School:
- Leland Stanford Junior University
- Location: Palo Alto, CA
- Established 1891
- Private University
- Undergrad Enrollment: 6,988
- Graduate School Enrollment: 12,957
- Mascot: Cardinal
- Interesting Fact: The first student at Stanford University in 1891, when it was established, was former President Herbert Hoover.
- Click Here to Visit Stanford’s Website
Athletics
Stanford participates in D-1 NCAA sports and is one of the well-rounded schools in terms of Excellency in all college sports. Cardinal sports teams have won a total of 116 National Championships and 102 of which are NCAA National Championships, falling behind only UCLA in total. For the past 17 years Stanford has won the D-1 NACDA Director’s Cup for being the college with the most success in collegiate athletics. Stanford athletes have also been very well represented in the Olympics as 47 student-athletes were sent to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Stanford’s mascot went from being the Indians in 1930 to the Cardinals for a long period of time until 1981 when the school felt the need to represent their school color instead of a bird. However, at sport events fans interact with their mascot “The Tree” which is the same redwood tree that is on the school seal (pictured above). The Tree is representative of the redwood trees present in Northern California.
Stanford’s biggest rival is Northern California opponent University of California, Berkeley Bears. Every year the two teams square off in what is called “The Big Game” in which the teams compete for “The Axe”. Stanford won the most recent Big Game at home. This year Stanford has the 4th ranked football team in the nation, as the Cardinal will finish off their season in a BCS bowl. They are set to battle 3rd ranked Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl to be held at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on January 2nd, 2012. Stanford will be rallying behind their tough defense and Heisman Award runner-up, Junior QB Andrew Luck, to carry them over Oklahoma State’s high-powered offense. Luck projects to be the 1st overall draft pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Academics:
Stanford is one of the better academic schools in all of America as some consider it the Ivy League school of the West Coast. Forbes ranks the school as 5th in the nation. The school is classified as one of the more selective schools as it has one of the lowest acceptance rates of colleges throughout the country. Most recently, Stanford Admissions accepted a total of 7% of its applicants to attend the university. The student to faculty ratio is 6:1, which suggests that classes are smaller than in most universities and that students are able to receive more individual attention from instructors.
| Alumni | Significance |
| Yukio Hatoyama | Former Japanese Prime Minister |
| Herbert Hoover | Former U.S. President |
| Jim Plunkett | Former NFL QB |
| John Elway | Former NFL QB |
| Mike Mussina | MLB SP |
| Carlos Quentin | MLB OF |
| Tiger Woods | PGA Golf |
| Summer Sanders | Olympic Swimmer |
| Toby Gerhart | NFL RB |
| Reese Witherspoon | Actress |
| Kerri Walsh | Olympic Volleyball |
| Jennifer Connelly | Actress |
| Sigourney Weaver | Actress |
Top Major Fields:
- Social Sciences: 21%
- Interdisciplinary Studies: 16%
- Engineering: 15%
Stanford Alums have been credited to create what is now called the Silicon Valley of Northern California. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, NVIDIA, MIPS Technologies, Google, Yahoo!, Nike, Gap, and Sun Microsystems were all started by Stanford Alumni and most are critical to the Silicon Valley today.
Student Life:
Around 89 percent of students live on Stanford’s campus because First Year students are all required to live on-campus while the entire student body is guaranteed housing for four years. Housing around campus is quite diverse as there are fraternity houses, sorority houses, all-freshman dormitories, four-class housing, theme-based housing, and even gender-neutral housing as of 2008. Stanford’s Greek Life hosts about 13% of its undergrad students. There are 13 sororities on campus and 16 fraternities. About ten of the Greek orgs of Stanford have their own houses and nine of which are university-owned houses on Stanford’s Greek Row.
Stanford University has many campus traditions that are passed down to new students every year. From the “Full Moon on the Quad” where seniors and freshmen gather to exchange kisses, and the Primal Scream heard in the late hours close to midnight as students release their stress in the week leading to Finals week, to the “Birthday Showers” given to students on their birthday when the clock hits midnight and the student is thrown in the shower; Stanford’s many traditions stand strong through the years.
Not too far from Stanford are San Jose (20 miles) and San Francisco (37 miles). The proximity of Stanford to these two towns gives students options when it comes to getting away from campus to enjoy what the Bay Area has to offer. Students can enjoy professional sports in the area by checking out teams such as the San Francisco Giants (MLB), San Francisco 49ers (NFL), San Jose Sharks (NHL), Oakland Raiders (NFL), Oakland Athletics (MLB), and the Golden State Warriors (NBA).
