National Universities USA – 2016 – Columbia University – Rank 4/100

Columbia University
2960 Broadway, New York,10027
Phone: (212) 854-1754

Columbia University (officially Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as King’s College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain and is the oldest college in New York State as well as the fifth chartered institution of higher learning in the country, making Columbia one of nine colonial colleges founded before the Declaration of Independence. After the revolutionary war, King’s College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. A 1787 charter placed the institution under a private board of trustees before it was renamed Columbia University in 1896 when the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights occupying land of 32 acres (13 ha). Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities, and was the first school in the United States to grant the M.D. degree.

The university is organized into twenty schools, including Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of General Studies. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción and Nairobi. It has affiliations with several other institutions nearby, including Teachers College,Barnard College, and Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Sciences Po Paris, and the Juilliard School.

Columbia annually administers the Pulitzer Prize. Notable alumni and former students (including those from King’s College) include five Founding Fathers of the United States; nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 20 living billionaires; 29 Academy Award winners; and 29 heads of state, including three United States Presidents.Additionally, to date, some 101 Nobel Prize laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, faculty, or staff.

Columbia University is a private institution that was founded in 1754. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,170, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 36 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Columbia University’s ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 4. Its tuition and fees are $51,008 (2014-15).

Columbia University, located in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York City, offers a wide range of student activities. The Columbia Lions field more than 25 NCAA Division I teams in the Ivy League. More than 90 percent of students live in on-campus housing, ranging from traditional residence halls to university-owned brownstones. Many of the brownstones are populated by the more than 25 Greek fraternity and sorority chapters on campus, whose membership includes about 10 percent of the student body. Organizations such as Urban New York, which gives out free tickets to city events, foster student interaction with life in the Big Apple.

Columbia is comprised of three undergraduate schools—Columbia College, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the School of General Studies—as well as a number of graduate and professional schools. Columbia’s graduate programs include the highly ranked Business School, Teachers College, SEAS, Law School, College of Physicians and Surgeons,School of International and Public Affairs, School of the Arts and Mailman School of Public Health. The university also has a well-regarded College of Dental Medicine and Graduate School of Journalism. Columbia is affiliated with Barnard College for women, the Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Distinguished alumni include John Jay, founding father and first Supreme Court Justice; President Barack Obama; songwriting team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Columbia also administers the Pulitzer Prizes.

Founded in 1754, Columbia University in the City of New York encompasses more than a dozen graduate and professional schools and the over 6,000 undergraduates studying in Columbia College and The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The renowned Core Curriculum unites all Columbia undergraduates by providing a common foundation in literature, philosophy, science, art, history and music, and caps classes at 22 students to afford close interaction with Columbia’s renowned faculty. Columbia Engineering is one of the oldest engineering schools in the U.S., developing future engineering leaders through its unique educational approach which includes a first-year hands-on design course; close student-to-faculty interaction with extensive undergraduate research opportunities starting as early as the first year; a broad-based core curriculum, liberal arts minors and interdisciplinary courses; programs and projects that foster entrepreneurship and socially-responsible innovation; and trailblazing internship and civic engagement programs in New York City and around the world. Students choose among over 100 majors and concentrations and thousands of research, internship and job opportunities. Located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, Columbia not only offers access to all of New York City, the ultimate classroom, but also guaranteed four-year housing within a traditional campus surrounded by a residential neighborhood lined with bookstores, cafes and parks. Called “the quintessential great urban university,” Columbia is diverse in every way: students come from 50 states and over 90 foreign countries; over half of undergraduates are students of color, and over 500 student organizations are offered, including 31 Division I Ivy League athletic teams and dozens of community service organizations, performance groups, political clubs and publications. As the birthplace of FM radio, the fields of genetics and anthropology, the nation’s oldest literary magazine and first Black student advocacy group on a multi-racial campus, Columbia has carried on a tradition of both social and scientific innovation for over 250 years. Notable Columbians include Barack Obama, Isaac Asimov, Madeline Albright, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Julia Stiles, and many more spanning every professional field. Columbia offers extensive need-based financial aid and meets the full need of every student admitted as a first-year with grants instead of loans. Parents with calculated incomes below $60,000 and with typical assets are not expected to contribute any income or assets to tuition, room, board and mandatory fees and families with calculated incomes between $60,000 and $100,000 and with typical assets have a significantly reduced contribution. To support students pursuing study abroad, research, internships and community service opportunities, Columbia offers the opportunity to apply for additional funding and exemptions from academic year and summer work expectations. A commitment to diversity of every kind is a longstanding Columbia hallmark. We believe cost should not be a barrier to pursuing your educational dreams.

Rankings, Scores & Key Indicators

Score – 95
High school counselor score (out of 5) – 4.9
Average freshman retention rate – 99%
Classes with fewer than 20 students – 82.4%
Classes with 50 or more students – 9%
Student-faculty ratio – 6:1
Fall 2014 acceptance rate – 7%
6-year graduation rate – 96%