Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Name	Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Established	1872
Type	Private
City	Cambridge
State	Massachusetts
Country	United States
Parent	Harvard University

Contents

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University is the principal graduate school for the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering within Harvard University. It awards doctoral and master's degrees across a broad array of programs and is situated near Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school engages with institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Ford Foundation through fellowships, grants, and partnerships.

History

The school's origins trace to the post-Civil War expansion of Harvard University in the era of Charles William Eliot and the rise of research universities influenced by the German model of higher education and the establishment of graduate programs across the United States. Early milestones include the conferral of the first American Ph.D. degrees akin to practices at Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University. During the early 20th century the school grew alongside developments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founding of the Harvard University Press, and collaborations with figures like William James, Josiah Willard Gibbs, John F. Kennedy (as a student and alumnus), and visiting scholars from Oxford University and Cambridge University. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries saw expansions in laboratory facilities linked to the Manhattan Project legacy at MIT, interdisciplinary programs influenced by scholars associated with Princeton and Stanford University, and increased global engagement with institutions such as the University of Tokyo, Peking University, Sorbonne University, and the University of Oxford.

The school offers doctoral degrees such as the Ph.D. and doctoral tracks in partnership with schools including Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and cross-registered programs with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Master's offerings include the A.M., M.A., and specialized master's programs that align with professional schools and centers like the Harvard Art Museums, American Repertory Theater, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Departments and programs span fields connected to eminent departments at institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and include faculties in areas historically associated with scholars such as Noam Chomsky, E. O. Wilson, Steven Pinker, Cornel West, Amartya Sen, Homi K. Bhabha, and Judith Butler. Joint and interdisciplinary options draw from units related to Harvard Law School clinics, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and collaborative initiatives with the Broad Institute and the FAS Center for Systems Biology.

Admissions procedures mirror selective practices found at elite institutions like Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University, and Columbia University and involve departmental committees, external letters, and standardized evaluations comparable to applicants to programs at MIT and Caltech. Financial aid includes fellowships named for donors comparable to the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, institutional stipends, research assistantships, teaching fellowships, and external awards from bodies like the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the Rhodes Scholarship (for alumni mobility), and the Ford Foundation. Diversity and inclusion initiatives align with strategies employed by the University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania, while global recruitment leverages alumni networks tied to institutions such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, Tsinghua University, and the University of Toronto.

Research activity is concentrated in laboratories, libraries, and centers that partner with national and international organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress. Notable affiliated centers include collaborations with the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and interdisciplinary initiatives related to the Harvard Data Science Initiative, the Broad Institute, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Themes echo large-scale efforts at the Salk Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Max Planck Society through work in areas represented by laureates of the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal, and the MacArthur Fellowship. The school supports archives and special collections comparable to holdings at the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the National Archives.

Graduate students participate in communal life centered on venues and rituals affiliated with Harvard Yard, Widener Library, Memorial Hall (Harvard University), and the Graduate Student Union movements similar to those at Columbia University and Yale University. Traditions reference public lectures and events featuring speakers from institutions like Nobel Prize laureates, participants in the Pulitzer Prize, recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, and public intellectuals from Princeton University, Stanford University, and Oxford University. Student organizations collaborate with external cultural institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and civic partners including City of Cambridge initiatives. Athletic and recreational engagements draw parallels with intramural systems at Brown University and arts engagements tied to the American Repertory Theater.

Faculty include scholars and researchers whose careers intersect with appointments and honors from entities such as the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society, and award programs including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Turing Award, and the Fields Medal. Administrative leadership has been occupied by deans and figures who engage with governance structures akin to those at Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University, coordinating with offices like the Office of the Provost (Harvard), the President of Harvard University, and boards similar to university trustees at Stanford University. Faculty research and teaching maintain collaborations with global institutions such as MIT, the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and international partners including the World Bank and the United Nations.