The Schools’ Size

Harvard’s schools vary not only in their mission and in the composition of their faculties and student bodies, but also in financial...

Harvard’s schools vary not only in their mission and in the composition of their faculties and student bodies, but also in financial terms. The most useful public disclosure of those details comes from the Harvard University Fact Book, with a one-year reporting lag. Thus, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004, when University expenses totaled $2.56 billion (about $3 billion this year), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—the College and graduate school, with 10,200 students—spent $760 million, just under 30 percent of the total. Harvard Medical School, with 766 degree candidates, expended $482 million. The disproportion is attributable, of course, to extensive, costly, sponsored biomedical research. The Business School, a much larger entity in classroom terms (1,823 degree candidates), was a nearly $300-million enterprise; but it funds all its own research, and includes in its revenues large income streams from executive-education clients and its publishing operations (Harvard Business Review, cases, and books). The central administration and service departments (maintaining Harvard’s many buildings, for example, or shoveling snow and prettying up the campus for Commencement) each consumed about $200 million. Doing a lot with a little are the dental, design, divinity, and education schools—all enterprises run on $20 million to $55 million per year—and the newcomer, the Radcliffe Institute.

Most popular

Phi Beta Kappa Speakers Call Out a ‘Deeply Troubling’ Moment

Former Harvard President Lawrence Bacow and poet Meghan O’Rourke urge graduates to focus on character and “radical attention.”

AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows

Researchers say the technology could help physicians with triage, diagnosis.

Meet Harvard’s 2026 Student Commencement Speakers

Two undergraduates and a Ph.D. candidate will address the graduating class on May 28.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman with long hair leans on a table, looking out a large window with rain-streaked glass.

A Harvard Economist Probes the Affordable Housing Crisis

From understanding gender pay gaps to the housing crisis, Rebecca Diamond’s research aims to improve lives.

Alene Anello smiling surrounded by four chickens in a natural outdoor setting.

This Harvard-Trained Lawyer Fights for the Rights of Chickens

Alene Anello wants to apply animal cruelty laws to birds raised for meat.

A man holding a revolver and lantern, wearing a hat and coat, appears to be walking cautiously.

Scoundrels, Then and Now

On con men, Mark Twain, and the powers of the Harvard name