Harvard University was founded in 1636, making it the oldest school of
higher education in the United States. Harvard tops many lists of best
universities in the United States for its distinguished faculty and
alumni, strong research and academic programs, often beating out or
tying with Princeton. Eight Presidents of the United States are counted
among the esteemed alumni of Harvard University.
Harvard’s total undergraduate enrollment is 6,400 students, making it
just over Princeton’s size. Like Princeton, Harvard is a private,
four-year liberal arts college that follows a semester system. Harvard’s
academic calendar starts in late August and continues until the end of
May.
Academic Achievement
Harvard’s admission process is a very difficult one, requiring top SAT
or ACT scores, and grade point averages ranking accepted applicants at
the very tops of their classes. Only about 6 percent of applicants are
admitted to Harvard.
With a student to faculty ration of just seven students to one faculty
member, students will receive one-on-one attention and have a chance to
build strong relationships with their professors. Harvard is home to
eleven faculties of study, which include a wide variety of majors and a
high level of research activity. Harvard also has many graduate
programs, including a business school and a law school.
Harvard boasts many Nobel laureates in its faculty (both present and
former), and has an impressive list of notable alumni (including eight
former presidents), and a high record for educating future billionaires.
In the medical field, Harvard is home to many researchers who have made
incredible strides toward stopping diseases.
Bang For Your Buck
Tuition prices at Harvard are very high, at about $40,000 per year for
tuition alone. Add room and board to that and the price jumps to $52,000
to $56,000 - a price that’s hard to justify for most people. However,
60 percent of Harvard’s students receive financial aid, and the average
scholarship received is about $40,000, which covers the school’s
tuition. The average that an individual student pays per year is about
$17,000, which is a more manageable price.
Harvard’s graduation and retention rates are very high, and employers
will rank Harvard graduates among their top candidates, meaning this is
an investment that will likely pay off.
Social Scene
Freshmen live in dorms before moving to one of the twelve houses on
campus. About 97 percent of students remain living on campus for all
four years of their time at Harvard. As a somewhat larger school, these
individual houses help create smaller, more cohesive communities within
the university. Harvard has a variety of activities, like clubs,
religious groups, political groups, final clubs, and other leadership
groups.
Harvard has given a special focus to the arts, both visual and
performing, with Lowell House Opera, several choirs and a cappella
groups, bands, and theater groups. Several publications are created at
Harvard, including the Crimson, the oldest daily school newspaper in the
nation, and a television channel.
Sports are an important part of student life, with forty-one varsity
athletic teams, and about one in ten students on a team. As part of the
Ivy League, Harvard has a famous rivalry with Yale, another top private
university. The two schools hold an annual football game around the
Thanksgiving holiday, which draws intense rivalries and helps build
strong community ties.
Location, location, location!
Cambridge, Massachusetts is a midsized city next to Boston, placing it
in a prime location for college students. As one of several colleges in
the area, including MIT, there are many college-aged people around,
making for a fun and diverse environment. In fact, Cambridge is an
incredibly diverse region, both economically and racially, and was named
one of the most liberal cities in the United States (and was the first
to legalize gay marriage in the nation).
