by our College Data Analytics Team
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 108 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general english literature.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
Columbia is ranked #15 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation!
Columbia is also ranked #2 out of 136 schools in New York.
See all of the rankings for Columbia University in the City of New York.
Columbia University in the City of New York has a very low acceptance rate of 4%, making it one of the most selective out of all the colleges and universities in the nation. It's probably a good idea to apply to other schools in addition to Columbia just in case you don't make the cut.
About 44% 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 730 and 780. Math scores were between 760 and 800.
Learn more about Columbia University in the City of New York admissions.
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.
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 44%. This is comparable to the national average of 47%.
Columbia University in the City of New York has a freshmen retention rate of 98%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Columbia for first-time, full-time students is 84%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 8,148 undergraduates at Columbia with 7,509 being full-time and 639 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6,184 | $4,569 | $8,385 | $15,114 | $45,873 |
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.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Columbia, approximately 10% of students took out student loans averaging $16,849 a year. That adds up to $67,396 over four years for those students.
Get more details about paying for Columbia University in the City of New York.
See which majors at Columbia University in the City of New York make the most money.
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/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods | 1,539 | NA |
| Computer Science | 748 | $118,636 |
| Public Health | 574 | NA |
| Social Work | 545 | NA |
| Economics | 535 | $83,135 |
| Legal Research | 516 | NA |
| Nursing | 465 | NA |
| Computer Information Systems | 417 | NA |
| Law | 410 | NA |
| Journalism | 388 | NA |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 4,953 students took at least one online class at Columbia University in the City of New York. This is a decrease from the 7,666 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 4,953 | 1,111 |
| 2021-2022 | 7,666 | 1,494 |
| 2020-2021 | 28,177 | 25,843 |
| 2018-2019 | 1,724 | 586 |
Learn more about online learning at Columbia University in the City of New York.
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.
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!
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
More about our data sources and methodologies.