10 of the oldest universities in the US

Established: 1701

Next on our list of the oldest universities in the US, Yale University was originally founded as ‘Collegiate School’. It was renamed Yale in 1718 in recognition of a gift from Elihu Yale, a governor of the British East India Company. Also that year, Yale moved to its current location in New Haven, Connecticut, having previously been located in Clinton, Saybrook and Wethersfield.

Yale was originally established to train ministers in theology and sacred languages, but by 1777 the school’s curriculum began to include humanities and sciences, and in 1861, Yale was the first US university to award a PhD.

Established: 1740 (chartered in 1755)

The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn) was founded by Benjamin Franklin and was the first US university to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Penn was also one of the first academic institutions in the country to have multidisciplinary teaching in different faculty areas, and in 1765 became the first US university to have a medical school.

Penn is particularly reputed for its management and law courses, and performs well in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for business and management. In general, the university has a strong reputation for its intensive research activity.  

Established: 1742

The next of our oldest universities in the US is the small Moravian College. Located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the college traces its founding to 1742 by 16-year-old Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf, who established it as Bethlehem Female Seminary, the first boarding school for young women in the US. It gained such a distinguished reputation that George Washington personally petitioned the headmaster for the admission of two of his great-nieces.

The Moravian Female Seminary, as the school became known, was chartered to grant baccalaureate degrees in 1863, and in 1913 became Moravian Seminary and College for Women, before eventually becoming coeducational when the colleges for the two genders merged in 1954.

Established: 1743

The University of Delaware (UD), located in Newark, was originally founded as ‘Free School’ and has changed name and location several times. Since Delaware was part of the Pennsylvania colony until 1776, the university was denied a charter in order to prevent a rivalry with the University of Pennsylvania.

It’s not considered a colonial college as it was not an officially chartered higher education institution until 1833, after the American Revolution, but UD nonetheless has an impressively long history of high-quality teaching.

Established: 1746

Originally founded as the College of New Jersey by New Light Presbyterians in order to train ministers, Princeton University retains a number of landmarks from its rich history, such as its oldest building Nassau Hall, which dates back to 1756. Nassau Hall was technically the temporary capital of the US for four months in 1783, when the Continental Congress met there.

Established: 1749

Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts university located in Lexington, Virginia. Its first major benefactor was George Washington, who endowed the academy with $20,000 in 1796, at the time the largest gift ever given to an educational institution in the US.

Previously called both Augusta Academy and Liberty Hall (the latter name was inspired by the American Revolution), the university gets the remainder of its current title from General Robert E. Lee, who was president of the university from 1865 until his death in 1870.

Established: 1754

Located in New York City, Columbia University was chartered in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Britain, and renamed Columbia College in 1784 after the US gained independence.

Its colonial origins are echoed in the fact that its alumni include five Founding Fathers of the United States.

Another of the US’s most prestigious research universities, Columbia annually administers the famous Pulitzer Prize and ranks particularly well for arts and humanities in the QS World University Rankings by Subject.