Originally known as King’s College, Columbia University was established in 1754 in Manhattan, New York. Powerful political figures who were former students include U.S. president Barack Obama, America’s first female secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and former U.S. presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt. American businessman Warren Buffett, who has been described as “one of the most successful investors in history,” also studied at the university and was hugely inspired by professor Benjamin Graham. Columbia is associated with 101 Nobel Prize winners, an achievement that is only outdone by Harvard. In addition, it has produced 20 living billionaires, over two-dozen Oscar winners, and 29 heads of state. Renowned for its excellent arts and humanities and social sciences and management departments, the university is also identified with the “Columbia School of Linguistics,” which stresses a highly functional idea of language.