Okay, this is a VERY long list. And it’s filled with important people, like politicians, academics and nobel prize winners. But we’ve narrowed it down to those we think you’d find most interesting (for one reason or another). And we’ve included people who attended both the Morningside Heights and Washington Heights campuses. Here is a very partial list of famous people who went to Columbia University.
Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel first enrolled at Columbia in 1960 as an architecture student. He dropped out after a year but then reenrolled, and graduated in 1965 with a major in art history. He was a member of Columbia’s acappella group, the Kingsmen, and performed at the West End and other campus venues.
photo by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Advertisement
Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Clinton graduated from the Mailman School of Public Health in 2010, and began teaching grad school classes there in 2012.
Ali Shaker/VOA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck transferred from George Washington University to Columbia which he attended for two years. Bombarded with movie opportunities, he did not graduate.
photo by Bex Walton
Barack Obama
Obama transferred from Occidental to Columbia in the fall of 1981. There was no campus housing available at the time, so Barack lived off campus. Allegedly, he spent his first night sleeping in an alley near the corner of 109th and Amsterdam, and eventually moved into an apartment at 142 West 109th Street.
Pete Souza / Public domain
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt attended Columbia’s school of general studies from 2001 to 2004. He studied history, literature, and French, but he dropped out when he realized there were big bucks to be made in the movie business.
Christopher William Adach from London, UK [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Advertisement
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal is another actor who dropped out of Columbia, but rumor has it he may try to complete his studies. Gyllenhaal sometimes hosts early screenings of his films at Columbia.
Photo by Georges Biard [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill went to Columbia for about a year, but left as her album entitled The Score was blowing up big time.
The Come Up Show from Canada [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Amanda Peet
The famous actress from movies such as “The Whole Nine Yards” attended Columbia University with a degree in American History and graduated in 1994.
Mingle Media TV [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles majored in English Literature at Columbia University. She received a John Jay award in 2010, which is designated for alumni for their professional achievements.
David Shankbone [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Advertisement
Alicia Keys
The famous singer got into Columbia on a full scholarship, but left after about a month to dedicate herself to her music career.
Lukas from Munich, Germany [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
