Harvard University

Harvard was founded in 1636, only 16 years after the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, making it the oldest institute of higher learning that is still functioning in the United States. Harvard was initially created with the purpose of training clergymen and Native Americans (to act as ministers within their tribes), but it would break ties with its religious roots as it continued to grow. Between 1800 and 1870, Harvard went through the process of privatization, in which the Board of Overseers was completely replaced by elite Harvard alumni. Into the 1900s, Harvard President Charles William Eliot changed the educational model at the university. He introduced smaller classes, electives, and entrance exams. These changes would influence the structure of education at both the secondary and college level throughout the nation. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Harvard introduced a series of anti-semitic measures to limit the number of Jews accepted to the university. A Jewish quota was introduced under the guise of decreasing antisemitism. Harvard’s discriminatory policies were partly responsible for the founding of Boston College in 1863, and Brandeis University in 1948. During the years following World War II, Harvard sought out students from more diverse demographic pools, and by the 1960s, the ethnic and socio-economic makeup had changed. Harvard remained predominantly male until the late 1970s when admissions of female students gradually increased. Harvard faced brief controversy in 2006 over comments made by then-President Lawrence H. Summers. During a conference on the position of women and minorities in science and engineering, Summers claimed that boys outperform girls in science because of biological differences, and downplayed the effect of sex bias in appointments to higher education. Summers resigned and Drew Gilpin Faust was selected to serve. She was the first female president in Harvard’s history. Due to Harvard’s storied history, it has a multitude of traditions. Harvard competes with Yale annually in football and in rowing, and has a friendly rivalry with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard boasts a 6% acceptance rate and an undergraduate class of approximately 7,000 students, remaining one of the most prestigious universities in the world.