Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It was founded in 1636, just 16 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Harvard is also one of the richest private universities in the United States. The main campus is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The university also has several schools in Boston.
Harvard has played an important role in American life. Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy graduated from Harvard. Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Barack Obama graduated from Harvard Law School. President George W. Bush graduated from Harvard Business School. Harvard’s website at https://www.harvard.edu presents information about the university.
Educational program.
Harvard’s undergraduate college and graduate and professional schools are open to both men and women. Degrees are offered in such programs as arts and sciences, design, divinity, education, and government. Harvard’s professional schools of business, law, and medicine are among the most prestigious in the United States.
Many Harvard departments use a tutorial plan. Under the plan, individual students or small groups meet periodically with faculty tutors for instruction in the students’ major area of study. Most students who participate in tutorials do not do so until their sophomore year. Most honors candidates in departments with a tutorial plan receive tutorial instruction.
General examinations test the students’ grasp of their major field. Students in some fields must pass general examinations to graduate, no matter how high their grades might be. Harvard awards financial aid to undergraduate and graduate students each year.
The Harvard campus.
The Harvard Yard is the center of the original college. Dormitories, libraries, and class buildings in a variety of architectural styles stand near this grassy, shaded area. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), General George Washington’s troops used Massachusetts Hall as barracks, and the provincial legislature met in Harvard Hall. 
First-year students live in dormitories in and near the Yard, but most other students live in the residential houses. These houses are modeled after the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge universities. Harvard’s residential houses are more than places where students eat and sleep. They are also centers for social and educational activities. Each house has its own dining hall, library, and athletic facilities. Faculty members live or eat at the house, permitting students to mix informally with instructors. All university housing is coeducational.
Harvard has the world’s largest university library system. Museums on the campus include the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Harvard University Herbaria. The Harvard Art Museums are comprised of three museums—each focusing on the art of particular eras or regions of the world—and four research centers. The Arnold Arboretum has a famous collection of trees and shrubs in Boston.
The university supervises several research facilities outside the Cambridge-Boston area. They include a center for the study of Italian Renaissance culture at Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy; a center for Byzantine studies in Washington, D.C.; and a center for Hellenic studies, also in Washington. The Harvard experimental forest is in north-central Massachusetts. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge is a joint enterprise of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. It is a center for basic research in astronomy, astrophysics, and the space sciences.
History.
Harvard College was founded at Newtowne on Oct. 28, 1636. In 1638, Newtowne was renamed Cambridge after Cambridge University in England, where many of the colonists studied. The college opened in 1638. In 1639, it was named after John Harvard, a Puritan minister. Harvard left the college half of his estate, including a collection of over 400 books, when he died in 1638. The first class graduated in 1642.
Harvard is the oldest collegiate foundation in North America. It still operates under a charter granted in 1650. A corporation of five fellows, together with the president and treasurer ex officio, manage the university. A board of 30 overseers, elected periodically by alumni, must approve the acts of the corporation.
Harvard’s present educational system was shaped by Charles William Eliot, president of the school from 1869 to 1909. When Eliot came to Harvard, it was a small New England college. When he left, it was a national institution. Under Eliot’s leadership, Harvard established the elective studies system, replacing the prescribed classical curriculum, and raised scholarly and professional standards in the graduate branches.
In 1879, Radcliffe College, a private liberal arts school for women, was founded. It was independent but had close ties to Harvard.
During the early 1900’s, Harvard refined its elective system to include a tutorial system, specialized fields of study, and general examinations. In the mid-1900’s, Harvard developed a general education program for undergraduates and began placing increased emphasis on international and area studies. The university also strengthened its departments of divinity, education, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, and public health.
In 1979, Harvard introduced a revised general education program for undergraduates. The program, called the core curriculum, included courses to teach students how to approach the study of the major areas of knowledge. In 2009, a new program in general education replaced the core curriculum. This program seeks to connect what students learn in Harvard classes to life beyond college.
In 1999, Radcliffe College merged with Harvard. It was renamed the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and began offering a wide range of research and scholarship with a special focus on women, gender, and society.
