Columbia
University (Columbia University or just "Columbia") is a private
University located in Manhattan, New York City (United States). Founded in
1754, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the United
States and is part of the Group of eight prestigious universities of the Ivy
League. With more than 80 laureates among its alumni and academic, she arrived
in head the list of holders of the Nobel Prize from American universities.
Columbia
University was founded in 1754 as King's College by a Charter from the King of
England, George II. It is the oldest institution of higher education in the
State of New York. At its Foundation, a controversy opposed Presbyterians Anglicans.
For Anglicans, the University should be clearly linked to the colonial church.
The Presidency should be attributed to an Anglican and church services to
comply with the Anglican liturgy. Presbyterians refused this institutional
linkage fearing that it will become a place of Anglican proselytism.
In July 1754,
Samuel Johnson (1696-1772), philosopher and educator, gives his first lessons
in the new school next to Trinity Church, located on the current Broadway Manhattan.
It was then those eight students in the class. En1767, King's College
("College of the King") established the first school of medicine in
the United States. The war of American independence causes the interruption of
education for eight years.
In 1784, after
the war of independence, the institution found its activity and was renamed
Columbia College in honor of independence. During its first years of existence,
students as prestigious as Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Governor Morris, and
Robert R. Livingston attended the schools of Columbia.
In 1849, the
college moved from Park Place to 49th Street and Madison Avenue, where it
remained for 50 years. The Law Department is based en1858. The first school of
mines of the country, ancestor of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and
Applied Science was established in 1864. School of Medicine (1891) and the
masters (1893) followed.
In 1896, the
campus changed again name to "Columbia University in the City of New York
' in order to differentiate the institution undergraduate (dating from the
Foundation) of the University as a whole. Indeed, it included at the time, in
addition to Columbia College, an undergraduate school (short cycle of studies)
engineering and graduate courses (long course) in science, engineering,
medicine, law, education, commerce, political science and philosophy. At the
same time, the campus changes location and attaches in the Morningside Heights
neighborhood.
In 1893 the
Columbia University Press are based and its most prestigious publications
include the Columbia Encyclopedia (1935), and laColumbia Lippincott Gazetteer
of the World (1952).
In 1902, New
York press magnate Joseph Pulitzer is don a large sum of money at the
University that is based a journalism school, which was founded in 1912
(Graduate School of Journalism). The school of journalism has since the
Pulitzer Prize.
From 1948 to
1953, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the University before becoming
president of the United States.
Columbia
University is today internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious
universities and its integration by students is one of the most selective in
the country. The campus occupies six blocks and covers environ132 m2 in
Morningside Heights, a Northern District of Manhattan. There is another campus
of the University more in the North, for medicine, in the island of Washington
Heights. Columbia is the third largest landowner in New York after the
municipality and the Roman Catholic Church. She is also one of the largest
employers in Manhattan.
Today, the official name of the
University is always Columbia University in the City of New York, administered
by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. Its
undergraduate courses are Columbia College (CC), the Fu Foundation School of
Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), and the School of General Studies (GS).
Columbia has a very large number of graduate courses (accessible after a cycle
studies undergraduate), the most famous being the Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons (training of physicians and Surgeons), the Graduate
School of Journalism (School of journalism), the Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation (School of architecture), the Graduate
School of Business or Columbia Business School (business school)the School of
International and Public Affairs or SIPA (School of political science and
international relations), and Columbia Law School (law school that ranked in
the top five universities of law in the United States).