Harvard University

Harvard is one of the oldest and most famous universities in the world, founded in 1636, and while it is best known for law, medicine and the humanities, its computer science has grown into a serious force. Computer science at Harvard sits within the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which has expanded quickly in recent years.

The programme is strong in theory, systems, machine learning and the growing overlap between computer science and other fields, and it benefits from being next door to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with which it shares a rich local research culture. Computer science has become one of the most popular subjects among Harvard undergraduates, a shift that mirrors the subject’s rise across higher education.

Harvard remains among the most selective universities anywhere, and its computer science graduates move into research, technology and the many other fields that now draw on computing.