Columbia University

Private
Cost: $49,260/year
Class Size: 1,333
Student to Faculty Ratio: 7 to 1

SAT Range: 1330-1540
ACT Range: 28-33
% of applicants admitted: 8.68%
Application deadline: Jan. 2
Early admission: Nov. 1

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. It was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, and is one of only three United States universities to have been founded under such authority.

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. Columbia is ranked in the first tier of the nation's top universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance, which takes into account total research, federal research, endowment assets, annual giving, National Academy members, faculty awards, doctorates granted, postdoctoral appointees, and undergraduate SAT/ACT range. The university currently operates four global centers overseas in Amman, Jordan; Beijing, China; Paris, France; and Mumbai, India.

Notable alumni and affiliates include: five Founding Fathers of the United States; four United States Presidents, including the incumbent; nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States; 26 foreign heads of state; 97 Nobel Prize winners, the most of any university; 101 Pulitzer Prize winners, the most of any university; 25 Academy Award winners garnering over a combined 30 Oscars, the most of any university; more than 30 alumni and ten affiliate recipients of the National Medal of Science; 50 recipients of the MacArthur Genius Award; and 20 living billionaires. Columbia is currently home to nine Nobel Laureates, 30 recipients of the MacArthur Genius Award, four recipients of the National Medal of Science, 143 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 38 members of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 20 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 43 members of the National Academy of Sciences.