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Harvard at a Glance

  • Harvard at a Glance
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Harvard at a Glance

Established

1636

Faculty

About 2,100 faculty members and more than 10,000 academic appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals

Students

Harvard College – About 6,700
Graduate and professional students – About 14,500
Total – About 21,000

School Color

Crimson Specs

Living Alumni

More than 323,000, over 271,000 in the U.S., nearly 52,000 in some 201 other countries. See the alumni website for more information.

Nobel Laureates

44 current and former faculty members

Motto

Veritas (Latin for “truth”)

Real Estate Holdings

5,076 acres

Library Collection

About 17 million volumes

Faculties, Schools, and an Institute

Harvard University is made up of 11 principal academic units – ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The ten faculties oversee schools and divisions that offer courses and award academic degrees.

UNDERGRADUATE COST AND FINANCIAL AID

Families with students on scholarship pay an average of $11,500 annually toward the cost of a Harvard education. More than 60 percent of Harvard College students receive scholarship aid, and the average grant this year is $40,000.  

Since 2007, Harvard’s investment in financial aid has climbed by more than 70 percent, from $96.6 million to $166 million per year.

During the 2012-2013 academic year, students from families with incomes below $65,000, and with assets typical for that income level, will generally pay nothing toward the cost of attending Harvard College.  Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from 0 to 10 percent of income, depending on individual circumstances.  Significant financial aid also is available for families above those income ranges.

Harvard College launched a “net price calculator” into which applicants and their families can enter their financial data to estimate the net price they will be expected to pay for a year at Harvard.  Please use the calculator to estimate the net cost of attendance.

The total 2011-2012 cost of attending Harvard College without financial aid is $36,305 for tuition and $52,652 for tuition, room, board and fees combined.

University Professors

22 'individuals of distinction'

Harvard University President


 Drew Gilpin Faust

University Income (Fiscal Year 2010)

$3.7 billion

University Expenses (Fiscal Year 2010)

$3.7 billion

Endowment (Fiscal Year 2011)

$32 billion

Harvard University Shields

Harvard Shield
Harvard Shield Wreath

Naming

The name Harvard comes from the college’s first benefactor, the young minister John Harvard of Charlestown. Upon his death in 1638, he left his library and half his estate to the institution established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

More Information

These numbers come from many sources, including the Harvard University Fact Book and the Annual Financial Report to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College.

  1. Text of Zakaria’s Commencement address
  2. Zakaria offers parting words
  3. A Class Day doubleheader
  4. Lessons for the lucky few
  5. Odes to joy
  6. In full regalia, and ready to regale
  1. Text of Zakaria’s Commencement address
  2. Ahead of the learning curve
  3. Often, we are what we were
  4. The whys of religion vs. evolution
  5. Sharing the Harvard experience
  6. Zakaria offers parting words
Experience 375 years of Harvard in 2.5 minutes

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