Harvard College was founded in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Two years later, the college became home to North America's first known printing press, carried by the ship John of London.

The Indian College was active from 1640 to no later than 1693, but it was a minor addition not operated in federation with Harvard according to the English model.

The body known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College retains its traditional name despite having governance of the entire university.

Radcliffe College, established in 1879, originally paid Harvard faculty to repeat their lectures for women.

[16] A federal lawsuit alleges that Harvard's admissions policies discriminate against Asian Americans, who tend to be overrepresented among students with high academic achievement.

[19] Harvard has implemented more implicit bias training for its admissions staff in accordance with the court's recommendations.

[20][21] In addition, Harvard's admissions preference for children of alumni, employees, and donors has been criticized as favoring white and wealthy candidates.

[30] Midway through the second year, most undergraduates join one of fifty academic majors; many also declare a minor (secondary field).

[33] Exposure to a range of intellectual areas in parallel with pursuit of a chosen major in depth fulfills the injunction of former Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell that liberal education should produce "men who know a little of everything and something well".

[37] The houses were created by President Lowell in the 1930s to combat what he saw as pernicious social stratification engendered by the private, off-campus living arrangements of many undergraduates at that time.

Lowell's solution was to provide every man—Harvard was male-only at the time—with on-campus accommodations throughout his time at the college; Lowell also saw great benefits in other features of the house system, such as the relaxed discussions—academic or otherwise—which he hoped would take place among undergraduates and members of the Senior Common Room over meals in each house's dining hall.

Under the original "draft" system, masters (now called "faculty deans") negotiated privately over the assignment of students.

Their construction was financed largely by a 1928 gift from Yale alumnus Edward Harkness, who, frustrated in his attempts to initiate a similar project at his alma mater, eventually offered $11 million to Harvard.

[43][44] The three Quad Houses enjoy a residential setting half a mile northwest of Harvard Yard.

The color was unofficially adopted (in preference to magenta) by an 1875 vote of the student body, although the association with some form of red can be traced back to 1858, when Charles William Eliot, a young graduate student who would later become Harvard's 21st and longest-serving president (1869–1909), bought red bandanas for his crew so they could more easily be distinguished by spectators at a regatta.

The Harvard University Band performs these fight songs and other cheers at football and hockey games.

By the late 19th century, critics of intercollegiate athletics, including Harvard president Charles William Eliot, believed that sports had become over-commercialized and took students away from their studies.

This opposition prompted Harvard's athletic committee to target "minor" sports—basketball and hockey—for reform in order to deflect attention from the major sports: football, baseball, track, and crew.