Columbia University

Columbia University
Name	Columbia University
Established	1754
Founder	George II of Great Britain
Type	Private university
Endowment	$13.3 billion (2023)
President	Minouche Shafik
City	New York City
State	New York
Country	United States
Campus	Urban (Morningside Heights), 299 acres
Affiliations	Ivy League, AAU, NAICU
Website	columbia.edu

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Columbia University. It is a private Ivy League research university in New York City, established in 1754 by royal charter from George II of Great Britain. Originally founded as King's College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States, renowned for its rigorous core curriculum and historic Morningside Heights campus. The university is organized into twenty schools, including Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and several graduate and professional schools such as Columbia Law School, the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Columbia Business School.

History

The institution was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter from George II of Great Britain, with its first classes held in the schoolhouse of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. After the American Revolutionary War, it was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and moved to its present location in Morningside Heights in 1897, following a period at Midtown Manhattan. Key figures in its development include President Frederick A.P. Barnard and architects Charles Follen McKim and John William Burghersh of McKim, Mead & White, who designed the central campus. The 20th century saw significant expansion under presidents like Nicholas Murray Butler and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later became the 34th President of the United States, with the university becoming a global center for research and scholarship, particularly after World War II.

The main campus occupies over six city blocks in the Morningside Heights neighborhood, centered around the iconic Low Memorial Library and the expansive South Lawn. Notable buildings include the Butler Library, the St. Paul's Chapel, and the Pupin Hall physics laboratory, a National Historic Landmark where the Manhattan Project research was conducted. The university also operates the Columbia University Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood, the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, and global centers in locations like Paris, Beijing, and Mumbai. The campus features several notable artworks, including the Alma Mater statue by Daniel Chester French and The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.

Columbia is organized into twenty schools, with undergraduate programs primarily in Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. It is famous for its comprehensive Core Curriculum, which includes required courses like Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, and Frontiers of Science. The graduate and professional divisions are highly ranked, including Columbia Law School, the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Columbia Business School, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which administers the Pulitzer Prize. Other notable schools include the School of International and Public Affairs and the Columbia University School of the Arts, fostering leaders in fields from public policy to creative writing.

As a member of the Association of American Universities, Columbia is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." It operates over 200 research centers and institutes, including the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the Earth Institute, and the Zuckerman Institute. Pioneering research conducted here includes the foundation of FM radio by Edwin Howard Armstrong, the laser by Charles H. Townes, and key contributions to nuclear magnetic resonance and plate tectonics. The university is a top recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, with current strengths in areas like climate change, neuroscience, and data science.

Columbia's community includes a vast network of distinguished individuals. Alumni encompass 101 Nobel Prize laureates such as Baruch Blumberg and Richard Axel, 29 Heads of state including Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama, and 125 Pulitzer Prize winners like Tony Kushner and Mikhail Baryshnikov. The faculty has included numerous Nobel laureates like Isidor Isaac Rabi and Joseph Stiglitz, as well as influential figures like anthropologist Franz Boas, literary critic Edward Said, and economist Milton Friedman. Other notable affiliates range from Warren Buffett and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to artists like Art Garfunkel and Langston Hughes.

The university's iconic campus and New York City setting have made it a frequent backdrop in film, television, and literature. It is prominently featured in movies like Ghostbusters, where Pupin Hall is depicted as the headquarters for the protagonists, and Kill Your Darlings, which dramatizes the early lives of the Beat Generation poets. Television series such as Gossip Girl and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have used the campus for location shooting. Literary works associated with Columbia include Jack Kerouac's On the Road and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, which references the area, while alumnus Langston Hughes is a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Category:Columbia University Category:Universities and colleges in New York City Category:Ivy League universities