A destination for innovators for 135 years and located in the heart of downtown Chicago’s Cultural Mile,  Columbia College Chicago is a private, nonprofit school for creatives that offers a distinctive curriculum that blends creative and media arts, liberal arts, and business in 40 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Columbia students graduate career-ready, with creative and critical thinking skills, real-world problem-solving abilities, standout bodies of work, and industry connections to fuel their professional journeys and the creative economy. From day one, students jump into their chosen work and learn from working professionals who know what’s relevant and have extensive industry connections that translate to career success. Our students graduate prepared for careers they never imagined entering as well as professions that may not have even existed when they started 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. A survey of 2023 graduates found that 96 percent were employed or achieving success in their creative practice, with nearly 8 in 10 alumni reporting their current job is related to their career goals. Columbia alumni go on to shape and reshape industries in fields as varied as film and television, fashion, music business, video game design, journalism, and finance. Our alumni 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 forces behind investment funds, festivals, international consultancies, start-ups, humanitarian organizations, Michelin-starred