Columbia

Columbia University

Columbia
#4 / #3
Global Influence / U.S. Influence
#6
Most Desirable School
Private university in New York City

Columbia University Featured Rankings

About Columbia University

By James Barham, PhD

Columbia is the eleventh-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. After New Jersey founded its college (now Princeton University) in 1746, New Yorkers, not wishing to be outdone, established their own college just eight years later. Its original name was King’s College.

However, following the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and George Washington’s final victory at Yorktown in 1781, King George III found himself in bad odor throughout the former colonies. So, in 1784 King’s College was formally rechristened in honor of Christopher Columbus. (With that doughty explorer being in equally bad odor today, a second rebranding sometime soon would not surprise us.)

Over the years, Columbia has flourished at several different sites around Manhattan, moving most recently (in 1896) from a Midtown location at 49th Street and Madison Avenue to its present location at 116th and Broadway in the Morningside Heights neighborhood on the Upper West Side.

Under whatever name and wherever situated, with around 100 Nobel laureates Columbia has long been at the forefront of research in both the sciences and the humanities. For example, Thomas Hunt Morgan’s experiments between 1911 and 1928 with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, in his Columbia lab fondly known as “the Fly Room,” laid the foundations for the modern field of population genetics.

In 1938, I.I. Rabi discovery the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at Columbia. Rabi’s discovery formed the basis for NMR spectroscopy and other techniques for studying the structure and behavior of matter.

In January of 1939, Rabi, Enrico Fermi, and several other physicists produced the first artificial fission reaction—i.e., the first “splitting of the atom”—in the United States. They did this just one month after Lise Meitner and her colleagues in Berlin had achieved this result, in December of 1938.

During World War II, the then – top secret, but now – world famous, Manhattan Project got its name from the fact that much of the early theoretical work on the first atomic bomb took place in Pupin Hall (named after the Serbian-American physicist, M.I. Pupin) and elsewhere on the campus of Columbia University.

In 1953, Charles H. Townes and his Columbia University team created the first working laser device.

In 1966, a team led by Maurice Ewing at Columbia’s Lamont Earth Observatory successfully interpreted magnetic field – readings of the ocean floor at the mid-ocean ridges as evidence of ocean-floor spreading. By implication, these findings also provided the first experimental evidence in support of the global plate tectonics, or “continental drift,” hypothesis advanced by Alfred Wegener in 1910 to explain the apparent mobility of the continents over geological time.

Most recently, in 2019, neuroscientists working at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute for research on mind, brain, and behavior achieved an astonishing breakthrough. For the first time, scientists have been able to produce clear, intelligible, synthetic speech by means of real-time computer processing of human brain activity.

Another history-making scientist who graduated from Columbia, but did his important work elsewhere, is Arno Penzias, co-discoverer in 1964 (with Robert Woodrow Wilson) of the 3° K cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang.

As for the humanities and social sciences, Columbia is almost as distinguished in these fields as it is in the natural sciences. A full list of famous alumni would be much too long to reproduce here, but some of the highlights would include:

  • Aviator, Amelia Earhart
  • Philosophers, Robert Nozick & Jerry Fodor
  • Anthropologist, Margaret Mead
  • Economist, Simon Kuznetz
  • Urbanologist, Jane Jacobs
  • Film producer, David O. Selznick
  • Lyricist, Ira Gershwin
  • Violinist, Gil Shaham
  • Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca
  • Writers, Isaac Asimov, J.D. Salinger, & Hunter S. Thompson
  • Actors, Ossie Davis & Anthony Perkins
  • Creator of the original Star Trek television series, Gene Roddenberry

According to Wikipedia, Columbia University, officially Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States.

Columbia University's Online Degrees

Columbia University Admissions, Retention, and Graduation Information

Annual ApplicationsAcceptanceGraduation RateMedian SAT ScoreMedian ACT Score
60,8794%95%153534

How Much Does Columbia University Cost To Attend?

Tuition (in-state)
$66,139
Price by Family Income
IncomeAverage Net Cost
0 - 30K$6,184
30K - 48K$4,569
48K - 75K$8,385
75K - 110K$15,114
110K+$45,873

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

How Much Do Columbia University Graduates Make?

If you graduate from Columbia University, then you can expect to earn an average of $115,600 per year. You also have a 87% chance of being employed after 10 years.

Columbia University's Demographics

Demographic data is for full-time, on-campus students.

Student BodyUnder-GradsGraduates
37,3689,64027,728

Where is Columbia University?

Columbia University is located at West 116 St and Broadway, New York NY 10027

What Is Columbia University Known For?

Columbia University is known for it's academic work in the following disciplines:

Columbia University's Top Areas of Influence With Degrees Offered

Social Work
#1
World Rank
#1
Historical Rank
#1
USA Rank
social-work Degrees
Nursing
#2
World Rank
#1
Historical Rank
#1
USA Rank
nursing Degrees
Literature
#4
World Rank
#4
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
literature Degrees
Political Science
#3
World Rank
#3
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
political-science Degrees
Communications
#4
World Rank
#4
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
communications Degrees
Business
#2
World Rank
#2
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
business Degrees
Education
#4
World Rank
#4
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
education Degrees
History
#4
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#4
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
history Degrees
Medical
#3
World Rank
#5
Historical Rank
#2
USA Rank
medicine Degrees
Law
#4
World Rank
#4
Historical Rank
#3
USA Rank
Sociology
#3
World Rank
#5
Historical Rank
#3
USA Rank
sociology Degrees
Earth Sciences
#7
World Rank
#10
Historical Rank
#3
USA Rank
earth-science Degrees
Philosophy
#8
World Rank
#20
Historical Rank
#4
USA Rank
philosophy Degrees
Biology
#6
World Rank
#9
Historical Rank
#4
USA Rank
biology Degrees
Economics
#6
World Rank
#5
Historical Rank
#4
USA Rank
economics Degrees
Anthropology
#7
World Rank
#3
Historical Rank
#4
USA Rank
anthropology Degrees
Religious Studies
#15
World Rank
#21
Historical Rank
#4
USA Rank
religious-studies-hub Degrees
Engineering
#5
World Rank
#5
Historical Rank
#5
USA Rank
engineering Degrees
Psychology
#6
World Rank
#6
Historical Rank
#5
USA Rank
psychology Degrees
Chemistry
#12
World Rank
#27
Historical Rank
#6
USA Rank
chemistry Degrees
Mathematics
#16
World Rank
#29
Historical Rank
#7
USA Rank
math Degrees
Physics
#12
World Rank
#18
Historical Rank
#8
USA Rank
physics Degrees
Computer Science
#9
World Rank
#9
Historical Rank
#8
USA Rank
computer-science Degrees

Who Are Columbia University's Most Influential Alumni?

Columbia University's most influential alumni include professors and professionals in the fields of Social Work, Nursing, and Business. Here are some of Columbia University's most famous alumni:

Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
An American economist, statistician, and writer.
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
A German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist .
Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
An American economist .
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
An American biologist and historian of science .
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers
An American psychologist.
Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Arrow
An American economist .
B. R. Ambedkar
B. R. Ambedkar
An Indian polymath, philosopher, and social reformer .
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
An American writer and biochemist .
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick
An American political philosopher.
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
An American anthropologist.
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
An American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author.
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Fodor
An American philosopher.

Who Are Columbia University's Most Influential Faculty?

Columbia University's most influential faculty include professors in the fields of Social Work, Nursing, and Business. Here are some of Columbia University's most famous alumni:

Konstantin Novoselov
Konstantin Novoselov
A Russian-British physicist known for graphene work.
Samuel Moyn
Samuel Moyn
An American historian.
Amal Clooney
Amal Clooney
A British-Lebanese barrister.
Duncan J. Watts
Duncan J. Watts
An Australian physicist and sociologist.
Steven M. Bellovin
Steven M. Bellovin
An American computer scientist.
Caryn James
An American journalist, writer and university professor.
David Blei
An American artificial intelligence researcher.
Shree K. Nayar
An Indian-American engineer.
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee
An Indian-American physician and writer .
Ciprian Manolescu
Ciprian Manolescu
A Romanian mathematician.
Gershom Gorenberg
Gershom Gorenberg
An Israeli historian and writer.
Peter Daszak
A Zoologist, disease ecologist.