Columbia College Chicago

Located in the heart of downtown Chicago’s Cultural Mile, Columbia College Chicago is a private, nonprofit college offering a distinctive curriculum that blends creative and media arts, liberal arts, and business for nearly 6,700 students in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Dedicated to academic excellence and long-term career success, Columbia College Chicago creates a dynamic, challenging, and collaborative space for students who see the world through a creative lens. Complex problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity will be the three most sought-after skills in the workplace by 2020, according to the World Economic Forum. Columbia is built around these essential competencies. From day one, students jump into their chosen work and learn from faculty members who are leaders in those same fields. Our students graduate prepared for careers they never imagined entering as well as professions that may not have even existed when they were in school. We train them for what employers expect, but also prepare them to adapt to the unexpected. We pride ourselves on supporting and embracing every way of being and creating. Nearly 90 percent of Columbia graduates report being employed within a year of earning their degrees. Columbia alumni go on to shape and reshape industries in fields as varied as cinema and finance, music and video game design, journalism and fashion. They run movie studios and record labels; win Academy Awards, Pulitzers, Emmys, Grammys, and National Book Awards; fill airwaves, concert halls, museums, and theaters; and are the moving forces behind investment funds, festivals, international consultancies, start-ups, humanitarian organizations, Michelin-starred restaurants, nonprofits, and government offices.