Neil deGrasse Tyson went to one of the Ivy League universities.
Columbia University ( Columbia ; officially Columbia University in the City of New York ) is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan , New York City . Neil deGrasse Tyson . After receiving a master 's degree in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 , he earned his master 's ( 1989 ) and doctorate ( 1991 ) in astrophysics at Columbia University .