Columbia University Admitted Student Profiles & Alumni

Barack Obama

44th President of the United States

BA

1983

Alexander Hamilton

Founding Father of the United States (attended King’s College)

N/A

1770s

Warren Buffett

Billionaire investor (attended Columbia Business School)

MS

1951

Jake Gyllenhaal

Actor (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain)

BA

Did not graduate

Langston Hughes

Poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance

BA

1929

Allen Ginsberg

Influential poet (Howl), Beat Generation figure

BA

1948

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd President of the United States

JD

1907

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice

LLB

1959 (Transferred from Harvard)

Eric Holder

Former U.S. Attorney General

JD

1976

Katie Holmes

Actress (Dawson’s Creek, Batman Begins) (attended briefly)

N/A

N/A

Madeleine Albright

Former U.S. Secretary of State (PhD from Columbia)

PhD

1976

B. R. Ambedkar

Indian social reformer, chief architect of Indian Constitution

PhD

1927

Casey Neistat

YouTuber, filmmaker (did not graduate)

N/A

N/A

George Stephanopoulos

Political commentator, host of This Week

MA

1984

Ursula Burns

Former CEO of Xerox, first Black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company

MS

1982

J.D. Salinger

Author of The Catcher in the Rye

Attended

1939 (Did not graduate)

Brian De Palma

Director of Scarface, The Untouchables

MA

1964

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Actress, director (The Lost Daughter)

BA

1999

Lauryn Hill

Grammy-winning singer (attended briefly)

N/A

N/A

Ted Koppel

Veteran journalist and former host of Nightline

MA

1962

Ibtihaj Muhammad

Olympic medalist, first American to compete in hijab

MA

2012

Richard Rodgers

Composer (Rodgers & Hammerstein)

BA

1923

Isaac Asimov

Prolific science fiction author and biochemistry professor

MA, PhD

1941, 1948

Jack Kerouac

Beat Generation author (On the Road) (attended briefly)

N/A

N/A

Robert Kraft

Owner of the New England Patriots

MBA

1965 (Columbia Business School)

Allen Iverson

Attended Columbia Business School executive program

Cert.

N/A

Max Kellerman

Sports commentator, former ESPN host

BA

1998

Sloane Crosley

Essayist and novelist (I Was Told There’d Be Cake)

BA

2000

Alicia Keys

Singer-songwriter (attended briefly)

N/A

N/A

Robert K. Merton

Sociologist, coined terms like "self-fulfilling prophecy"

PhD

1936