Columbia University in the City of New York (commonly known as Columbia University, or simply Columbia) is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. It was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, and is one of only two United States universities to have been founded under such authority. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, and is the 5th oldest in the United States[4]—making it one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. After the American Revolutionary War, Columbia was briefly chartered as a state entity from 1784–1787. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees.