"Harvard University is a personal Ivy Organization research study college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 6,800 undergraduate students and regarding 14,000 postgraduate trainees. Developed in 1636 and called for its initial benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, Harvard is the USA' oldest organization of higher knowing as well as one of one of the most distinguished on the planet.

The Massachusetts Great as well as General Court accredited Harvard's starting. In its very early years, Harvard University primarily trained Congregational as well as Unitarian clergy, although it has actually never ever been formally affiliated with any kind of denomination. Its curriculum and pupil body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, as well as by the 19th century, Harvard had actually emerged as the central cultural establishment amongst Boston elites. [9] [10] Following the American Civil War, Head Of State Charles W. Eliot's lengthy tenure (1869-- 1909) changed the college and also affiliated specialist institutions into a contemporary research university; Harvard was an establishing member of the Association of American Colleges in 1900. A. Lawrence Lowell, that succeeded Eliot, more reformed the undergraduate educational program as well as carried out hostile expansion of Harvard's land holdings and also physical campus. James Bryant Conant led the college with the Great Depression and also World War II; he started to liberalize admissions after the war.

The university is composed of eleven major academic systems-- 10 faculties and also the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research study-- with universities throughout Greater Boston: its 209-acre (85 ha) initial undergraduate campus is centered on Harvard Backyard in Cambridge, 3 miles (5 kilometres) northwest of Boston; business school and also numerous sports facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are across the Charles River in the Allston community of Boston; and also the medical, dental, and public health colleges remain in Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's endowment is valued at $40.9 billion, making it the biggest of any scholastic establishment. While the small cost of attendance is high, the university's endowment permits it to offer charitable, no-loan financial aid bundles and use need-blind admission. The Harvard Library is the globe's biggest scholastic collection system, consisting of 79 individual libraries holding about 20.4 million things.

Harvard's alumni include 8 U.S. presidents, more than 30 international heads of state, 188 living billionaires, 369 Rhodes Scholars, and 252 Marshall Scholars. As of March 2020, 160 Nobel laureates, 18 Area Medalists, as well as 14 Turing Honor victors have actually been associated as trainees, professors, or scientists. On top of that, Harvard pupils and also alumni have won 10 Academy Awards, 48 Pulitzer Prizes, and also 108 Olympic medals (46 gold, 41 silver, and 21 bronze), and also established lots of remarkable business worldwide."