In 1636, just sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, colonists founded Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1890, formed through the merger of the College Faculty, Faculty of the Graduate School, and the Scientific School Faculty. In its over 350 year history, the university has grown from an original class of nine men preparing for the Protestant ministry to nearly 20,000 individuals studying in the undergraduate college and ten different graduate schools, as well as an extension school.