Harvard University

Harvard

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally. Harvard faculty are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge. For students who are excited to investigate the biggest issues of the 21st century, Harvard offers an unparalleled student experience and a generous financial aid program, with over $160 million awarded to more than 60% of our undergraduate students. The University has twelve degree-granting Schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a truly global education.

Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world.

Harvard at a Glance

ESTABLISHED

1636

FACULTY

About 2,400 faculty members and more than 10,400 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals

STUDENTS

Harvard College – About 6,700
Graduate and professional students – About 14,500
Total – About 21,000

SCHOOL COLOR

LIVING ALUMNI

More than 323,000, over 271,000 in the U.S., nearly 52,000 in some 201 other countries. See the alumni website for more information.

HONORS

47 Nobel Laureates, 32 heads of state, 48 Pulitzer Prize winners

MOTTO

Veritas (Latin for “truth”)

REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS

5,083 acres

LIBRARY COLLECTION

The Harvard Library—the largest academic library in the world—includes 18.9 million volumes, 174,000 serial titles, an estimated 400 million manuscript items, 10 million photographs, 56 million archived web pages, and 5.4 terabytes of born-digital archives and manuscripts. Access to this rich collection is provided by nearly 1,000 library staff members who operate more than 70 separate library units.

FACULTIES, SCHOOLS, AND AN INSTITUTE

Harvard University is made up of 11 principal academic units – ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The ten faculties oversee schools and divisions that offer courses and award academic degrees.

UNDERGRADUATE COST AND FINANCIAL AID

Families with students on scholarship pay an average of $11,500 annually toward the cost of a Harvard education. More than 65 percent of Harvard College students receive scholarship aid, and the average grant this year is $46,000.

Since 2007, Harvard’s investment in financial aid has climbed by more than 70 percent, from $96.6 million to $166 million per year.

During the 2012-2013 academic year, students from families with incomes below $65,000, and with assets typical for that income level, will generally pay nothing toward the cost of attending Harvard College.  Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from 0 to 10 percent of income, depending on individual circumstances.  Significant financial aid also is available for families above those income ranges.

Harvard College launched a “net price calculator” into which applicants and their families can enter their financial data to estimate the net price they will be expected to pay for a year at Harvard.  Please use the calculator to estimate the net cost of attendance.

The total 2013-2014 cost of attending Harvard College without financial aid is $38,891 for tuition and $59,950 for tuition, room, board and fees combined.

UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

24 ‘individuals of distinction’

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

This photograph is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license by Harvard University.
 Drew Gilpin Faust

UNIVERSITY INCOME (FISCAL YEAR 2013)

$4.2 billion

UNIVERSITY EXPENSES (FISCAL YEAR 2013)

$4.2 billion

ENDOWMENT (FISCAL YEAR 2013)

$32.7 billion

HARVARD UNIVERSITY SHIELDS

NAMING

The name Harvard comes from the college’s first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard of Charlestown. Upon his death in 1638, he left his library and half his estate to the institution established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

HARVARD CAMPAIGN

The Harvard Campaign is designed to embrace the future and to ensure Harvard’s leadership as it approaches its fifth century of education and inquiry in the pursuit of enduring truth.

HARVARDX

HarvardX, a University-wide effort to support faculty innovation in teaching and learning, has engaged more than 70 faculty from across 10 schools, producing online learning experiences that have reached more than 1,000,000 students from 195 countries around the world.

MORE INFORMATION

These numbers come from many sources, including the Harvard University Fact Book and the Annual Financial Report to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. Sign up for the Daily Gazette to receive highlights about faculty news, research projects, staff developments, student life, and daily events in your inbox.

Harvard University