Harvard University
Those who join our community—to learn, research, teach, work, and grow—join nearly four centuries of students and scholars in the pursuit of truth, knowledge, and a better world.
Our people are what make Harvard special. Through continued efforts in inclusion and belonging, Harvard has built a community comprising many backgrounds, cultures, races, identities, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and values.
Explore data about our community with the Harvard Fact Book.
A group of graduating students in Harvard Yard
- 24,596 undergraduate and graduate students
- 20,667 faculty and staff
- 400,000+ alumni worldwide
- 35 million+ learners through Harvard Online
On October 28, 1636, Harvard, the first college in the American colonies, was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 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 estate, but in 1721, Thomas Hollis began the now standard practice of requiring that a donation be used for a specific purpose when he donated money for “a Divinity Professor, to read lectures in the Halls to the students.”
