Originally Posted On: https://www.iquanti.com/

Established almost four centuries ago, Harvard University can be seen as the archetype of the most prestigious universities in the world. Besides this, the university has a long history of being at the forefront of many academic and intellectual discoveries.

Due to its renowned stature, scholars from all backgrounds dream of joining this university, whether they might be aspirants that are still in high school or those wanting to pursue postdoc courses.

Founded in 1636, this private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It holds a record number of awards and honours with 161 Nobel Laureates, 132 Pulitzer Prize winners as well as 23 heads of state.

This institute is an incredible place to learn and grow as it provides its students with an exceptional array of resources and opportunities. With above 6,700 undergraduates and above 20,000 students, Harvard can be considered a fairly large university.

It has three main campuses –- the first is the Cambridge campus centred on Harvard Yard; the second is the adjoining campus across the Charles River in Boston; the third is the medical campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.

The university comprises ten academic faculties and Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The faculty of Arts and Sciences offers an opportunity to study a wide range of academic disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Other faculties only offer graduate degrees that are mostly professional degrees.

Harvard is highly renowned for its research output. It is a large, highly residential research university that offers 50 undergraduate degrees, 134 graduate degrees, and 32 professional degrees. Moreover, Harvard is also a founding member of the Association of American Universities and has a “very high” research activity (R1) as well as comprehensive doctoral programs across the field of sciences, arts, engineering, and medicine.

Harvard University has a huge library that students can access for their academic needs. The library system is centred at the Widener Library in the Harvard Yard, which comprises nearly 80 individual libraries and holds a huge pool of literature of about 20.4 million items. According to the American Library Association, this makes the Widener Library the largest academic library in the world.

A Harvard education can be considered as an expensive commodity. An average student’s attendance cost, including room rent, books, board, and personal expenses, would roughly come up to at least $67,000 (INR 53.54 Lakhs) per annum. However, it should be noted that the school also offers need-based financial assistance to help manage this expense.

As Havard provides its students with scholarships, tuition fees can become more viable for many students and their families. But you must know that Harvard awards only need-based financial assistance, not merit-based, academic, or athletic assistance and scholarships. Thus, the financial aid the students can get will depend on the family’s income, assets, and ability to contribute.

Harvard is fairly hard to get into. Each year, Harvard receives around 40,000 applications for undergraduate admission, of which only around 5% of applicants are accepted. Because Harvard is such a prestigious university, it has a very high yield rate, which means most of the accepted students decide to accept the offer.

Students graduating from this university have a top reputation and are highly sought after in the industry. Hence, there is no doubt in the fact that any aspirant who secures admission to this prestigious university will be able to aim as well as achieve a very bright future for themselves.