Founded in 1754, Columbia University is an Ivy League school located in an urban setting in New York City, New York. Undergraduate enrollment for Columbia is over 7,000, and 73 of Columbia's alumni and faculty have been awarded Nobel Prizes since the university's founding.
Situated in the rural setting of Ithaca, New York, Cornell University is an Ivy League school with over 13,000 students. Founded in 1865, Cornell was the first university to grant doctoral degrees in electrical and industrial engineering and veterinary medicine.
With over 21,000 students, New York University is a very large, private college situated in New York City that was founded in 1831. Many famous entertainers and film makers graduated from New York University, including Meg Ryan, Spike Lee, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Alec Baldwin.
Located in Rochester New York, the suburban University of Rochester has around 5,100 enrolled undergraduate students. The university established the first program dedicated to optics in the United States, and Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics is home to the world's most powerful fusion laser. The Eastman School of Music is also ranked as one of the most well-known music schools in the world.
Located in the urban environment of Troy New York, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is primarily a school for studies in the fields of study in science, mathematics, information technology, architecture and engineering. Founded in 1824, Rensselaer has one of the oldest engineering programs in the United States, and the entire university has over 5,300 full-time, undergraduate students.