Columbia University , established in 1754, is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League.Columbia was established as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain partially in reaction to the founding of Princeton University in New Jersey. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolutionary War and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.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 administers the Pulitzer Prize annually.The university has produced numerous distinguished alumni. In 2018, its undergraduate acceptance rate was 5.51%, making it one of the most selective colleges in the United States and the second most selective in the Ivy League after Harvard. Columbia is ranked as the 3rd best university in the United States by U.S. News & World Report behind only Princeton and Harvard.Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including many undergraduate and graduate schools. It maintains research centers outside of the United States known as Columbia Global Centers. In athletics, the Lions field varsity teams in 29 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference. The university's endowment stood at $10.9 billion in 2018, making it one of the largest of any academic institution. The university has graduated numerous notable alumni, including five Founding Fathers of the United States, an author of the United States Constitution and co-author of the Declaration of Independence; three U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; 10 Justices of the United States Supreme Court, two of whom currently serve; 96 Nobel laureates, 101 National Academy members, 38 living billionaires.; 39 Academy Awards and 125 Pulitzer Prizes.
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