Columbia is one of the most unique universities in the world. This college is a member of the Ivy League, an elite institution which grants its exceptional students the most prestigious of degrees. Its campus is a home to almost 9 thousand undergraduates, an enclosed space filled with historic buildings and university traditions. Yet unlike all the other Ivies scattered around college towns on the East Coast, Columbia is special in that it is located in the heart of New York City, the world’s most bustling and exciting city.
Columbia is the dream of many ambitious students – and for a good reason! With an acceptance rate of just 4%, this university admits the cream of the crop students from across the globe. Representing 162 nations, Columbia fosters a very diverse community of students and scholars.
At Columbia, students can choose their majors from 71 programs, ranging from STEM to social science, humanities and the arts. Regardless of what major you choose, you are guaranteed to have excellent, inspiring professors, experts in their fields of study. One semester you could attend a class by a Pulitzer prize winning professor and another by an expert engineer who is creating cutting edge technology. The sky’s the limit in institutions like Columbia, where students have every opportunity to succeed and thrive intellectually.
What is great about academics in Columbia is the freedom to explore many areas before you settle on a major in your 4th semester. This flexibility is great for those that do not have their heart settled on one particular area of studies, but also for those who understand that the complexities of the world can only truly be understood with interdisciplinary approaches. Columbia’s Core Curriculum, which has been a staple of the academics in the college for over 100 years, ensures students learn how to hold complex discussions and generate new ideas in small seminar settings.
Fun facts about Columbia University:
- The Pulitzer Prize is administered annually by Columbia.
- Columbia has the second most Nobel Prize-winning affiliates in the country (the first being Harvard).
- The laser was invented at Columbia.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower was Columbia’s 13th president but resigned in 1953 when he was elected president of the United States.
- All students have to pass a swim test as a graduation requirement, though engineering students were given a waiver in the 90s. Jokes cite this exception to be due to the engineering graduates ability to simply build a boat, surpassing the need to know how to swim.
