Yale University

Yale was originally founded under the name of Collegiate School by Connecticut Colony in 1701. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher learning in the US, after Harvard, the College of William & Mary (in Williamsburg, Virginia), and St. John’s College (in Annapolis, Maryland). Called the “Collegiate School,” its original mission was to train future ministers for the Congregational Church.

Yale is known as an all-around powerhouse, not unlike Harvard, with strength in a wide variety of fields. For one thing, five US presidents have passed through Yale, the second-highest number after Harvard. Three of them attended as undergraduates (Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush), while two attended Yale Law School (Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton).

Yale Law School is often mentioned as one of the two most influential in the country, along with Harvard Law. In all, nine Supreme Court Justices have been Yale Law graduates, including sitting Justices:

• Samuel Alito
• Brett Kavanaugh
• Sonia Sotomayor
• Clarence Thomas

More than 60 Nobel Prize – recipients have studied, taught, or conducted research at Yale at some point during their careers. In physics, they include:

• Ernest Lawrence
• Murray Gell-Mann
• Willis Lamb
• David Thouless

Yale Chemistry Nobelists include:

• Lars Onsager
• Brian Kobilka
• John Goodenough
• Sidney Altman

Yale Nobelists in physiology or medicine include:

• John Enders
• Joshua Lederberg
• James Rothman
• Elizabeth Blackburn

Nobelists in economics who attended or taught at Yale include:

• Thomas Schelling
• Paul Krugman
• Joseph Stiglitz
• James Tobin
• William Nordhaus
• George Akerlof
• Robert Shiller
• Edmund Phelps

Among literature Nobelists, the American novelist Sinclair Lewis received his BA from Yale, while the poet Derek Walcott, from the Caribbean island-nation of Saint Lucia, the Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, and the American novelist Toni Morrison all held visiting lectureships there.

Other prominent persons connected to Yale during its first two centuries include the first great American theologian and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards; the inventor of the cotton gin, Eli Whitney; and the lexicographer Noah Webster.

Regarding distinguished, twentieth-century, Yale-connected individuals, we may mention:

• Pioneering computer scientist, Grace Hopper
• Songwriter, Cole Porter
• Literary critic, Harold Bloom
• Actor and film director, Oliver Stone
• Actors Vincent Price, Meryl Streep, Paul Newman, Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Giamatti, & James Franco
• Russian democracy activist, Alexei Navalny
• Brain surgeon and current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson
• Political scientist, Fareed Zakharia
• 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination candidates, Cory Booker & Amy Klobuchar
• Former First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton
• Former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney