First university in the United States is a status asserted by more than one U.S. university. There is no bright-line definition of what entitles an institution to be considered a university, the definition of "university" has changed over time, and questions of institutional status and continuity sometimes make it difficult to determine the true age of any institution. Furthermore, since both the medieval university and the modern research university were European innovations, the status of "first university in the United States" is of no great importance beyond local pride. This article is about European institutions. ... Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. ...

This article marshalls facts and considerations that have been used to support claims of an institution to be the first university in the United States. It does not attempt to settle the issue or reach any conclusion about the merits of the competing claims.

Claimants and Potential Claimants

(In alphabetical order by full institutional name):

• The College of William and Mary's website states that William and Mary School of Law: Achievements and Firsts "The College of William and Mary was the first college to become a university (1779)."
• Harvard University itself claims only to be "the oldest institution of higher education in the United States," but the claim of being "the first university" has been made by others—for example, in the title of an 1886 book: [[|Bush, George Gary]],  () ( 1886). ""  [ Harvard, the First American University], , , , : Cupples, Upham and Company, Boston. .., reprinted in 2005 by Kessinger, ISBN 1417957794.
• Johns Hopkins University; e.g. their website says "The Johns Hopkins University was the first research university in the United States."
• University of Pennsylvania, e.g. The University of Pennsylvania: America's First University (from Penn's website). A book entitled Building America's First University An Historical and Architectural Guide to the University of Pennsylvania was published in 2000 by the Pennsylvania University Press (ISBN 0812235150) [1], and their website contains numerous instances of the phrase "America's First University."

The College of William and Mary The College of William and Mary in Virginia is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States (after Harvard University). ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. ... The Johns Hopkins University is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... The University of Pennsylvania (Penn is the moniker used by the university itself; UPenn is also common) is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

Facts that have been used to support claims of being "the first university in the United States"

Institutional age

Harvard University calls itself "the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and this claim does not seem to be seriously challenged. William and Mary, calls itself "America's second-oldest college," tacitly acknowledging Harvard's claim.

It is possible to quibble over what year should be taken as Harvard's "real" founding date (Harvard, of course uses the earliest possible one, 1636, when the institution was chartered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony). However Harvard has operated since 1650 under the same corporation, the "President and Fellows of Harvard College," so Harvard has an unbroken continuous institutional history dating back at least that far.

So, of all universities in the United States, Harvard is the oldest as an institution.

As an historical curiosity, a College of Henricopolis or University of Henrico near Jamestown was chartered in 1618 and possibly started, but was destroyed with the town in the Indian Massacre of 1622 and not rebuilt. Henricopolis was a town in Henrico County, Virginia where in the early 17th century settlers from the young colony at Jamestown tried to start what would have been the first institution of higher education in the British colonies. ... Indian massarce of 1622, depicted as a woodcut by Theodore de Bry In 1622, the Virginia Colony was attacked by a group of Native Americans under chief Opechancanough of the Pamunkeys, a tribe in the Powhatan confederacy. ...

Official designation as a "university"

University of Pennsylvania

November 27, 1779 is the date of chartering of the "University of the State of Pennsylvania." [2]). November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

1791 is the year when the "University of Pennsylvania" was chartered. 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

These events are sometimes presented as if they were simply a change in name in a single institution, but the actual history, summarized in an article from UPenn's archives department is complicated.

In brief, in 1779 the College of Philadelphia was directed by provost William Smith. One might have expected it to have become the "University of the State of Pennsylvania" but this did not occur. "Since the Revolutionary state legislature felt that the board of trustees led by Provost Smith contained too many suspected loyalist sympathizers, they created a new board of trustees." Thus, the University of the State of Pennsylvania was created de novo. A schism occurred, with an attenuated College of Philadelphia continuing under Dr. Smith's direction. In 1791 Pennsylvania adopted a new state constitution which merged the the College of Philadelphia and the University of the State of Pennsylvania into the "University of Pennsylvania," with a board of trustees comprised of twelve men from each of the two parent institutions. "It is this institution and this board of trustees that has continued to this day." People William Smith (1769-1839), geologist William Smith (1728-1814), Representative for Maryland from 1789 to 1890 William Smith (1751-1837), Representative for South Carolina from 1797 to 1798 William Smith (1762-1840), Senator from South Carolina from 1815 to 1830 William Smith, Representative for Virginia from 1821 to 1824...

William and Mary

On December 4, 1779— just eight days after the "University of the State of Pennsylvania"—an event occurred which William and Mary describes [3] thus: December 4 is the 338th day (339th on leap years) of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia and a member of the Board of Visitors, William and Mary became a university. The grammar and divinity schools were discontinued, and a professorship of anatomy and medicine, and the first American chairs of law and police and modern languages were established. The elective system of studies was introduced at this time, the first such program in the United States.

(For historical reasons, the College of William and Mary (like Dartmouth College and Boston College) continue to use "college" rather than "university" in their official name.) The College of William and Mary The College of William and Mary in Virginia is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States (after Harvard University). ... Dartmouth College is a private university in Hanover, New Hampshire, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Website www. ...

Harvard

On March 2, 1780 a "A CONSTITUTION OR FRAME OF GOVERNMENT, Agreed upon by the Delegates of the People of the STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY" was issued, containing this language:[4] March 2 is the 61st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (62nd in leap years). ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Chapter V. The University at Cambridge, and Encouragement of Literature, etc.

Section I. The University.

Art. I.--Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State: And whereas the encouragement of Arts and Sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the christian religion, and the great benefit of this, and the other United States of America--It is declared, That the PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD-COLLEGE, in their corporate capacity, and their successors in that capacity, their officers and servants, shall have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy, all the powers, authorities, rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and franchises, which they now have, or are entitled to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy: And the same are hereby ratified and confirmed unto them, the said President and Fellows of Harvard-College, and to their successors, and to their officers and servants, respectively, forever.

(It is not clear from context, either above or in the paragraphs that follow, that the constitution meant to draw any semantic between "college" and "university." )

Establishment of quarternary-education schools, Issuance of any kind of "doctoral" degree

• Penn founded the first medical school in America in 1765, according to Penn's Directory of University Archives, Mark Frazier Lloyd[5].
• Yale's website[6] refers to the establishment of "the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences" in 1847.

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Issuance of Ph. D. degree

• Yale's website[7] stays that 1861, Yale "awarded the first Ph.D. in the United States)."

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

Definitions and criteria that have been used to support claims of being "the first university in the United States"

Definition of terms

1. What is a university? There are two definitions of a university used between the three schools mentioned above. The definition that Penn uses, given by Mark Frazier Lloyd, Director of the University Archives, is "the co-existence, under a single institutional umbrella, of more than one faculty." [8] The other definition was given by Stacy B. Gould, University Archivist for William and Mary College. She stated, "a course of graduate studies was the requisite for the status of university." Harvard (see below) appears to use the same definition as Penn. A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctor) in a variety of subjects. ...

One modern dictionary (American Heritage, 4th edition) defines "university:"

An institution for higher learning with teaching and research facilities constituting a graduate school and professional schools that award master's degrees and doctorates and an undergraduate division that awards bachelor's degrees. [9]

Webster's 1913 dictionary says:

An institution organized and incorporated for the purpose of imparting instruction, examining students, and otherwise promoting education in the higher branches of literature, science, art, etc., empowered to confer degrees in the several arts and faculties, as in theology, law, medicine, music, etc. A university may exist without having any college connected with it, or it may consist of but one college, or it may comprise an assemblage of colleges established in any place, with professors for instructing students in the sciences and other branches of learning. [10]

1b. A related question: Do you need to have "university" in your name in order to be a university? Probably not. Boston College, Dartmouth College, and the College of William and Mary continue to name themselves as "colleges" for historical reasons, but no one argues that any of these three institutions is not, in fact, a university.

2. What does it mean to be the "oldest" university? When we say "X is the oldest Y," we generally refer the length of time that X has existed. (example: if Max is the oldest doctor, then we are referring to Max's age. If Max is 50 years old, but he's only been a doctor for 7 years, And Cindy is 43 years old and has been a doctor for 15 years, then Max is the older doctor.) So the "oldest" university is the one with the earliest date of founding.

Complications arise in the case of institutions, however, because in tangled corporate histories it is not always clear when old and new institutions should be regarded as the same. This arises in the case of Penn: is it correct to say that the College of Philadelphia changed its name to the University of the College of Pennsylvania? Or is it more correct to say that the latter was actually a completely new institution, which later merged with the College of Philadelphia to form the University of Pennsylvania? Such a judgement can hardly be anything other than opinion.

3. What does it mean to be the "first" university? When we say that "X is the first Y," we generally refer to the date on which X has became a Y. (In the above example, Cindy was the first doctor of the two.) By this definition, the "first" university is the one which actually became a university before any of the others, regardless of when it was founded.

To complicate matters somewhat, there's the difference between what they called a university back then versus what we call a university now. Going back to our example of doctors: No doctor who practiced medicine in the 1700s, even having attended medical school at the time and having received a formal education in the field would ever receive an M.D. under today's standards, and thus would not be considered a doctor. But we don't say that there weren't any doctors in the 1700s. Similarly, we don't say that there were no universities in the 1700s.

University Status of Specific Institutions

Harvard dates their own university status to 1780: "The first medical instruction given to Harvard students in 1781 and the founding of the Medical School in 1782 made it a university in fact as well as name." [11])

William and Mary traces back their "university status" to 1779, "the first year of our law school and simultaneously our medicine and chemistry chair was still filled."

Penn claims to have become a university in 1765, when its medical school was created. [12] Penn was designated a university by the legislature of Pennsylvania (the first such U.S. institution of higher learning, beating William and Mary by only one week ^{[citation needed]}) 14 years later in 1779, although it didn't receive its current name of "The University of Pennsylvania" until 1791. 1779 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Using our definitions above, Harvard is definitely the "oldest university" in the United States, since it was the first one founded (1636).

It is slightly more difficult to determine the first university, although we can clearly knock Harvard out of the running since by its own admission it didn't become a University until 1780, after both Penn and William and Mary. 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Penn and William and Mary use different definitions of "university," as mentioned above. By Penn's definition, Penn is certainly the first of the two to become a university (1765). Using William and Mary's definition, things get fuzzy, since we don't have a clear definition of what constituted graduate studies at the time. 1765 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Reasonable causes for disagreement and other Potential Candidates

The facts are given above so that the reader can be allowed to make his/her own decision. Disagreement may arise in particular if the reader disagrees with the definitions of "university," "graduate studies," "oldest," or "first."

One possible alternate definition of university is an institution that grants Ph.D's. This would make Yale the first University, as it granted the first Ph.D. in North America in 1861, although requirements weren't the same then as they were now. (For example, James Morris Whiton, PhD (Yale, 1861), wrote a dissertation that was only six pages long [13]) Yale also claims to have America's first "graduate school," founded in 1847, but the same source acknowledges that Harvard's first "graduate program" began 16 years earlier in 1831. And each of these is different than William and Mary's claim of "graduate studies." Interestingly, Yale does not claim to be America's first university. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... This article is about the thesis in dialectics and academia. ... Yale can refer to an educational institution: Yale University, one of the United States oldest universities. ...

Some classifications break institutions down even further. The widely-accepted Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's classification (as of 2000) differentiates between "doctorate-granting institutions" and "Masters colleges and universities", each of which is broken down into even smaller distinctions. [14]) Note that Carnegie does not require an institution to grant Ph.D.s in order to be considered a university. Nor does US News and World Report in its annual ranking of colleges and universities. [15] Carnagie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an Act of Congress. ... The US News and World Report, in addition to its other functions, serves as a national rankings body for US universities and colleges. ...

Johns Hopkins also stands out as a strong candidate for "first," as it is widely credited for bringing the German model of higher education (with a very strong emphasis on graduate studies and faculty research) to the United States. In fact, JHU does bill itself as "the first research university in the United States." [16] Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was a Baltimore businessman, a Quaker, an abolitionist, and a philanthropist. ...