From a one-room classroom with one professor and eight students, Columbia University has grown to include more than 4,000 faculty members and 23,000 students. Over the years, 73 of Columbia's alumni and current or former faculty have received the Nobel Prize, making it one of the most well-respected New York private universities. Today Columbia is what President Lee Bollinger has called "the quintessential great urban university" - attracting students and faculty from 150 countries to engage with each other and with the cultural, scientific, and business enterprises that make New York City one of the most exciting cities in the world. It is also one of the nation's prestigious Ivy League colleges.

Columbia University has grown to encompass two principal campuses: the historic, neoclassical campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood and the modern Medical Center further uptown, in Washington Heights. Today, Columbia is one of the top academic and research institutions in the world, conducting pathbreaking research in medicine, science, the arts, and the humanities. It includes three undergraduate schools, 13 graduate and professional schools, and a School of Continuing Education.

The Morningside Heights campus houses the three undergraduate schools - Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of engineering and Applied Science, and the School of General Studies - as well as graduate and professional schools for architecture, art, arts and sciences, business, international affairs, journalism, law, and social work. The School of Continuing Education is also on the Morningside Heights campus.