About Harvard
Those who join our community—to learnresearchteachworkand grow—join nearly four centuries of students and scholars in the pursuit of truthknowledgeand a better world.
Explore data about our community with the Harvard Fact Book.
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24,519
undergraduate and graduate students
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20,667
faculty and staff
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400,000+
alumni worldwide
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35 million+
learners through Harvard Online
We believe in the value of knowledgethe power of teaching and researchand the ways that what we do here can benefit society.”President of Harvard University
Alan M. Garber
On October 281636Harvardthe first college in the American colonieswas founded in CambridgeMassachusetts. Harvard University was officially founded by a vote by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Harvard’s endowment started with John Harvard’s initial donation of 400 books and half his estatebut in 1721Thomas Hollis began the now standard practice of requiring that a donation be used for a specific purpose when he donated money for “a Divinity Professorto read lectures in the Halls to the students.”