Columbia University
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, 79 of Columbia's alumni and current or former faculty have received the Nobel Prize. 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. (more About Columbia)