Harvard College

Harvard College is the undergraduate college within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. It offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree programs. The college is very selective, accepting only a small number of students each year. Students can join many clubs and activities, and most live on campus. First-year students stay in or near Harvard Yard, while older students live in other campus housing.

History

Main article: History of Harvard University

Harvard College started in 1636 by leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named after a minister named John Harvard, who gave the school books and money. The school’s first teacher was Nathaniel Eaton, but he was let go because he was too strict.

Harvard has grown over time. In the late 1700s, it began giving higher-level degrees and became a university. Today, Harvard College handles admitting students, housing, and sports, while the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences does the teaching.

Admissions

Admission to Harvard College depends on a student’s schoolwork, activities, and personal qualities. For the class starting in 2025, Harvard received many applications and accepted a small number of students. Students who joined in 2023 had strong scores on the SAT and ACT tests. The average high school grade point average (GPA) was very high.

Harvard has an early action program for students starting in 2016. Harvard works to make college affordable for everyone. Families earning less than $85,000 a year pay nothing to send their child to Harvard. Families earning up to $150,000 pay a small amount. This help is based on what a family needs.

Academics

Harvard College offers a four-year program where students learn many different subjects. They usually take four classes each semester and graduate after four years.

In their second year, most students choose a main subject to study, called a major. Some also pick a smaller focus called a minor. They can combine two majors or design their own special major. Many majors lead to a Bachelor of Arts degree, while some lead to a Bachelor of Science degree. Students can also work towards a special five-year program that leads to both a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard and a Master of Music from a music school.

All students must take classes in many different areas, like art, ethics, history, and science, as well as classes in languages, writing, and math. This helps them learn a little about everything while studying one subject in depth. Some classes have many students, but most classes are small, with about 12 students each. Students can also get help and support from teachers for their research projects.

Student life

House system

Most students at Harvard College live on campus. In their first year, they stay in rooms near Harvard Yard. After that, they move into special buildings called houses. These houses are not just places to live—they help students feel connected and part of a community.

Each house has special adults called faculty deans who help look after the students. There are also other helpful people, like tutors and graduate students, who work with the students. The houses were created a long time ago to make sure all students could live together on campus and build friendships.

Student government

Main article: Harvard Undergraduate Council

Harvard used to have a student government called the Harvard Undergraduate Council. But in 2022, students voted to change it, and now it is called the Harvard Undergraduate Association.

Athletics

Main article: Harvard Crimson

Harvard has many sports teams that compete in the Ivy League. They have 42 different teams! Every two years, Harvard and Yale have a special track and field competition against Oxford and Cambridge. Harvard and Yale also have a big football game each year called “The Game.” Harvard is known for its strong rowing, ice hockey, squash, and fencing teams.

The school color is crimson, and this is also the name of the sports teams and the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

Fight songs

Harvard has several songs that students sing at sports games. Two popular ones are “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard” and “Harvardiana”. The Harvard University Band plays these songs at games.

Student organizations

Main article: List of Harvard College undergraduate organizations

Harvard has over 450 groups that students can join. One group, the Phillips Brooks House Association, helps connect all these different student groups.

Notable alumni

See also: List of Harvard University people

Harvard College has many famous graduates. Some well-known people who studied there include:

• Minister, author, and writer Cotton Mather (graduated in 1678)
• US presidents John Adams (1755), John Quincy Adams (1787), Theodore Roosevelt (1880), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1903), and John F. Kennedy (1940)
• Philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1821)
• Naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau (1837)
• US Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1861)
• Philosopher and mathematician Charles Sanders Peirce (1862)
• Author and activist Helen Keller (1904, Radcliffe College)
• Poet and literature Nobel Prize winner T. S. Eliot (1909)
• Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1925)
• Composer Leonard Bernstein (1939)
• US Secretary of State and peace Nobel Prize winner Henry Kissinger (1950)
• US Vice President and peace Nobel Prize winner Al Gore (1969)
• US Senate leader Chuck Schumer (1971)
• Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (1973, Radcliffe College)
• Philosopher and activist Cornel West (1973)
• US Attorney General Merrick Garland (1974)
• Federal Reserve leader Ben Bernanke (1975)
• US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (1976)
• Microsoft founder Bill Gates (1977)
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (1984)
• Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (2006)
• Basketball player Jeremy Lin (2010)