Columbia University

By on January 6, 2011 - 8:07 pm in New York / no comments

Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia University) is a private research university in New York City and one of the eight members of the Ivy League. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country’s nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.

Columbia annually administers the American literary award, the Pulitzer Prize, and is one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities. More Nobel Prize laureates have been affiliated with Columbia than with any other institution in the world.

History of the Columbia University

Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in the state of New York. Founded and chartered as King’s College in 1754, Columbia is the sixth-oldest such institution in the United States (by date of founding; fifth by date of chartering). After the American Revolutionary War, King’s College was renamed Columbia College in 1784, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University. The university now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees. Columbia has grown over time to encompass twenty schools and affiliated institutions.

During the 1960s Columbia experienced large-scale student activism centering over the Vietnam War and the demand for greater student rights. Many students, led by the Students for a Democratic Society and its President Mark Rudd protested the university’s ties with the defense establishment and its controversial plans to build a gym in Morningside Park.

Columbia College first admitted women in the fall of 1983, after a decade of failed negotiations with Barnard College, an all female institution affiliated with the university, to merge the two schools.

In 1990 the Faculty of Arts & Sciences was created, unifying the faculties of Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of International and Public Affairs.

In 1997, the Columbia Engineering School was renamed the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, in honor of Chinese businessman Z. Y. Fu, who gave Columbia $26 million. The school is popularly referred to as “SEAS” or simply “the engineering school.”

Columbia University Schools and Institutions

Teachers College, Columbia University Columbia’s Graduate and Professional school of Education.
Columbia Law School (CLS): offers the LLM, JD, and JSD degrees
Columbia Business School (CBS): offers the MBA and PhD degrees
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S): offers the MD degree and MS in Nutrition
Columbia University College of Dental Medicine: offers the DDS degree
School of Nursing: offers the BS, MS, DNP, and PhD degrees
Mailman School of Public Health: offers the MPH, DrPH, and Ph.D degrees
Graduate School of Journalism (J-School or CJS): founded by Joseph Pulitzer, offers the MA, MS, and PhD degrees
School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA): offers MIA, MPA, PEPM, EMPA, and PhD degrees
The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP): offers the MArch, MS, and PhD degrees
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS): offers the MA, MS, and PhD degrees
The School of the Arts (SoA): offers the MFA degree in four disciplines (film, theater, visual arts, and writing)
Columbia University School of Social Work: offers the MS and PhD degrees
The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS): in addition to undergraduate studies, students may also pursue MS and PhD degree programs in engineering.
Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education offers MS degrees, classes for non-matriculated elective course students, Post-baccalaureate Certificates, English Language Programs, Overseas Programs, Summer Session, and High School Programs.