- Pedro Alvarez, class of 2005, Major League baseball player
- Erik Barnouw, writer, critic,documentary filmmaker, Columbia University professor
- William Barr, former US Attorney General
- Josh Bernstein, class of 1989 - host of The History Channel's Digging For the Truth
- Amy S. Bruckman, class of 1983, Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and selected as one of Technology Review's 100 remarkable innovators under the age of 35.
- Robert Caro, class of 1953, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner
- Elliott Carter, composer and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner
- Peter Cincotti, class of 2001, jazz pianist
- Roy Cohn, aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy, lead prosecutor in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial
- Peter Deutsch, former congressman
- Valentine Davies, class of 1923, author and brainchild, Miracle on 34th Street
- Orvil Dryfoos, publisher of The New York Times
- Martin Duberman, class of 1948, author and gay rights historian.
- Seymour Durst, prominent real estate developer
- Morris Leopold Ernst, lawyer and co-founder the American Civil Liberties Union
- Charles Evans, founder of fashion house Evan-Piccone, and producer of Tootsie
- Ivan Fisher, prominent lawyer
- Marc Fisher, class of 1976, writer and editor for The Washington Post
- Alan Furst, novelist
- Henry Geldzahler, class of 1953, art critic, curator, New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner, (1977–1982)
- Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy
- Mark Gerstein, scientist, professor in biomedical informatics
- Alison Gertz, early AIDS activist
- Alexandra Guarnaschelli, executive chef and food television personality
- Robert Heilbroner, economist, historian of economic thought, author
- Anthony Hecht, poet
- Donald Jonas, class of 1947, philanthropist
- E.J. Kahn, class of 1933, pillar of The New Yorker, author and journalist
- Richard Kluger, class of 1952, author and Pulitzer Prize winner
- Robert Ledley, class of 1943, inventor of whole-body CT scanner, biomedical computing pioneer
- Sir Thomas Legg, senior British civil servant
- Tom Lehrer, political satirist and math professor
- David Leonhardt, economics columnist for The New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary, 2011
- Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives
- Anthony Lewis, class of 1944, journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner
- Allard K. Lowenstein, civil rights leader and former congressman
- Joshua Malina, actor and member of the cast of the television series The West Wing
- David Mandel, class of 1988, television writer and producer for Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Martin Moynihan, class of 1946, ethologist and founding director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama
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- James Murdoch, media executive; son of Rupert Murdoch
- Samuel Newhouse, media executive; one of the top 50 richest Americans
- Ben R. Oppenheimer class of 1990, astrophysicist
- Ilario Pantano class of 1989, former marine, political figure.
- Mark Penn, one of the United States' premier pollsters and political consultants
- Kenneth Pollack, analyst and author on Middle East affairs
- Generoso Pope, Jr., founder of the National Enquirer and American Media, Inc.
- Thomas S. Power, led Strategic Air Command, attended Barnard before the merger.
- Paul Rapoport, co-founder of New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center and Gay Men's Health Crisis
- Renée Richards, class of 1952 (graduated as Richard Raskind), professional tennis player, author, ophthalmologist, and well-known transsexual
- Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs
- Evan Rosen, journalist, strategist, author of The Culture of Collaboration
- Jon Rubinstein, one of the main creators of the iPod
- James Salter, class of 1942, writer
- Marion K. Sanders, class of 1921, journalist, editor, author
- Barry Scheck, class of 1967, member of legal team that successfully defended O.J. Simpson; attorney and founder of the Innocence Project
- James Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense in the Nixon and Ford administrations and former Secretary of Energy in the Carter Administration
- John Searle, philosopher
- Charles Seife, class of 1989, mathematician and author.
- Gil Shaham, class of 1989, violinist
- Orli Shaham, class of 1993, pianist
- Andrew Solomon, class of 1981, writer
- Jerry Speyer, class of 1958, billionaire, and a founder Tishman Speyer
- Eliot Spitzer, former Governor and Attorney General of New York
- Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times
- Robert Tishman, Real Estate Developer former head of Tishman Realty and Construction; co-founder of Tishman Speyer
- Paul Francis Webster, Academy Award-winning and Grammy Award-winning songwriter
- William Carlos Williams, class of 1903, medical doctor and poet; Pulitzer Prize winner
- Ben Yagoda, journalist and author
- Paul Zimmerman, senior football writer for Sports Illustrated
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