Founded in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest higher education institution in the U.S. The bulk of Harvard's students study at the graduate level and more than 20 percent of the student body is international. Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but also has facilities such as the Harvard Medical School based in the nearby city of Boston. The university has the largest endowment of any school in the world. Harvard research takes place across a range of disciplines in more than 100 centers.

The university is made up of the undergraduate college, as well as 11 other degree-granting institutions including the highly ranked Business School, Graduate School of Education, Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. The medical school is affiliated with several teaching hospitals, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. For Harvard undergraduates, the most popular majors include social sciences, biology/biological sciences, history, math and psychology. The university’s academic calendar is semester-based and English is the language of instruction. Most undergraduate students live on campus for all four years, first residing around the Harvard Yard at the center of campus as freshmen and then in one of 12 undergraduate houses for the duration of their studies. Some university housing is available for graduate students. The Harvard Library is the largest academic library in the world, boasting around 19 million volumes at its more than 70 libraries.

Harvard University is ranked #1 in Best Global Universities. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.