Founded in 1701, Yale University is a private Ivy League research university located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution and the third-oldest institution of higher education in the USA. The 300 years old institution traces its roots to the 1640s when colonial clergymen took an initiative to lay the foundations of a local college in order to preserve the tradition of European liberal education in the New World. In 1701, Yale was established as a collegiate school near Saybrook, Connecticut. The collegiate school was renamed as Yale College in 1718 in recognition of the donation of books and goods made by Welsh merchant Elihu Yale.

In 1750, one of the oldest buildings in New Haven and a national historic landmark, Connecticut Hall was constructed. Yale law school, established in 1824, is consistently ranked as a prominent law school in the nation. The law school holds a great history of nurturing and training outstanding jurists, judges, practitioners, and government officials. In 1836, Yale Literary magazine was founded. Considered as an oldest literary review in the country, it emerged at the forefront of novel ways of studying literature. In 1861, Yale became the first university in America to award Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The University currently consists of fourteen constituent schools including the undergraduate liberal arts college, the Graduate school of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools.

In 2018, the University delivered teaching to 13,433 full-time and part-time students including 5,964 undergraduates and 7,469 graduate and professional students. In addition to more than 80 majors available to undergraduates, the University offers a number of supplementary programs intended to give students specialized knowledge across a variety of areas. The undergraduate students can choose from over 2,000 courses offered each year. Yale’s student body, one of the most diverse in the world includes students from different backgrounds and experiences. In 2018, 2,694 students nearly 20.7% of international students took admission at Yale representing 123 countries. Majority of the international student population comes from Canada, China, Germany, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Yale’s Endowment generated an 11.3% return. The Endowment grew from $22.5 billion to $30.31 billion, in the past ten-year period. The Endowment’s performance exceeded its benchmark and outpaced institutional fund indices with annual returns of 6.6%, over the past ten years.

The University has graduated many notable alumni consisting of 61 Nobel laureates, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 247 Rhodes Scholars and 119 Marshall Scholars, 5 Fields Medalists and 3 Turing award winners. In addition, five U.S. Presidents, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, William Howard Taft and Gerald Ford, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices and a number of billionaires have been affiliated with Yale University. Some royals have also attended Yale including Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Prince Rostislav Romanov and Prince Akiiki Hosea Nyabongo.

University at a glance