Stanford University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
"Stanford" redirects here. For other uses, see Stanford (disambiguation).
Leland Stanford Junior University
Leland Stanford Junior University
Stanford University seal 2003.svg
Motto German: Die Luft der Freiheit weht[1]
Motto in English
The wind of freedom blows[1]
Type Private research university
Established 1891[2][3]
Founder Leland and Jane Stanford
Endowment US$24.8 billion (2017)[4]
President Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Provost Persis Drell
Academic staff
2,219[5]
Administrative staff
12,508[6] excluding SHC
Students 16,430
Undergraduates 7,062[5]
Postgraduates 9,368[5]
Location Stanford, California, United States
Coordinates: 37�25'42?N 122�10'08?W[7]
Campus Suburban, 8,180 acres (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km2)[5]
Academic term Quarter
Colors Cardinal and white[8]

Nickname Cardinal
Sporting affiliations
NCAA Division I FBS
Pac-12 (primary)
IRA
PCCSC
MPSF
Mascot None[9]
Website www.stanford.edu
Stanford wordmark (2012).svg
Stanford is located in the United StatesStanfordStanford
Location in the United States
Stanford is located in CaliforniaStanfordStanford
Location in California
Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University or Stanford)[10] is a
private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford is known for its
academic strength, wealth, proximity to Silicon Valley, and ranking as one of the
world's top universities.[11][12][13][14][15]

The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their
only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the
previous year. Stanford was a U.S. Senator and former Governor of California who
made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on
October 1, 1891,[2][3] as a coeducational and non-denominational institution.

Stanford University struggled financially after the death of Leland Stanford in

1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake.[16] Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty
and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what
would later be known as Silicon Valley.[17] The university is also one of the top
fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more
than a billion dollars in a year.[18]

The university is organized around three traditional schools consisting of 40

academic departments at the undergraduate and graduate level and four professional
schools that focus on graduate programs in Law, Medicine, Education and Business.
Stanford's undergraduate program is the most selective in the United States by
acceptance rate.[19][20][21][22] Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the
university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12
Conference. It has gained 118 NCAA team championships,[23] the most for a
university. Stanford athletes have won 512 (the most) individual championships,[24]
and Stanford has won the NACDA Directors' Cup for 24 consecutive years, beginning
in 1994�1995.[25] In addition, Stanford students and alumni have won 270 Olympic
medals including 139 gold medals.[26]

As of October 2018, 83 Nobel laureates, 27 Turing Award laureates,[note 1] and 8

Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty or
staff.[47] In addition, Stanford University is particularly noted for its
entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting
funding for start-ups.[48][49][50][51][52] Stanford alumni have founded a large
number of companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual
revenue and have created 5.4 million jobs as of 2011, roughly equivalent to the
10th largest economy in the world (as of 2011).[53][54][55] Stanford is the alma
mater of 30 living billionaires and 17 astronauts, and is also one of the leading
producers of members of the United States Congress