Harvard University

Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US), established 1636, whose history, influence and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities.

Founded actually by the Ma legislature and soon afterwards named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and the Harvard Organization (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) is its first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College generally trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were slowly but surely secularized during the eighteenth century, and by the 19th century Harvard had appeared as the central ethnic establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles T. Eliot's long tenure (1869-1909) transformed the college or university and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a beginning member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and commenced to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college or university became coeducational after the 1977 merger with Radcliffe College.

The University is organized into eleven separate academic units--ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study--with campuses through the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is focused on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 mls (5 km) northwest of Boston; the business college and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located throughout the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools have been in the Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's $37. 6 billion financial endowment is the greatest of any academic institution.

Harvard is a huge, highly home research university. The minimal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. It operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's major educational and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 , 000, 000 volumes. Harvard's alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, 335 Rhodes Scholars, and 242 Marshall Scholars. In order to date, some 150 Nobel laureates, 18 Fields Medalists and 13 Turing Honor winners have been connected as students, faculty, or staff. Apart from its major Cambridge/Allston and Longwood campuses, Harvard owns and operates Arnold Arboretum, in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston; the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, D. C.; the Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts; the Concord Field Station in Estabrook Woods in Rapport, Massachusettsand the Villa I Tatti research center in Florence, Italy. Harvard also operates the Harvard Shanghai Center in China.