Walk through the gates on Broadway and enter the Ivy League. Columbia University is one of the most historically important institutions of higher education in the United States, founded in 1754. Visitors to Columbia's Morningside Heights campus will feel the historic significance of the place, from the 87 Nobel Prize winners associated with Columbia University to students who became US Presidents and Senators, including Columbia 1983 Political Science Major, Barack Obama. Significant Columbia dropouts include Alexander Hamilton and Lou Gehrig, who used to hit home runs over the Low Library steps, from the long-gone South Field (now occupied by Butler Library). And, of course, scenes of Ghostbusters and Spiderman were filmed at Columbia.
The core of the campus is a rectangle bordered by Broadway, Amsterdam Ave, 114th and 120th streets with additional buildings in the surrounding area. Barnard College, is one of the "Seven Sisters" and is affiliated with Columbia, is across the street (Broadway). Columbia students visit the Barnard Campus often and so should you.
The Columbia and Barnard Morningside Heights campus is a collection of imposing and beautiful buildings, mainly in the Classical style. The older buildings are arranged around a traditional campus quadrangle, which is open to visitors from several campus entrances on Broadway or Amsterdam Avenue around 116th Street. The campus' fixture, Low Library, was built in 1895, when Columbia moved uptown to this site and is crowned by the largest all-granite dome in the U.S. The oldest building on the campus, Buell Hall, predates Columbia University. It was formerly the Warden's Cottage at the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, the previous owners of the site. More adventurous visitors can grab a student (most likely from the Engineering or Physics departments), do some research and explore the hidden sites, some of which are of real historic significance. The famous tunnel system (some real and some imagined) were used extensively during the 1968 student takeover of the campus and by generations of student-explorers before and after. The first floor of the Pupin Building housed the early stages of the World War Two era Manhattan Project. As recently as 1987, student anarchist and hacker, Ken Hechtman, managed to find some Uranium-238 there. He took it back to his dorm room and was promptly expelled. In short, there is lots to see on the Columbia University campus - maybe even a future woman President of the United States catching the rays on the Barnard lawn!