which is the oldest university in the usa
First university in the United States Harvard University calls itself "the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States" and this claim is rarely challenged. It is possible to disagree what year should be taken as Harvard's "real" founding date (Harvard uses the earliest possible one, 1636, when the institution was chartered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony). However, Harvard has operated since 1650 under the same corporation, the "President and Fellows of Harvard College"; it thus has an unbroken institutional history dating back to the mid seventeenth century (an official Harvard web page for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences [10] claims, "Founded in 1636, Harvard is America's oldest university").
Purdue University Purdue University is a public research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and is the flagship campus of the Purdue University system.[6] The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture in his name.[7] The first classes were held on September 16, 1874, with six instructors and 39 students.[7]