Peter Jacobs/Business Insider
This
Much of
The university was originally founded by royal edict in the mid-18th century as King's College. These royal ties can still be seen in Columbia's crown logo, which appears on flags and gates all over the campus.
Columbia's first class consisted of nine students and one professor, who apparently closed the then-Wall Street based school to go fight the Revolutionary War. The campus was then relocated uptown, to where 30 Rockefeller Plaza is now, before moving to its current location in the heart of uptown Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood.
We recently decided to explore Columbia and see its stunning campus firsthand. In order to get the full experience, we sat in an on information session and followed around a campus tour.