Columbia University Guide from New York Hotels
Columbia University is New York City's most famous, richest, and oldest college and is an Ivy League school. It is the sixth oldest college in America, founded as King's College, prior to the American Revolution in 1754. The main campus spans a very valuable 36 acres of real estate in Manhattan. Columbia University has approximately 25,000 students and 3,500 faculty members, which includes former Vice President Al Gore among the almost 70 Nobel laureates.
The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees across 15 colleges and school in around 100 disciplines. Columbia University has four locations in New York City and global centers in Beijing, China; Paris, France; and Amman, Jordan.
Some famous graduates include:
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jack Kerouac, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lou Gehrig, and Paul Robeson.
The main campus of Columbia University is located in New York City's Morningside Heights neighborhood. There is a variety of hotel accommodations in the area, or visitors can stay at a downtown hotel and take the subway directly to 116th Street: Columbia University Station via the IRT 1.
Columbia University has a strong history of important research and is renowned in the fields of medicine, law, and journalism. Each year Columbia University presents the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. Edwin Howard Armstrong invented FM radio at the Philosophy Hall building at Columbia University, which is a National Historic Landmark. Columbia University's Pupin Hall, where the astronomy and physics departments are located, is also a National Historic Landmark. It was there that Enrico Fermi conducted the first experiments on the fission of uranium and split the uranium atom, just ten days after the first splitting of an atom was performed in Copenhagen, Denmark.
There are several famous sculptures on the Columbia University Campus.
Alma Matter is a sculpture by Daniel Chester French, located on the steps of the Low Memorial Library. It is a very interesting New York sculpture because there is a small owl hidden in the carving. There are legends that the first freshman to find the hidden owl will be the valedictorian, and if a woman from Barnard College finds the owl she will marry a man from Columbia University. Another popular statue is of The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.
The Steps is a popular spot for students to meet, socialize, and sunbathe. They are long granite steps at the lower part of the South Field of the campus. Concerts and films screenings are presented here, and there are annual outdoor performances by the King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe. The design for The Steps was modeled after a fresco in the Vatican, The School of Athens, by Raphael.
Hotels: For hotels near Columbia University Click Here