Columbia University in the City of New York Data & Information Overview

Find out more about how Columbia University in the City of New York ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you'll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning
• Related Schools

How Well Is Columbia University in the City of New York Ranked?

2021 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Columbia University in the City of New York was awarded 201 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is English language and literature.

Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Columbia as #32 out of 1,715 colleges and universities in the country on its 2021 Best Colleges list. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Columbia is also ranked #4 out of 132 schools in New York.

See all of the rankings for Columbia University in the City of New York.

Is It Hard to Get Into Columbia?

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 7%, Columbia is one of the most selective schools in the country. Good grades and high test scores alone may not be enough to get you into the school, so do your best to submit a stellar application.

Average Test Scores

About 59% of students accepted to Columbia submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 700 and 780. Math scores were between 710 and 790.

Columbia received ACT scores from 57% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 31 and 34.

Learn more about Columbia University in the City of New York admissions.

Columbia University in the City of New York Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Columbia, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 6 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Columbia University in the City of New York is 47%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Columbia University in the City of New York

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 97% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Columbia University in the City of New York enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Columbia the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 89%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Columbia University in the City of New York.

Excellent Overall Diversity at Columbia

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 8,216 undergraduates at Columbia with 7,666 being full-time and 550 being part-time.

Columbia Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 99.72 out of 100, Columbia is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Columbia University in the City of New York.

How Much Does Columbia University in the City of New York Cost?

The overall average net price of Columbia is $22,637. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Columbia

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$10,245	$3,409	$6,864	$14,421	$41,002

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Columbia, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Columbia, approximately 11% of students took out student loans averaging $9,845 a year. That adds up to $39,380 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Columbia is 1.8%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Columbia University in the City of New York.

How Much Money Do Columbia Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Columbia with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $83,300 in their early years. That's great news for Columbia students since it is 109% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Columbia University in the City of New York make the most money.

Location of Columbia University in the City of New York

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private not-for-profit institution situated in New York, New York. The city atmosphere of New York makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

Get more details about the location of Columbia University in the City of New York.

Contact details for Columbia are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	West 116 St And Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Phone:	212-854-1754
Website:	www.columbia.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/columbia
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/columbia

Columbia University in the City of New York Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 125 majors graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York. Of these students, 2,702 received undergraduate degrees and 10,218 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Economics	311	$75,300
Computer Science	282	$96,400
Political Science & Government	237	$51,100
Child Development & Psychology	143	$45,000
History	123	$42,100
General English Literature	96	$41,500
Other Social Sciences	79	$49,800
Operations Research	74	$79,000
Area Studies	71	$41,300
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	64	$40,300

Learn more about the majors offered at Columbia University in the City of New York along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Columbia

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 1,724 students took at least one online class at Columbia University in the City of New York. This is an increase from the 1,609 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	1,724	586
2016-2017	1,609	474
2015-2016	1,350	149
2014-2015	378	140
2013-2014	311	120

Learn more about online learning at Columbia University in the City of New York.

Related Schools

If you’re considering Columbia University in the City of New York, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

• Case Western Reserve University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Lehigh University
• Northwestern University
• Washington University in St Louis

Curious on how these schools stack up against Columbia? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By Nandaro under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.