Stanford University is one of the most frequently searched universities on the Internet. It is located in California's Silicon Valley, right between San Francisco and San Jose. This is a private university mostly oriented on research works which was opened in 1891. According to Forbes, it is ranked extremely high - being placed on the first or second position from the top of the lists in general. The University offers undergraduate and graduate programmes. There is a campus along with it as well, where 96% of enrolled undergraduate students currently live. The full name of this one of the most prestigious universities is Leland Stanford Junior University.
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| Stanford University Logo |
Back in the second half of 19th century, a former Governor or California, Leland Stanford, had bought a land for private purposes. Stanford and his wife Jane had only one child, Leland Stanford Jr., who died at the age of 15. A year later, the former Governor and his spouse had decided to found an educational institution in the memory of their only son. After collecting advices on how to run and open such institution from Harvard, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Cornell and Johns Hopkins, Stanford began to manifest his vision. After six full years, the University officially began to work. However, not everything was so idyllic. Both of the Stanfords died in the following years and the University also had to deal with earthquakes and financial problems. The other half of the 20th century marked great success and growth.
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| Stanford University Campus |
If you are reading this article, it means you are familiar with the term "Internet". What you are probably not familiar with is the fact that Vinton Cerf, "the father of the Internet", was a professor at Stanford University and he is the one who developed the technical principles for Internet communication. Simultaneously, the Silicon Valley was developing. Companies such as Google and Yahoo were founded in this period and both of their roots started at Stanford University. On the other hand, ethnic studies such as African and African American Studies were also introduced, along with Feminist Studies.
Stanford University consists of more than 7000 undergraduate students, 9000 graduate students and more than 2000 faculty members. Women were allowed to the University from its beginning. There were female professors as well as students. The restricted number of female students was later abolished. Today the University has more than 70 departments and more than 40 interdisciplinary programmes. International students are welcomed; currently there are around 30% of them roughly. Online (free!) courses on various topics are available as well. During the past, 59 people associated with the University got a Nobel prize.
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| Multiculturalism - a synonym for Stanford |
International students must hold a valid visa and they are registered as full-time students. An Undergraduate programme costs around 14000$ per year (average). About the same applies for graduate programmes. If a student is enrolled in more graduate programmes, they have several options for paying less - depending on the level and category. Application fees must be paid along with some other special fees (such as New Student Orientation Fee, International Scholar Service Fee etc.). The full-time tuition is, therefore, quite high but more than half of international students receive some kind of financial aid which sometimes covers almost 90% of expenses. Most of the students live on the campus. One of the reasons for this is that first-year students are required to be there, however, later they can move out.
Diversity is a fact at Stanford. A lot of attention is paid to well-being of their students. It is one of the rare campuses that offer vegetarian, vegan, peanut-free, gluten-free, halal and kosher along with international cuisine based meals. Financial aids make sure that every perspective student can afford to study over there by giving grants and not loans. Students are treated as individuals, even during the application process. It a university that ensures you can get and stay there if you are ready to work hard enough.
