Harvard University is an American private Ivy League
research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States,
established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest
institution of higher learning in the United States and the first
corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered
in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of
the most prestigious universities in the world.
Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard.
Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained
Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students
became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged
as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following
the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure
(1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a
centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the
Association of American Universities in 1900.[14] James Bryant Conant led the
university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform
the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate
college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew
Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to
lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any
academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September
2011.
The university comprises eleven separate academic units—ten
faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses
throughout the Boston metropolitan area. Harvard's 210-acre (85 ha) main
campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3.4 miles (5.5
km) northwest of downtown Boston. The business school and athletics facilities,
including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in Allston and
the medical, dental, and public health schools are located in the Longwood
Medical Area.
As of 2010, Harvard employs about 2,100 faculty to teach and
advise approximately 6,700 undergraduates (Harvard College) and 14,500 graduate
and professional students.[16] Eight U.S. presidents have been graduates, and
75 Nobel Laureates have been student, faculty, or staff affiliates. Harvard is
also the alma mater of sixty-two living billionaires, the most in the
country. The Harvard University Library is the largest academic library in
the United States, and one of the largest in the world.
The Harvard Crimson competes in 41 intercollegiate sports in
the NCAA Division I Ivy League. Harvard has an intense athletic rivalry with
Yale University traditionally culminating in The Game, although the
Harvard–Yale Regatta predates the football game. This rivalry, though, is put
aside every two years when the Harvard and Yale Track and Field teams come
together to compete against a combined Oxford University and Cambridge
University team, a competition that is the oldest continuous international
amateur competition in the world.
