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 contains the oldest college in the state of New York and is the fifth chartered institution of higher learning in the United States, making it one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence. It was established as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain and renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolutionary War. The university has produced numerous distinguished alumni. In 2017, its undergraduate acceptance rate was 5.5%, making it the third most selective college in the United States and the second most selective in the Ivy League.
A 1787 charter placed the institution under a private board of trustees before it was renamed Columbia University in 1896, when the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its location in Morningside Heights. 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 Prizeannually.
Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including many undergraduate and graduate schools. Its affiliates outside of the US are 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 billion in 2018, making it one of the largest of any academic institution.
The university has graduated many notable alumni, including five Founding Fathers of the United States, an author of the United States Constitution and a member of the Committee of Five. As of 2018, Columbia's Alumni include three U.S. presidents, 29 foreign heads of state, 10 Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 95 Nobel laureates, 101 National Academy members, and 38 living billionaires. In addition, Columbia students and alumni have won 39 Academy Awards, 125 Pulitzer Prizes, and 11 Olympic medals.