Late summer heralds the start of back-to-school season, meaning it won’t be long before college students are hurriedly finishing their term papers and chugging quad-shots of espresso during their late-night study sessions.
Learned students have wandered the hallowed halls of universities throughout the world for centuries. The oldest operating university was established way back in 859 CE in Fez, Morocco. This certainly was long before the establishment of the first American university (and, of course, the United States in general). Europe also boasts numerous universities that are more than 500 years old.
As expected, higher education institutions in the U.S. are quite a bit younger than their Old World counterparts. But several universities in the States now have at least a couple centuries under their belts.
The education search platform Erudera compiled a list of the oldest university or college in each state (plus Washington, D.C.). We’ve listed the results below.
The Oldest College in Each State
University | State | Year Founded |
---|---|---|
The University of Alabama | Alabama | 1831 |
The University of Alaska Fairbanks | Alaska | 1917 |
The University of Arizona | Arizona | 1885 |
The University of the Ozarks | Arkansas | 1834 |
Santa Clara University | California | 1851 |
University of Denver | Colorado | 1864 |
Yale University | Connecticut | 1701 |
University of Delaware | Delaware | 1743 |
Florida State University | Florida | 1851 |
The University of Georgia | Georgia | 1785 |
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa | Hawaii | 1907 |
Brigham Young University-Idaho | Idaho | 1888 |
McKendree University | Illinois | 1828 |
Vincennes University | Indiana | 1801 |
Loras College | Iowa | 1839 |
Baker University | Kansas | 1858 |
Transylvania University | Kentucky | 1780 |
Centenary College of Louisiana | Louisiana | 1825 |
Bowdoin College | Maine | 1794 |
St. John's College | Maryland | 1696 |
Harvard University | Massachusetts | 1636 |
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | Michigan | 1817 |
University of Minnesota Twin Cities | Minnesota | 1851 |
Mississippi College in Clinton | Mississippi | 1826 |
Saint Louis University | Missouri | 1818 |
Rocky Mountain College | Montana | 1878 |
Peru State College | Nebraska | 1867 |
University of Nevada in Reno | Nevada | 1874 |
Dartmouth College | New Hampshire | 1769 |
Princeton University | New Jersey | 1746 |
New Mexico State University | New Mexico | 1888 |
Columbia University | New York | 1754 |
Salem College | North Carolina | 1772 |
The University of North Dakota | North Dakota | 1883 |
Ohio University | Ohio | 1804 |
Bacone College | Oklahoma | 1880 |
Willamette University | Oregon | 1842 |
University of Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania | 1740 |
Brown University | Rhode Island | 1764 |
The College of Charleston | South Carolina | 1770 |
Augustana University | South Dakota | 1860 |
Tusculum University | Tennessee | 1794 |
Southwestern University | Texas | 1840 |
University of Utah | Utah | 1850 |
Castleton State College | Vermont | 1787 |
College of William & Mary | Virginia | 1693 |
The University of Washington | Washington | 1861 |
West Liberty University | West Virginia | 1837 |
Carroll University | Wisconsin | 1846 |
The University of Wyoming | Wyoming | 1886 |
Georgetown University | Washington, D.C. | 1789 |
Seven of the eight Ivy League schools (all but Cornell) made the list. The country’s oldest higher education institution, Harvard University in Massachusetts, was founded 1636—that’s more than 100 years before the Declaration of Independence was even signed.
Virginia is home to the second oldest, the College of William & Mary. William & Mary holds the distinction of being the first U.S. college with a royal charter; its namesake royals (King William II and Queen Mary II of England) signed the charter to establish a “perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good Arts and Sciences” in what was then the colony of Virginia in 1693.
And though a good number of schools on the above list are private, you’ll spot several public institutions as well. The oldest public university in the U.S. is the University of Georgia, which was founded in 1785.
The youngest of the oldest universities on the list is found in Alaska. The 49th state opened its first university—the University of Alaska Fairbanks—in 1917. The school was originally founded as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines.
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