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Columbia University

    Would you like to learn about Columbia College, or would you like to know Columbia College entry requirements? Whether you want to learn about Columbia College, or you want to know their entry requirements, you can get all the information you need here.

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    General Information

    • Location – New York, NY
    • Type –Private
    • Setting – Urban
    • Student Ratio:
    1. Female – 48%
    2. Male – 52%
    • Total Students – 6,231
    • Fall Application Deadline – January 1
    • Acceptance Rate – 6%
    • Admission Difficulty – Most Difficult

    About Columbia College

    Columbia University (Columbia; officially Columbia University in the City of New York), established in 1754, is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League.

    Columbia was established as King’s College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton University in New Jersey. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolutionary War and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. 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 administers the Pulitzer Prize annually.

    The university has produced numerous distinguished alumni. In 2018, its undergraduate acceptance rate was 5.51%, making it one of the most selective colleges in the United States and the second most selective in the Ivy League after Harvard. Columbia is ranked as the 3rd best university in the United States by U.S. News & World Report behind only Princeton and Harvard. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including many undergraduate and graduate schools. It maintains research centers outside of the United States known as Columbia Global Centers. In athletics, the Lions field varsity teams in 29 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference. The university’s endowment stood at $10.9 billion in 2018, making it one of the largest of any academic institution.

    The university has graduated numerous notable alumni, including five Founding Fathers of the United States, an author of the United States Constitution and co-author of the Declaration of Independence; three U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; 10 Justices of the United States Supreme Court, two of whom currently serve; 96 Nobel laureates, 101 National Academy members, 38 living billionaires; 39 Academy Awards and 125 Pulitzer Prizes.Columbia University (Columbia; officially Columbia University in the City of New York), established in 1754, is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League.

    Columbia was established as King’s College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton University in New Jersey. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolutionary War and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.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 administers the Pulitzer Prize annually.

    The university has produced numerous distinguished alumni. In 2018, its undergraduate acceptance rate was 5.51%, making it one of the most selective colleges in the United States and the second most selective in the Ivy League after Harvard. Columbia is ranked as the 3rd best university in the United States by U.S. News & World Report behind only Princeton and Harvard. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including many undergraduate and graduate schools. It maintains research centers outside of the United States known as Columbia Global Centers. In athletics, the Lions field varsity teams in 29 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference. The university’s endowment stood at $10.9 billion in 2018, making it one of the largest of any academic institution.

    The university has graduated numerous notable alumni, including five Founding Fathers of the United States, an author of the United States Constitution and co-author of the Declaration of Independence; three U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; 10 Justices of the United States Supreme Court, two of whom currently serve; 96 Nobel laureates, 101 National Academy members, 38 living billionaires; 39 Academy Awards and 125 Pulitzer Prizes.

    Academic Life

    The student-faculty ratio at Columbia University is 6:1, and the school has 81.5 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Columbia University include: Social Sciences; Engineering; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services; and Mathematics and Statistics. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 99 percent.

    Student Life

    Columbia University has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,162, with a gender distribution of 52 percent male students and 48 percent female students. At this school, 93 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated or -affiliated housing and 7 percent of students live off campus. In sports, Columbia University is part of the NCAA I.

    Campus Safety

    Campus safety data were reported by the institution to the U.S. Department of Education and have not been independently verified. The numbers for criminal offenses reflect reports of alleged offenses to campus security and/or law enforcement authorities, not necessarily prosecutions or convictions. Experts advise prospective students and their families to do their own research to evaluate the safety of a campus as well as the surrounding area.

    Campus Services

    Columbia University offers a number of student services, including nonremedial tutoring, placement service, health service, health insurance. Columbia University also offers campus safety and security services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc.). Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Columbia University.

    Ranking

    Columbia University is ranked #3 in National Universities. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.

    • #3 (tie) in National Universities
    • #34 (tie) in Best Undergraduate Teaching
    • #6 in Best Value Schools

    Notable alumni

    • Alexander Hamilton – Founding Father of the United States; author of The Federalist Papers; 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury — King’s College
    • 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 — King’s College
    • Gouverneur Morris – Founding Father of the United States; author of the United States Constitution; United States Senator from New York — King’s College
    • Barack Obama – 44th President of the United States; United States Senator from Illinois; Nobel laureate — Columbia College
    • Neil Gorsuch – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — Columbia College
    • Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States; Nobel laureate – Columbia Law School
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt – 32nd President of the United States; 44th Governor of New York — Columbia Law School
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — Columbia Law School
    • Hamilton Fish – 26th United States Secretary of State; United States Senator from New York; 16th Governor of New York — Columbia College
    • Madeleine Albright – 64th United States Secretary of State; first female Secretary of State — School of International and Public Affairs
    • B. R. Ambedkar – Founding Father of India; architect of the Constitution of India; 1st Minister of Law and Justice — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
    • Shirley Chisholm – first black female member of the United States House of Representatives — Teachers College
    • Julian S. Schwinger – Nobel laureate; pioneer of quantum field theory; one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century — Columbia College
    • Robert A. Millikan – Nobel laureate; measured the elementary electric charge — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
    • Milton Friedman – Nobel laureate — Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
    • Robert Kraft – billionaire; owner of the New England Patriots; Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group — Columbia College
    • Herman Hollerith – inventor; co-founder of IBM – School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
    • Warren Buffett – CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; one of the world’s wealthiest people — Columbia Business School
    • S. Robson Walton – Chairman of Walmart; one of the world’s wealthiest people — Columbia Law School
    • Lou Gehrig – Triple Crown winner; 2x MLB Most Valuable Player; 6x World Series Champion; member of Baseball Hall of Fame — Columbia College
    • Richard Rodgers – legendary Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning composer; Pulitzer Prize winner — Columbia College
    • Oscar Hammerstein II – 8x Tony Award winner; 2x Academy Award winner — Columbia College
    • Georgia O’Keeffe – artist; recognized as the “Mother of American modernism” — Teachers College

    Entry Requirements

    International Student Admission

    Columbia’s admissions application process is largely the same for all students regardless of their citizenship or country of residence. Please see their Application Instructions for more information on procedures and requirements.

    Applications are reviewed by region, and members of the admissions office have read and evaluated applications from all over the world and are familiar with a variety of school systems and transcripts. Included with the secondary school report is a “school profile,” which includes a description of the school, grading system, curricular and extracurricular resources. If we need more information to make an informed decision or have any questions, we have the option to contact an applicant’s school and to do our own research.

    All prospective students and their families should be aware that the Columbia University Office of Undergraduate Admissions does not authorize or work with any independent agents anywhere in the world for our recruitment efforts.

    Students at Non-English Speaking Schools

    Any documents that are part of your application file and not in English, such as transcripts or recommendations, need to be officially translated into English and submitted along with the original documents.

    English Language Proficiency Requirement for International Students

    To be considered for admission to Columbia, you must be comfortable with rapid and idiomatic spoken English. There are several different ways to demonstrate that you are proficient in English on your application.

    1. Your home language is English.
    2. Your primary language of instruction at school has been English for the duration of your secondary school career.
    3. You earned one or more of the following subsection scores:
      1. 650 or higher on either the Critical Reasoning or Writing sections of the SAT before March 2016
      2. 700 or higher on the Evidence Based Reading and Writing section of the redesigned SAT (beginning in March 2016)
      3. 29 or higher on the English or Reading sections of the ACT

    If you meet one or more of the above criteria, you have fulfilled Columbia’s English Language Proficiency requirement. If you do not, you will need to take one of the following English Language Proficiency exams.

    1. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Please visit www.toefl.org for more information on this examination. A minimum score of 600 (paper-based test) or 100 (Internet-based test) is necessary for admission to Columbia. Your score must be reported directly to Columbia by the testing service, using report code 2116.
    2. IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Please visit www.ielts.org for more information on this examination. A minimum score of 7.0 is necessary for admission to Columbia. Your score must be reported directly to Columbia Undergraduate Admissions.
    3. DET (Duolingo English Test). Please visit https://englishtest.duolingo.com for more information on this examination. A minimum score of 75 is necessary for admission to Columbia. Your score must be reported directly to Columbia Undergraduate Admissions.

    Columbia does not accept other English Language Proficiency exams at this time.

    Please note that their Required Standardized Testing policies are in addition to any testing required for English language proficiency.

    International Transfer Students

    Columbia welcomes applications from international transfer students. However, in order to be eligible to apply as a transfer, you must first meet certain criteria. You must be enrolled in a college in North America or in a US-style college abroad. A college or university is considered “US-style” if:

    • courses are offered term by term (quarters, semesters, etc)
    • a grade is given for each course in each term
    • your college/university can provide an English-language transcript showing those courses and those grades

    To apply from abroad if your college is not US-style as defined above, you must apply as a first-year student only in your first year of study. If you have begun your second year of study or beyond, you are no longer eligible to apply to Columbia as an undergraduate.

    You must fulfill their English Language Proficiency requirements, in addition to the Transfer Admission requirements to apply for transfer admission.

    Location

    116th Street and Broadway
    New York, NY 10027
    United States

     

     

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