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{{Short description|Undergraduate college of Harvard University in Massachusetts}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2023}} {{Use American English|date=December 2023}}

factoids

|campus = Urbancollege.harvard.edu}}}}Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard College is Harvard University’s traditional undergraduate program, offering AB (Bachelor of Arts) and SB (Bachelor of Science) degrees. It is highly selective, with fewer than four percent of applicants being offered admission as of 2022.NEWS, Record-Low 4.59 Percent of Applicants Accepted to Harvard Class of 2022,www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/3/29/harvard-regular-admissions-202, 16 September 2019, The Harvard Crimson, 29 March 2018, 9 November 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201109012050/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/3/29/harvard-regular-admissions-2022/, dead, NEWS, Record-Low 4.5 Percent of Harvard College Applicants Accepted to Class of 2023,www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/3/29/2023-admit-numbers/, 16 September 2019, The Harvard Crimson, 29 March 2019, 12 November 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201112021052/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/3/29/2023-admit-numbers/, live, Harvard College students participate in over 450 extracurricular organizationsWEB, Student Activities,college.harvard.edu/life-at-harvard/student-activities, 7 December 2019, 24 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201024061830/https://college.harvard.edu/life-at-harvard/student-activities, live, and nearly all live on campus. First-year students reside in or near Harvard Yard and upperclass students reside in other on-campus housing.{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

History

File:Harvard_Old_College.jpg|thumb|An illustration of the first building at Harvard College prior to its construction by (Samuel Eliot Morison|Samuel E. Morison]]Clipping from The Harvard Bulletin, on discovery of southeast corner of original Harvard College building during subway excavations, 1910. Records of early Harvard buildings, 1710-1969, UAI 15.10.5, Box: 1, Folder: 8. Harvard University Archives)File:View of the ancient buildings belonging to Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass (NYPL b12349145-422857).jpg|thumb|An illustration of Harvard College during the colonial era ]]Harvard College was founded in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to having a single building, instructor, or student. Two years later, the college became home to North America’s first known printing press, carried by the ship {{ship||John of London|ship|2}}.WEB, The instrument behind New England’s first literary flowering, 8 March 2012,news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard’s-first-impressions/, Harvard University, 2014-01-18, 2016-07-11,news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions/," title="web.archive.org/web/20160711053519news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions/,">web.archive.org/web/20160711053519news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/harvard%E2%80%99s-first-impressions/, live, WEB, Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers, The First North American Printing Press,www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf, Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull, 2014-01-18, 2013-01-23,www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20130123223546www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20130123223546www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc/FarHorizons/Documents/EzekielRogers.pdf, live, Three years after its founding, on March 13, 1639, the college was renamed in honor of deceased Charlestown minister John Harvard (1607–1638) who had bequeathed to the school his entire library and half of his monetary estate.Harvard’s first Headmaster was Nathaniel Eaton (1610–1674); in 1639, he also became its first instructor to be dismissed, for overstrict discipline.Samuel Eliot Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636–1936 (1986)The school’s first students were graduated in 1642.The Harvard Indian College was established, with the capacity for four or five Native Americans, and in 1665 Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck ({{circa|1643}}–1666) “from the Wampanoag … did graduate from Harvard, the first Indian to do so in the colonial period.“Monaghan, E. J., 2005, p. 55, 59The University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, two of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the English-speaking world, have long been structured with individual colleges as part of the larger university and with each college including an association of scholars that shared room and board. Harvard’s founders may have envisioned it as the first in a series of sibling colleges replicating the Oxford and Cambridge model, which would eventually constitute a university, though no further colleges materialized in colonial era. The Indian College was active from 1640 to no later than 1693, but it was a minor addition not operated in federation with Harvard according to the English model. Harvard began granting higher degrees in the late eighteenth century, and it was increasingly styled Harvard University, even as Harvard College was increasingly thought of as the university’s undergraduate division in particular.Harvard College is currently responsible for undergraduate admissions, advising, housing, student life, athletics, and other undergraduate matters except instruction, which is the purview of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The body known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College retains its traditional name despite having governance of the entire university. Radcliffe College, established in 1879, originally paid Harvard faculty to repeat their lectures for women.BOOK, Sally, Schwager, Taking up the Challenge: The Origins of Radcliffe, Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, 1403960984, 87–115, Since the 1970s, Harvard has been responsible for undergraduate matters for women, though women’s Harvard diplomas were countersigned by the President of Radcliffe until a final merger in 1999.REPORT, Radcliffe Enters Historic Merger With Harvard, The Harvard Crimson,www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard, May 6, 2016, October 11, 2017,www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/," title="web.archive.org/web/20171011031437www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/,">web.archive.org/web/20171011031437www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/, live,

Admissions

File:Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University.JPG|thumb|Massachusetts Hall, built in 1720, is the oldest surviving building on the Harvard campus.]]Admission is based on academic prowess, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities. For the undergraduate class of 2025, Harvard had 57,435 applications and accepted 1,968 (3.4% acceptance rate). For the undergraduate class of 2023, the middle 50% range of SAT scores of enrolled freshmen was 710–770 for reading and writing and 750–800 for math, while the middle 50% range of the ACT composite score was 33–35.The average high school grade point average (GPA) was 4.18. The acceptance rate for transfer students has been approximately 1%.WEB, Menz, Petey, The Real 1%: Harvard Admits 15 Transfer Students,www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/6/21/transfer-admissions-one-percent/#:~:text=From%20a%20pool%20of%201%2C448,juniors%20at%20approximately%201%20percent., The Harvard Crimson, 14 June 2021, 9 April 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210409190443/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/6/21/transfer-admissions-one-percent/#:~:text=From%20a%20pool%20of%201%2C448,juniors%20at%20approximately%201%20percent., live, Harvard consistently ranks first in the enrollment of recipients of the National Merit National Merit $2,500 Scholarship,500 Scholarship; it enrolled 207 such scholars in the Class of 2022.WEB, NMSC 2018–2019 Annual Report,www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/annual_report.pdf?gid=2&pgid=61, National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Harvard College ended its early admissions program in 2007, but for the class of 2016 and beyond, an early action program was reintroduced.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/education/12harvard.html, Harvard Ends Early Admission, The New York Times, Alan, Finder, Karen W., Arenson, September 12, 2006, August 1, 2020, November 21, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201121084219/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/education/12harvard.html, live, The freshman class that entered in the fall of 2017 was the first to be majority (50.8%) nonwhite.NEWS, Fernandes, Deirdre,www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/02/harvard-incoming-class-majority-nonwhite/5yOoqrsQ4SePRRNFemuQ2M/story.html, The majority of Harvard’s incoming class is nonwhite, The Boston Globe, August 3, 2017, August 4, 2017, November 11, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201111234150/https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/02/harvard-incoming-class-majority-nonwhite/5yOoqrsQ4SePRRNFemuQ2M/story.html, live, A federal lawsuit alleges that Harvard’s admissions policies discriminate against Asian Americans, who tend to be overrepresented among students with high academic achievement.NEWS, Harvard’s Ongoing Anti-Asian-American Micro-Aggression,www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/harvard-admissions-policies-unfair-to-asian-americans/, 2018-07-17, National Review, 2018-06-19, 2019-03-23,web.archive.org/web/20190323102430/https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/harvard-admissions-policies-unfair-to-asian-americans/, live, NEWS, A lawsuit reveals how peculiar Harvard’s definition of merit is,www.economist.com/news/united-states/21744884-universitys-reputation-fairness-and-impartiality-emerges-bruised-lawsuit-reveals, 2018-07-17, The Economist, 2018-07-17,web.archive.org/web/20180717124757/https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21744884-universitys-reputation-fairness-and-impartiality-emerges-bruised-lawsuit-reveals, live, A 2019 district court decision in the case (which has since been appealed) found no evidence of explicit racial bias but did not rule out a small amount of implicit bias.NEWS, Harvard Won a Key Affirmative Action Battle. But the War’s Not Over.,www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/harvard-admissions-lawsuit.html, December 14, 2019, The New York Times, October 2, 2019, December 14, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191214213823/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/harvard-admissions-lawsuit.html, live, Harvard has implemented more implicit bias training for its admissions staff in accordance with the court’s recommendations.WEB,www.wbur.org/radioboston/2019/10/02/harvard-case-reactions, Local Reaction To The Ruling In The Harvard Admission’s Case, 2020-08-01, 2019-12-29,web.archive.org/web/20191229221404/https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2019/10/02/harvard-case-reactions, live, NEWS, In Wake of Admissions Lawsuit Decision, Khurana Agrees Harvard Must Become Aware of Biases,www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/23/khurana-admissions-decision/, 29 December 2019, The Crimson, 23 October 2019, 1 August 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200801123811/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/23/khurana-admissions-decision/, live, In addition, Harvard’s admissions preference for children of alumni, employees, and donors has been criticized as favoring white and wealthy candidates.NEWS,www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/golden3.htm, Admissions Preferences Given to Alumni Children Draws Fire, Golden, Daniel, January 15, 2003, The Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2020, August 12, 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180812112300/https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/golden3.htm, live, BOOK, The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates, Golden, Daniel, 2006, 1-4000-9796-7,archive.org/details/priceofadmission00gold_0, WEB, Todd, Sarah, A new statistic reveals the startling privilege of white kids admitted to Harvard,qz.com/1713033/at-harvard-43-percent-of-white-students-are-legacies-or-athletes/, Quartz, 24 September 2019, 19 June 2020, 12 November 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201112015718/https://qz.com/1713033/at-harvard-43-percent-of-white-students-are-legacies-or-athletes/, live, The median family income of Harvard students is $168,800, with 53% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 20% from the bottom 60%.NEWS, Aisch, Gregor, Buchanan, Larry, Cox, Amanda, Quealy, Kevin, Economic diversity and student outcomes at Harvard,www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/harvard-university, 9 August 2020, The New York Times, 18 January 2017, 9 December 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201209172714/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/harvard-university, live, As of 2019, Harvard College tuition was about $48,000 and total costs about $70,000.However, Harvard offers one of the most generous financial aid programs in the United States, with need-blind admission and 100% of financial need met for all students.Families with incomes below $85,000 pay nothing for their children to attend, while families earning up to $150,000 pay no more than 10% of their annual incomes.Financial aid is solely based on need; no merit or athletic scholarships are offered.WEB,college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works, How Aid Works, December 8, 2019, December 12, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201212024808/https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works, live,

Academics

The four-year, full-time undergraduate program has a liberal arts and sciences focus.WEB,carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/view_institution.php?unit_id=166027, Carnegie Classifications – Harvard University, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, August 28, 2010, August 7, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200807163149/https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/view_institution.php?unit_id=166027, live, To graduate in the usual four years, undergraduates normally take four courses per semester.WEB,handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/bachelor-arts-and-bachelor-science-degrees, The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science Degrees, Harvard College, December 8, 2019, December 7, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191207214304/https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/bachelor-arts-and-bachelor-science-degrees, live, Midway through the second year, most undergraduates join one of fifty academic majors; many also declare a minor (secondary field). Joint majors (combining the requirements of two majors) and special majors (of the student’s own design) are also possible.WEB,college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Harvard College, December 16, 2019, October 5, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211005022949/https://college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences, live, Most majors lead to the Artium Baccalaureus (AB). Some award the Scientiae Baccalaureus (SB). There are also dual degree programs permitting students to earn both a Harvard AB and a Master of Music (MM) from either the New England Conservatory of Music or the Berklee College of Music over five years.WEB,college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences/dual-degree-music-programs, Dual Degree Music Programs, Harvard College, December 16, 2019, December 7, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191207214311/https://college.harvard.edu/academics/liberal-arts-sciences/dual-degree-music-programs, live, In most majors, an honors degree requires advanced coursework and/or a senior thesis.WEB,isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095,isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095," title="wayback.archive-it.org/all/20101205233358isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095,">wayback.archive-it.org/all/20101205233358isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&pageid=icb.page343095, dead, December 5, 2010, Academic Information: The Concentration Requirement, Handbook for Students, Harvard College, August 28, 2010, mdy-all, Harvard College students must take a course in each of four General Education categories (Aesthetics and Culture; Ethics and Civics; Histories, Societies, Individuals; Science and Technology in Society)WEB,gened.fas.harvard.edu/requirements, Requirements, November 22, 2019, December 13, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191213174126/https://gened.fas.harvard.edu/requirements, live, as well as a course in each of three academic divisions (Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; Science and Engineering and Applied Science). They must also fulfill foreign language, expository writing, and quantitative reasoning with data requirements.Exposure to a range of intellectual areas in parallel with pursuit of a chosen major in depth fulfills the injunction of former Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell that liberal education should produce “men who know a little of everything and something well”.{{refn|BOOK, Harry R., Lewis, Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Education Have a Future?,books.google.com/books?id=4vnSP2RMjMgC&pg=PA48, 2007, PublicAffairs, 9781586485375, 48, }}Some introductory courses have large enrollments, but most courses are small: the median class size is 12 students.WEB,college.harvard.edu/resources/faq/how-large-are-classes, How large are classes?, Harvard College, December 16, 2019, April 14, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210414135247/https://college.harvard.edu/resources/faq/how-large-are-classes, live, Funding and faculty mentorship for research is available in all disciplines for undergraduates at all levels.WEB,college.harvard.edu/academics/research, Research, Harvard College, December 16, 2019, December 7, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191207214303/https://college.harvard.edu/academics/research, live,

Student life

House system

File:HarvardYard.jpg|thumb|alt=grass under trees with some buildings in the background|Harvard College’s freshman dormitories in Harvard YardHarvard YardFile:Lowell House belltower.JPG|thumb|Lowell HouseLowell HouseNearly all undergraduates live on campus, for the first year in dormitories in or near Harvard Yard and later in the upperclass houses—administrative subdivisions of the college as well as living quarters, providing a sense of community in what might otherwise be a socially incohesive and administratively daunting university environment. Each house is presided over by two faculty deans, while its Allston Burr Resident Dean—usually a junior faculty member—supervises undergraduates’ day-to-day academic and disciplinary well-being.The faculty deans and resident dean are assisted by other members of the Senior Common Room—select graduate students (tutors), faculty, and university officials brought into voluntary association with each house. The faculty deans and resident dean reside in the house, as do resident tutors. Terms like tutor, Senior Common Room, and Junior Common Room reflect a debt to the constituent college systems at Oxford and Cambridge from which Harvard’s system took inspiration.WEB, Harvard College Office of Residential Life, History of the House System, 2008,www.orl.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k11447&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup17718, 2008-04-20, {{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}The houses were created by President Lowell in the 1930s to combat what he saw as pernicious social stratification engendered by the private, off-campus living arrangements of many undergraduates at that time. Lowell’s solution was to provide every man—Harvard was male-only at the time—with on-campus accommodations throughout his time at the college; Lowell also saw great benefits in other features of the house system, such as the relaxed discussions—academic or otherwise—which he hoped would take place among undergraduates and members of the Senior Common Room over meals in each house’s dining hall.BOOK, Morison, Samuel Eliot, Three Centuries of Harvard: 1636–1936,archive.org/details/threecenturiesof00mori, registration, 1936, 476–478, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, How students come to live in particular houses has changed greatly over time. Under the original “draft” system, masters (now called “faculty deans“) negotiated privately over the assignment of students.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} From the 1960s to the mid-1990s, each student ranked the houses according to personal preference, with a lottery resolving the oversubscription of more popular houses. Today, groups of one to eight freshmen form a block which is then assigned, essentially at random, to an upperclass house.The nine “River Houses” are south of Harvard Yard, near the Charles River: Adams, Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland, Leverett, Lowell, Mather, Quincy, and Winthrop. Their construction was financed largely by a 1928 gift from Yale alumnus Edward Harkness, who, frustrated in his attempts to initiate a similar project at his alma mater, eventually offered $11 million to Harvard.{{efn|“Gifts – 1928–1929” (Press release). Harvard University News Office. June 20, 1929. HU 37.5, Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, Massachusetts “This figure [of gifts and legacies received during the year] includes $5,444,000 received from E. S. Harkness to defray the expenses of constructing the first Harvard houses.“Harkness’ gift was anonymous, at least at first. “I have forgotten the gentleman’s name,” Harvard’s President Lowell told the faculty in making the initial announcement. “I told him I would.“{{refn|BOOK, The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, 1686–1933, John B. Fox Jr., 2007, 142, President and Fellows of Harvard College, }}}}MAGAZINE, Harkness and History, Harvard Magazine, November 2013,harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/harkness-and-history, 11 November 2015, 27 May 2015,harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/harkness-and-history," title="web.archive.org/web/20150527210112harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/harkness-and-history,">web.archive.org/web/20150527210112harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/harkness-and-history, live, Construction of the first houses began in 1929,BOOK, Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University in the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, Bethell, John, 1998, Cambridge, 102–103, 9780674377332, registration,archive.org/details/harvardobservedi00beth/page/102, but the land on which they were built had been assembled decades before. After graduating from Harvard in 1895, Edward W. Forbes found himself inspired by the Oxford and Cambridge systems during two years of study in England; on returning to the United States he set out to acquire the land between Harvard Yard and the Charles River that was not already owned by Harvard or an associated entity. By 1918, that ambition had been largely fulfilled and the assembled land transferred to Harvard.Lowe, Charles U. “The Forbes Story of the Harvard Riverside Associates: How Harvard Acquired the Land on which Lowell House was Built”, February 20, 2002.lowell.harvard.edu {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409220638lowell.harvard.edu/house/Forbes/new_forbes.shtml |date=2010-04-09 }}Sacks, Benjamin J. “Harvard’s ‘Constructed Utopia’ and the Culture of Deception: the Expansion toward the Charles River, 1902–1932”, The New England Quarterly 84.2 (June 2011): 286–317.weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418074458www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/TNEQ_a_00090|date=2019-04-18}}The three Quad Houses enjoy a residential setting half a mile northwest of Harvard Yard. These were built by Radcliffe College and housed Radcliffe College students until the Harvard and Radcliffe residential systems merged in 1977.Sofen, Adam A. “Radcliffe Enters Historic Merger With Harvard, April 21, 1999.weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717064757www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/1999/4/21/radcliffe-enters-historic-merger-with-harvard/|date=2011-07-17}} They are: Cabot, Currier, and Pforzheimer House. A thirteenth house, Dudley Community, formerly called Dudley House, is nonresidential but fulfills the administrative and social functions provided to on-campus residents by the other twelve houses for undergraduate students living in the Dudley Co-op, many of the undergraduate students living off-campus (which are small in number), and the Visiting Undergraduate Students who study at Harvard for a term or year. Harvard’s residential houses are paired with Yale’s residential colleges in sister relationships.

Student government

The Harvard Undergraduate Council (UC) was the student government of Harvard College until it was abolished by a student referendum in 2022.WEB, Harvard Students Vote Overwhelmingly to Dissolve Undergraduate Council in Favor of New Student Government {{!, News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/4/1/uc-referendum-results-yes-wins/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=www.thecrimson.com}} It was replaced by the Harvard Undergraduate Association (HUA).WEB, Estabine and Johnson Elected as First Co-Presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association {{!, News {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/5/1/hua-election-results-2022/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}

Athletics

File:Bright Hockey Center, Harvard.JPG|thumb|The Cornell–Harvard hockey rivalryCornell–Harvard hockey rivalryFile:Harvard stadium 2009h.JPG|thumb|Harvard Stadium, home of Harvard Crimson and the Boston CannonsBoston CannonsThe Harvard Crimson fields 42 intercollegiate sports teams in the NCAA Division I Ivy League, more than any other NCAA Division I college in the country.WEB,www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh, Harvard : Women’s Rugby Becomes 42nd Varsity Sport at Harvard University, Gocrimson.com, August 9, 2012, July 5, 2013, September 29, 2013,www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh," title="web.archive.org/web/20130929092318www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh,">web.archive.org/web/20130929092318www.gocrimson.com/sports/fh/2012-13/releases/2012080853mnlh, dead, Every two years, the Harvard and Yale track and field teams come together to compete against a combined Oxford and Cambridge team in the oldest continuous international amateur competition in the world.WEB, Yale and Harvard Defeat Oxford/Cambridge Team,www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html, Yale University Athletics, September 13, 2011,www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20111013022655www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html,">web.archive.org/web/20111013022655www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-track/recaps/041009aac.html, October 13, 2011, dead, As with other Ivy League universities, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships.WEB,www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html, The Harvard Guide: Financial Aid at Harvard, Harvard University, September 2, 2006, August 29, 2010,www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20060902182731www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html,">web.archive.org/web/20060902182731www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/students/stu6.html, September 2, 2006, Harvard’s athletic rivalry with Yale is intense in every sport in which they meet, coming to a climax each fall in the annual football meeting, which dates back to 1875 and is usually called simply “The Game”. While Harvard’s football team is no longer one of the best as it was in football’s early days, both Harvard and Yale have influenced the way the game is played. In 1903, Harvard Stadium introduced a new era into football with the first permanent reinforced concrete stadium of its kind in the country.WEB,www.newsdial.com/sports/football/football-history.html, History of American Football, Newsdial.com, August 29, 2010, September 25, 2010,newsdial.com/sports/football/football-history.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20100925234346newsdial.com/sports/football/football-history.html,">web.archive.org/web/20100925234346newsdial.com/sports/football/football-history.html, live, Nelson, David M., Anatomy of a Game: Football, the Rules, and the Men Who Made the Game, 1994, pp. 127–128Even older than Harvard{{ndash}}Yale football rivalry, the Harvard–Yale Regatta is held each June on the Thames River in eastern Connecticut. The Harvard crew is typically considered to be one of the top teams in the country in rowing. Other sports in which Harvard teams are particularly strong are men’s ice hockey, squash, and men’s and women’s fencing. Harvard’s men’s ice hockey team won the school’s first NCAA Championship in any team sport in 1989, and Harvard also won the Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships in 2003. Harvard was the first Ivy League school to win an NCAA Championship in a women’s sport when its women’s lacrosse team won in 1990.MAGAZINE,harvardmagazine.com/2015/06/25-year-anniversary-womens-lacrosse-national-championship, Teammates for Life, Harvard Magazine, June 5, 2015, December 15, 2019, December 15, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191215173700/https://harvardmagazine.com/2015/06/25-year-anniversary-womens-lacrosse-national-championship, live, The school color is crimson, which is also the name of Harvard’s sports teams and the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. The color was unofficially adopted (in preference to magenta) by an 1875 vote of the student body, although the association with some form of red can be traced back to 1858, when Charles William Eliot, a young graduate student who would later become Harvard’s 21st and longest-serving president (1869–1909), bought red bandanas for his crew so they could more easily be distinguished by spectators at a regatta.{{refnwww.thecrimson.com/article/2002/4/11/harvard-explained-why-is-crimson-harvards/}}

Fight songs

File:Harvard Rowing Crew at Henley 2004 -2.JPG|thumb|Harvard men’s eight crew at Henley in 2004; founded in 1852, the Harvard–Yale RegattaHarvard–Yale RegattaHarvard has several fight songs, the most played of which, especially at football, are “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” and “Harvardiana”. While “Fair Harvard” is actually the alma mater, “Ten Thousand Men” is better known outside the university. The Harvard University Band performs these fight songs and other cheers at football and hockey games. These were parodied by Harvard alumnus Tom Lehrer in his song “Fight Fiercely, Harvard”, which he composed while an undergraduate.

Athletics history

By the late 19th century, critics of intercollegiate athletics, including Harvard president Charles William Eliot, believed that sports had become over-commercialized and took students away from their studies. They called for limitations on all sports. This opposition prompted Harvard’s athletic committee to target “minor” sports—basketball and hockey—for reform in order to deflect attention from the major sports: football, baseball, track, and crew. The committee made it difficult for the basketball team to operate by denying financial assistance and limiting the number of overnight away games in which the team could participate.

Student organizations

Harvard has more than 450 undergraduate student organizations.WEB, List of Student Organizations,osl.fas.harvard.edu/student-organizations, Harvard College, 13 January 2016, The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 12 January 2016,osl.fas.harvard.edu/student-organizations," title="web.archive.org/web/20160112221123osl.fas.harvard.edu/student-organizations,">web.archive.org/web/20160112221123osl.fas.harvard.edu/student-organizations, live, The Phillips Brooks House Association acts as an umbrella service organization.

Notable alumni

{{See also|List of Harvard University people}}Cotton Mather.jpg|Minister, author, and pamphleteer Cotton Mather (AB,{{nbsp}}1678)US Navy 031029-N-6236G-001 A painting of President John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd president of the United States, by Asher B. Durand (1767-1845)-crop.jpg|US president John AdamsWEB, Barzilay, Karen N., The Education of John Adams,www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/the-education-of-john-adams-2007-06-01, Massachusetts Historical Society, 20 September 2020, 2021-07-26,web.archive.org/web/20210726202845/https://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/the-education-of-john-adams-2007-06-01, live, (AB,{{nbsp}}1755)John Quincy Adams.jpg|US president John Quincy AdamsWEB, John Quincy Adams,www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-quincy-adams/, The White House, 21 September 2020, 5 October 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211005104815/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-quincy-adams/, live, WEB, Hogan, Margaret A., John Quincy Adams: Life Before the Presidency, 4 October 2016,millercenter.org/president/jqadams/life-before-the-presidency, Miller Center, 21 September 2020, 12 August 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210812123606/https://millercenter.org/president/jqadams/life-before-the-presidency, live, (AB,{{nbsp}}1787)Ralph Waldo Emerson ca1857 retouched.jpg |Philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (AB,{{nbsp}}1821)Benjamin D. Maxham - Henry David Thoreau - Restored - greyscale - straightened.jpg |Naturalist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau (AB,{{nbsp}}1837)Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr circa 1930-edit.jpg|US supreme court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (AB,{{nbsp}}1861)Charles Sanders Peirce.jpg |Philosopher and mathematician Charles Sanders Peirce (AB,{{nbsp}}1862)President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904.jpg|US president and Nobel laureate in peace Theodore RooseveltWEB, Theodore Roosevelt - Biographical,www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/roosevelt/biographical/, Nobel Foundation, 21 September 2020, 5 September 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210905033556/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/roosevelt/biographical/, live, (AB,{{nbsp}}1880)FRoosevelt.png|US president Franklin D. RooseveltWEB, Leuchtenburg, William E., Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life Before the Presidency, 4 October 2016,millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/life-before-the-presidency, Miller Center, 21 September 2020, 13 August 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210813025557/https://millercenter.org/president/fdroosevelt/life-before-the-presidency, live, (AB,{{nbsp}}1903)Helen Keller circa 1920 - restored.jpg|Author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller (AB,{{nbsp}}1904, Radcliffe College)Thomas Stearns Eliot by Lady Ottoline Morrell (1934).jpg|Poet and Nobel laureate in literature T. S. Eliot (AB,{{nbsp}}1909)JROppenheimer-LosAlamos.jpg|Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (AB,{{nbsp}}1925)Leonard Bernstein by Jack Mitchell.jpg|Composer Leonard Bernstein (AB,{{nbsp}}1939)John F. Kennedy, White House color photo portrait.jpg|US president John F. KennedyWEB, J. Selverstone, Marc, John F. Kennedy: Life Before the Presidency, 4 October 2016,millercenter.org/president/kennedy/life-before-the-presidency, Miller Center, 21 September 2020, 12 August 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210812190501/https://millercenter.org/president/kennedy/life-before-the-presidency, live, (AB,{{nbsp}}1940)Henry Kissinger Shankbone Metropolitan Opera 2009.jpg|US secretary of state and Nobel laureate in peace Henry Kissinger (AB,{{nbsp}}1950)Al Gore, Vice President of the United States, official portrait 1994.jpg|US vice president and Nobel laureate in peace Al Gore (AB,{{nbsp}}1969)Chuck Schumer official photo.jpg|US senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (AB,{{nbsp}}1971)Benazir Bhutto.jpg|11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (AB,{{nbsp}}1973, Radcliffe College)Cornel West by Gage Skidmore.jpg|Philosopher, political activist, and social critic Cornel West (AB,{{nbsp}}1973)Merrick Garland.jpg|US attorney general Merrick Garland (AB,{{nbsp}}1974)Ben Bernanke official portrait.jpg|Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke (AB,{{nbsp}}1975)Official roberts CJ.jpg|US supreme court chief justice John Roberts (AB,{{nbsp}}1976)Bill Gates June 2015.jpg|Microsoft founder Bill Gates (1977){{efn|name=“nodegree“|Nominal Harvard College class year: did not graduate}}Secretary Blinken’s Official Department Photo.jpg|US secretary of state Antony Blinken (AB,{{nbsp}}1984)Mark Zuckerberg F8 2019 Keynote (32830578717) (cropped).jpg|Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (2006){{efn|name=“nodegree“}}Jeremy Lin 2012 Shankbone (cropped).JPG|Basketball player Jeremy Lin (AB,{{nbsp}}2010)

Footnotes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

Further reading

• BOOK, King, M., Moses King, 1884, Harvard and Its Surroundings, {{google books, xAhwXaU5nwoC, y, |location=Cambridge|publisher=Moses King}}
• BOOK, Monaghan, E. J., 2005, Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America, Boston, University of Massachusetts Press, UMass Press,

External links

• {{Commons inline|Harvard University}}
• EB1911, Harvard College, x,

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