Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King's College by King George II of England. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.
In July 1754, Samuel Johnson held the first classes in a new school house adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan. There were eight students in the class. In 1767 King's College established the first American medical school to grant the MD degree.
The American Revolution brought the growth of the College to a halt, forcing a suspension of instruction in 1776 that lasted for eight years. Among the earliest students and Trustees of King's College were John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States; [Alexander Hamilton]?, the first Secretary of the Treasury; [Gouverneur Morris]?, the author of the final draft of the United States Constitution; and Robert R. Livingston, a member of the five-man committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence.
The College reopened in 1784 renamed Columbia reflecting the patriotic fervor which had inspired the nation's quest for independence. In 1849, the College moved from Park Place, near the present site of City Hall, to 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it remained for the next fifty years. During the last half of the nineteenth century, Columbia rapidly assumed the shape of a modern university. The Law School was founded in 1858, and the country's first mining school, a precursor of today's School of Engineering and Applied Science, was established in 1864. Barnard College for women had become affiliated with Columbia in 1889; the medical school came under the aegis of the University in 1891, followed by Teachers College in 1893. The development of graduate faculties in political science, philosophy, and pure science established Columbia as one of the nation?s earliest centers for graduate education. In 1896, the Trustees officially authorized the use of yet another new name, Columbia University, and today the institution is officially known as Columbia University in the City of New York. At the same time the campus was moved again from 49th Street to a more spacious campus in Morningside Heights (116th St & Broadway) where it is still located.
By the late 1930s, a Columbia student could study with the likes of Jacques Barzun, Paul Lazarsfeld, Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I.I. Rabi, to name just a few of the great minds of the Morningside campus. The University's graduates during this time were equally accomplished - for example, two alumni of Columbia's Law School, Charles Evans Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who also held the position of Law School dean), served successively as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Research into the atom by faculty members [I. I. Rabi], Enrico Fermi, and [Polykarp Kusch]? placed Columbia's Physics Department in the international spotlight in the 1940s after the first nuclear pile was built to start what would become the [Manhattan project]?.
Also home of the Pulitzer School of Journalism and the Pulitzer prize.
Notable faculty from Columbia includes Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe : Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.
Student Enrollment (Fall 2000)
Faculty Awards and Honors
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