerly View of the Colledges in Cambridge New England by Paul Revere.jpeg by Paul Revere]]

Harvard was founded in 1636 as New College by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Its first headmaster, Nathaniel Eaton, took office the following year. In 1638, the university acquired English North America's first known printing press.{{cite web |last=Ireland |first=Corydon |date=March 8, 2012 |title=The instrument behind New England's first literary flowering |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard's-first-impressions/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214002714/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard%27s-first-impressions/ |archive-date=February 14, 2020 |access-date=January 18, 2014 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard University}}{{cite web |title=Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers, The First North American Printing Press |url=http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123223546/http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf |archive-date=January 23, 2013 |access-date=January 18, 2014 |website=hull.ac.uk |publisher=Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull}} The same year, on his deathbed, John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman who had emigrated to the colony from England, bequeathed the emerging college £780 and his library of some 320 volumes;{{cite web |last=Harvard |first=John |title=John Harvard Facts, Information. |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Harvard.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090715230532/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_Harvard.aspx |archive-date=July 15, 2009 |access-date=July 17, 2009 |website=encyclopedia.com |publisher=The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008 |language=en-US |quote=He bequeathed £780 (half his estate) and his library of 320 volumes to the new established college at Cambridge, Mass., which was named in his honor.}} the following year, it was named Harvard College.

In 1643, a Harvard publication defined the college's purpose:

"[to] advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust."{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Louis B. |title=The Cultural Life of the American Colonies |publisher=Dover Publications |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-486-42223-7 |edition=1st |publication-date=May 3, 2002 |page=116 |language=en-US}}

In its early years, the college trained many Puritan ministers{{cite book|last1=Grigg|first1=John A.|last2=Mancall|first2=Peter C.|title=British Colonial America: People and Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6REfahE4TkwC&pg=PA47|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-025-4|page=47|access-date=May 7, 2016|archive-date=January 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102050308/https://books.google.com/books?id=6REfahE4TkwC&pg=PA47|url-status=live}} and offered a classical curriculum based on the English university model exemplified by the University of Cambridge, where many colonial Massachusetts leaders had studied prior to immigrating to the colony. Harvard College never formally affiliated with any particular Protestant denomination, but its curriculum conformed to the tenets of Puritanism.{{cite web|author=Harvard Office of News and Public Affairs |url=http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html|title=Harvard guide intro|publisher=Harvard University|date=July 26, 2007|access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070726133429/http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html|archive-date=July 26, 2007}} In 1650, the charter for Harvard Corporation, the college's governing body, was granted.

From 1681 to 1701, Increase Mather, a Puritan clergyman, served as Harvard's sixth president. In 1708, John Leverett became Harvard's seventh president and the first president who was not also a clergyman.{{cite web|url=http://www.president.harvard.edu/history/07_leverett.php |title=John Leverett – History – Office of the President|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612033858/http://www.president.harvard.edu/history/07_leverett.php | archive-date=June 12, 2010}} Harvard faculty and students largely supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution.[https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/harvards-year-of-exile/ "Harvard's year of exile"], The Harvard Gazette, October 13, 2011{{failed verification|date=September 2024}}

The earliest known official seal of Harvard University, commonly referred to as the Seal of 1650 or the In Christi Gloriam seal, features a square shield bearing three open books arranged around a central chevron. This design symbolises the pursuit of learning under divine guidance. The motto IN CHRISTI GLORIAM ("To the glory of Christ") appears prominently on the seal, which is encircled by the Latin inscription SIGILL COL HARVARD CANTAB NOV ANGL 1650, meaning "Seal of Harvard College, Cambridge, New England, 1650." This seal reflects the original religious mission of the institution.

In 1885, the Harvard Corporation adopted a revised design known as the Appleton Seal, based on an earlier version created by President Josiah Quincy in 1843. Designed by William Sumner Appleton (Harvard AB 1860), the seal features a triangular shield bearing three open books with the motto VERITAS ("Truth"). Surrounding the shield is the motto CHRISTO ET ECCLESIÆ ("For Christ and the Church"), and the outer border bears the inscription SIGILLVM ACADEMIÆ HARVARDINÆ IN NOV. ANG. ("Seal of Harvard College in New England"). This version of the seal sought to harmonise the university’s intellectual pursuits with its ecclesiastical roots.{{Cite web |last=Driscoll |first=Timothy |title=Research Guides: Harvard Presidential Insignia: Seals of 1650, 1843, and 1885 |url=https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=880222&p=6323074 |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=guides.library.harvard.edu |language=en}}

{{See also|Charles William Eliot|Samuel Webber}}

File:John Harvard statue.jpg in Harvard Yard]]

In the 19th century, Harvard was influenced by Enlightenment Age ideas, including reason and free will, which were widespread among Congregational ministers and which placed these ministers and their congregations at odds with more traditionalist, Calvinist pastors and clergies.{{Cite book|last=Dorrien|first=Gary J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L50mveyi6WoC|title=The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805–1900|date=January 1, 2001|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22354-0|language=en|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-date=September 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906030528/https://books.google.com/books?id=L50mveyi6WoC|url-status=live}}{{rp|1–4}} Following the death of Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan in 1803 and that of Joseph Willard, Harvard's eleventh president, the following year, a struggle broke out over their replacements. In 1805, Henry Ware was elected to replace Tappan as Hollis chair. Two years later, in 1807, liberal Samuel Webber was appointed as Harvard's 13th president, representing a shift from traditional ideas at Harvard to more liberal and Arminian ideas.{{rp|4–5}}{{Cite book|last=Field|first=Peter S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HXHbEWJacwwC|title=Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual|date=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-8843-2|language=en|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-date=September 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906021119/https://books.google.com/books?id=HXHbEWJacwwC|url-status=live}}{{rp|24}}

In 1816, Harvard University launched new language programs in the study of French and Spanish, and appointed George Ticknor the university's first professor for these language programs.

From 1869 to 1909, Charles William Eliot, Harvard University's 21st president, decreased the historically favored position of Christianity in the curriculum, opening it to student self-direction. Though Eliot was an influential figure in the secularization of U.S. higher education, he was motivated primarily by Transcendentalist and Unitarian convictions influenced by William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, rather than secularism. In the late 19th century, Harvard University's graduate schools began admitting women in small numbers.{{cite journal|first=Stephen P.|last=Shoemaker|title=The Theological Roots of Charles W. Eliot's Educational Reforms|journal=Journal of Unitarian Universalist History|year=2006–2007|volume=31|pages=30–45}}

{{See also|A. Lawrence Lowell|James B. Conant}}

File:Rummell, Richard Harvard University.jpg

In 1900, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities. For the first few decades of the 20th century, the Harvard student body was predominantly "old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians," according to sociologist and author Jerome Karabel.{{cite book|author=Jerome Karabel|title=The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|year=2006|page=23|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-77355-8|access-date=November 5, 2015|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/https://books.google.com/books?id=zwf-Ofc--toC&pg=PA23|url-status=live}}

Over the 20th century, as its endowment burgeoned and prominent intellectuals and professors affiliated with it, Harvard University's reputation as one of the world's most prestigious universities grew notably. The university's enrollment also underwent substantial growth, a product of both the founding of new graduate academic programs and an expansion of the undergraduate college. Radcliffe College emerged as the female counterpart of Harvard College, becoming one of the most prominent schools in the nation for women.

In 1923, a year after the proportion of Jewish students at Harvard reached 20%, A. Lawrence Lowell, the university's 22nd president, unsuccessfully proposed capping the admission of Jewish students to 15% of the undergraduate population. Lowell also refused to mandate forced desegregation in the university's freshman dormitories, writing that, "We owe to the colored man the same opportunities for education that we do to the white man, but we do not owe to him to force him and the white into social relations that are not, or may not be, mutually congenial."{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/11/4/housing-desegregation/ |title=Compelled to coexist: A history of the desegregation of Harvard's freshman housing|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928084627/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/11/4/housing-desegregation/ |archive-date=September 28, 2022 |newspaper=Harvard Crimson|date=November 4, 2021}}{{cite journal|last1=Steinberg|first1=Stephen|title=How Jewish Quotas Began|journal=Commentary|date=September 1, 1971|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-jewish-quotas-began/|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=September 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911071351/https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-jewish-quotas-began/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Dirk|title=Yale's Limit on Jewish Enrollment Lasted Until Early 1960's Book Says|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/nyregion/yale-s-limit-on-jewish-enrollment-lasted-until-early-1960-s-book-says.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 4, 1986|access-date=December 3, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923074453/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/04/nyregion/yale-s-limit-on-jewish-enrollment-lasted-until-early-1960-s-book-says.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Lowell Tells Jews Limits at Colleges Might Help Them|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/17/109843455.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 17, 1922|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=March 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323102413/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/17/109843455.html|url-status=live}}

Between 1933 and 1953, Harvard University was led by James B. Conant, the university's 23rd president, who reinvigorated the university's creative scholarship in an effort to guarantee Harvard's preeminence among the nation and world's emerging research institutions. Conant viewed higher education as a vehicle of opportunity for the talented rather than an entitlement for the wealthy, and devised programs to identify, recruit, and support talented youth. In 1945, under Conant's leadership, an influential 268-page report, General Education in a Free Society, was published by Harvard faculty, which remains one of the most important works in curriculum studies,{{Cite book |editor-last1=Kridel |editor-first1=Craig |chapter=General Education in a Free Society (Harvard Redbook) |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GgMyFqxsXWoC&pg=PA400 400]–402 |title=Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies |date=2010 |volume=1 |language=en |isbn=978-1-4129-5883-7 |publisher=SAGE }} and women were first admitted to the medical school.{{cite report |title=First class of women admitted to Harvard Medical School, 1945 |publisher=Countway Repository, Harvard University Library |url=http://repository.countway.harvard.edu/xmlui/handle/10473/1782 |access-date=May 2, 2016 |date= |archive-date=June 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623235357/http://repository.countway.harvard.edu/xmlui/handle/10473/1782 }}

Between 1945 and 1960, admissions were standardized to open the university to a more diverse group of students. Following the end of World War II, for example, special exams were developed so veterans could be considered for admission.{{Cite news |title=The Class of 1950 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2000/6/5/the-class-of-1950-pin-a/ |access-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-date=March 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329172148/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2000/6/5/the-class-of-1950-pin-a/ |url-status=live }} 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, but Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians remained underrepresented.{{cite news|first=Malka A. |last=Older |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=217911 |title=Preparatory schools and the admissions process |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911160531/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=217911 |archive-date=September 11, 2009 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|date=January 24, 1996}} Over the second half of the 20th century, however, the university became incrementally more diverse.{{cite news|last1=Powell|first1=Alvin|title=An update on Harvard's diversity, inclusion efforts|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/an-update-on-harvards-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts/|newspaper=The Harvard Gazette|date=October 1, 2018|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=August 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814075610/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/10/an-update-on-harvards-diversity-and-inclusion-efforts/|url-status=live}}

Between 1971 and 1999, Harvard controlled undergraduate admission, instruction, and housing for Radcliffe's women; in 1999, Radcliffe was formally merged into Harvard University.{{cite report |title=Radcliffe Enters Historic Merger With Harvard |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard |access-date=May 6, 2016 |date= |archive-date=October 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011031437/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/ |url-status=live }}

{{See also|Drew Gilpin Faust|Lawrence Bacow|Claudine Gay|Alan Garber}}

File:Harvard Yard at Night 03.jpg

On July 1, 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, was appointed Harvard's 28th and the university's first female president.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press|title=Harvard Board Names First Woman President|date=February 11, 2007|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17103390|access-date=August 8, 2015|work=NBC News|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17103390/ns/us_news-education/t/harvard-board-names-first-woman-president/|url-status=live}} On July 1, 2018, Faust retired and joined the board of Goldman Sachs, and Lawrence Bacow became Harvard's 29th president.{{Cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=February 11, 2018 |title=Harvard University names Lawrence Bacow its 29th president |language=en-US |work=Fox News |url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/harvard-university-names-lawrence-bacow-its-29th-president |url-status=live |access-date=February 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215084210/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/11/harvard-university-names-lawrence-bacow-its-29th-president.html |archive-date=February 15, 2018}}

In February 2023, approximately 6,000 Harvard workers attempted to organize a union.{{cite web |last1=Quinn |first1=Ryan |title=Harvard Postdocs, Other Non-Tenure-Track Trying to Unionize |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/07/harvard-postdocs-other-non-tenure-track-trying-unionize |date=February 6, 2023 |publisher=Inside Higher Education |access-date=December 8, 2023 |archive-date=December 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208233548/https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2023/02/07/harvard-postdocs-other-non-tenure-track-trying-unionize |url-status=live }}

Bacow retired in June 2023, and on July 1 Claudine Gay, a Harvard professor in the Government and African American Studies departments and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, became Harvard's 30th president. In January 2024, just six months into her presidency, Gay resigned following allegations of antisemitism and plagiarism.{{Cite news |title=HARVARD PRESIDENT CLAUDINE GAY RESIGNS, SHORTEST TENURE IN UNIVERSITY HISTORY |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/claudine-gay-resign-harvard/ |access-date=January 3, 2024 |archive-date=January 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102223704/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/claudine-gay-resign-harvard/ |url-status=live }} Gay was succeeded by Alan Garber, the university's provost, who was appointed interim president. In August 2024, the university announced that Garber would be appointed Harvard's 31st president through the end of the 2026–27 academic year.

In April 2025, the United States federal government under President Donald Trump threatened to withhold nearly $9{{nbsp}}billion in government funds from the university unless the university complied with government demands to modify many of its policies. This threat was purportedly linked to the university's alleged failure to combat antisemitism and protect Jewish students and followed similar demands made of Columbia University. The university's leadership resisted the government's demands, claiming that they were an unlawful overreach of government authority.{{cite web |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2025/04/14/harvard-resists-trumps-demands |title=Harvard Resists Trump’s Demands |work=Inside Higher Ed |first=Josh |last=Moody |date=April 14, 2025 |accessdate=April 14, 2025}} In response, the US Department of Education announced they were freezing $2.3{{nbsp}}billion in federal funds to Harvard.{{cite news |title=Trump officials cut billions in Harvard funds after university defies demands |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/14/trump-harvard-funding-freeze |access-date=April 14, 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=April 14, 2025}}

{{See also|Harvard Divinity School|Harvard Graduate School of Design|Harvard Graduate School of Education|Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences|Harvard Kennedy School|Harvard Law School|Harvard Radcliffe Institute}}

File:Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University.JPG, Harvard's oldest building, constructed in 1720{{cite web|url=http://www.college.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k61161&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup85886|title=A Brief History of Harvard College|author=Harvard College|publisher=Harvard College|access-date=July 25, 2011|author-link=Harvard College|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110424033857/http://college.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k61161&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup85886|archive-date=April 24, 2011}}]]

File:Sanders theater 2009y.JPG, built on the main Cambridge campus in 1870]]

File:harvard memorial church winter 2009.JPG, dedicated and opened in 1932 on Harvard Yard]]

File:HarvardYard.jpg at the center of Harvard's main campus in Cambridge]]

The {{convert|209|acre|ha|adj=on}} main campus of Harvard University is centered on Harvard Yard, colloquially known as "the Yard", in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about three miles (five km) west-northwest of downtown Boston, and extending to the surrounding Harvard Square neighborhood. The Yard houses several Harvard buildings, including four of the university's libraries, Houghton, Lamont, Pusey, and Widener. Also on Harvard Yard are Massachusetts Hall, built between 1718 and 1720 and the university's oldest still standing building, Memorial Church, and University Hall

Harvard Yard and adjacent areas include the main academic buildings of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including Sever Hall, Harvard Hall, and freshman dormitories. Upperclassmen live in the twelve residential houses, located south of Harvard Yard near the Charles River and on Radcliffe Quadrangle, which formerly housed Radcliffe College students. Each house is a community of undergraduates, faculty deans, and resident tutors, with its own dining hall, library, and recreational facilities.{{cite web |url=https://dso.college.harvard.edu/houses |title=The Houses |publisher=Harvard College Dean of Students Office |access-date=December 13, 2019 |archive-date=December 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214033329/https://dso.college.harvard.edu/houses |url-status=live }}

Also on the main campus in Cambridge are the Law, Divinity (theology), Engineering and Applied Science, Design (architecture), Education, Kennedy (public policy), and Extension schools, and Harvard Radcliffe Institute in Radcliffe Yard.{{Cite web |title=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/ |access-date=January 24, 2022 |website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005022734/https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/ |archive-date=October 5, 2021 }} Harvard also has commercial real estate holdings in Cambridge.{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/Maps/Institutions/cddmap_institutions_ownership.pdf|title=Institutional Ownership Map – Cambridge Massachusetts|access-date=September 8, 2016|archive-date=October 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022201633/https://www.cambridgema.gov/~/media/Files/CDD/Maps/Institutions/cddmap_institutions_ownership.pdf}}{{cite web |last1=Tartakoff |first1=Joseph M. |first2= Jessica R. |last2=Rubin-wills |date=January 7, 2005 |title=Harvard Purchases Doubletree Hotel Building |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/7/harvard-purchases-doubletree-hotel-in-the/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920021640/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/7/harvard-purchases-doubletree-hotel-in-the/ |archive-date=September 20, 2016 |access-date=September 8, 2016 |website=The Harvard Crimson |language=en-US}}

{{Main|Harvard University's expansion in Allston, Massachusetts}}

Harvard Business School, Harvard Innovation Labs, and many athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located on a {{convert|358|acre|ha|adj=on}} campus in the Allston section of Boston across the John W. Weeks Bridge, which crosses the Charles River and connects the Allston and Cambridge campuses.{{Cite web|first=Tim|last=Logan|date=April 13, 2016|title=Harvard continues its march into Allston, with science complex|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/13/harvard-continues-its-march-into-allston-with-science-complex/7EVJQcLlS3XtbzKnGegR9M/story.html|access-date=January 24, 2022|website=BostonGlobe.com|language=en-US|archive-date=May 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518165423/https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/13/harvard-continues-its-march-into-allston-with-science-complex/7EVJQcLlS3XtbzKnGegR9M/story.html|url-status=live}}

The university is actively expanding into Allston, where it now owns more land than in Cambridge.{{cite web |title=Allston Planning and Development / Office of the Executive Vice President |url=http://evp.harvard.edu/allston-planning-and-development |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508133917/https://evp.harvard.edu/allston-planning-and-development |archive-date=May 8, 2017 |access-date=September 7, 2016 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard University}} Plans include new construction and renovation for the Business School, a hotel and conference center, graduate student housing, Harvard Stadium, and other athletics facilities.{{Cite news |last=Bayliss |first=Svea Herbst |date=January 21, 2007 |title=Harvard unveils big campus expansion |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-harvard-expansion-idUSN1110846820070112 |access-date=January 24, 2022 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414105603/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-harvard-expansion-idUSN1110846820070112 |url-status=live }}

In 2021, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences expanded into the new Allston-based Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), which is more than 500,000 square feet in size.{{cite web |last1=O'Rourke |first1=Brigid |title=SEAS moves opening of Science and Engineering Complex to spring semester '21 |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/04/opening-of-new-science-and-engineering-complex-moves-to-spring-21/ |website=The Harvard Gazette |date=April 10, 2020 |access-date=May 14, 2020 |archive-date=May 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515230512/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/04/opening-of-new-science-and-engineering-complex-moves-to-spring-21/ |url-status=live }} SEC is adjacent to the Enterprise Research Campus, the Business School, and Harvard Innovation Labs, and designed to encourage technology- and life science-focused startups and collaborations with mature companies.{{cite web |title=Our Campus |url=https://www.seas.harvard.edu/about-us/our-campus/allston |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207222706/https://www.seas.harvard.edu/about-us/our-campus/allston |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |access-date=December 20, 2019 |website=harvard.edu}}

{{Main|Longwood Medical and Academic Area}}

File:Harvard Medical School HDR.jpg in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston]]

The university's schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Public Health are located on a {{convert|21|acre|ha|adj=on}} campus in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, about {{convert|3.3|mi|km}} south of the Cambridge campus.

Several Harvard-affiliated hospitals and research institutes are also in Longwood, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Joslin Diabetes Center, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Additional affiliates, including Massachusetts General Hospital, are located throughout Greater Boston.

Harvard owns Dumbarton Oaks, a research library in Washington, D.C., Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts, Concord Field Station in Estabrook Woods in Concord, Massachusetts,{{cite web|website=mcz.harvard.edu|url=http://cfs.mcz.harvard.edu/|title=Concord Field Station|publisher=Harvard University|access-date=March 4, 2017|archive-date=February 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213183455/http://cfs.mcz.harvard.edu/|url-status=live}}

the Villa I Tatti research center in Florence, Italy,{{cite web|url=http://www.itatti.it/|title=Villa I Tatti: The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies|publisher=Itatti.it|access-date=June 30, 2010|archive-date=July 2, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702154341/http://www.itatti.it/}} and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece. The Harvard Shanghai Center in Shanghai, China,{{cite web|website=Harvard.edu|title=Shanghai Center|url=http://shanghaicenter.harvard.edu/|access-date=January 3, 2014|archive-date=December 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217232815/http://shanghaicenter.harvard.edu/|url-status=live}}

and Arnold Arboretum in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.

{{See also|Harvard Board of Overseers|President and Fellows of Harvard College|President of Harvard University}}

Harvard is governed by a combination of its Board of Overseers and the President and Fellows of Harvard College, which is also known as the Harvard Corporation. These two bodies, in turn, appoint the President of Harvard University.{{cite book |last1=Bethell |first1=John T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGrBJFRw1GsC&pg=PA166 |title=Harvard A to Z |last2=Hunt |first2=Richard M. |last3=Shenton |first3=Robert |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-674-02089-4 |pages=166– |language=en-US |access-date=May 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102142607/https://books.google.com/books?id=WGrBJFRw1GsC&pg=PA166 |archive-date=January 2, 2017 |url-status=live}}

There are 16,000 staff and faculty,Burlington Free Press, June 24, 2009, page 11B, ""Harvard to cut 275 jobs" Associated Press including 2,400 professors, lecturers, and instructors.{{cite book|last=Office of Institutional Research|title=Harvard University Fact Book 2009–2010|year=2009|url=http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_Harvard_Fact_Book_2009-10_FINAL_new.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723162517/http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_Harvard_Fact_Book_2009-10_FINAL_new.pdf|archive-date=July 23, 2011}}("Faculty")

As of 2025, Harvard differs radically from its peer universities in two important ways. First, Harvard does not make its governing statutes publicly available, meaning that members of the Harvard community interested in reform must first persuade the university to give them a copy of those documents. Second, Harvard does not have an academic senate like most of its peers, although it is currently attempting to create one.{{cite magazine |last1=Heller |first1=Nathan |title=Will Harvard Bend or Break? |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/10/will-harvard-bend-or-break |magazine=The New Yorker |date=March 3, 2025}}

{{Main|Harvard University endowment}}

Harvard has the largest university endowment in the world, valued at about {{USD|50.7 billion|long=no}} as of 2023.

During the recession of 2007–2009, it suffered significant losses that forced large budget cuts, in particular temporarily halting construction on the Allston Science Complex.{{cite news |author=Vidya B. Viswanathan and Peter F. Zhu |date=March 5, 2009 |title=Residents Protest Vacancies in Allston |language=en-US |newspaper=Harvard Crimson |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/3/5/residents-protest-vacancies-in-allston-span/ |url-status=live |access-date=February 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429025755/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/3/5/residents-protest-vacancies-in-allston-span/ |archive-date=April 29, 2011}} The endowment has since recovered.{{cite news |author=Healy |first=Beth |date=January 28, 2010 |title=Harvard endowment leads others down |newspaper=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2010/01/28/harvard_endowment_leads_others_down/ |url-status=live |access-date=September 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821024541/http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2010/01/28/harvard_endowment_leads_others_down/ |archive-date=August 21, 2010}}{{cite news|work=The Wall Street Journal|first=John|last=Hechinger|title=Harvard Hit by Loss as Crisis Spreads to Colleges|page=A1|date=December 4, 2008}}{{Cite magazine |last=Munk |first=Nina |date=July 20, 2009 |title=Nina Munk on Hard Times at Harvard |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/harvard200908?printable=true¤tPage=all |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829115742/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/harvard200908?printable=true¤tPage=all |archive-date=August 29, 2010 |access-date=August 29, 2010 |magazine=Vanity Fair}}{{cite news|author=Andrew M. Rosenfield |url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/03/harvard-university-investment-opinions-contributors_endowment_print.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319001438/http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/03/harvard-university-investment-opinions-contributors_endowment_print.html|archive-date=March 19, 2009|title=Understanding Endowments, Part I|work=Forbes|date=March 4, 2009 |access-date=August 29, 2010}}

About {{USD|2 billion|long=no}} of investment income is annually distributed to fund operations.{{cite web|url=https://www.hmc.harvard.edu/about/|title=A Singular Mission|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=December 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209142638/https://www.hmc.harvard.edu/about/|url-status=live}}

Harvard's ability to fund its degree and financial aid programs depends on the performance of its endowment; 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/2/16/gsas-admissions-reaction/|title=Admissions Cuts Concern Some Graduate Students|access-date=December 14, 2019|archive-date=December 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225022732/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/2/16/gsas-admissions-reaction/|url-status=live}}

Endowment income is critical, as only 22% of revenue is from students' tuition, fees, room, and board.{{cite web |date=October 24, 2019 |title=Financial Report |url=https://finance.harvard.edu/files/fad/files/fy19_harvard_financial_report.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205181152/https://finance.harvard.edu/files/fad/files/fy19_harvard_financial_report.pdf |archive-date=December 5, 2019 |access-date=December 14, 2019 |website=harvard.edu}}

Since the 1970s, several student-led campaigns have advocated divesting Harvard's endowment from controversial holdings, including investments in South Africa during apartheid, Sudan during the Darfur genocide, and tobacco, fossil fuel, and private prison industries.{{cite magazine|first=Alli |last=Welton|title=Harvard Students Vote 72 Percent Support for Fossil Fuel Divestment|magazine=The Nation|date=November 20, 2012|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/harvard-students-vote-72-percent-support-fossil-fuel-divestment/|access-date=July 27, 2015|archive-date=July 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725011546/http://www.thenation.com/article/harvard-students-vote-72-percent-support-fossil-fuel-divestment/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|first=Alexandra A.|last=Chaidez|title=Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign Delivers Report to Mass. Hall|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|date=October 22, 2019|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/22/prison-divestment-petition/|access-date=December 15, 2019|archive-date=March 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306152230/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/22/prison-divestment-petition/|url-status=live}}

In the late 1980s, during the disinvestment from South Africa movement, student activists erected a symbolic shanty town on Harvard Yard and blockaded a speech by South African Vice Consul Duke Kent-Brown.{{cite news|first1=Michael C.|last1=George|first2=David W.|last2=Kaufman|title=Students Protest Investment in Apartheid South Africa|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|date=May 23, 2012|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/23/Protest-Divestment-Apartheid/?page=single|access-date=July 27, 2015|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/23/Protest-Divestment-Apartheid/?page=single|url-status=live}}{{cite web|first=Anjali|last=Cadambi|title=Harvard University community campaigns for divestment from apartheid South Africa, 1977–1989|website=Global Nonviolent Action Database|date=September 19, 2010|url=http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/harvard-university-community-campaigns-divestment-apartheid-south-africa-1977-1989|access-date=July 27, 2015|archive-date=September 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918195125/http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/harvard-university-community-campaigns-divestment-apartheid-south-africa-1977-1989|url-status=live}}

In response to pressure, the university eventually reduced its South African holdings by {{USD|230 million|long=no}} out of a total of {{USD|400 million|long=no}} between 1986 and 1987.{{cite book|author=Robert Anthony Waters Jr.|title=Historical Dictionary of United States-Africa Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQzZ0hhvGZAC&pg=PA77|date=March 20, 2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6291-3|page=77|access-date=October 14, 2015|archive-date=January 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124132732/https://books.google.com/books?id=LQzZ0hhvGZAC&pg=PA77|url-status=live}}

Harvard is a large, highly residential research university{{cite web |title=Carnegie Classifications – Harvard University |url=http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/view_institution.php?unit_id=166027 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807163149/https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/view_institution.php?unit_id=166027 |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |access-date=August 28, 2010 |website=iu.edu |publisher=The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching |language=en-US}}

offering 50 undergraduate majors,{{cite web |title=Liberal Arts & Sciences |url=https://college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005022949/https://college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences |archive-date=October 5, 2021 |access-date=December 12, 2019 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard College |language=en-US}}

134 graduate degrees,{{cite web|url=http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/images/stories/pdfs/handbook.pdf|title=Degree Programs|work=Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook|pages=28–30|access-date=August 28, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909232153/http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/images/stories/pdfs/handbook.pdf|archive-date=September 9, 2015}} and 32 professional degrees. During the 2018–2019 academic year, Harvard granted 1,665 baccalaureate degrees, 1,013 graduate degrees, and 5,695 professional degrees.{{cite web |title=Degrees Awarded |url=https://oir.harvard.edu/fact-book/degrees-awarded-summary |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728204157/https://oir.harvard.edu/fact-book/degrees-awarded-summary |archive-date=July 28, 2021 |access-date=December 13, 2019 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Office of Institutional Research, Harvard University |language=en-US}}

Harvard College, the four-year, full-time undergraduate program, has a liberal arts and sciences focus. To graduate in the usual four years, undergraduates normally take four courses per semester.{{cite web |title=The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science Degrees |url=https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/bachelor-arts-and-bachelor-science-degrees |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207214304/https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/bachelor-arts-and-bachelor-science-degrees |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |access-date=December 8, 2019 |website=college.harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard College |language=en-US}}

In most majors, an honors degree requires advanced coursework and a senior thesis.{{cite web|url=http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20101205233358/http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095|archive-date=December 5, 2010|title=Academic Information: The Concentration Requirement|work=Handbook for Students|publisher=Harvard College|access-date=August 28, 2010}}

Though some introductory courses have large enrollments, the median class size is 12 students.{{cite web |title=How large are classes? |url=https://college.harvard.edu/resources/faq/how-large-are-classes |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414135247/https://college.harvard.edu/resources/faq/how-large-are-classes |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |access-date=December 14, 2019 |website=harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard College |language=en-US}}

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with an academic staff of 1,211 as of 2019, is the largest Harvard faculty, and has primary responsibility for instruction in Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Division of Continuing Education, which includes Harvard Summer School and Harvard Extension School. There are nine other graduate and professional faculties and a faculty attached to the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

There are four Harvard joint programs with MIT, which include the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, the Broad Institute, The Observatory of Economic Complexity, and edX.

The university maintains 12 schools, which include:

Harvard is a founding member of the Association of American Universities{{cite web |url=http://www.aau.edu/about/default.aspx?id=5476 |title=Member Institutions and Years of Admission |publisher=Association of American Universities |access-date=September 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028050512/http://www.aau.edu/about/default.aspx?id=5476 |archive-date=October 28, 2012 }} and a preeminent research university with "very high" research activity (R1) and comprehensive doctoral programs across the arts, sciences, engineering, and medicine, according to the Carnegie Classification.

The medical school consistently ranks first among medical schools for research,{{Cite web |title=2023 Best Medical Schools: Research |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings/21775470034_control |access-date=February 17, 2022 |website=usnews.com |language=en-US |archive-date=July 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716110736/https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings/21775470034_control |url-status=live }} and biomedical research is an area of particular strength for the university. More than 11,000 faculty and 1,600 graduate students conduct research at the medical school and its 15 affiliated hospitals and research institutes.{{cite web |title=Research at Harvard Medical School |url=https://hms.harvard.edu/research |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006113655/https://hms.harvard.edu/research |archive-date=October 6, 2021 |access-date=December 9, 2019 |website=hms.harvard.edu |publisher=Harvard Medical School |language=en-US}} In 2019, the medical school and its affiliates attracted {{USD|1.65 billion|long=no}} in competitive research grants from the National Institutes of Health, more than twice that of any other university.{{cite web |title=Which schools get the most research money? |url=https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/most-research-money-rankings |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414105603/https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/most-research-money-rankings |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |access-date=March 30, 2020 |website=U.S. News & World Report |language=en-US}}

{{Main|Harvard Library}}

File:Widener Library.jpg, the anchor of Harvard Library, the largest academic library in the world with more than 20 million holdings]]

Harvard Library, the largest academic library in the world with 20.4 million holdings, is centered in Widener Library in Harvard Yard. It includes 25 individual Harvard libraries around the world with a combined staff of more than 800 librarians and personnel.[https://library.harvard.edu/visit-about/about-harvard-library "About Harvard Library"], Harvard Library website

Houghton Library, the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, and the Harvard University Archives consist principally of rare and unique materials. The nation's oldest collection of maps, gazetteers, and atlases is stored in Pusey Library on Harvard Yard, which is open to the public. The largest collection of East-Asian language material outside of East Asia is held in Harvard-Yenching Library.

Other major libraries in the Harvard Library system include Baker Library/Bloomberg Center at Harvard Business School, Cabot Science Library at Harvard Science Center, Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Film Archive at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Houghton Library, and Lamont Library.

{{Main|Harvard Art Museums}}

Harvard Art Museums includes three museums, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum covers Asian, Mediterranean, and Islamic art; the Busch–Reisinger Museum (formerly the Germanic Museum) covers central and northern European art; and the Fogg Museum covers Western art from the Middle Ages to the present emphasizing Italian early Renaissance, British pre-Raphaelite, and 19th-century French art.

Harvard Museums of Science and Culture include the Harvard Museum of Natural History, which itself includes the Harvard Mineralogical and Geological Museum, the Harvard University Herbaria featuring the Blaschka Glass Flowers exhibit, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Others include the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard Science Center, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East featuring artifacts from excavations in the Middle East, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, specializing in the cultural history and civilizations of the Western Hemisphere, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, designed by Le Corbusier and housing the Harvard Film Archive, the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical School's Center for the History of Medicine, and the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

{{Infobox US university ranking

| Forbes = 8

| THE_WSJ = 6

| USNWR_NU = 3

| Wamo_NU = 1

| ARWU_W = 1

| QS_W = 4

| THES_W = 3

| USNWR_W = 1

}}Harvard University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.{{Citation |title=Massachusetts Institutions |url=https://www.neche.org/institutions/ma/ |access-date=May 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817130729/https://www.neche.org/institutions/ma/ |archive-date=August 17, 2021 |url-status=live |publisher=New England Commission of Higher Education}} Since its founding in 2003, the Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked Harvard first in each of its annual rankings of the world's colleges and universities. Similarly, the Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, which was published from 2004 to 2009, ranked Harvard first in the world in each of its annual rankings. Since then, Harvard has been ranked first in the world each year since 2011 by its successor, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/reputation-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only|magazine=Times Higher Education|title=World Reputation Rankings 2016|year=2016|access-date=September 7, 2016|archive-date=March 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305000224/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/reputation-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only|url-status=live}}

Harvard was also ranked in the first tier of American research universities, along with Columbia, MIT, and Stanford, in the 2023 report from the Center for Measuring University Performance.{{Cite web|last1=Lombardi|first1=John V.|last2=Abbey|first2=Craig W.|last3=Craig|first3=Diane D. |first4=Lynne N. |last4=Collis |date=2021 |title=The Top American Research Universities: 2023 Annual Report|url=https://mup.umass.edu/sites/default/files/annual_report_2020.pdf|access-date=November 23, 2023|website=mup.umass.edu|archive-date=January 21, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121030323/https://mup.umass.edu/sites/default/files/annual_report_2020.pdf}}

Among rankings of specific indicators, Harvard topped both the University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2019–20 and Mines ParisTech: Professional Ranking of World Universities in 2011, which measured universities' numbers of alumni holding CEO positions in Fortune Global 500 companies.{{cite web |title=World Ranking |url=https://www.urapcenter.org/Rankings/2019-2020/world-2019 |website=University Ranking by Academic Performance |access-date=January 22, 2020 |archive-date=December 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218074911/https://www.urapcenter.org/Rankings/2019-2020/world-2019 }} According to annual polls done by The Princeton Review, Harvard is consistently among the top two most commonly named dream colleges in the United States for both students and their parents{{cite press release |url=http://www.princetonreview.com/press/college-hopes-worries-press-release|title=College Hopes & Worries Press Release|publisher=The Princeton Review |year=2016|access-date=September 7, 2016|archive-date=September 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919064436/http://www.princetonreview.com/press/college-hopes-worries-press-release|url-status=live}}{{cite press release |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/princeton-reviews-2012-college-hopes--worries-survey-reports-on-10650-students--parents-top-10-dream-colleges-and-application-perspectives-144338495.html|title=Princeton Review's 2012 "College Hopes & Worries Survey" Reports on 10,650 Students' & Parents' Top 10 "Dream Colleges" and Application Perspectives|publisher=The Princeton Review |year=2012|access-date=December 10, 2019|archive-date=December 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210172634/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/princeton-reviews-2012-college-hopes--worries-survey-reports-on-10650-students--parents-top-10-dream-colleges-and-application-perspectives-144338495.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news |year=2019 |title=2019 College Hopes & Worries Press Release |language=en-US |url=https://www.princetonreview.com/press/college-hopes-worries-press-release |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007224857/https://www.princetonreview.com/press/college-hopes-worries-press-release |archive-date=October 7, 2019}}{{Cite web |last=Dickler |first=Jessica |date=2024-03-05 |title=Harvard is back on top as college hopefuls' ultimate 'dream' school, despite recent turmoil |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/05/harvard-is-the-no-1-dream-school-princeton-review-poll-finds.html |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=CNBC |language=en |archive-date=April 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410052231/https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/05/harvard-is-the-no-1-dream-school-princeton-review-poll-finds.html |url-status=live }}

In 2019, Harvard's engineering school was ranked the third-best school in the world for engineering and technology by Times Higher Education.{{cite news |last=contact |first=Press |date=February 11, 2019 |title=Harvard is #3 in World University Engineering Rankings |language=en-US |url=https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/harvard-3-world-university-engineering-rankings |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210213722/https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2019/02/harvard-3-world-university-engineering-rankings |archive-date=December 10, 2019}}

In international relations, Foreign Policy magazine ranks Harvard best in the world at the undergraduate level and second in the world at the graduate level, behind the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.{{cite web |title=The Best International Relations Schools in the World |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/20/top-fifty-schools-international-relations-foreign-policy/ |website=Foreign Policy |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129011647/https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/20/top-fifty-schools-international-relations-foreign-policy/ |url-status=live }}

{{Further|Harvard Graduate Council}}

The Undergraduate Council represented Harvard College undergraduate students until it was dissolved in 2022,{{Cite web |title=Harvard Students Vote Overwhelmingly to Dissolve Undergraduate Council in Favor of New Student Government {{!}} News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/4/1/uc-referendum-results-yes-wins/ |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=www.thecrimson.com |archive-date=March 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329070233/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/4/1/uc-referendum-results-yes-wins/ |url-status=live }} and replaced by the Undergraduate Association. The Graduate Council represents students at all twelve graduate and professional schools, most of which also have their own student government.a) Law School Student Government {{cite web|url=https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/studentgovernment/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200415/https://orgs.law.harvard.edu/studentgovernment/|archive-date=June 24, 2021 | title=Harvard Law School Student Government }}

b) School of Education Student Council {{cite web|url=https://osa.gse.harvard.edu/student-council|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719035057/https://osa.gse.harvard.edu/student-council|archive-date=July 19, 2022 | title=Student Council }}

c) Kennedy School Student Government {{cite web|url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/more/student-life/student-government|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621184139/https://www.hks.harvard.edu/more/student-life/student-government|archive-date=June 21, 2021 | title=Student Government }}

d) Design School Student Forum {{cite web|url=https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/resources/student-forum/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210614171548/https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/resources/student-forum/|archive-date=June 14, 2021 | title=Student Forum }}

e) Student Council of Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine {{cite web|url=https://www.hmshsdmstuco.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610235703/https://www.hmshsdmstuco.com/|archive-date=June 10, 2021 | title=HMS & HSDM Student Council | Harvard Medical School | United States }}

{{Further|The Harvard Crimson}}

The Harvard Crimson, founded in 1873 and run entirely by Harvard undergraduate students, is the university's primary student newspaper. Many notable alumni have worked at the Crimson, including two U.S. presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt (AB, 1903) and John F. Kennedy (AB 1940).

{{Main|Harvard Crimson}}

File:Cornell_vs._Harvard_football_Oct_12,_2019.jpg (right) taking on Cornell (left) at Harvard Stadium in October 2019]]

Harvard College competes in the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference. The school fields 42 intercollegiate sports teams, more than any other college in the country.{{cite web |url=http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh |title=Harvard: Women's Rugby Becomes 42nd Varsity Sport at Harvard University |work=Harvard |publisher=Gocrimson.com |date=August 9, 2012 |access-date=July 5, 2013 |archive-date=September 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929092318/http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh }}

Harvard and the other seven Ivy League universities are prohibited from offering athletic scholarships.{{cite web |url=http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html|title=The Harvard Guide: Financial Aid at Harvard|publisher=Harvard University|date=September 2, 2006|access-date=August 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902182731/http://www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html|archive-date=September 2, 2006}} The school color is crimson.{{cite web |title=Colors |url=https://identityguide.hms.harvard.edu/brand-design/colors |website=Identity Guide |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=March 15, 2024 |archive-date=March 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315162304/https://identityguide.hms.harvard.edu/brand-design/colors |url-status=live }}

In the NCAA Division I era, which began in 1973, Harvard Crimson teams have won five NCAA Division I championships as of 2024: men's ice hockey in 1989, women's lacrosse in 1990, women's rowing in 2003, and men's fencing in 2006 and 2024. Including the pre-NCAA era, Harvard has won 159 national championships across all sports. Its men's squash team holds the record for the most national collegiate championships in the sport. Harvard's first national championship came in 1880, when its track and field team won the national championship.[https://gocrimson.com/sports/2020/5/5/information-history-nationalchampionships.aspx "Harvard's All-Time National Championships"], Harvard Crimson website

{{Further|Cornell–Harvard hockey rivalry|Harvard-Yale football rivalry}}

Harvard's athletic programs maintain a long-standing rivalry with Yale in all sports, especially in college football, where Harvard and Yale compete in an annual football rivalry, which has played 139 times as of 2024, dating back to its first meeting in 1875.{{Cite web |last=Bracken |first=Chris |date=November 17, 2017 |title=A game unlike any other |url=https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/11/17/a-game-unlike-any-other/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021215707/https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/11/17/a-game-unlike-any-other/ |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |access-date=September 9, 2020 |website=yaledailynews.com |language=en-US}}

Every two years, Harvard and Yale track and field teams come together to compete against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team in the oldest continuous international amateur competition in the world.{{cite web|title=Yale and Harvard Defeat Oxford/Cambridge Team|work=Yale |date=April 10, 2009 |url=http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html|publisher=Yale University Athletics|access-date=September 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013022655/http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html|archive-date=October 13, 2011}}

In men's ice hockey, Harvard maintains a historic rivalry with Cornell, which dates back to their first meeting in 1910. The two teams play twice annually.

In men's rugby, Harvard maintains a rivalry with McGill, as demonstrated by the biennial Harvard-McGill rugby games, alternately played in Montreal and Cambridge.{{Cite web |title=Ruggers Set For Rivalry; McGill Comes to Town {{!}} Sports {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1987/10/30/ruggers-set-for-rivalry-mcgill-comes/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}

{{Cleanup gallery|date=April 2025}}

{{Further|List of Harvard University people|List of Harvard University non-graduate alumni|List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation}}

Since its founding nearly four centuries ago, Harvard alumni have distinguished themselves in academia, activism, arts, athletics, business, entrepreneurship, government, international affairs, journalism, media, music, non-profit organizations, politics, public policy, science, technology, writing, and other industries and fields.

Among the world's universities and colleges, Harvard has the most U.S. presidents (eight), living billionaires (188), Nobel laureates (162), Pulitzer Prize winners (48), Fields Medal recipients (seven), Marshall scholars (252), and Rhodes Scholars (369) among its alumni. Harvard alumni also include nine Turing Award laureates, ten Academy Awards winners, and 108 Olympic medalists, including 46 gold medal winners.{{Cite web |last=Siliezar |first=Juan |date=November 23, 2020 |title=2020 Rhodes, Mitchell Scholars named |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/harvard-students-alum-awarded-rhodes-mitchell-scholarships/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124113104/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/harvard-students-alum-awarded-rhodes-mitchell-scholarships/ |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |access-date=November 25, 2020 |website=harvard.edu}}{{cite web |last=Communications |first=FAS |date=November 24, 2019 |title=Five Harvard students named Rhodes Scholars |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/five-harvard-students-named-american-rhodes-scholars/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191128055252/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/five-harvard-students-named-american-rhodes-scholars/ |archive-date=November 28, 2019 |access-date=November 24, 2019 |website=The Harvard Gazette}}{{cite news |author=Kathleen Elkins |date=May 18, 2018 |title=More billionaires went to Harvard than to Stanford, MIT and Yale combined |language=en-US |work=CNBC |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/the-universities-that-produce-the-most-billionaires.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522013005/https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/18/the-universities-that-produce-the-most-billionaires.html |archive-date=May 22, 2018}}{{cite web |title=Statistics |url=http://www.marshallscholarship.org/about/statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170126211334/http://www.marshallscholarship.org/about/statistics |archive-date=January 26, 2017 |access-date=December 1, 2015 |website=www.marshallscholarship.org |language=en-US}}{{cite web |title=Pulitzer Prize Winners |url=https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance/honors/pulitzer-prize-winners |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905090033/https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance/honors/pulitzer-prize-winners |archive-date=September 5, 2015 |access-date=February 2, 2018 |website=Harvard University}}{{Cite web|url=https://entrepreneurship.hbs.edu/founders/Pages/companies.aspx|title=Companies – Entrepreneurship – Harvard Business School|website=entrepreneurship.hbs.edu|access-date=March 28, 2019|archive-date=March 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328152958/https://entrepreneurship.hbs.edu/founders/Pages/companies.aspx|url-status=live}}

File:US Navy 031029-N-6236G-001 A painting of President John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd president of the United States, by Asher B. Durand (1767-1845)-crop.jpg|2nd President of the United States John Adams (AB, 1755; AM, 1758){{cite web |last1=Barzilay |first1=Karen N. |title=The Education of John Adams |url=https://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/the-education-of-john-adams-2007-06-01 |publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society |access-date=20 September 2020 |archive-date=July 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726202845/https://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/the-education-of-john-adams-2007-06-01 |url-status=live }}

File:John Quincy Adams.jpg|6th President of the United States John Quincy Adams (AB, 1787; AM, 1790){{cite web |title=John Quincy Adams |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-quincy-adams/ |publisher=The White House |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=October 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005104815/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-quincy-adams/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Hogan |first1=Margaret A. |title=John Quincy Adams: Life Before the Presidency |date=October 4, 2016 |url=https://millercenter.org/president/jqadams/life-before-the-presidency |publisher=Miller Center |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812123606/https://millercenter.org/president/jqadams/life-before-the-presidency |url-status=live }}

File:Ralph Waldo Emerson ca1857 retouched.jpg|Essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (AB, 1821)

File:Benjamin D. Maxham - Henry David Thoreau - Restored - greyscale - straightened.jpg|Naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau (AB, 1837)

File:President Rutherford Hayes 1870 - 1880.jpg|19th President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes (LLB, 1845){{cite web |title=HLS's first alumnus elected as President—Rutherford B. Hayes |url=https://today.law.harvard.edu/hlss-first-alumnus-elected-as-president-rutherford-b-hayes/ |publisher=Harvard Law Today |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414135644/https://today.law.harvard.edu/hlss-first-alumnus-elected-as-president-rutherford-b-hayes/ |url-status=live }}

File:Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr circa 1930-edit.jpg|Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (AB, 1861, LLB)

File:Charles Sanders Peirce.jpg|Philosopher, logician, and mathematician Charles Sanders Peirce (AB, 1862, SB 1863)

File:President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904.jpg|26th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Theodore Roosevelt (AB, 1880){{cite web |title=Theodore Roosevelt - Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/roosevelt/biographical/ |publisher=Nobel Foundation |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=September 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905033556/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/roosevelt/biographical/ |url-status=live }}

File:WEB DuBois 1918.jpg|Sociologist and civil rights activist
W. E. B. Du Bois (PhD, 1895)

File:Robert Frost NYWTS 4.jpg|Poet Robert Frost (no degree)

File:FRoosevelt.png|32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt (AB, 1903){{cite web |last1=Leuchtenburg |first1=William E. |title=Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life Before the Presidency |date=October 4, 2016 |url=https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/life-before-the-presidency |publisher=Miller Center |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813025557/https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/life-before-the-presidency |url-status=live }}

File:Helen Keller circa 1920 - restored.jpg|Author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller (AB, 1904, Radcliffe College)

File:Thomas Stearns Eliot by Lady Ottoline Morrell (1934).jpg|Poet and Nobel laureate in literature T. S. Eliot (AB, 1909; AM, 1910)

File:JROppenheimer-LosAlamos.jpg|Physicist and leader of the Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer (AB, 1925)

File:Paul Samuelson.jpg|Economist and Nobel laureate in economics recipient Paul Samuelson (AM, 1936; PhD, 1941)

File:Leonard Bernstein by Jack Mitchell.jpg|Musician and composer Leonard Bernstein (AB, 1939)

File:John F. Kennedy, White House color photo portrait.jpg|35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy (AB, 1940){{cite web |last1=Selverstone |first1=Marc J. |title=John F. Kennedy: Life Before the Presidency |date=October 4, 2016 |url=https://millercenter.org/president/kennedy/life-before-the-presidency |publisher=Miller Center |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812190501/https://millercenter.org/president/kennedy/life-before-the-presidency |url-status=live }}

File:Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau 1975 (UPI press photo) (cropped).jpg|15th Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau (MA, 1947)

File:Mary Robinson (2014).jpg|7th President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson (LLM, 1968)

File:Al Gore, Vice President of the United States, official portrait 1994.jpg|45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore (AB, 1969)

File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg|56th Secretary of State of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Henry Kissinger (AM, 1952; PhD, 1954){{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1973 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/kissinger/biographical/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}

File:Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, April 2010.jpg|24th President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (MPA, 1971){{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/johnson_sirleaf-bio.html|title=Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Biographical|website=www.nobelprize.org|access-date=October 14, 2020|archive-date=July 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724032807/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2011/johnson_sirleaf-bio.html|url-status=live}}

File:Benazir Bhutto.jpg|11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (AB, 1973, Radcliffe College)

File:Ben Bernanke official portrait.jpg|14th Chair of the Federal Reserve and Nobel laureate in economics Ben Bernanke (AB, 1975; AM, 1975)

File:George-W-Bush.jpeg|43rd President of the United States George W. Bush (MBA, 1975){{cite web |last1=L. Gregg II |first1=Gary |title=George W. Bush: Life Before the Presidency |date=October 4, 2016 |url=https://millercenter.org/president/gwbush/life-before-the-presidency |publisher=Miller Center |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812225623/https://millercenter.org/president/gwbush/life-before-the-presidency |url-status=live }}

File:Official roberts CJ.jpg|17th Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (AB, 1976; JD, 1979)

File:Bill Gates June 2015.jpg|Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates (College, 1977;Nominal Harvard College class year: did not graduate LLD hc, 2007)

File:Ban Ki-Moon Davos 2011 Cropped.jpg|8th Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon (MPA, 1984)

File:Professor Jennifer Doudna ForMemRS.jpg|Biochemist and Nobel laureate in chemistry Jennifer Doudna (PhD, 1989){{cite web |title=Press release: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/press-release/ |website=nobelprize.org |publisher=Nobel Foundation |access-date=October 14, 2020 |archive-date=October 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008001709/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/press-release/ |url-status=live}}

File:President Barack Obama.jpg|44th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama (JD, 1991){{cite web |title=Barack Obama: Life Before the Presidency |date=October 4, 2016 |url=https://millercenter.org/president/obama/life-before-the-presidency |publisher=Miller Center |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812142731/https://millercenter.org/president/obama/life-before-the-presidency |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Barack H. Obama - Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2009/obama/biographical/ |publisher=Nobel Foundation |access-date=21 September 2020 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414110039/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2009/obama/biographical/ |url-status=live }}

File:Mark Zuckerberg F8 2019 Keynote (32830578717) (cropped).jpg|Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (College, 2004; LLD hc, 2017)

File:Mark Carney.jpg|24th Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney (AB, 1988)

{{reflist|group=a}}

File:Louis Agassiz H6.jpg|Louis Agassiz

File:Danielle Allen 2017.jpg|Danielle Allen

File:Lawrence Lessig May 2017.jpg |Lawrence Lessig

File:Paul_Farmer_2011.jpg|Paul Farmer

File:Jason Furman official portrait.jpg|Jason Furman

File:John Kenneth Galbraith 1982.jpg|John Kenneth Galbraith

File:Henry Louis Gates 2014 (cropped).jpg|Henry Louis Gates Jr.

File:Asa Gray 1870s.jpg|Asa Gray

File:Seamus Heaney Photograph Edit.jpg|Seamus Heaney

File:Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr c1879.jpg|Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

File:William James b1842c.jpg|William James

File:Timothy-Leary-Los-Angeles-1989.jpg|Timothy Leary

File:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron in 1868.jpg|Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

File:James Russell Lowell - 1855.jpg|James Russell Lowell

File:GregoryMankiw.jpg|Greg Mankiw

File:102111 Pinker 344.jpg|Steven Pinker

File:Sec. Robert Reich.jpg|Robert Reich

File:Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 1961.jpg|Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

File:Amartya Sen.jpg|Amartya Sen

File:B.F. Skinner at Harvard circa 1950 (cropped).jpg|B. F. Skinner

File:Lawrence Summers 2012.jpg|Lawrence Summers

File:Cass Sunstein (2008).jpg|Cass Sunstein

File:Elizabeth Warren 2016.jpg|Elizabeth Warren

File:Cornel West by Gage Skidmore.jpg|Cornel West

File:Plos wilson.jpg|E. O. Wilson

File:Shing-Tung Yau Screenshot (cropped).png|Shing-Tung Yau

File:Clock Tower University of Puerto Rico-San Marcos-Harvard.jpg, showing the emblem of Harvard (on right), the oldest in the United States, and that of National University of San Marcos, Lima (left), the oldest in the Americas]]

Harvard's reputation as a center of elite achievement or elitist privilege has made it a frequent literary and cinematic backdrop. "In the grammar of film, Harvard has come to mean both tradition, and a certain amount of stuffiness," film critic Paul Sherman said in 2010.{{cite news |last=Thomas |first=Sarah |title='Social Network' taps other campuses for Harvard role |website=Boston.com |date=September 24, 2010 |url=https://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/cambridge/2010/09/harvard_at_the_movies_schools.html |quote='In the grammar of film, Harvard has come to mean both tradition, and a certain amount of stuffiness.... Someone from Missouri who has never lived in Boston ... can get this idea that it's all trust fund babies and ivy-covered walls.' |access-date=February 20, 2020 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232549/http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/cambridge/2010/09/harvard_at_the_movies_schools.html }}

In contemporary literature, Harvard University features prominently in multiple novels, including:

• The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Absalom, Absalom! (1936), two novels by William Faulkner, both of which depict Harvard student life.{{Cite web |last=Crinkley |first=Richmond |date=July 12, 1962 |title=WILLIAM FAULKNER: The Southern Mind Meets Harvard In the Era Before World War I |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/7/12/william-faulkner-the-southern-mind-meets/ |access-date=2024-03-01 |website=www.thecrimson.com |archive-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301055801/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1962/7/12/william-faulkner-the-southern-mind-meets/ |url-status=live }}
• Of Time and the River (1935) by Thomas Wolfe, a fictionalized autobiography, depicting Wolfe's alter ego, Eugene Gant, a Harvard student.{{Cite journal |last=Vaughan Bail |first=Hamilton |date=1958 |title=Harvard Fiction: Some critical and Bibliographical Notes |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44525042.pdf |journal=American Antiquarian Society |pages=346–347 |access-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301055757/https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44525042.pdf |url-status=live }}
• The Late George Apley (1937), by 1915 Harvard alumnus John P. Marquand, a novel presenting a satirical view of Harvard men in the early 20th century, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.{{Cite web |title=Late George Apley |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100052807?d=%2F10.1093%2Foi%2Fauthority.20110803100052807 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en |access-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-date=April 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240401214630/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100052807?d=/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100052807 |url-status=live }}
• The Second Happiest Day (1953), by John P. Marquand, portrays Harvard during the World War II generation.{{refn |{{cite book |title=Wrestling with the Angel|last=King|first=Michael|year=2002|page=371|quote=...praised as an iconic chronicle of his generation and his WASP-ish class.}} }}{{refn|{{cite news|title=White Shoe and Weak Will|first=Michael J.|last=Halberstam|date= February 18, 1953 |newspaper=Harvard Crimson |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1953/2/18/white-shoe-and-weak-will-pjohn/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126180414/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1953/2/18/white-shoe-and-weak-will-pjohn/ |archive-date=November 26, 2015 |url-status=live |quote=The book is written slickly, but without distinction.... The book will be quick, enjoyable reading for all Harvard men.}} }}{{refn |{{cite news|last=Yardley|first=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Yardley|title=Second Reading|date=December 23, 2009|url =https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203456.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209173651/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203456.html|archive-date=December 9, 2015|url-status=live|quote= '...a balanced and impressive novel...' [is] a judgment with which I [agree].|newspaper=The Washington Post}} }}{{refn |{{cite news|title=Out of a Jitter-and-Fritter World|last=Du Bois|first=William|work=The New York Times|date=February 1, 1953|page=BR5|quote="exhibits Mr. Phillips' talent at its finest"}} }}{{refn |{{cite news|work=Southwest Review|volume=38|page=267|title=John Phillips, The Second Happiest Day|quote=So when the critics say the author of "The Second Happiest Day" is a new Fitzgerald, we think they may be right. }} }}

Harvard University features prominently in the plots of multiple major films, including:

• Love Story (1970), a romance between a wealthy Harvard ice hockey player, played by Ryan O'Neal, and a brilliant Radcliffe student of modest means, played by Ali MacGraw.{{cite news |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/6/3/never-having-to-say-youre-sorry/ |title=Never Having To Say You're Sorry for 25 Years... |work=Harvard Crimson |date=June 3, 1996 |access-date=September 15, 2013 |archive-date=July 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717001127/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1996/6/3/never-having-to-say-youre-sorry/ |url-status=live }}{{refn|{{cite news|title=The Disease: Fatal. The Treatment: Mockery|first=Thomas | last=Vinciguerra |date=August 20, 2010|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/movies/22love.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310224906/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/movies/22love.html |archive-date=March 10, 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=August 21, 2010}}}}{{refn|{{cite news|date=February 8, 1996 |work=Harvard University Gazette |title=A Many-Splendored 'Love Story'.}}}}
• The Paper Chase (1973),{{refn|{{cite news|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/10/the-paper-chase-at-40/|title=The Paper Chase at 40|date=October 2, 2012|first=Colleen|last= Walsh|work=Harvard Gazette|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203171406/http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/10/the-paper-chase-at-40/|archive-date=December 3, 2012|url-status=live|access-date=October 16, 2012}}}} a drama based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Harvard alumnus John Jay Osborn Jr., about a first year Harvard Law School student facing a demanding contract law course and professor.
• A Small Circle of Friends (1980), a drama about three Harvard University students in the 1960s
• Prozac Nation (1994), a psychological drama starring Christina Ricci based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which documents her real life story as a 19-year-old Harvard freshman struggling with substance abuse and clinical depression.
• Legally Blonde (2001), a comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon a blonde sorority girl who enrolls in Harvard Law School to get her ex-boyfriend back.
• Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003), a Lifetime biographical television film, which chronicles the real life story of Liz Murray (played by Thora Birch), who overcomes homelessness and a dysfunctional family to gain entry and a scholarship to Harvard after winning a New York Times-sponsored essay competition.
• The Social Network (2010), a biographical drama film which portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook.

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• Academic regalia of Harvard University
• Gore Hall
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• Harvard University Police Department
• Harvard University Press
• Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society
• I, Too, Am Harvard
• List of Harvard University named chairs
• List of Nobel laureates affiliated with Harvard University
• List of oldest universities in continuous operation
• Outline of Harvard University
• Secret Court of 1920

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{{Notelist}}

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{{reflist}}

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• Abelmann, Walter H., ed. The Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology: The First 25 Years, 1970–1995 (2004). 346 pp.
• Beecher, Henry K. and Altschule, Mark D. Medicine at Harvard: The First 300 Years (1977). 569 pp.
• Bentinck-Smith, William, ed. The Harvard Book: Selections from Three Centuries (2d ed.1982). 499 pp.
• Bethell, John T.; Hunt, Richard M.; and Shenton, Robert. Harvard A to Z (2004). 396 pp. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674012887 excerpt and text search]
• Bethell, John T. Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University in the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 1998, {{ISBN|0-674-37733-8}}
• Bunting, Bainbridge. Harvard: An Architectural History (1985). 350 pp.
• Carpenter, Kenneth E. The First 350 Years of the Harvard University Library: Description of an Exhibition (1986). 216 pp.
• Cuno, James et al. Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting (1996). 364 pp.
• Elliott, Clark A. and Rossiter, Margaret W., eds. Science at Harvard University: Historical Perspectives (1992). 380 pp.
• Hall, Max. Harvard University Press: A History (1986). 257 pp.
• Hay, Ida. Science in the Pleasure Ground: A History of the Arnold Arboretum (1995). 349 pp.
• Hoerr, John, We Can't Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard; Temple University Press, 1997, {{ISBN|1-56639-535-6}}
• Howells, Dorothy Elia. A Century to Celebrate: Radcliffe College, 1879–1979 (1978). 152 pp.
• Keller, Morton, and Phyllis Keller. Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University (2001), major history covers 1933 to 2002 {{cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/read/106186126?title=Making%20Harvard%20Modern%3a%20%20The%20Rise%20of%20America%27s%20University |title=online edition|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702220422/https://www.questia.com/read/106186126?title=Making%20Harvard%20Modern%3a%20%20The%20Rise%20of%20America%27s%20University |archive-date=July 2, 2012 }}
• Lewis, Harry R. Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education (2006) {{ISBN|1-58648-393-5}}
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936 (1986) 512pp; [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZUUf7ssp1u4C excerpt and text search]
• Powell, Arthur G. The Uncertain Profession: Harvard and the Search for Educational Authority (1980). 341 pp.
• Reid, Robert. Year One: An Intimate Look inside Harvard Business School (1994). 331 pp.
• Rosovsky, Henry. The University: An Owner's Manual (1991). 312 pp.
• Rosovsky, Nitza. The Jewish Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe (1986). 108 pp.
• Seligman, Joel. The High Citadel: The Influence of Harvard Law School (1978). 262 pp.
• Sollors, Werner; Titcomb, Caldwell; and Underwood, Thomas A., eds. Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe (1993). 548 pp.
• Trumpbour, John, ed., How Harvard Rules. Reason in the Service of Empire, Boston: South End Press, 1989, {{ISBN|0-89608-283-0}}
• Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, ed., [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4662764 Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History], New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. 337 pp.
• Winsor, Mary P. Reading the Shape of Nature: Comparative Zoology at the Agassiz Museum (1991). 324 pp.
• Wright, Conrad Edick. Revolutionary Generation: Harvard Men and the Consequences of Independence (2005). 298 pp.

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