Harvard University facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Harvard University

Coat of arms
Latin: Universitas Harvardiana
Former names	Harvard College
Motto	Veritas (Latin)
Motto in English	"Truth"
Type	Private research university
Established	1636; 388 years ago (1636)
Founder	Massachusetts General Court
Academic affiliations	AAU AICUM COFHE NAICU UArctic URA Space-grant
Endowment	$50.7 billion (2023)
President	Alan Garber (interim)
Provost	Alan Garber
Academic staff	~2,400 faculty members (and >10,400 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals)
Students	21,613 (Fall 2022)
Undergraduates	7,240 (Fall 2022)
Postgraduates	14,373 (Fall 2022)
Location	Cambridge , Massachusetts , United States 42°22′28″N 71°07′01″W / 42.37444°N 71.11694°W / 42.37444; -71.11694
Campus	Midsize city
Newspaper	The Harvard Crimson
Colors	Crimson, White, and Black
Nickname	Crimson
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FCS – Ivy League ECAC Hockey NEISA CWPA IRA EAWRC EARC EISA
Mascot	John Harvard

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Harvard was started on September 8, 1636, and it is the oldest university in the United States. Harvard's current president is Lawrence Bacow. The school color is crimson, which is a dark red color.

Harvard is on the Charles River. Some students go to the Charles River for rowing. On the other side of the Charles River is the city of Boston. Boston's subway system has a stop at Harvard. Some of Harvard's graduate schools are in Boston, but most of Harvard's schools are in Cambridge. Together, these schools are Harvard University.

Harvard has many libraries like Widener Library. There are other facilities like skating rinks and the Malkin Athletic Center where students can swim and exercise.

Harvard is almost always ranked as one of the best universities in the world. Another famous school close to Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Eight Presidents of the United States have graduated from Harvard. Harvard has over $40 billion.

Notable alumni

• George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
• Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft
• Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States
• John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
• Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
• Natalie Portman, Actress & filmmaker
• Mark Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO of Facebook
• Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

Images for kids

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  The seal of the Harvard Corporation, found on Harvard diplomas. Christo et Ecclesiae ("For Christ and Church") is one of Harvard's several early mottoes.

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  Engraving of Harvard College by Paul Revere, 1767

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  John Harvard statue, Harvard Yard

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  Richard Rummell's 1906 watercolor landscape view, facing northeast.

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  Memorial Hall

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  Memorial Church

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  Harvard Medical School

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  University seal

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  Massachusetts Hall (1720), Harvard's oldest building

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  Harvard Yard

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  Widener Library anchors the Harvard Library system.

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  Tower at the University of Puerto Rico, showing (right) the emblem of Harvard—​the oldest in the United States—​and (left) that of National University of San Marcos, Lima—​the oldest in the Americas

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  2nd President of the United States John Adams (AB, 1755; AM, 1758)

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  6th President of the United States John Quincy Adams (AB, 1787; AM, 1790)

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  Essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (AB, 1821)

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  Naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau (AB, 1837)

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  19th President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes (LLB, 1845)

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  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (AB, 1861, LLB)

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  Philosopher, logician, and mathematician Charles Sanders Peirce (AB, 1862, SB 1863)

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  26th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Theodore Roosevelt (AB, 1880)

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  Sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois (PhD, 1895)

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  32nd President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt (AB, 1903)

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  Author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller (AB, 1904, Radcliffe College)

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  Poet and Nobel laureate in literature T. S. Eliot (AB, 1909; AM, 1910)

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  Physicist and leader of Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer (AB, 1925)

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  Economist and Nobel laureate in economics Paul Samuelson (AM, 1936; PhD, 1941)

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  Musician and composer Leonard Bernstein (AB, 1939)

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  35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy (AB, 1940)

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  7th President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson (LLM, 1968)

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  45th Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore (AB, 1969)

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  24th President of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (MPA, 1971)

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  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (AB, 1971; JD, 1975)

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  11th Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (AB, 1973, Radcliffe College)

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  14th Chair of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke (AB, 1975; AM, 1975)

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  43rd President of the United States George W. Bush (MBA, 1975)

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  17th Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts (AB, 1976; JD, 1979)

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  Founder of Microsoft and philanthropist Bill Gates (College, 1977; LLD hc, 2007)

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  8th Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon (MPA, 1984)

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  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Elena Kagan (JD, 1986)

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  Former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama (JD, 1988)

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  Biochemist and Nobel laureate in chemistry Jennifer Doudna (PhD, 1989)

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  44th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama (JD, 1991)

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  Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ketanji Brown Jackson (JD, 1992)

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  Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg (College, 2004; LLD hc, 2017)

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  Louis Agassiz

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  Danielle Allen

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  Alan Dershowitz

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  Paul Farmer

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  Jason Furman

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  John Kenneth Galbraith

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  Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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  Asa Gray

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  Seamus Heaney

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  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

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  William James

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  Timothy Leary

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  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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  James Russell Lowell

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  Greg Mankiw

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  Steven Pinker

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  Michael Porter

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  Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

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  Amartya Sen

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  B. F. Skinner

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  Lawrence Summers

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  Cass Sunstein

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  Elizabeth Warren

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  Cornel West

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  E. O. Wilson

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  Shing-Tung Yau

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  Robert Reich

See also

In Spanish: Universidad de Harvard para niños