Howard Congress, Age 12, Of Peoria, Ill., for his question:

Which is the oldest university in the United States?

Our modern universities grew from those that were started in Europe during the middle ages. The university of Bologna in Italy was founded about 1100 AD., and the Sorbonne University of Paris was founded about 50 years later. These two are by far the oldest universities in the world.

The first university in America was founded by the settlers of early New England. It is the University of Harvard at Cambridge, Mass., and it was founded in the year 1636.