Why Yale? | For Humanity

Never Been Done...

Since its founding in 1701, Yale has been the birthplace of discoveries and developments that change the world. And Yale’s alumni, parents, and friends have played a big role in making it all possible. This is just a small selection of moments in which Yale has changed the world and donors have changed Yale.

1701

Founded in a Scholarly Tradition

Yale is founded in Saybrook, CT, as the Collegiate School, to educate students for “Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.” The school moved to New Haven in 1716 and was renamed Yale College in recognition of Elihu Yale’s 1718 donation of books and goods.

1714

Newtonian Physics

Isaac Newton gives the library of the Collegiate School copies of his recently published Principia Mathematica (second edition, 1713) and Optice (1706), making Yale a repository of scientific thought for the colonies.

1732

First Yale Scholarship

The Rev. George Berkeley establishes the first scholarship fund in Yale College, along with America’s first fellowship fund for graduate study.

1774 – 1789

History Makers

Twenty-five Yale graduates serve in the Continental Congress. In 1776, five Yalies sign the Declaration of Independence. Six Yale alumni serve as delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

1796

Supreme Justice

Oliver Ellsworth, Class of 1766, is the first Yale alum to serve on the US Supreme Court. In all, eighteen graduates have served, including current justices Samuel Alito ’75 JD, Brett Kavanaugh ’87, ’90 JD, Sonia Sotomayor ’79 JD, and Clarence Thomas ’74 JD.

1700s

1831

Art History

John Trumbull, artist of the American Revolution, gives 100 paintings to Yale in return for $1,000 annually for the rest of his life—America’s first gift annuity. The museum Yale built to house Trumbull’s paintings opened in 1832 as the first university art museum in the western hemisphere.

1854

A Student from China

Yung Wing, Class of 1854, is the first person from China to graduate from an American university.

1869

First University Art School

The first university arts institution, the School of the Fine Arts, opens. It was the first Yale school open to women, who formed the majority of students in the school’s first four decades.

1872

Leaving a Legacy

Mary Goodman, a former slave and New Haven tradeswoman, bequeaths all of her property—$4,669—to establish a scholarship fund for African American divinity students at Yale. Her gift continues to support students in the present day.

1876

African American Accomplishments

Edward Alexander Bouchet becomes the first African American in the United States to earn a PhD, graduating from Yale with a doctorate in physics. He had previously earned a BA from Yale College.

1890

Alumni Give Back

Yale graduates create the Yale Alumni Fund, thought to be the oldest continuous annual giving program in the world. Alumni Fund donors now provide millions of critical dollars to the university each year.

1894

Women Earn PhDs

The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences presents its first PhD to a woman. Seven of the twenty-one PhD recipients that year are women.

1896

First X-Ray Image

Yale physicist Arthur Wright BA 1859, PhD 1861 produces the first X-ray image.

1800s

1909

A Presidential Tradition

William Howard Taft BA 1878 becomes the twenty-seventh president of the United States. In total, five alumni have served as president, including Taft, Gerald Ford ’41 LLB, George H.W. Bush ’48, Bill Clinton ’73 JD, and George W. Bush ’68.

1950

Shaping Economic Policy

James Tobin joins the Yale faculty. His research and writing shaped economic and monetary policy, earning him the Nobel prize in 1981. His teaching was equally iconic: his former students include luminaries such as David Swensen ’80 PhD and Nobel laureate William Nordhaus ’63.

1964

Need-Blind Admissions

Yale is the first among its peer institutions to ensure that all undergraduate admissions decisions are made without consideration of a family’s financial circumstances.

1969

Welcoming Women

Yale opens its doors to its first female undergraduates.

1976

Expanding Campus

The School of Organization and Management opens. The school’s name was changed to the School of Management in 1994.

1977

Strengthening the Humanities

The Whitney Humanities Center, an interdisciplinary institution that reflects Yale University’s longstanding commitment to the humanities, opens.

1989

Pioneering Loan Forgiveness

Yale Law School establishes the Career Options Assistance Program (COAP), one of the first programs of its kind anywhere, to assist with educational loan repayment for graduates in lower-paying positions, often in the public service, government, or nonprofit sectors.

1998

Scholarship on Slavery

Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition is founded. The center’s scholarship and public education programs have been influential in the world’s understanding of the lasting harms of slavery.

1900s

2001

Support for All Students

Yale College extends need-blind admissions to international students.

2008

Becoming More Affordable

Yale College offers free tuition, room, and board for students with family income below the national median.

2009

The Quantum Frontier

A team led by Yale researchers creates the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

2020

A New Nobel Laureate

Louise Glück, adjunct professor of English and Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence, wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. All told, sixty-five Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Yale as alumni or faculty members, including Glück, William Nordhaus ’63, James E. Rothman ’71, and Robert Shiller.

2020

Expanding Access

In Yale College, the number of first-year students who are Pell-grant eligible and the number who are first-generation college students have doubled over their levels from a decade prior.

2021

Tuition-Free Theater Education

The David Geffen School of Drama becomes tuition free for all students, thanks to a landmark $150 million gift—the largest ever in the history of American theater.

2022

Jackson School Established

Yale opens the Jackson School of Global Affairs, the first new professional school at Yale since 1976.

2000s

...Is What We’ve Always Been Doing

After three centuries, we’re still innovating and collaborating. Every day, Yale students, faculty members, and researchers pursue the next great ideas for the greater good. The For Humanity campaign continues a long history of Yale’s alumni, parents, and friends giving to improve the world through Yale. The possibilities are limitless. What will we accomplish together in the next three centuries?