Columbia University Diploma: From King’s College to a Global Learning Center
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Founded as King’s College in 1754, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the United States. Established in the colonial period, the university was founded more than twenty years before the American Declaration of Independence by royal charter from King George II of Great Britain. The first classes were held in a schoolhouse attached to Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan and Samuel Johnson was the first president.
The young college was much affected by the American Revolution. In 1776, classes were stopped when the fighting reached New York and military forces took over its buildings during the conflict. The institution reopened in 1784 as Columbia College, taking its new name in the wake of American independence. Early students associated with the college included several influential figures in American history, including Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Robert R. Livingston and Gouverneur Morris. Further details about these early years are available in Columbia University’s official history.
Columbia University Today
In the nineteenth century, Columbia slowly evolved from a small undergraduate college to a much larger academic institution. Graduate and professional education expanded and the university became increasingly research-oriented. Its trustees officially changed the name to Columbia University in 1896. The following year the university moved to its present campus in Morningside Heights, Upper Manhattan, which was largely designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. Low Memorial Library was one of the most familiar landmarks of the new campus.
Today, Columbia is a member of the Ivy League and you can get a Columbia University Diploma in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools in arts and sciences, engineering, law, medicine, business, journalism, public health and international affairs. It has an academic presence outside of Morningside Heights, such as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Washington Heights.
Research has been an important part of Columbia’s development, especially in the twentieth century. The university attracted scholars who made contributions to physics, medicine, engineering, social sciences, literature and many other fields. Columbia has also been linked to breakthroughs from early work in nuclear physics to advances that went into technologies such as lasers and magnetic resonance imaging.
Columbia has a history going back to colonial America and has evolved with New York City itself. The combination of its historic traditions, professional education, research and urban setting has helped establish it as one of the most internationally known universities in the United States.