Harvard University

Harvard University is one of the most famous and prestigious universities in the United States and around the world, the oldest university in the United States. It is located in Cambridge (part of the Boston metropolitan area), Massachusetts.

As of 2010, Harvard has about 2,100 faculty members and about 6,700 undergraduate and 14,500 graduate students. 75 Nobel Prize winners have been associated with the university as students, faculty, or staff. Harvard University has the highest number of billionaire alumni in the country, and its library is the largest academic library in the United States and the third largest in the country.

Harvard is part of a group of elite American universities, the Ivy League.

Harvard has the largest endowment (endowment) in the world, which as of 2022 is $50.9 billion.

History

The oldest university in the United States, Harvard was founded on September 8, 1636. It is named after the English missionary and philanthropist John Harvard. Although he was never officially affiliated with the church, the college was predominantly composed of Unitarian and Congregational clergy. In 1643, English aristocrat Anne Radcliffe established the first foundation to support scientific research. During the 18th century, Harvard's programs became more secular, and in the late 19th century, the college was recognized as a central cultural institution among Boston's elite. After the American Civil War, Harvard President Charles Elliot, after forty years in office (1869–1909), transformed the college and its affiliated professional education schools into a centralized research university; Harvard co-founded the Association of American Universities in 1900.

Harvard University maintains a friendly rivalry with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that dates back to 1900, when the merger of the two schools was officially agreed. Today, the two educational institutions cooperate in terms of joint conferences and programs.

Structure

The university includes 13 separate academic divisions – 12 schools and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study – with campuses throughout Boston.

It includes 7 faculties.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (founded in 1890, the largest university division), which includes:Harvard College for Undergraduate Students (1636)
Higher School of Arts and Sciences (1872)
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (2007) – In 2007, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was established as a result of the transformation of the corresponding division of Harvard, which has existed since 1847.
Department of Continuing Education, which includes:Harvard Summer School (1871)
School of Extended Education (1910)
Harvard Medical School (1782))
Harvard School of Dentistry (1867))
Harvard Divinity Institute (1816))
Harvard Law School (1817))
Harvard Business School (1908))
Higher School of Design (1914))
Harvard Graduate School of Education (1920))
Institute of Public Health (1922))
Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government (1936)

In 1999, Radcliffe College, a prestigious women's liberal arts private college, was transformed into the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Branches of the university are the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Harvard Museum of Natural History. There is the Harvard Art Museum.

Harvard University students who are U.S. citizens also have the opportunity to take the Reserve Officer Training (ROTC) course during their undergraduate studies. The university has three separate training units that train officers for the needs of the U.S. Army (Army ROTC), the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps (Naval ROTC), and the U.S. Air Force (Air Force ROTC).

Harvard University is one of the first universities in the history of the United States where training courses for reserve officers were organized; ROTC at Harvard was established in 1916. In 1971, in the wake of antiwar sentiment, the reserve officer training courses at Harvard University were abolished. The return of ROTC to Harvard has long been hampered by the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law, as it was perceived as infringing on the rights and freedoms of homosexual students at the university. However, after the repeal of this law, reserve officer training courses began to return to Harvard. Naval ROTCs returned to the university in 2011, Army ROTCs in 2012, and Air Force ROTCs in 2016.

85 hectares of the main campus of the university is located in the so-called "Harvard Yard" in Cambridge, about 5.5 km northwest of downtown Boston. Business schools and sports facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located on the Charles River in Allston, and the facilities of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry are located in Longwood.

Harvard Park is home to the central administrative buildings, the university's main libraries, academic buildings, most of the freshman dormitories, as well as the Seaver and University buildings, and the memorial church. Also adjacent to Harvard Park in Cambridge is St Paul's Roman Catholic Church. Nine of the twelve residential "homes" for students beginning in their sophomore year are located south of Harvard Yard and near the Charles River. The other three are in a residential area half a mile northwest of the park in what is known as the quadrangle (hence the name of the three houses, Quad House). A Red Line subway station called "Harvard Square" provides students with public transportation.

Harvard Business School and the university's sports facilities, including Harvard Stadium, occupy 145 hectares of space in the city of Allston. The John Weeks Bridge connects Allston to Longwood, home to Harvard Medical School, School of Dentistry, and Harvard School of Public Health, whose campuses cover 8.9 hectares of land and are located 3.3 km southwest of downtown Boston and 5.3 km from the main building in Cambridge. Private buses connect the buildings in Longwood and the campus in Cambridge, following Massachusetts Avenue through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

House system
Almost all Harvard University and college students from their first year live in dormitories on campus, in or near Harvard Courtyard. Students who have good grades or other achievements live in so-called "houses", which are both a place of residence and an administrative unit of the university, helping students to adapt to the social environment of the institution. Dormitories and houses are different structures of the university, which should not be confused.

A similar residential system was instituted by Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell in the 1930s to combat addiction and social stratification among off-campus students. Lowell made the decision to provide the student with living space throughout his time at the university. The houses had a dining room and a so-called "common room" in which the senior student was in charge of the academic and disciplinary state of the house.

The nine River House houses are located at the south end of Harvard Yard, between the park and the Charles River, and include:

Adams House is named after U.S. President John Adams;
Dunster House, in honor of Harvard's first president, Henry Dunster;
Eliot House, in honor of Harvard President Charles Elliot;
Kirkland House, in honor of Harvard President John Kirkland;
Leverett House, in honor of Harvard President John Leverett;
Lowell House – in honor of the creator of the house system, Harvard President Abbott Lowell;
Mather House, in honor of Harvard President Inkris Meter;
Quincy House – in honor of Harvard President and Boston Mayor Josiah Quincy III;
Winthrop House is named after two bearers of this surname: colonist John Winthrop and his great-great-grandson John Winthrop, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy.
The three Quad Houses are located half a mile from Harvard Park and have been co-located with Radcliffe College since they merged their residential systems with Harvard in 1977:

Cabot House, formerly known as South House, named after sponsors Thomas Cabot and Virginia Cabot;
Currier House, named after Radcliffe alumna Audrey Bruce Carrier;
The Pforzheimer House, or PfoHo for short, is named after Harvard contributors Carl and Carol Forsheimer.
The thirteenth house, called Dudley House, is uninhabited, but serves administrative and social functions, such as meetings as well as the accommodation of some graduate students. It is named after Thomas Dudley, who signed the Charter of Harvard University while serving as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.