Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York, or simply Columbia University, is a private Ivy League research university located in Morningside, in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York state, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.

 It was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolutionary War, King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University.

That same year, the university's campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights, where it occupies more than six city blocks, or 32 acres (13 ha).

Columbia is among the world's top universities in selectivity and prestige. In the Center for Measuring University Performance, administered by Arizona State University, Columbia has been ranked first (tied with MIT, Stanford University and Penn) in the United States.