# Colonial colleges

The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the founding of the United States. These nine have long been considered together, notably since the survey of their origins in the 1907 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
Seven of the nine colonial colleges became seven of the eight Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Dartmouth. The remaining Ivy League institution, Cornell University, was founded in 1865. These are all fully private universities except for Cornell which is the land-grant research university of New York State (i.e., parts of Cornell are 'private' such as its College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences, and part are 'public' such as the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University). The two colonial colleges not in the Ivy League—the College of William & Mary in Virginia and Rutgers University in New Jersey—are now both public universities. William & Mary was a royal institution from 1693 until the American Revolution. Between the Revolution and the American Civil War, it was a private institution, but it suffered significant damage during the Civil War and began to receive public support in the 1880s. William & Mary officially became a public college in 1906.
Rutgers was founded in 1766 as Queen's College, named for Queen Charlotte. For much of its history, it was privately affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It changed its name to Rutgers College in 1825 and was designated as the State University of New Jersey after World War II.

## The nine colonial colleges

Seven of the nine colonial colleges began their histories as institutions of higher learning while existing preparatory schools developed two. Dartmouth College began operating in 1768 as the collegiate department of Moor's Charity School, a secondary school started in 1754 by Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock. Dartmouth considers its founding date as 1769 when it was granted a collegiate charter. The University of Pennsylvania began operating in 1751 as a secondary school, the Academy of Philadelphia, and added an institution of higher education in 1755 with the granting of a charter to the College of Philadelphia.
| Colonial college (present name, if different) | Colony | Founded | Chartered | First instruction | First degrees | Primary religious influence | Ivy League |
| Harvard College (Harvard University) | Massachusetts Bay Colony | 1636 | 1650 | 1642 | 1642 | Puritan (Congregational)/Unitarian | Yes |
| College of William & Mary | Colony of Virginia | 1693 | 1693 | 1694 | 1694 | Church of England (Episcopalian) | No |
| Collegiate School (Yale University) | Connecticut Colony | 1701 | 1701 | 1702 | 1702 honorary MA 1703 BA | Puritan (Congregational) | Yes |
| College of New Jersey (Princeton University) | Province of New Jersey | 1746 | 1746 | 1747 | 1748 | Presbyterian but officially nonsectarian | Yes |
| King's College (Columbia University) | Province of New York | 1754 | 1754 | 1754 | 1758 | Church of England with a commitment to "religious liberty." | Yes |
| College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) | Province of Pennsylvania | 1740 (college) | 1755 | 1755 | 1757 | Church of England but officially nonsectarian | Yes |
| College of Rhode Island (Brown University) | Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations | 1764 | 1764 | 1765 | 1765 | Baptist (but no religious requirement for admissions) | Yes |
| Queen's College (Rutgers University) | Province of New Jersey | 1766 | 1766 | 1771 | 1774 | Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) | No |
| Dartmouth College | Province of New Hampshire | 1769 | 1769 | 1768 | 1771 | Puritan (Congregational) | Yes |

## Other colonial-era foundations

Several other colleges and universities can be traced to colonial-era "academies" or "schools" but are not considered colonial colleges because they were not formally chartered as colleges with degree-granting powers until after the formation of the United States in 1776. Listed below are the founding dates of the schools that served as predecessor entities and the years they were chartered to operate an institution of higher learning.
| Institution (present name, where different) | Colony or state | Founded | Chartered | Religious influence |
| King William's School (absorbed by St. John's College when the latter was founded) | Province of Maryland | 1696 | 1784 | Church of England |
| Kent County Free School (absorbed by Washington College when the latter was founded) | Province of Maryland | 1723 | 1782 | Nonsectarian |
| Bethlehem Female Seminary (Moravian University) | Province of Pennsylvania | 1742 | 1863 | Moravian Church |
| Newark Academy (University of Delaware) | Delaware Colony | 1743 | 1833 | Presbyterian, but officially nonsectarian after 1769 |
| Augusta Academy (Washington and Lee University) | Colony of Virginia | 1749 | 1782 | Presbyterian, but officially non-sectarian |
| College of Charleston | Province of South Carolina | 1770 | 1785 | Church of England |
| Pittsburgh Academy (University of Pittsburgh) | Province of Pennsylvania | 1770? | 1787 | Nonsectarian |
| Little Girls' School (Salem College) | Province of North Carolina | 1772 | 1866 | Moravian Church |
| Dickinson College | Province of Pennsylvania | 1773 | 1783 | Presbyterian |
| Hampden–Sydney College | Colony of Virginia | 1775 | 1783 | Presbyterian |