Harvard is a world-renowned university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States and is widely regarded as one of the leading centers of learning and research in the world. With a rich history, a diverse student body, and a commitment to excellence, Harvard has established itself as a symbol of intellectual excellence and academic rigor.
Harvard trivia questions are a fun way to test your knowledge of this important institution. Whether you are a student, a professor, or simply someone who is interested in learning more about Harvard and its place in the world of education, these questions offer a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of this iconic university.
Here are some examples of Harvard trivia questions: What is the history of Harvard University? Who are some of the most famous alumni of Harvard? What are the core academic programs offered at Harvard? What is the Harvard motto and what does it mean? What is the Harvard Library system and what resources does it offer? These questions and others like them will help you learn more about the history, culture, and academic programs of Harvard University.
99 Harvard University Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- In 2004, “thefacebook” was launched as a social networking site for Harvard by students led by which computer programming student who later dropped out to become the face of the site (so to speak)?
Answer: Mark Zuckerberg
- Fictional Harvard Law grad Frank Underwood was a President who resigned from office on what Netflix series?
Answer: House of Cards
- With a student body of fewer than 300, the smallest school at Harvard University awards DMD degrees to students in what specialty of medicine?
Answer: Dental Medicine
- J. Michael Bishop, an American immunologist and microbiologist who got his MD from Harvard in 1962, shared a 1989 Nobel Prize for discovering the first human oncogene, which helps cause what disease?
Answer: Cancer
- Harvard University is one of seven Ivy League schools that have the word "University" in its official name. What is the one school that uses the word "College" instead of "University?"
Answer: Dartmouth
- The Cannons of the MLL, who play in Harvard's Allston football stadium, are a major league team that plays what sport?
Answer: Lacrosse
- Also depicting its truthful Latin motto “Veritas”, how many open books are pictured on the official seal of Harvard University?
Answer: Three
- What world famous star of “The Martian” and “Elysium,” among many others, attended Harvard University from 1988 to 1992, but did not graduate?
Answer: Matt Damon
- Medical facilities including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School are all located in what "L" Medical and Academic Area in Boston?
Answer: Longwood
- Tatyana Ali graduated from Harvard in 2002, six years after starring in what NBC sitcom about a Philadelphia youth who moved to Los Angeles?
Answer: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- In 1999, what women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts officially consolidated with Harvard to become one and the same?
Answer: Radcliffe College
- What former mayor of New York City, serving from 2002 to 2013, received his MBA from Harvard University in 1966?
Answer: Michael Bloomberg
- What was the surname of the first Harvard alumnus to become President of the United States? This man’s son also graduated from Harvard and also became President of the United States.
Answer: Adams
- Percy Bridgman, who received his PhD in physics from Harvard in 1908, won a Nobel Prize in 1946 for work on the physics during processes with high levels of what “P” force? It is measured as the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object, per unit area of distribution.
Answer: Pressure
- Once a player on Harvard's squad, Jeremy Lin started a craze known as "Linsanity" in 2011 when he played for what Eastern Conference NBA team?
Answer: New York Knicks
- After receiving his PhD in biophysics from Harvard University in 1967, Mario Capecchi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 for creating variants of what lab animals with certain genes turned off?
Answer: Mice
- Even if you’re not a Classics or Language major, you probably know that Harvard’s motto—Veritas—is Latin for what?
Answer: Truth
- Ladders were set aside for jungle gyms as a metaphor for corporate advancement in what book Harvard alum Sheryl Sandberg?
Answer: Lean In
- Ralph Bunche received his doctorate in political science from Harvard University in 1934. In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work mediating the Arab crisis in what newly formed Middle Eastern country?
Answer: Israel
- Rhett whined in shame in 2017 when Harvard scored their first Beanpot victory since 1993, over what school on the other side of the Charles?
Answer: Boston University
- Harvard Class of 1997 graduate Rashida Jones famously played Ann Perkins on what long-running sitcom?
Answer: Parks & Recreation
- Harvard grad Benazir Bhutto became the first Muslim woman to serve as a head of government when she became the prime minister of what nation in 1988?
Answer: Pakistan
- Harvard’s last NCAA championship came in 2006 in which sport, which contested at the Summer Olympic Games?
Answer: Fencing
- Although the movie "Legally Blonde" is based on Harvard's Law School, the author of the book (source material for the movie) was based on Amanda Brown's experience at what other law school? Hint: The answer is in the same state as UCLA where much of the movie was filmed.
Answer: Stanford
- In 1959, what future dictator came to campus to such fanfare that he caused Harvard to move his speech to the football stadium for extra seating?
Answer: Fidel Castro
- What talk show host and former staff writer on “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live” worked on the Harvard Lampoon and graduated in 1985?
Answer: Conan O'Brien
- What is the name of the gate on Harvard’s campus that, according to superstition, students should only pass through when they start Harvard and when they graduate?
Answer: Johnson Gate
- In 1910, what 1880 Harvard alum began serving as the 34th president of the Harvard Alumni Association? This man had preceded this role with a more prominent presidency.
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt
- The QS World University Rankings are based upon academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. For 2022, QS ranked Harvard as the top Psychology university. What university, roughly 3,000 miles away from Harvard ranked #2 on the list?
Answer: Stanford
- Isla Nublar (off the coast of Costa Rica) is the setting for what famous 1990 Harvard-alum Michael Crichton book?
Answer: Jurassic Park
- He worked as a consultant and Project Leader at BCG between 1979 and 1982 before leaving to start his own company. He eventually entered academia as a professor at Harvard Business School. His theory of "disruptive innovation", introduced in his book The Innovator's Dilemma, has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century. Who is he?
Answer: Clayten Christensen
- An American historian was the 28th President of Harvard University and also the first woman to serve in that role. In addition, she was the first Harvard president since 1672 without an undergraduate or graduate degree from Harvard. Who is she?
Answer: Drew Gilpin Faust
- Harvard has more than enough bookshelves to stretch from their campus to what most populous city in New Hampshire?
Answer: Manchester
- Long before "Animal House," Harvard's entire 1818 sophomore class was expelled for engaging in what sort of battle?
Answer: Food Fight
- What 1997 Harvard College alumnus played both Karen Scarfolli on "Freaks and Geeks" and Karen Filippelli on "The Office"?
Answer: Rashida Jones
- What 1970 film featuring a Harvard hockey player and a Radcliffe student was filmed on Harvard's campus and caused significant damage to multiple buildings? As a result, the school began denying the vast majority of filming requests.
Answer: Love Story
- When famed actor Tommy Lee Jones attended Harvard as an undergraduate in the late 1960s, what future vice president was his roommate?
Answer: Al Gore
- Harvard Library is the largest academic library in the world with more than 20 million volumes, 400 million manuscript items, 10 million photographs, and 5.4 terabytes of digital archives. To the nearest hundred, how many library staff members operate the library?
Answer: 800
- In what decade was the Harvard Undergraduate Council founded? Today, "the UC" features 51 undergraduate students at any given time.
Answer: 1980s
- What is the one-word motto of Harvard University, which translates from Latin to mean "Truth"?
Answer: Veritas
- Mark Zuckerberg's interactions with twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss at Harvard are part of the first half of what 2010 film starring Jesse Eisenberg?
Answer: The Social Network
- What year did the first Black student earn a degree at Harvard with a Bachelor of Arts?
Answer: 1870
- What actress, star of “Leon: The Professional” and the Star Wars franchise, graduated from Harvard University with a BA in psychology in 2003?
Answer: Natalie Portman
- What Canadian poet, author of books such as “Surfacing” and “Cat’s Eye”, as well as a famous dystopian novel from 1985, received an MA from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1962.
Answer: Margaret Atwood
- Howard Aiken received a PhD in Physics from Harvard in 1939, and in 1944 he installed the Harvard Mark I, a computer designed for what giant company in the computer field?
Answer: International Business Machines
- Martin Chalfie, an American scientist who got his PhD in neurobiology from Harvard in 1977, was a co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a fluorescent protein of what color? It is a color often associated with envy, and also Kermit The Frog.
Answer: Green Fluorescent Protein
- Delawarean astronomer Annie Jump Cannon helped develop the Harvard System, which classifies what objects according to colors like blue, white, and red?
Answer: Stars
- Although Harvard has the largest university endowment in the U.S., it may soon be eclipsed by the public university system of what state, which is predictably enriched by investments in oil and natural gas?
Answer: Texas
- In 1708, John Leverett was the first secular (non-clergyman) to take on which high-ranking role at Harvard?
Answer: President
- What infamous undergraduate satire publication at Harvard gets its name from a word meaning "parody?"
Answer: The Harvard Lampoon
- According to Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate, aka "the Harvard diet," one-fourth of your plate should consist of what two-word food group that includes quinoa, oats, and brown rice?
Answer: Whole grains
- What Southern writer wrote about the Harvard experiences of troubled student Quentin Compson in two of his novels?
Answer: William Faulkner
- The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, founded in 1907, is found at which world famous American college?
Answer: Harvard
- With over 20 million volumes, 400 million manuscripts, and 10 million photos, Harvard University’s network of information services is not just one of the biggest but also the oldest (being established in 1638) in the world. What kind of academic system for acquiring knowledge (often with a card) is it?
Answer: Library
- Drawn from the Declaration of Independence, what is the title of Harvard professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore's 2018 one-volume history of the United States, which wrestles with uncomfortable questions about our nation's past?
Answer: These Truths
- What Harvard organization, which was named for a traditional English dish eaten communally by its first members, claims to be the oldest collegiate social club in the United States?
Answer: Hasty Pudding Club
- One unlucky chef served undercooked leeks to Harvard alum Natalie Portman and Tom Colicchio during a very vegetarian Elimination Challenge of what knife-packing Bravo cooking competition?
Answer: Top Chef
- Erected between 1718 and 1720, what is the oldest building on Harvard's campus?
Answer: Massachusetts Hall
- Within 50, how many entering Harvard Medical School MD candidates were there in the fall of 2019? We're including the 14 MD–PhD students.
Answer: 165 (115 - 215 accepted)
- In April 2004, Tom Brush and his friend and F. Hererra opened a taqueria in Harvard Square. What is the name of this mainstay on Brattle Street?
Answer: Felipe's Taqueria
- What popular astrophysicist, author of “Death By Black Hole” and host of TV’s “Cosmos”, earned a BA in Physics from Harvard University in 1980?
Answer: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- Housing more than 3.5 million items (making it the third largest library in the United States), what campus library is the biggest in the Harvard Library system?
Answer: Widener Library
- She joined the staff of Harvard Law School in 1995, and in 2011 she was the only tenured professor on staff at Harvard Law who had attended law school at an American public university. Who is she?
Answer: Elizabeth Warren
- Professor David Malan is well-known as the teacher of CS50, an introductory computer science course. He is well-known beyond his formal campus because the class is available online as a MOOC (massive open online course) and has been started by over two million students. However, Malan is technically a faculty member at what school?
Answer: Harvard
- A certain Harvard alum's help turning around the 2011-12 Knicks season birthed what portmanteau from his manic fans?
Answer: Linsanity
- Previously receiving a bachelor's degree cum laude in history in 1890, what man became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895?
Answer: W.E.B DuBois
- Howard Gardner, a development psychologist and a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, is best known for a theory that separates what “I” aspect of mental power into multiple types?
Answer: Intelligence
- Although the President and Fellows of Harvard College are generally considered the more active and hands-on of the two governing boards overseeing Harvard University, technically the OTHER group is known as the "senior" governing board. What is this other group?
Answer: Harvard Board of Overseers
- John Houseman won a Supporting Actor Oscar playing demanding contract law professor Charles Kingsfield in what 1973 Harvard Law dramedy?
Answer: The Paper Chase
- What female Green Party U.S. presidential candidate, running in 2012 and 2016, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979?
Answer: Jill Stein
- There are dents on Harvard sidewalks that are believed to be from what thing, thrown from dorm rooms during the Revolutionary War?
Answer: Cannonballs
- What author of medical fiction like "The Andromeda Strain" received both undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard?
Answer: Michael Crichton
- Robert Frost, who attended Harvard from 1897 to 1899, famously wrote what poem that ends "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference?"
Answer: The Road Not Taken
- What is the name of the security company founded in 2006 by two Harvard Business School students who couldn't find a security company designed to help renters? The couple was interested in the field after multiple friends in Cambridge had experienced break-ins. By 2014, the company has raised more than $50 million in venture capital.
Answer: Simplisafe
- What's the name of Harvard University's daily student newspaper?
Answer: The Harvard Crimson
- "The Language Instinct," "How the Mind Works," and "The Blank Slate" are among the books by what Harvard professor of psychology?
Answer: Steven Pinker
- "Love of learning is the guide of life" is the motto of what honor society whose oldest continuous chapter was founded at Harvard in 1781?
Answer: Phi Beta Kappa
- What repetitively named William Faulkner novel is told as a series of flashbacks from narrator Quentin Compson to his roommate at Harvard?
Answer: Absalom, Absalom!
- What term was first coined by physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes and is typically used to refer to a group of 50+ "elite" families of Boston often associated with Harvard, Anglicanism, and high social and economic standing?
Answer: Boston Brahmins
- If you're down with O.C.C., you're probably familiar with the classical conditioning "box" created by what Harvard behaviorist?
Answer: B.F. Skinner
- There is one current justice on the U.S. Supreme Court that graduated from Harvard Law the same year as Barack Obama. Who is it?
Answer: Neil Gorsuch
- What co-founder of the NAACP was also the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard?
Answer: W. E. B. Du Bois
- What “K” psychology professor at the University of Chicago and Harvard came up with six stages of moral development that a person goes through? They include morality for personality benefit, morality conforming to social norms, and morality that best works for everyone.
Answer: Lawrence Kohlberg
- Nuts to von Neumann: Computer architecture featuring separate storage and signal pathways for instructions and data is named for what Ivy League school?
Answer: Harvard
- Harvard's Warren Anatomical Museum displays the fractured skull of what man, who became famous as a scientific subject after an iron rod was driven through his brain in a railroad accident?
Answer: Phineas Gage
- William Elwood Byerly was the first-ever graduate student to get a degree from Harvard. In 1873, he was awarded a PhD in what core academic subject?
Answer: Math
- What Harvard Law Class of 1983 graduate and Virginia senator did Hillary Clinton select as her running mate in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election?
Answer: Tim Kaine
- Harvard alumni have won the most of what mathematical prize, awarded to mathematicians under 40 every four years at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union?
Answer: Fields Medal
- Due to the compact design and high population density, Boston's neighboring city Cambridge often ranks as #1 in the U.S. in the category of highest share of residents that use what form of transportation to commute to work?
Answer: Walking
- What is the name of the bridge that crosses the Charles River and connects the Harvard campuses in Cambridge and Boston (its Allston neighborhood, specifically)?
Answer: John W. Weeks Bridge
- Harvard's well-known for its Cambridge campus but also its Allston and Longwood facilities in the Boston area which largely focus MBA and MD programs, respectively. In what other Massachusetts town would you find the Harvard Forest? This area is a 3,000-acre ecological research forest that is open to the public.
Answer: Petersham
- The 'Q Guide,' Havard's student feedback site, lists what class as the hardest freshman math class available, with around 480 hours of homework per semester? We're looking for a word and a number.
Answer: Math 55
- A speech at Harvard launched her career in the public eye, as it prompted an invite to write a piece for Fortune magazine. The piece was her first public criticism of Robert Moses. Who is she?
Answer: Jane Jacobs
- Although they had a slightly different name at the time, Harvard Stadium was the home stadium of the New England Patriots for a single NFL season. In what decade was this?
Answer: 1970s (1970)
- Former Harvard professors William Lipscomb, Elias Corey, and Martin Karplus have all won Nobel Prizes in what category?
Answer: chemistry
- What is the name of Harvard's oldest a cappella singing group, essentially the counterpart of Yale University's Whiffenpoofs?
Answer: The Harvard Krokodiloes
- Teddy Wayne explores themes of toxic masculinity in what 2016 novel set at Harvard, whose title is a word meaning a reclusive person?
Answer: Loner
- What actress, who played the lead in "Judging Amy" (1999 to 2005) and starred as Violet Turner in "Private Practice" (2007 to 2013), received a degree in comparative religion from Harvard University in 1987?
Answer: Amy Brenneman
- Francis J. Doyle III is affiliate with the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School but his more time-consuming role with Harvard has been as dean of what school since 2015?
Answer: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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