Stanford University prestigious universities in the world.

It was established in 1885 and opened six years later as a co-educational and non-denominational private institution.

Its location, less than an hour’s drive south of San Francisco next to Palo Alto, is in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, and the university is known for its entrepreneurial spirit.

This entrepreneurialism has its roots in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the provost encouraged innovation, resulting in a self-sufficient industry that would become Silicon Valley.

By 1970, the university had a linear accelerator and hosted part of the early network that would become the technical foundation of the internet.

The main campus spans 8,180 acres and is home to almost all the undergraduates who study at the university.

There are 700 major university buildings housing 40 departments within the three academic schools and four professional schools, alongside 18 independent laboratories, centres and institutes.

Stanford counts 21 Nobel laureates within its community, and numerous famous alumni associated with the university from the worlds of business, politics, media, sport and technology.

The 31st president of the US, Herbert Hoover, was part of the very first class at Stanford, and received a degree in geology in 1895. Currently, Stanford is also one of the leading producers of US Congress members.

Op

The alumni include 30 living billionaires, 17 astronauts, 18 Turing Award recipients and two Fields Medallists.

Google’s co-founders met at Stanford while pursuing doctorate degrees, although neither ultimately completed their theses.

View video click here

In total, companies founded by Stanford affiliates and alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion annual revenue, which would be the 10th largest economy in the world. These companies include Nike, Netflix, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Instagram, Snapchat, PayPal and Yahoo.

The first American woman to go into space, Sally Ride, received an undergraduate degree in physics from Stanford in 1973. Just 10 years later, she made her ascent into space.

In the five years leading up to 2012, the university embarked on a challenge to raise more than $4 billion. The fundraising exceeded this target and concluded the campaign having raised $6.2 billion, which will be used for more faculty appointments, graduate research fellowships and scholarships, and construction on 38 new or existing campus buildings.

Some of the funds have already been used for large projects, including the world’s largest dedicated stem cell research facility, a new business school campus, a law school expansion, a new Engineering Quad, a campus concert hall and an art museum.

Unofficially, the Stanford motto is a German quotation “Die Luft der Freiheit weht”, which translates as “the wind of freedom blows”.

Stanford University Press—or at least, the idea of it—was born in Bloomington, Indiana. It was there in 1891 that Leland and Jane Stanford offered the presidency of their new university to David Starr Jordan, who, before accepting the post, drew up a memo of understanding for the Stanfords’ approval. “Before the selection of the faculty,” Jordan wrote, “I should like your assent to the following propositions.” There were four; the first three addressed student admission standards, the balance between theoretical and applied learning, and faculty needs. The fourth and final proposition reads in full: “That provision be made for the publication of the results of any important research on the part of professors, or advanced students. Such papers may be issued from time to time as ‘Memoirs of the Leland Stanford Junior University.’”

The first work of scholarship to be published under the Stanford name was The Tariff Controversy in the United States, 1789-1833, by Orrin Leslie Elliott. Published in September 1892, the book was given the designation "No. 1" in the "Leland Stanford Junior University Monographs Series.” At the same time, an enterprising Stanford student and member of the “Pioneer Class,” Julius Andrew Quelle established a printing company on the Stanford campus. He published the student newspaper, books and articles for faculty members, and, in 1895, the first work to bear the imprint “Stanford University Press,” The Story of the Innumerable Company, by President Jordan.

Over the next decade, both the University Monographs series and Quelle’s printing outfit released new Stanford publications. By 1899, a publishing series associated with the Hopkins Laboratory boasted 21 titles, including yet another work by Jordan, The Fishes of Sinaloa. Classroom books included works in geology by Branner and by John Newsom, and at least three works in applied mechanics by Leander Miller Hoskins. Further systematic scholarly publishing developed with the start of another "University Series" in 1908, in which Vernon Lyman Kellogg's Inheritance in Silkworms was the first title. This series, which consisted mostly but not exclusively of works in science, ran until 1919.

In 1917, the university decided that it should own the campus printing operation, and purchased the operation and printing presses from Quelle. The Press moved to larger premises, the building in which its offices would be housed on campus for the next 85 years. In 1920, Will Friend, a master printer from San Francisco, was appointed Press manager. At the start of his 25-year career at the Press, Friend often copy-edited books, designed them, set them in type, and then operated the printing equipment himself. Influenced by John Henry Nash, the Grabhorns, and others in the Bay Area typographical and fine-printing community, Friend established the SUP tradition of high book-production standards. 

Stanford is a place of discovery, creativity and innovation located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Dedicated to our founding mission—benefitting society through research and education—we are working toward a sustainable future, accelerating the impact of research with external partners, catalyzing discoveries about ourselves and our world, and educating students as global citizens. Our main campus, which welcomed its first class in 1891, is now home to 650+ student organizations, 36 varsity athletic teams, 20 libraries, 20 living Nobel laureates, 18 interdisciplinary research institutes, seven schools, and a vibrant arts scene. More than 9,000 graduate students and 7,000 undergraduates pursue studies at Stanford each year. Our financial aid program, one of the most generous in the nation, makes it possible for any admitted undergraduate to attend without taking on student debt.