Columbia University (officially Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Originally established in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York State, as well as one of the country's nine colonial colleges. After the revolutionary war, King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. A 1787 charter placed the institution under a private board of trustees before it was further renamed Columbia University in 1896 when the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights occupying land of 32 acres (13 ha). 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 is organized into twenty schools, including Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of General Studies. The University also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Nairobi. It has affiliation with several other institutions nearby, including Teachers College, Barnard College, and Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Sciences Po Paris, and the Juilliard School.
Columbia annually administers the Pulitzer Prize. Notable alumni and former students (including those from King's College) include five Founding Fathers of the United States; nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 20 living billionaires; 29 Academy Award winners; and 29 heads of state, including three United States Presidents. Additionally, 101 Nobel Prize laureates have been affiliated with it as students, faculty, or staff.
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