Founded in 1754, Columbia was the first college established in New York; the fifth college established in the American colonies.

Facts:

• Two campuses at the top of Manhattan: the undergraduate campus in Morningside Heights and the Medical Center in Washington Heights;
• 5,500 undergraduates; 18,000 graduate students;
• 4,000 faculty; 75+ Nobel laureates (past and present);
• 40+ National Academy of Sciences electees; 20+ National Academy of Engineering electees; 140+ members of American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Nearly all undergraduates live in on campus housing throughout their undergraduate experience.

Innovations

The birthplace of FM radio, the first American university to offer anthropology and political science as academic disciplines, the foundation of modern genetics and the base of the Beat Movement. The first North American site where the uranium atom was split. A faculty that, in recent years, has earned more revenue from patents than any other University faculty in the world. Alumni who change the way we see the world: Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, Brian DePalma, Georgia O'Keeffe, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Julia Stiles, Tony Kushner, Barack Obama. A home to pioneers, innovators, and visionaries.

More facts:

• 5,500 undergraduate students from nearly 100 countries and all 50 states with over 95% living on campus for four years;
• Nearly half of undergraduates self-identifying as students of color making Columbia one of the most ethnically diverse institutions of higher learning in the world;
• 4,100 students and more than 90 areas of study in Columbia College;
• 1,400 students and 17 areas of study in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science;
• Columbia has an endowment totaling nearly 8 billion dollars, placing it among the top 10 most financially endowed universities in America;
• More than 100 faculty or alumni members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
• More than $530 million in sponsored research projects in over 200 research centers institutes;
• Among the top 10 universities in America in federal research-and-development expenditures for science & engineering;
• One of the top 10 academic library systems in America;
• More than 150 study abroad programs;
• More than 5,000 internship opportunities;
• Nearly 500 student clubs and organizations;
• 29 NCAA Division I athletic teams including 5 Ivy League Championship teams for the 2006-07 academic year;
• Among the top 5 universities in America enrolling international students;
• The largest percentage of African-Americans in a first-year class, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education’s national ranking for elite institutions and one of Black Enterprise Magazine’s top 10 colleges for African Americans;
• One of Hispanic Magazine’s top 10 colleges for Latinos;
• The Asian American Alliance is the largest collegiate umbrella organization of its kind in the United States with over 1,200 students as members;
• One of Reform Judaism Magazine’s top colleges for Jewish students;
• The largest percentage of undergraduates receiving Pell Grants in the Ivy League and among the nation’s most elite private research institutions (top 25);
• 15% of first-year students are the first in their family to attend college;
• Dozens of internationally recognized and ranked programs of study.

One of the world’s premier research universities, featuring one of the world’s finest liberal arts colleges and one of the world’s most renowned engineering schools, conveniently located in the world’s most extraordinary city.