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Everything about Harvard College totally explainedHarvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a private university in the United States, founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. The College is instructed by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which also instructs the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In accordance with the American norm, the College remains the heart of the University, and people often confuse the two; therefore, see Harvard University for more information relevant to life, academics, etc. at Harvard College. In 2006 The New York Times wrote that "the most prestigious college in the world, of course, is Harvard, and the gap between it and every other university is often underestimated. Colleges that emphasize teaching may well offer a better education than Harvard. But it still exerts a pull on teenagers that's unmatched."
History
The name Harvard College dates to 1636. In that year the New College, voted into theoretical existence two years earlier by the General Court of the colony, but still without a single building, teacher, or student, was named in honor of the deceased John Harvard, a minister from nearby Charlestown, who in his will had bequeathed to it his library and a sum of money. In the understanding of its members at the time, the name "Harvard College" probably referred to the first (as they foresaw it) of a number of colleges which would someday make up a university along the lines of Oxford or Cambridge. The American usage of the word college hadn't yet developed: to the founders of Harvard, a college was an association of teachers and scholars for education, room, and board. Only a university could examine for and grant degrees; nonetheless, unhampered by this technicality, Harvard graduated its first students in 1642. Twenty-three years later, in 1665, Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, "from the Wampanoag...did graduate from Harvard, the first Indian to do so in the colonial period" (Monaghan, E. J., 2005, p.55, 59). "His Latin address to the coroporation (New England Corporation), which begins, 'Honoratissimi benefactores' (Most honored benefactors), has been preserved. ( Gookin, as quoted in Monaghan, E. J., 2005, p.60).
But no further colleges were founded beside it; and as Harvard began to grant higher degrees in the late eighteenth century, people started to call it "Harvard University." "Harvard College" survived, nonetheless; in accordance with the newly-emerging American usage of the words, it was the undergraduate division of the university—which wasn't a collection of similar colleges, but a collection of unique schools, each teaching a different subject.
Harvard's principal governing board (which happens to be the oldest continuous corporation in The Americas) still goes by its original name of "The President and Fellows of Harvard College" even though it has charge of the entire university and the "fellows" today are simply external trustees such as those who govern most American educational bodies—not residential educators like the fellows of an Oxbridge college. In current Harvard parlance, this governing board is frequently referred to simply as The Harvard Corporation.
Academics
Admission
Harvard College is considered to be one of the top undergraduate colleges in the United States, and admission to it's highly desired. For the class of 2010, the College admitted 2,109 students out of 22,753 applicants for an overall admittance rate of 9.3%. The 2012 admissions pool was a record-setting 27,278 vying for admission into the pool of roughly 2,100 students, from which 1,948, or 7.1%, ultimately were accepted.
Many traditions around the College exist, including the superstitious belief that a person who touches the foot of the John Harvard statue during his campus visit is likely to be granted admission. Tour guides estimate that more than a thousand high school students touch the statue each year, the most popular location being the left foot. A few enterprising students kiss the statue, but this is generally not recommended since a popular undergraduate game is to urinate on that foot while drunk.
In March 2008, Harvard announced that no transfer applicants would be admitted for the next two academic years, in an effort to reduce overcrowding in the undergraduate residential House system. This controversial decision was announced after the academic year 2008-2009 transfer applications had already been submitted. Co-Master Mandana Sassanfar said that the House Masters has been discussing the issue of overcrowding since late 2007 and "decided it was more important to have enough housing for our own students first." This decision has been called by "rash," “outrageous,” and “heartbreaking” by transfer applicants and others at Harvard.
House system
Nearly all students at Harvard College live on campus. First-year students live in dormitories in or near Harvard Yard (see List of Harvard dormitories). Upperclass students live mainly in a system of twelve residential "Houses," which serve as administrative units of the College as well as dormitories. Each house is presided over by a "Master"—a senior faculty member who is responsible for guiding the social life and community of the House—and a " Resident Dean," who acts as dean of the students in the House in its administrative role.
The House system was instituted by Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell in the 1930s, although the number of Houses, their demographics, and the methods by which students are assigned to particular Houses have all changed drastically since the founding of the system. Funds for the Houses were donated, after much debate and controversy over the reforms, by Edward Harkness, a Yale graduate, who thus became the greatest benefactor to the university in Harvard history. At the same time, Harkness funded the development of Yale's very similar residential college system. (Harkness also donated funds to Phillips Exeter Academy, creating the Harkness plan of teaching around oval wooden tables.) Lowell modeled it on the system of constituent colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and the Houses borrow terminology from Oxford and Cambridge such as Junior Common Room (the set of undergraduates affiliated with a House) and Senior Common Room (the Master, Resident Dean, and other faculty members, advisors, and graduate students associated with the House). Non-faculty members of the Senior Common Room of a House are given the title "Tutor" and aid the students with day-to-day questions and concerns.
Nine of the Houses are situated south of Harvard Yard, near the busy commercial district of Harvard Square, along or close to the northern banks of the Charles River, and so are known colloquially as the River Houses. These are:
- Adams House, named for several alumni of that name, including U. S. President John Adams;
- Dunster House, named for Harvard's first President, Henry Dunster;
- Eliot House, named for Harvard President Charles William Eliot;
- Kirkland House, named for Harvard President John Thornton Kirkland;
- Leverett House, named for Harvard President John Leverett;
- Lowell House, said to be named for the Harvard-affiliated Lowell family in general (but the most obvious reference is to Abbott Lawrence Lowell);
- Mather House, named for Harvard President Increase Mather;
- Quincy House, named for Harvard President (and sometime mayor of Boston) Josiah Quincy III;
- Winthrop House, more officially called John Winthrop House, named for two famous men of that name: Massachusetts Bay Colony founder John Winthrop and his great-great-great-grandson John Winthrop, 2nd Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
The remainder of the residential Houses are located around Harvard's Quadrangle (or "the Quad," formerly the "Radcliffe Quadrangle"), in a more suburban residential neighborhood half a mile (800 m) northwest of Harvard Yard. These housed Radcliffe College students until Radcliffe merged its residential system with Harvard. They are:
Cabot House, previously called South House, renamed in 1983 for Harvard donors Thomas Dudley Cabot and Virginia Cabot;
Currier House, named for Radcliffe alumna Audrey Bruce Currier;
Pforzheimer House, often called PfoHo for short, previously called North House, renamed in 1995 for Harvard donors Carl and Carol Pforzheimer
There is a thirteenth House, Dudley House (External Link ), which is nonresidential but fulfills, for some graduate students and off-campus undergraduates (including members of the Dudley Co-op) the same administrative and social functions as the residential Houses do for undergraduates who live on campus. It is named after Thomas Dudley, who signed the charter of Harvard College when he was Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Tentative plans have been proposed for expanding the House system using land owned by Harvard in Allston, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from the River Houses. Suggestions include moving the Quadrangle Houses to Allston and building up to eight new Houses there. It hasn't yet been decided whether any of these proposals will be adopted.
Harvard's residential houses are paired with Yale's residential colleges in sister relationships; see the Harvard-Yale sister colleges article for more information.
Core curriculum
Harvard requires all undergraduates to fulfill "the core," which requires students to take courses in 7 of 11 academic areas (such as Moral Reasoning and Social Analysis); each concentration exempts students from four. In 2006, Harvard announced it would change this policy, making the academic areas broader, although it's unclear how and when the system will change.
Concentrations
Majors at Harvard College are known as concentrations. As of 2005, Harvard College offered 41 different concentrations:
Joint concentrations with a primary and secondary departmental focus are allowed by many departments provided the student can demonstrate how he/she intends to combine the subjects meaningfully. In April 2006, as part of a curricular review plan for College students, a Harvard faculty meeting approved for the first time the institution of secondary fields, known as minors at most other schools.
Other special concentrations include the Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative, a certification program in Neurosciences run jointly by the departments of Anthropology, Biochemical Sciences, Biology, Computer Science, History of Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology. In 2005, Harvard College and the New England Conservatory began offering a joint 5-year program for a combined Harvard Bachelor's degree and NEC Master of Arts.
Student organizations
Harvard has hundreds of student organizations. Every spring there's an "Arts First week," founded by John Lithgow during which arts and culture organizations show off performances, cook meals, or present other work; in 2005 over 40% of students participated in at least one Arts First event. Notable organizations include the student-run business organization Harvard Student Agencies, the daily newspaper The Harvard Crimson, the humor magazine the Harvard Lampoon, the a cappella groups the Din & Tonics and the Krokodiloes, and the public service umbrella organization the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA).
Media and campus publications
The Harvard Crimson is United States' second oldest daily college newspaper and is doordropped to student rooms.
The Harvard Advocate is the oldest continuously published college literary magazine. Famous past members include T. S. Eliot and Theodore Roosevelt. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was once Publisher.
The Harvard International Review, one of the most widely-distributed undergraduate journals in the world with 35,000 readers in more than 70 countries. The HIR regularly features prominent scholars and policymakers from around the globe.
The Harvard Lampoon, an undergraduate humor organization and publication founded in 1876 and rival to the Harvard Crimson. The magazine was originally modelled on the former British satirical periodical Punch, and has outlived it to become the world's oldest humor magazine. Conan O'Brien was president of the Lampoon. The National Lampoon was founded as an offshoot in 1970.
Radio station WHRB (95.3FM Cambridge), is run exclusively by Harvard students, and has purchased space on the Harvard campus in the basement of Pennypacker Hall, a freshman dorm. Known throughout the Boston metropolitan area for its classical, jazz, underground rock, blues, and hip-hop programming, and its seasonal "Orgy" format, where the entire catalog of a certain band, composer, or artist is played in sequence.
The Harvard Interactive Media Group publishes a quarterly academic review devoted to media studies and video games.
The Harvard Political Review, a quarterly undergraduate publication of U.S. and international politics founded in 1969 by Al Gore.
The Harvard Independent, an alternative weekly with news, sports, and features.
Harvard Radcliffe Television produces the world's oldest and longest running college soap opera, Ivory Tower (External Link), and is the only television organization on campus.
Community service organizations
The Phillips Brooks House Association is an umbrella community service organization operating in Phillips Brooks House of Harvard Yard, consists of 78 program committees and over 1,800 student volunteers, and serves close to 10,000 clients in the Cambridge and Boston area.
Political organizations
The Harvard Institute of Politics, a non-partisan living memorial to President John F. Kennedy that promotes public service and provides political opportunities to undergraduates.
The Harvard College Democrats, the largest partisan political group on campus.
The Harvard Republican Club, one of the largest groups on campus and the nation's oldest college political group, founded in 1888.
Harvard Model Congress, the nation's oldest and largest congressional simulation conference, provides thousands of high school students from across the U.S. and abroad with the opportunity to experience American government first-hand.
Musical groups
A cappella groups
Harvard Krokodiloes, an all-male a cappella group, Harvard's oldest
Harvard LowKeys, mixed vocal, both male and female
Harvard Din & Tonics, an all-male a capella group founded in 1979
Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones, mixed vocal, both male and female
Harvard Callbacks, mixed vocal, both male and female
Harvard Opportunes, mixed vocal, both male and female
Radcliffe Pitches, all-female a cappella group founded in 1975
Fallen Angels, all-female
Choral groups
Harvard University Choir, the oldest university choir in the nation, formally established in 1834 but in existence since the eighteenth century, performs the oldest Christmas Carol Services in continuous existence in North America.
Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America, founded in 1858.
Radcliffe Choral Society, founded in 1898, an all-women chorus.
The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum is a select mixed-voice choir formed in 1971 when Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges merged.
The Harvard Radcliffe Chorus is the largest mixed choir at Harvard University and has a diverse membership consisting of faculty members, staff, community members, and both undergraduate and graduate students. HRC was founded in 1979 and continues to perform twice a year as of 2005.
The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, is the largest multicultural organization in the College and focuses on the music and art of the black Diaspora.
Orchestras and bands
Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, founded in 1808.
Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, founded in 1898 as "The Musical Club of Harvard University," is Harvard's chamber orchestra.
Harvard University Band, founded in 1919, plays university sporting events and in other community venues.
Harvard Pops Orchestra, known for their fun performances and innovative repertoire
Harvard Mozart Society Orchestra, founded in 1984 and performs often with Robert Levin
Theater and dance
The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club is an organization that connects smaller campus theater groups and supports all campus productions. The HRDC directly oversees productions within the Loeb Theater, which it shares with the nationally acclaimed American Repertory Theatre. The HRDC also organizes seminars and workshops to connect students with professionals in the field.
Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals. They present original student-written and -composed musicals with near-professional production values. Formed in 1795 as a fraternity, the Pudding has performed a production every year since 1891, except during World Wars I and II. Each production is entirely student-written. Although the cast remains all-male (with female parts performed by actors in drag), women participate in the productions as members of the business staff, orchestra, and tech crew.
The Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players, founded in 1956 is an independent, nonprofit student theater group, dedicated to performing comic opera.
The Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) and On Thin Ice (OTI), Harvard's two undergraduate improv troupes, are among the oldest collegiate Improvisational comedy groups in the nation. Unlike many college troupes, both groups' constitutions require they present all campus shows free of charge.
Harvard blackC.A.S.T. (Community and Student Theater) is Harvard's theater group dedicated to black theatrical production and fostering a black theater community on campus. Past productions include Amen Corner, Before it Hits Home, and The Colored Museum.
The Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company
The Harvard Ballet Company
The Harvard Ballroom Team, one of the largest national collegiate ballroom teams
The Harvard Ballet Folklórico de Aztlán
The Harvard Intertribal Indian Dance Troupe performs Native American powwow dances.
The Harvard Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble is dedicated to raising awareness of the depth and diversity of African expressive culture through the performance of dance and music from all over the continent.
The Harvard Crimson Dance Team
Academic organizations
Harvard College Stem Cell Society A student group dedicated to raising awareness about the ethics, politics, and science of stem cell research.
Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe
Pre-Professional organizations
Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business The largest undergraduate business organization on Harvard's campus.
Harvard Investment Association An undergraduate student group founded in 1993. It is dedicated to student education on investing and financial markets and providing opportunities for investing experience.
The Harvard College Business Club is Harvard's first mainstream business club, geared towards providing a general business education. In large part, HCBC seeks to accomplish this goal through its emerging online social network, which connects undergraduates with business leaders and potential employers.
Unrecognized student groups
Male final clubs: A.D., Delphic, Fly, Fox, Owl, Phoenix-SK, Porcellian, Spee
Fraternities: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Phi Iota Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi
Female final clubs: Bee, Isis, Pleiades, Sabliere Society
Sororities: Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma
Other social groups: Alpha Club, Hasty Pudding, Oak Club, Rose Club, Seneca, Signet
Athletics
According to the university, Harvard is home to the largest Division I intercollegiate athletics program in the U.S., with 41 varsity teams and over 1,500 student-athletes.(External Link) Harvard is one of eight members of the Ivy League, along with Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, The University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.(External Link)
Harvard and Yale enjoy the oldest intercollegiate athletic rivalry in the United States, the Harvard-Yale Regatta, dating back to 1852, when rowing crews from each institution first met on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Harvard won that contest by two boat lengths. Since 1859, the crews have met nearly every year (except during major wars). The race is typically held in early June in New London, Connecticut.
Better known is the annual Harvard-Yale football game, known to insiders of both institutions as simply, "The Game." It was first played in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1875. Harvard won the initial contest 4-0. In recent years, The Game is always played on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, making it one of many significant games played on "Rivalry Day."
Sibley's Harvard Graduates
Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley published 3 volumes of biographies of Harvard Graduates from 1873 to 1885 covering the Classes of 1642 to 1679 and left a posthumous fund to the Massachusetts Historical Society to continue this project: Clifford K. Shipton published 14 volumes covering the Classes of 1690 to 1771 from 1933 to 1975; In 1999 the 18th volume was published covering the Classes of 1772 to 1774.
Beginning with Class of 1820 Regular Class Reports were published.
Famous alumni
Architecture
Philip Johnson
Buckminster Fuller (expelled)
Baseball
Eddie Grant (baseball)
Business
Ben Bernanke
Sumner Redstone
Bill Gates (did not graduate)
Steve Ballmer
William Randolph Hearst (expelled)
Jim Cramer
Paul Allen
Literature
James Agee
Wallace Stevens
T. S. Eliot
John Dos Passos
E. E. Cummings
William S. Burroughs
W. E. B. Du Bois
Performance arts - music, theater and film
Leonard Bernstein
Rivers Cuomo
Matt Damon (did not graduate)
Jack Lemmon
Hill Harper
Tommy Lee Jones
Tom Morello
Conan O'Brien
Natalie Portman
Joshua Redman
Mira Sorvino
Michael Stern
Yo-Yo Ma
Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau
Ralph Waldo Emerson
George Santayana
Charles Sanders Peirce
Norbert Wiener
W.V.O. Quine
Daniel Dennett
Donald Davidson
Politics
John Hancock
John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Edward M. Kennedy
Henry Kissinger
Al Gore
Elbridge Gerry
Meshech Weare
Religion
Increase Mather
Cotton Mather
Joseph Stevens Buckminster
Theodore Parker
For more information, see List of Harvard University people.
Fictional alumni
Thurston Howell III
Charles Emerson Winchester III
Herb Powell
Quentin Compson (did not graduate)
Patrick Bateman
Notes and references
Gookin, Daniel, Historical Collections, 53: Railton, "Vineyard's First Harvard Men," 91-112.
Monaghan, E. J. (2005). Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America University of Massachusetts Press. Boston: MAFurther Information
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