Columbia College, Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college of Columbia University, a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan, it was founded by the Church of England in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of King George II of Great Britain. It is Columbia University's traditional undergraduate program, offering BA degrees, and is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.
For the university, see Columbia University. For the no-relation liberal arts college in New York, see King's College.Type
Columbia College is distinctive for its comprehensive Core Curriculum and is among the most selective of American colleges, with an admission rate of 3.85% in 2024.
John Jay: Founding Father of the United States; author of The Federalist Papers; 1st Chief Justice of the United States; 2nd Governor of New York
Gouverneur Morris: Founding Father of the United States; author of the United States Constitution; United States Senator from New York
Robert R. Livingston, Founding Father of the United States, member of the Committee of Five, and the first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
Hamilton Fish: 26th United States Secretary of State; United States Senator from New York; 16th Governor of New York
Daniel D. Tompkins, fourth governor of New York from 1807 to 1817, and the sixth vice president of the United States from 1817 to 1825
Barack Obama: 44th President of the United States; United States Senator from Illinois; Nobel laureate
Julian S. Schwinger: Nobel laureate; pioneer of quantum field theory; one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century
John Kluge, billionaire philanthropist, owner of Metromedia, richest man in the United States in 1990
Lou Gehrig: Triple Crown winner; 2x MLB Most Valuable Player; 6x World Series Champion; member of Baseball Hall of Fame
Richard Rodgers: legendary Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning composer; Pulitzer Prize winner
Jodi Kantor, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for exposing the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal
Many eminent individuals have attended or taught at Columbia College or King's College, its predecessor.
Among those College alumni categorized as "remarkable" by the university during its 250th anniversary celebrations in 2004[18] were Founding Fathers of the United States Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris (author of Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, "We, The People").[19] Other political figures in this group include statesman and educator Nicholas Murray Butler, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, South African anti-apartheid leader Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Chinese diplomat Wellington Koo, many New York City mayors, including Seth Low and John Purroy Mitchel, as well as spymaster William Joseph Donovan.
Academics listed include philosophers Mortimer Adler and Irwin Edman, historians Jacques Barzun and Alfred Thayer Mahan, economist Arthur Burns, paleontologist Niles Eldredge, drama scholar Brander Matthews, art historian Meyer Schapiro and literary critic Lionel Trilling.
Public intellectuals and journalists, including broadcaster Roone Arledge, social critic Randolph Bourne, environmentalist Barry Commoner, and writers like Henry Demarest Lloyd and Norman Podhoretz are also prominent on the list. Major publishers included were Alfred Knopf, Arthur Sulzberger, and Bennett Cerf. Rabbi Stephen Wise is also considered prominent.
Columbia College graduates recognized in the arts include pianist Emanuel Ax, actor James Cagney, musician Art Garfunkel, composers Richard Rodgers and John Corigliano, lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart, playwrights Samuel Spewack, Tony Kushner and Terrence McNally, writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Herman Wouk, John Berryman, Thomas Merton, Clement Clarke Moore, Ben Coes, and Clifton Fadiman, screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, filmmaker Joseph Mankiewicz, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and violinist Gil Shaham.
Architects James Renwick Jr., Robert A.M. Stern, engineer William Barclay Parsons, baseball player Lou Gehrig, football player Sid Luckman, and business leader John Kluge were also Columbia College students.
Additionally, highly visible former Columbia College students in recent years include former President Barack Obama, former United States Attorney General William Barr, and former Attorneys General Michael Mukasey and Eric Holder, New York Governor David Paterson, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, political advisor and commentator George Stephanopoulos, actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin, Casey Affleck, Amanda Peet, Matthew Fox, Timothée Chalamet, George Segal, Julia Stiles, Cinta Laura, and Kate McKinnon, radio personality Max Kellerman, directors Jim Jarmusch, Brian De Palma and Bill Condon, television showrunners Jenji Kohan and Beau Willimon, writer Paul Auster, historian Eric Foner, and the chart-topping alt-rock band Vampire Weekend.
Among its graduates and attendees, Columbia College can count at least 16 Nobel Prize winners, 8 Emmy Award winners, 8 Tony Award winners, over 20 Academy Award winners, and 40 Pulitzer Prize winners.[20]