Columbia University

Columbia University (officially Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. 

Originally established in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York State, as well as one of the country's nine colonial colleges.

 After the revolutionary war, King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. 

A 1787 charter placed the institution under a private board of trustees before it was further renamed Columbia University in 1896 when the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights occupying land of 32 acres (13 ha).

Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities, and was the first school in Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704, when Colonel Lewis Morris wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary arm of the Church of England,

 persuading the society that New York City was an ideal community in which to establish a college; however, not until the founding of Princeton University across the Hudson River in New Jersey did the City of New York seriously consider founding a college.

 In 1746 an act was passed by the general assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college.

 In 1751, the assembly appointed a commission of ten New York residents, seven of whom were members of the Church of England, to direct the funds accrued by the state lottery towards the foundation of a college.

Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, D Samuel Johnson.

 Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the college's first class, which consisted of a mere eight students.

 Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan.

 The college was officially founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of King George II, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest

 in the United Statesthe United States to grant the M.D. degree.

The University is organized into twenty schools alongside global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and Nairobi.

It has affiliation with several other institutions nearby, including Teachers College, Barnard College, and Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Sciences Po Paris,and the Juilliard School.

Columbia annually administers the Pulitzer Prize.

It is regularly placed among the best universities worldwide by a number of ranking agencies.

Notable alumni and former students (including those from King's College) include five Founding Fathers of the United States; 

nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 20 living billionaires; 29 Academy Award winners; and 29 heads of state, including three United States Presidents.

 Additionally, 101 Nobel Prize laureates have been affiliated with it as students, faculty, or staf

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1636. Its history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soon thereafter named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and the Harvard Corporation (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) is its first chartered corporation.

ver formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregation­alist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. 

Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university; Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.

James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College.

The University is organized into eleven separate academic unitsen faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studywith campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Boston; the business 

school and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools are in the Longwood Medical Area. 

Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32.3 billion as of June 2013

Harvard is a large, highly residential research university.

The nominal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages.

It operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 million volumes

.Harvard's alumni include eight U.S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, sixty-two living billionaires and 335 Rhodes Scholars.To date, some 150 Nobel laureates have been affiliated as students, faculty, or staff.

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton was the fourth chartered institution of higher education in the Thirteen Colonies

and thus one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution. The institution moved to Newark in 1747, then to the current site nine years later, where it was renamed Princeton University in 1896.

Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering.

It offers professional degrees through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Architecture and the Bendheim Center for Finance. 

The University has ties with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Westminster Choir College of Rider University.Princeton has the largest endowment per student in the United States.

The University has graduated many notable alumni. It has been associated with 37 Nobel laureates, 17 National Medal of Science winners, the most Abel Prize winners and Fields Medalists of any university (four and eight, respectively), nine Turing Award laureates, five National Humanities Medal recipients and 204 Rhodes Scholars. Two U.S. Presidents, 12 U.S.

 Supreme Court Justices (three of whom currently serve on the court), numerous living billionaires and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princeton's alumni.

Princeton has also graduated many prominent members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Cabinet, including eight Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of Defense, and two of the past four Chairs of the Federal Reserve.

History

New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey in 1746 in order to train ministers.

 college was the educational and religious capital of Scots-Irish America. In 1754, trustees of the College of New Jersey suggested that, in recognition of Governor's interest, Princeton should be named as Belcher College. Gov. 

Jonathan Belcher replied: "What a hell of name that would be!"[

In 1756, the college moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Its home in Princeton was Nassau Hall, named for the royal House of Orange-Nassau of William III of England.

Following the untimely deaths of Princeton's first five presidents, John Witherspoon became president in 1768 and remained in that office until his death in 1794. During his presidency, Witherspoon shifted the college's focus from training ministers to preparing a new generation for leadership in the new American nation. To this end, he tightened academic standards and solicited investment in the college.

 Witherspoon's presidency constituted a long period of stability for the college, interrupted by the American Revolution and particularly the Battle of Princeton, during which British soldiers briefly occupied Nassau Hall; American forces, led by George Washington, fired cannon on the building to rout them from i

Before the construction of Stanhope Hall in 1803, Nassau Hall was the college's sole building. The cornerstone of the building was laid on September 17, 1754.

During the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, making Princeton the country's capital for four months. Over the centuries and through two redesigns following major fires (1802 and 1855), Nassau Hall's role shifted from an all-purpose building, comprising office, dormitory, library, and classroom space; to classroom space exclusively; to its present role as the administrative center of the University.


 The class of 1879 donated twin lion sculptures that flanked the entrance until 1911, when that same class replaced them with tigers.


 Nassau Hall's bell rang after the hall's construction; however, the fire of 1802 melted it. The bell was then recast and melted again in the fire of 1855