37°25′39″N 122°10′13″W / 37.42750°N 122.17028°W / 37.42750; -122.17028
102-576: The Main Quadrangle , or more commonly Main Quad or simply Quad , is the heart and oldest part of Stanford University in California . The collection of connected buildings was started in 1887 and completed in 1906. The Quad was damaged in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , repaired, less severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake , and repaired again. The exteriors have remained almost
204-741: A census-designated place within unincorporated Santa Clara County , although some of the university land (such as the Stanford Shopping Center and the Stanford Research Park ) is within the city limits of Palo Alto . The campus also includes much land in unincorporated San Mateo County (including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve ), as well as in
306-437: A GPA of 3.94 or higher. Admissions officials consider a student's grade point average to be an important academic factor, with emphasis on an applicant's high school class rank and letters of recommendation. In terms of non-academic materials as of 2019, Stanford ranks extracurricular activities, talent/ability and character/personal qualities as 'very important' in making first-time, first-year admission decisions, while ranking
408-588: A common measure of low-income students at a college. In 2022, Stanford started its first dual-enrollment computer science program for high school students from low-income communities, as a pilot project which then inspired the founding of the Qualia Global Scholars Program. Stanford plans to expand the program to include courses in Structured Liberal Education and writing. Stanford follows a quarter system with
510-584: A competing company, Fairchild Semiconductor . The presence of so many high-tech and semiconductor firms helped to establish Stanford and the mid- Peninsula as a hotbed of innovation, eventually named Silicon Valley after the key ingredient in transistors. Shockley and Terman are both often described as the "fathers of Silicon Valley". In the 1950s, Stanford intentionally reduced and restricted Jewish admissions, and for decades, denied and dismissed claims from students, parents, and alumni that they were doing so. Stanford issued its first institutional apology to
612-577: A few assistants on medium-size refined painted alabasters and big white Carrara marble statues for private villas and monumental cemeteries. His works decorate famous cemeteries such as Porte Sante and Allori in Florence. A marble portrait of Frilli was carved in his Atelier after his death, and it was placed on his family tomb in Cimitero degli Allori . Frilli and his gallery were well known in Europe,
714-515: A homogeneous campus of quadrangles, proposing that the buildings be mostly one-story structures constructed from “massive rough stone”. According to a Gertrude Atherton report in Harper's Weekly , the plan was to mimic adobe, but considerations of climate and durability led the Stanfords to settle on a tan-colored local sandstone. Olmsted, who created the university's first Master Plan, called for
816-597: A master's degree as a 1-to-2-year extension of their undergraduate program. In 2010, 15% of undergraduates were first-generation students. By 2013, 89% of undergraduate students lived in on-campus university housing. First-year undergraduates are required to live on campus, and all undergraduates are guaranteed housing for all four undergraduate years. Undergraduates live in 80 different houses, including dormitories, co-ops, row houses , and fraternities and sororities . At Manzanita Park, 118 mobile homes were installed as "temporary" housing from 1969 to 1991, but have become
918-646: A memorial to their only child. The center's collection of works by Rodin is among the largest in the world. The Thomas Welton Stanford Gallery, which was built in 1917, serves as a teaching resource for the Department of Art & Art History as well as an exhibition venue. In 2014, Stanford opened the Anderson Collection, a new museum focused on postwar American art and founded by the donation of 121 works by food service moguls Mary and Harry Anderson . There are outdoor art installations throughout
1020-464: A national competition as a memorial for two brothers in the class of 1949, William White and John White II, one of whom died before graduating and one shortly after in 1952. Stanford is a private, non-profit university administered as a corporate trust governed by a privately appointed board of trustees with a maximum membership of 38. Trustees serve five-year terms (not more than two consecutive terms) and meet five times annually. A new trustee
1122-654: A new library and gymnasium were demolished, and some original features of Memorial Church and the Quad were never restored. During the early-20th century, the university added four professional graduate schools. Stanford University School of Medicine was established in 1908 when the university acquired Cooper Medical College in San Francisco; it moved to the Stanford campus in 1959. The university's law department, established as an undergraduate curriculum in 1893,
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#17327766231151224-643: A new mascot (Indian). The Indian symbol and name were dropped by President Richard Lyman in 1972, after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate. Stanford is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in most sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several other sports, and the America East Conference in field hockey with the participation in
1326-466: A sculpture on a "Woman on a Hammock" in white Carrara marble – won the Grand Prize and 6 gold medals. In 1999, the same masterpiece was sold by Sotheby's with an auction estimate of $ 800,000. More recently, Frilli's 1892 sculpture "Sweet Dreams", which features a life-sized reclining nude in a hammock and which was exhibited at Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915,
1428-609: A seasoned landscape architect who had planned Central Park and created early master plans for the University of California . The Stanfords invited the two to Palo Alto in August 1886 to survey the location. Olmsted initially proposed to build the campus on the foothills, but in fall of 1886, the Stanfords decided to build on flat farmland in Palo Alto. In a November 30, 1886 report to Leland Stanford, Walker and Olmsted recommended
1530-403: A unique pipeline of mega-donors including from alumni-founded companies with Google ( Sergey Brin and Larry Page ), Nike ( Phil Knight ), Hewlett-Packard ( David Packard and Bill Hewlett ), and Sun Microsystems ( Vinod Kohsla ) as examples. Further, the university's global reputation and continued leadership in technology has attracted large donations from prominent figures such as
1632-532: Is a private research university in Stanford, California , United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford , the eighth governor of and then-incumbent senator from California , and his wife, Jane , in memory of their only child, Leland Jr . The university admitted its first students in 1891, opening as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. It struggled financially after Leland died in 1893 and again after much of
1734-738: Is a research center based on history of 20th-century. Stanford University Libraries (SUL) held a collection of more than 9.3 million volumes, nearly 300,000 rare or special books, 1.5 million e-books, 2.5 million audiovisual materials, 77,000 serials, nearly 6 million microform holdings, and thousands of other digital resources. The main library in the SU library system is the Green Library , which also contains various meeting and conference rooms, study spaces, and reading rooms. Lathrop Library (previously Meyer Library , demolished in 2015), holds various student-accessible media resources and houses one of
1836-515: Is also consistently been amongst the two most selective law schools in the world and consistently ranked 1st in the list of best law schools year-over-year consecutively for 2024 in U.S. News & World Report . In a 2022 survey by The Princeton Review , Stanford was ranked 1st among the top ten "dream colleges" of America, and was considered to be the ultimate "dream college" of both students and parents. From polls of college applicants done by The Princeton Review , every year from 2013 to 2020
1938-1627: Is also one all-female non-sorority house, Roth House. In most residences, men and women live on the same floor, but some have single-gender floors. Several residences are considered "theme" houses; predating the current classification system are Columbae (Social Change Through Nonviolence, since 1970), and Synergy (Exploring Alternatives, since 1972). The Academic, Language, and Culture Houses include EAST (Education and Society Themed House), Hammarskjöld (International Themed House), Haus Mitteleuropa (Central European Themed House), La Casa Italiana (Italian Language and Culture), La Maison Française (French Language and Culture House), Slavianskii Dom (Slavic/East European Themed House), Storey (Human Biology Themed House), and Yost (Spanish Language and Culture). Cross-Cultural Themed Houses include Casa Zapata (Chicano/Latino Theme in Stern Hall), Muwekma-tah-ruk (American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Themed House), Okada (Asian-American Themed House in Wilbur Hall), and Ujamaa (Black/African-American Themed House in Lagunita Court). Focus Houses include Freshman-Sophomore College (Academic Focus), Branner Hall (Community Service), Kimball (Arts & Performing Arts), Crothers (Global Citizenship), and Toyon (Sophomore Priority). Co-ops or "Self-Ops" are another housing option. These houses feature cooperative living, where residents and eating associates each contribute work to keep
2040-505: Is at the end of a mile-long road, Palm Drive, which leads from the main entrance onto the university grounds and is lined with Canary Island palm trees . At its southwestern (campus) end, Palm Drive becomes a one-way loop that encircles a large lawn called the Oval . Immediately in front perpendicular to Palm Drive is Jane Stanford Way (once known as Serra Mall), which is restricted to official vehicles and bicycles. Between Jane Stanford Way and
2142-553: Is chosen by the current trustees by ballot. The Stanford trustees also oversee the Stanford Research Park , the Stanford Shopping Center , the Cantor Center for Visual Arts , Stanford University Medical Center , and many associated medical facilities (including the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital ). The board appoints a president to serve as the chief executive officer of the university, to prescribe
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#17327766231152244-499: Is headed by a dean with the assistance of a senior associate dean and an associate dean. Stanford Memorial Church , in the center of campus, has a Sunday University Public Worship service (UPW) usually in the "Protestant Ecumenical Christian" tradition where the Memorial Church Choir sings and a sermon is preached usually by one of the Stanford deans for Religious Life. UPW sometimes has multifaith services. In addition,
2346-850: Is home to the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, which grew out of and still contains the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, a collaboration with the King Center to publish the King papers held by the King Center. It also runs the John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists and the Center for Ocean Solutions, which brings together marine science and policy to address challenges facing
2448-630: Is one of the most successful universities worldwide in creating companies and licensing its inventions to existing companies, and it is often considered the model for technology transfer . Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing is responsible for commercializing university research, intellectual property, and university-developed projects. The university is described as having a strong venture culture in which students are encouraged, and often funded , to launch their own companies. Companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $ 2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created some 5.4 million jobs since
2550-528: Is organized around seven schools of study on an 8,180-acre (3,310-hectare) campus, one of the largest in the nation. It houses the Hoover Institution , a public policy think tank , and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of eight private institutions in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Stanford has won 131 NCAA team championships, and
2652-461: Is the Stanford Band 's mascot and the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford's team name is the " Cardinal ", referring to the vivid Stanford Cardinal Red color (not the common songbird as at several other schools); the university does not have an official mascot. The Tree has been called one of America's most bizarre and controversial college mascots; it regularly appears at
2754-760: Is the student government for Stanford and all registered students are members. Its elected leadership consists of the Undergraduate Senate elected by the undergraduate students, the Graduate Student Council elected by the graduate students, and the President and Vice President elected as a ticket by the entire student body. Stanford is the beneficiary of a special clause in the California Constitution , which explicitly exempts Stanford property from taxation so long as
2856-764: Is widely considered one of the most prestigious universities in the world by leading sources including U.S. News & World Report , Times Higher Education , and QS World University Rankings . As noted in The Wall Street Journal 's 2024 rankings, "the usual players are almost always going to come out on top: The Princetons, the Stanfords, the Yales, the Harvards. They will jockey for those first few spots on whatever ranking you happen to be looking." In 2022, Washington Monthly ranked Stanford at 1st position in their annual list of top universities in
2958-428: Is within 100 of Stanford's total. Stanford have won 25 consecutive NACDA Directors' Cups, from 1994–1995 through to 2018–19, awarded annually to the most successful overall college sports program in the nation. 177 Stanford-affiliated athletes have won a total of 296 Summer Olympic medals (150 gold, 79 silver, 67 bronze), including 26 medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 27 medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. In
3060-621: The Richardsonian Romanesque style, and features of that style including "round low arches, sturdy piers, massive walls, simple silhouettes, and sheltering roofs" are prominent in the Quad. The style was adapted to a California Mission theme. The primary building materials were local yellow sandstone and red tile roofs. The sandstone was quarried at the Graystone Quarry in San Jose, California , and transported to
3162-748: The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (originally the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), the Stanford Research Institute (an independent institution which originated at the university), the Hoover Institution (a conservative think tank ), and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (a multidisciplinary design school in cooperation with the Hasso Plattner Institute of University of Potsdam that integrates product design, engineering, and business management education). Stanford
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3264-531: The United States Congress . Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford , dedicated to the memory of Leland Stanford Jr. , their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanford's previous Palo Alto farm. The Stanfords modeled their university after the great Eastern universities, specifically Cornell University in Ithaca, New York . Stanford was referred to as
3366-500: The " Indian " name along with what they had come to perceive as an offensive and demeaning mascot. Stanford's teams reverted unofficially to the name "Cardinal", the color that had represented the school before 1930. From 1972 until 1981, Stanford’s official nickname was the Cardinal, but, during this time, there was debate among students and administrators concerning what the mascot and team name should be. A 1972 student referendum on
3468-590: The "Cornell of the West" in 1891 due to a majority of its faculty being former Cornell affiliates, including its first president, David Starr Jordan , and second president, John Casper Branner . Both Cornell and Stanford were among the first to make higher education accessible, non-sectarian, and open to women as well as men. Cornell is credited as one of the first American universities to adopt that radical departure from traditional education, and Stanford became an early adopter as well. From an architectural point of view,
3570-418: The "Faculty Ghetto", within walking or biking distance of campus. The Faculty Ghetto is composed of land owned by Stanford. Similar to a condominium , the houses can be bought and sold to other Stanford faculty but the land under the houses is leased for 51 years with the possibility of extensions. Houses in the "Ghetto" appreciate and depreciate, but not as rapidly as overall Silicon Valley values. Some of
3672-409: The 1930s. When combined, these companies would form the tenth-largest economy in the world. Some notable companies closely associated with Stanford and their connections include: Stanford enrolled 6,996 undergraduate and 10,253 graduate students in the 2019–2020 school year. Women made up 50.4% of undergraduates and 41.5% of graduate students. In the same academic year, the freshman retention rate
3774-423: The 1950s, he established Stanford Industrial Park , a high-tech commercial campus on university land. Also in the 1950s, William Shockley , co-inventor of the silicon transistor, recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physics , and later professor of physics at Stanford, moved to the Palo Alto area and founded a company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory . The next year, eight of his employees resigned and formed
3876-531: The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Stanford-affiliated athletes won 26 medals, more than any other university. Students and staff at Stanford are of many different religions. The Stanford Office for Religious Life's mission is "to guide, nurture and enhance spiritual, religious and ethical life within the Stanford University community" by promoting enriching dialogue, meaningful ritual, and enduring friendships among people of all religious backgrounds. It
3978-467: The Cornell campus, to design the Stanford campus. When Leland Stanford died in 1893, the continued existence of the university was put in jeopardy due to a federal lawsuit against his estate, but Jane Stanford insisted the university remain in operation throughout the financial crisis. The university suffered major damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake ; most of the damage was repaired, but
4080-665: The Dish . Frank Lloyd Wright 's 1937 Hanna–Honeycomb House and the 1919 Lou Henry Hoover House are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places . White Memorial Fountain (also known as "The Claw") between the Stanford Bookstore and the Old Union is a popular place to meet and to engage in the Stanford custom of "fountain hopping"; it was installed in 1964 and designed by Aristides Demetrios after
4182-791: The Engineering Corner with the Oregon Courtyard of flowering cherry trees, the Geology Corner with a garden designed by Thomas Church , and the Math Corner. Other than Engineering, which now houses the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (hence is often now referred to as the Language Corner), the respective disciplines are still in their corners. Besides the gardens in the minor courtyards,
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4284-502: The Jewish community in 2022 after an internal task force confirmed that the university deliberately discriminated against Jewish applicants, while also misleading those who expressed concerns, including students, parents, alumni, and the ADL . Stanford was once considered a school for "the wealthy", but controversies in later decades damaged its reputation. The 1971 Stanford prison experiment
4386-563: The Main Quad are another lawn, some bicycle parking, a long sandstone balustrade originally built in 1902, and steps up to the level of the quad: the main steps to Memorial Court, the east steps to Wallenberg Hall (building 160), and the west steps to building 420. The Inner Quad consists of a large courtyard surrounded by twelve connected buildings (numbered clockwise, 1 through 110) and Stanford Memorial Church . Around that are 14 additional connected buildings (120 through 460) that make up
4488-569: The Math Corner is a casting of George Segal 's Gay Liberation sculpture. The statue, consisting of four life-sized figures, was commissioned in 1979 (the 10th anniversary of the Stonewall riots ) and created in 1980. It was the first piece of public art dedicated to LGBT rights . Two castings were made and originally intended for installation in New York and Los Angeles, but the statue proved too controversial for either city. The second casting
4590-546: The Outer Quad. The Outer Quad buildings create several additional courtyards. Memorial Court, the most important, is the front entrance of the structure. Besides the front entrance there are also the east and west entrances with gatehouses over them where they enter the inner courtyard. The four corners of the Outer Quad are named, clockwise from Memorial Court, the History Corner with its courtyard of citrus trees,
4692-456: The Pigott family; both families have long connections with Stanford University. Building 460 is Margaret Jacks Hall, named in 1980 for the daughter (who died in 1962 and left a bequest to the university) of David Jacks . Building 120 is named McClatchy Hall. Memorial Court features several sculptures by Auguste Rodin from his grouping The Burghers of Calais . Adjacent to the Main Quad at
4794-632: The Quad buildings. Language Corner and Geology Corner were closed for repairs for more than five years; most of that time was spent negotiating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over paying for the repairs. Memorial Church was also damaged but was repaired more quickly via private donations. In 2020, the Stanford Department of Psychology and student-led groups began the process to rename Jordan Hall because of David Starr Jordan 's association with
4896-919: The Stanford Improvisors, the Stanford Shakespeare Company, and the Stanford Savoyards, a group dedicated to performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan . Stanford is also host to ten a cappella groups , including the Mendicants (Stanford's first), Counterpoint (the first all-female group on the West Coast ), the Harmonics , the Stanford Fleet Street Singers , Talisman , Everyday People , and Raagapella . Stanford
4998-489: The Stanfords wanted their university to look different and sought to emulate the style of English university buildings. They specified in the founding grant that the buildings should "be like the old adobe houses of the early Spanish days; they will be one-storied; they will have deep window seats and open fireplaces, and the roofs will be covered with the familiar dark red tiles." The Stanfords also hired renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted , who previously designed
5100-881: The United States and Australia, as he took part in several world's fair exhibitions. He was in Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition of 1876, and in 1881 his statues and garden furnitures were exhibited in the Italian Pavilion in Melbourne , Australia. In 1904, two years after Frilli's death, his son Umberto took part in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis , Missouri, where one of his father's works –
5202-555: The United States. In 2019, Stanford University took 1st place on Reuters' list of the World's Most Innovative Universities for the fifth consecutive year. Stanford Graduate School of Business has consistently been both the most selective business school in the world and consistently ranked 1st in the list of best business schools year-over-year consecutively by various reputed studies including Bloomberg Businessweek and U.S. News & World Report for 2024. Stanford Law School
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#17327766231155304-564: The annual " Big Game " between the Cal and Cardinal football teams gains custody of the Stanford Axe . As of May 23, 2024, Stanford has won 136 NCAA team championships, more than any other school. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 48 consecutive years, from 1976–77 through to 2023–24. As of January 1, 2022, Stanford athletes have also won 529 NCAA individual championships. No other Division I school
5406-456: The annual alumni reunion dinner. A long-standing tradition is Full Moon on the Quad . In its oldest form it was an event at which "a Stanford girl becomes a Stanford woman ... when kissed by a senior man in front of Memorial Church under the light of a full moon"; now it is a party with much kissing held on the first full moon of winter quarter. Stanford University Stanford University (officially Leland Stanford Junior University )
5508-481: The autumn quarter usually beginning in late September and the spring quarter ending in mid-June. The full-time, four-year undergraduate program has arts and sciences focus with high graduate student coexistence. Stanford is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges with the latest review in 2023. Stanford is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity." The university's research expenditure in fiscal years of 2021/22
5610-407: The building site via a private railway spur. Hundreds of laborers received the sandstone, cut it to size, dressed it, and finished it; skilled stonecutters and sculptors, primarily from Italy, installed it and embellished it with friezes. Over the objections of the architects, the Stanfords insisted that the main entrance to the Quad be "a large memorial arch with an enormously large approach". The arch
5712-492: The campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . Following World War II , university provost Frederick Terman inspired an entrepreneurial culture to build a self-sufficient local industry (later Silicon Valley ). In 1951, the Stanford Research Park was established in Palo Alto and is the world's first university research park. By 2021, the university had 2,288 tenure-line faculty, senior fellows, center fellows, and medical faculty on staff. The university
5814-408: The campus, primarily sculptures, but some murals as well. The Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden near Roble Hall features wood carvings and " totem poles ." The Stanford music department sponsors many ensembles, including five choirs, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Taiko , and the Stanford Wind Ensemble. Extracurricular activities include theater groups such as Ram's Head Theatrical Society,
5916-511: The church is used by the Catholic community and the other Christian denominations at Stanford. Weddings happen most Saturdays and the university has allowed blessings of same-gender relationships and legal weddings. Antonio Frilli Antonio Frilli (born 1860 and died 1902) was a Florentine sculptor who specialized in marble and alabaster statues for public and private customers. In 1883, Frilli established his first and exclusive Atelier in via dei Fossi, Florence , where he worked with
6018-534: The city limits of Menlo Park (Stanford Hills neighborhood), Woodside , and Portola Valley . The central campus includes a seasonal lake ( Lake Lagunita , an irrigation reservoir), home to the vulnerable California tiger salamander . As of 2012, Lake Lagunita was often dry and the university had no plans to artificially fill it. Heavy rains in January 2023 refilled Lake Lagunita to up to 8 feet of depth. Two other reservoirs, Searsville Lake on San Francisquito Creek and Felt Lake, are on more remote sections of
6120-513: The co-founder of Netscape ( Jim Clark ), founder of SAP SE ( Hasso Plattner ), co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz ( Marc Andreessen and Laura Arillaga-Andreessen ), chairman of Kleiner Perkins ( John Doerr and his wife Ann). Stanford is considered by US News to be 'most selective' with an acceptance rate of 4%, one of the lowest among US universities. Half of the applicants accepted to Stanford have an SAT score between 1440 and 1570 or an ACT score between 32 and 35, typically with
6222-404: The duties of professors and course of study, to manage financial and business affairs, and to appoint nine vice presidents. Richard Saller became the interim president in September 2023. On April 4, 2024, the board of trustees announced that Jonathan Levin would become the thirteenth president on August 1, 2024. The provost is the chief academic and budget officer, to whom the deans of each of
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#17327766231156324-456: The endowment covered approximately 22% of university expenses in the 2023 fiscal year. Since inception, the university has been the beneficiary of large donations. The endowment began in 1885, six years before the opening of the university, when Leland Stanford and his wife Jane conveyed approximately $ 20 million to the university. The university's pioneering of technology intellectual property transfer created both direct investments and enabled
6426-431: The eugenics movement. Most of the university's other, more recent buildings echo the Quad's basic pattern of buff-colored walls, red roofs, and arcades, giving Stanford's campus its distinctive look. The original university plan was to add additional quadrangles of buildings, initially to the left and right of the Main Quad. However, this part of the plan was put aside for many decades until the Science and Engineering Quad
6528-421: The faculty are vested in the Academic Council, which is made up of tenure and non-tenure line faculty, research faculty, senior fellows in some policy centers and institutes, the president of the university, and some other academic administrators. But most matters are handled by the Faculty Senate, made up of 54 elected representatives of the faculty for 2021. The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU)
6630-422: The founding grant. The central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real , Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Blvd, and Sand Hill Road , off State Route 82 . The United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP Codes : 94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P.O. box mail. It lies within area code 650 . On the founding grant: Off the founding grant: Many Stanford faculty members live in
6732-499: The front (History Corner) is named for the Wallenberg family who gave much of the money for renovating it in 1999. In the early days it housed the university library and was originally built in 1900 with funds from Thomas Welton Stanford , brother of university founder Leland Stanford and uncle of Leland Stanford Junior for whom the university is named. The second story has two white statues of Benjamin Franklin and Johannes Gutenberg . Building 420—the corresponding building on
6834-431: The golf course can also be used by the general public. Contemporary campus landmarks include the Main Quad and Memorial Church , the Cantor Center for Visual Arts and the Bing Concert Hall , the Stanford Mausoleum with the nearby Angel of Grief , Hoover Tower , the Rodin Sculpture Garden, the Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden , the Arizona Cactus Garden , the Stanford University Arboretum , Green Library and
6936-409: The house running, such as cooking meals or cleaning shared spaces. These houses have unique themes around which their community is centered. Many co-ops are hubs of music, art and philosophy. The co-ops on campus are 576 Alvarado Row (formerly Chi Theta Chi), Columbae, Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF), Hammarskjöld, Kairos, Terra (the unofficial LGBT house), and Synergy. Phi Sigma, at 1018 Campus Drive
7038-492: The inter-collegiate NCAA's Division I FBS . The two official colors of the university are Stanford Cardinal Red and Palo Alto Green . From 1930 until 1972, Stanford's sports teams had been known as the Indians and during the period from 1951 to 1972, Prince Lightfoot (portrayed by Timm Williams, a member of the Yurok tribe ) was the official mascot. But in 1972, Native American students and staff members successfully lobbied University President Richard Lyman to abolish
7140-511: The interview, whether the applicant is a first-generation university applicant, legacy preferences , volunteer work and work experience as 'considered'. Of those students accepted to Stanford's Class of 2026, 1,736 chose to attend, of which 21% were first-generation college students. Stanford's admission process is need-blind for U.S. citizens and permanent residents; while it is not need-blind for international students, 64% are on need-based aid, with an average aid package of $ 31,411. In 2012,
7242-406: The issue was in favor of restoring the Indian, while a second 1975 referendum was against. The 1975 vote included new suggestions, many alluding to the industry of the school's founder, tycoon Leland Stanford : the Robber Barons , the Sequoias, the Trees, the Cardinals, the Railroaders, the Spikes, and the Huns. Its traditional sports rival is the University of California, Berkeley . The winner of
7344-654: The land is managed to provide revenue for the university such as the Stanford Shopping Center and the Stanford Research Park . Stanford land is also leased for a token rent by the Palo Alto Unified School District for several schools including Palo Alto High School and Gunn High School . El Camino Park, the oldest Palo Alto city park, is also on Stanford land. Stanford also has the Stanford Golf Course, and Stanford Red Barn Equestrian Center, used by Stanford athletics though
7446-408: The largest East Asia collections with 540,000 volumes. Stanford University Press , founded in 1892, published about 130 books per year has printed more than 3,000 books. It also has fifteen subject areas. Stanford is home to the Cantor Center for Visual Arts , a museum with twenty-four galleries, sculpture gardens, terraces, and a courtyard first established in 1891 by Jane and Leland Stanford as
7548-670: The largest in the United States. It is on the San Francisco Peninsula , in the northwest part of the Santa Clara Valley ( Silicon Valley ) approximately 37 miles (60 km) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles (30 km) northwest of San Jose . Stanford received $ 4.5 billion in 2006 and spent more than $ 2.1 billion in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. In 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Stanford's main campus includes
7650-467: The main inner courtyard has eight large raised planting circles with a variety of trees and bushes. The Main Quad also has open covered walkways around the Inner Quad courtyard, Memorial Court, and around the exterior of the entire structure except for the main entrance, the east and west gateways, and part of the back. Each year's graduating class buries a time capsule and marks it with a plaque in
7752-674: The memory of Barbara Jordan, daughter of the university's first president who died aged 9 in 1901 of scarlet fever; the garden as a whole is in memory of Amy Blue, a university staffer who died in 1988 at the age of 44. Also in that area is the Frances C. Arrillaga Memorial, named after the wife of John Arrillaga ; it has unusual acoustic properties. Behind the church is the Keith Memorial Terrace with its roses and fountain, designed by Thomas D. Church who created many other public spaces and gardens at Stanford, and dedicated to
7854-637: The memory of Captain Willard W. Keith Jr. (class of 1941), who was killed at Guadalcanal in November 1942. The conception of a quadrangle-centered campus wasn't formalized until 1886, several years after Leland Stanford first broached the idea of a university to the press. In planning the new campus, the Stanfords consulted with Francis Walker , then president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and with Frederick Law Olmsted ,
7956-499: The most commonly named "dream college" for students was Stanford; separately, parents, too, most frequently named Stanford their ultimate "dream college." The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked Stanford second in the world (after Harvard) most years from 2003 to 2020. Times Higher Education recognizes Stanford as one of the world's "six super brands" on its World Reputation Rankings , along with Berkeley , Cambridge , Harvard , MIT , and Oxford . Stanford
8058-636: The ocean. It focuses on five points: climate change, overfishing, coastal development, pollution, and plastics. Together with UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco , Stanford is part of the Biohub , a new medical science research center founded in 2016 by a $ 600 million commitment from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and pediatrician Priscilla Chan . This medical research center is working for designing advanced-level health care units. By 2014, Stanford University Libraries (SUL) had twenty-four libraries in total. The Hoover Institution Library and Archives
8160-499: The property is used for educational purposes. Stanford's endowment includes real estate and other investments valued at $ 36.5 billion as of August 2023, and is one of the four largest academic endowments in the United States. The endowment consists of $ 29.9 billion in a merged pool of assets and $ 6.6 billion of real estate near the main campus. Stanford is the largest landowner in the Silicon Valley Payouts from
8262-532: The same since the beginning, though the interiors of most of the buildings have changed radically. The Main Quad is still used for its original purposes of teaching, research, and administration. The Main Quad is built on a slight slope so that though the back of the structure is level with the ground, the front is elevated. It is oriented slightly east of north along the Memorial Church–;Memorial Court–Palm Drive axis. The front approach
8364-584: The seven schools report. Jenny Martinez became the fourteenth provost in October 2023. The university is organized into seven academic schools. The schools of Humanities and Sciences (twenty-seven departments), Engineering (nine departments), and Sustainability (nine departments) have both graduate and undergraduate programs while the Schools of Law , Medicine , Education , and Business have graduate programs only. The powers and authority of
8466-507: The site of newer dorms Castano, Kimball, Lantana, and the Humanities House, completed in 2015. Most student residences are just outside the campus core, within ten minutes (on foot or bike) of most classrooms and libraries. Some are reserved for freshmen, sophomores, or upper-class students and some are open to all four classes. Most residences are co-ed; seven are all-male fraternities , three are all-female sororities , and there
8568-508: The time as related directly to the university's defense contracts..." Wallace Sterling was the President from 1949 to 1968 and he oversaw the growth of Stanford from a financially troubled regional university to a financially sound, internationally recognized academic powerhouse, "the Harvard of the West". Achievements during Sterling's tenure included: Most of Stanford is on an 8,180-acre (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km ) campus, one of
8670-592: The top of Internet "worst mascot" lists, but has also appeared on at least one list of top mascots. The Tree is a member of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) and appears at football games, basketball games, and other events where the band performs. In 1930, following a unanimous vote by the executive committee for the Associated Students, the athletic department adopted
8772-559: The university awarded $ 126 million in need-based financial aid to 3,485 students, with an average aid package of $ 40,460. Eighty percent of students receive some form of financial aid. Stanford has a no-loan policy. For undergraduates admitted starting in 2015, Stanford waives tuition, room, and board for most families with incomes below $ 65,000, and most families with incomes below $ 125,000 are not required to pay tuition; those with incomes up to $ 150,000 may have tuition significantly reduced. Seventeen percent of students receive Pell Grants ,
8874-516: The university opened in 1891. The construction of the church, which had been planned from the early years to create a focal point for Inner Quad, was delayed by legal disputes over the Stanford estate, and so was not completed until early in 1903. A review in the Harper’s Weekly estimated its cost to be somewhere around $ 600,000, or about $ 16 million in 2023. Outer Quad was also completed around this time, mostly under Coolidge's direction. The campus
8976-599: The university relocated the statue of Agassiz (because of his support of polygenism ) and dropped the name Jordan Hall (because of Jordan's promotion of eugenics laws ). Only a few of the other buildings have names. Building 200 is officially the Lane History Corner, named for Bill and Jean Lane in 1998. At about the same time Building 320 (aka Geology Corner) became Braun Corner after the Braun family and Building 260 (aka Language Corner) became Pigott Hall after
9078-412: The university to be primarily housed in an inner and outer quadrangle. To design the quadrangle itself, the Stanfords in 1886 hired the firm of "the greatest American architect of his generation," Henry Hobson Richardson . (Richardson himself had died earlier that year, and his three main associates were carrying on his work as the firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge .) This group of architects are noted for
9180-431: The walkway around Inner Quad, starting with the class of 1896 right in front of Memorial Church (the classes of 1892 to 1895 put theirs in later); the plaques now reach more than halfway up the western walkway. Under the west gatehouse is a time capsule and plaque marking the centennial of the opening of the university, and the cornerstone (building 60) also has a time capsule. Wallenberg Hall (building 160) on east side of
9282-432: The west side of the quad—was named for David Starr Jordan , the first president of the university. It has statues of Louis Agassiz ( statue now removed ) and Alexander von Humboldt . The original statues were created by Antonio Frilli , but Franklin and Gutenberg went missing after renovation work in 1949 and were never found; recreations were done by a local sculptor, Oleg Lobykin, and installed in 2013. In October 2020,
9384-624: Was $ 1.82 billion and the total number of sponsored projects was 7,900. By 2016, the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research oversaw eighteen independent laboratories, centers, and institutes . Kathryn Ann Moler is the key person for leading those research centers for choosing problems, faculty members, and students. Funding is also provided for undergraduate and graduate students by those labs, centers, and institutes for collaborative research. Other Stanford-affiliated institutions include
9486-415: Was 99%. Stanford awarded 1,819 undergraduate degrees, 2,393 master's degrees, 770 doctoral degrees, and 3270 professional degrees in the 2018–2019 school year. The four-year graduation rate for the class of 2017 cohort was 72.9%, and the six-year rate was 94.4%. The relatively low four-year graduation rate is a function of the university's coterminal degree (or "coterm") program, which allows students to earn
9588-632: Was awarded the NACDA Directors' Cup for 25 consecutive years, beginning in 1994. Students and alumni have won 302 Olympic medals (including 153 gold) . The university is associated with 74 living billionaires , 58 Nobel laureates , 33 MacArthur Fellows , 29 Turing Award winners, as well as 7 Wolf Foundation Prize recipients, 2 Supreme Court Justices of the United States, and 4 Pulitzer Prize winners. Additionally, its alumni include many Fulbright Scholars , Marshall Scholars , Gates Cambridge Scholars , Rhodes Scholars , and members of
9690-457: Was built and was topped with an elaborate frieze representing "The Progress of Civilization in America"; however, the arch was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was not rebuilt. The cornerstone was laid at what is now Building 60 on May 14, 1887, which would have been Leland Stanford Junior's 19th birthday. The Inner Quad was mostly finished (except for the church) by the time
9792-546: Was built to the west, starting in the 1980s and completed in 2013. The Main Quad now houses many departments and classrooms and also the offices of the President, Provost, and administrative offices of the School of Humanities and Sciences. The main courtyard is used for University functions, in particular the Baccalaureate service held on the day before the main graduation ceremony, departmental graduation ceremonies, and
9894-432: Was criticized as unethical, and the misuse of government funds from 1981 resulted in severe penalties for the school's research funding, and the resignation of President Donald Kennedy in 1992. In the 1960s, Stanford rose from a regional university to one of the most prestigious in the United States, "when it appeared on lists of the "top ten" universities in America... This swift rise to performance [was] understood at
9996-580: Was formerly Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, but in 1973 became a Self-Op. By 2015, 55 percent of the graduate student population lived on campus. Stanford also subsidizes off-campus apartments in nearby Palo Alto , Menlo Park , and Mountain View for graduate students who are guaranteed on-campus housing but are unable to live on campus due to a lack of space. In 2016, Stanford had sixteen male varsity sports and twenty female varsity sports, nineteen club sports, and about 27 intramural sports. The Stanford Tree
10098-513: Was founded in 1925 at the urging of then-trustee Herbert Hoover . In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I . The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory , established in 1962, performs research in particle physics. In the 1940s and 1950s, Frederick Terman , an engineering professor who later became provost, encouraged Stanford engineering graduates to start their own companies and invent products. During
10200-551: Was offered to Stanford, which accepted it as a long-term loan and installed it in 1984. The sculpture was vandalized several times over the next 10 years but eventually became an accepted part of the public art at Stanford. New York in 1992 finally installed the first casting in Christopher Park . Between the church and building 60 is the Amy Blue Garden with benches, a sundial, and a small birdbath dedicated to
10302-518: Was severely damaged in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Restoration of the Quad began immediately, wrapping up in 1909 to a cost of around $ 700,000, but several original features of the Quad that collapsed in the earthquake were never rebuilt: the huge Memorial Arch over the entrance to Memorial Court, and a spire on Memorial Church. The Quad, which was originally built of unreinforced masonry, has been seismically retrofitted several times since then. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake also damaged some of
10404-539: Was transitioned into a professional law school starting in 1908 and received accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1923. The Stanford University Graduate School of Education grew out of the Department of the History and Art of Education, one of the original twenty-one departments at Stanford, and became a professional graduate school in 1917. The Stanford Graduate School of Business
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