Columbia University in the City of New York

According to Money's analysis, Columbia University is one of the more expensive colleges in the Ivy League, in part because it's in one of the world's most expensive cities. But Columbia's Manhattan location also provides its roughly 9,000 undergraduates with extraordinary opportunities, including proximity to top cultural attractions and access to countless internship opportunities. The location also helps draw world-class scholars, such as Nobel Prize-winning economists Edmund Phelps and Joseph Stiglitz and Fields Medal-winning mathematician Andrei Okounkov. The first two years of study at Columbia, during which all students must dive into the school's celebrated Core Curriculum, can be especially challenging. Even so, more than nine out of 10 freshmen go on to earn a degree within six years. Columbia graduates earn an average of nearly $90,000 in their first several years post college. Previous students include former President Barack Obama, investor Warren Buffett, Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon, and comedian Jenny Slate. Though rarely used, the school's full and official name is Columbia University in the City of New York.