(STACKER) – Education has always been a cornerstone of the American experience. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin stressed the importance of having a place to teach America’s youth in 1749. Franklin famously said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Even before then, the colonists knew education was the key to furthering the developing nation—the first institution of higher education opened its doors on American soil in the 1600s. Many North American colonies began their own schools—schools that educated the nation’s founders. These universities played a crucial role in offering opportunities to the masses and striking the match that lit the American Dream. Several schools on this list owe their creation to serving disadvantaged communities, including women, African Americans, and Native Americans, groups traditionally excluded from higher learning.
Stacker used data compiled by the education experts at Niche to track the history of higher education in the United States of America and create a list of the 25 oldest colleges. To qualify for the list, the schools must still operate today; name changes don’t affect eligibility. While some colleges floundered and went under, this list examines the survivors—colleges that opened their doors centuries ago and haven’t shut them yet. From early colonial colleges to the universities formed just years after the writing of the Constitution, 153 years separate the oldest school on this list from the 25th spot.
Keep reading to find out which Pennsylvania university received its charter the same year as the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and which tiny Maryland college started its life as King William’s School. Learn which universities were started by English royalty, which university launched America’s first study-abroad program, and, of course, which college is the oldest higher-education institution in the country.
#25. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
– Year founded: 1789
– Founded by: North Carolina General Assembly
– Acceptance rate: 28%
#24. Georgetown University
– Year founded: 1789
– Founded by: John Carroll
– Acceptance rate: 17%
#23. Franklin & Marshall College
– Year founded: 1787
– Founded by: Four prominent ministers
– Acceptance rate: 39%
#22. University of Pittsburgh
– Year founded: 1787
– Founded by: Hugh Henry Brackenridge
– Acceptance rate: 53%
#21. University of Georgia
– Year founded: 1785
– Founded by: Georgia General Assembly
– Acceptance rate: 56%
#20. Washington & Jefferson College
– Year founded: 1781
– Founded by: Three frontier clergymen
– Acceptance rate: 42%
#19. Transylvania University
– Year founded: 1780
– Founded by: Virginia Assembly
– Acceptance rate: 83%
#18. Hampden-Sydney College
– Year founded: 1775
– Founded by: Samuel Stanhope Smith
– Acceptance rate: 47%
#17. Dickinson College
– Year founded: 1773
– Founded by: Pennsylvania legislature
– Acceptance rate: 48%
#16. Salem College
– Year founded: 1772
– Founded by: Moravians
– Acceptance rate: 60%
#15. College of Charleston
– Year founded: 1770
– Founded by: Several prominent South Carolinians
– Acceptance rate: 78%
#14. Dartmouth College
– Year founded: 1769
– Founded by: Eleazar Wheelock
– Acceptance rate: 12%
#13. Rutgers University
– Year founded: 1766
– Founded by: Ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church
– Acceptance rate: 60%
#12. Brown University
– Year founded: 1764
– Founded by: Baptist Church Association support
– Acceptance rate: 9%
#11. Columbia University
– Year founded: 1754
– Founded by: Royal charter of George II of Great Britain
– Acceptance rate: 7%
#10. Washington & Lee University
– Year founded: 1749
– Founded by: Scotch-Irish Presbyterian pioneers
– Acceptance rate: 19%
#9. Princeton University
– Year founded: 1746
– Founded by: New Light Presbyterians
– Acceptance rate: 7%
#8. University of Delaware
– Year founded: 1743
– Founded by: Francis Alison
– Acceptance rate: 68%
#7. Moravian College & Moravian Theological Seminary
– Year founded: 1742
– Founded by: Moravians
– Acceptance rate: 86%
#6. University of Pennsylvania
– Year founded: 1740
– Founded by: Benjamin Franklin
– Acceptance rate: 10%
#5. Washington College
– Year founded: 1723
– Founded by: Evolved from Kent County Free School
– Acceptance rate: 56%
#4. Yale University
– Year founded: 1701
– Founded by: Clergymen
– Acceptance rate: 6%
#3. St. John’s College–Annapolis
– Year founded: 1696
– Founded by: Maryland colony
– Acceptance rate: 87%
#2. College of William & Mary
– Year founded: 1693
– Founded by: King William III and Queen Mary III
– Acceptance rate: 33%
#1. Harvard University
– Year founded: 1636
– Founded by: Massachusetts legislature
– Acceptance rate: 6%
