The story of Stanford University is unique:
the founders are the railroad tycoon, former California governor, Senator L. Stanford and his wife Jane. The university was founded in 1891. in honor of their only son, who did not live to be 16 years old. Regarding the foundation story, a beautiful literary story “goes around” the network (I thought about publishing it or not, or just left a link, but decided to post it, because this story is significantly different from the stories of all other universities, and at your discretion, read it or not):
A woman in a low-key dress, accompanied by her husband, dressed in a modest suit, got off the train at Boston Station and headed for the office of the president of Harvard University. They were not scheduled to meet. The secretary determined at a glance that such provincials had nothing to do at Harvard.(literary history copied from historytime.ru)
“We would like to meet with the president,” the man said in a low voice.
“He will be busy all day,” the secretary replied dryly.
“We'll wait,” the woman said.
For several hours, the secretary ignored the visitors, hoping that at some point they would be disappointed and leave. However, making sure that they were not going to leave anywhere, he nevertheless decided to disturb the president, although he really did not want to.
“Maybe if you take them for a minute, will they rather go?” He asked the president.
He sighed indignantly and agreed. Such an important person as he already has no time to host people so modestly dressed.
When the visitors entered, the president looked at the couple sternly and arrogantly. A woman turned to him:
- We had a son, he studied at your university for one year. He loved this place and was very happy here. But, unfortunately, a year ago he unexpectedly died. My husband and I would like to leave a memory of him at the university.
The President was not at all happy about this, but on the contrary became annoyed.
- Madam! He replied boldly, “we cannot put statues on anyone who studied at Harvard and died.” If we did, this place would be like a cemetery.
“No,” the woman hastened to object, “we don’t want to install the statue, we want to build a new building for Harvard.”
The President examined the faded plaid dress and poor suit and exclaimed: - Case! Do you have any idea how much one such case costs? All Harvard buildings cost more than seven million dollars!
The woman did not answer for a minute. The President smiled happily with evil. Finally he will drive them out!
The woman turned to her husband and said quietly:
- So it costs little to build a new university? So why then we do not build our university.
The man nodded in the affirmative. The Harvard president turned pale and looked bewildered.
Mr. and Mrs. Stanford got up and left the office. In Palo Alto, California, they founded the university that bears their name, Stanford University, in memory of their beloved son ... " California children will be our children "
Monument to the founders:
Memorial Church in:
Description of the prestige of the university
The university is known for its research activities and "close" ties with Silicon Valley. Visiting the offices of one of the IT companies (in my other publication on the hub), I asked the question, why is the concentration of the central offices of the most advanced companies in the world (Google, Apple, Amazon) still here? To which she received one of the answers that it happened historically due to the close location of the "forge of personnel" in the form of Stanford University.
In popularity among universities in the United States, Stanford is in second place after Harvard University. Every year he takes into the ranks of his students about 7% of all comers.
Among his graduates:
- founders of the largest corporations (Google, Yahoo !, PayPal, etc.)
- inventors: co-author of network protocols TCP / IP V.Serf, designer of noise reduction systems R. Dolby, inventor of 56K modem B. Townsend
- billionaire businessmen
About the university itself
Location - Santa Clara, near San Francisco, California, USA.
The university campus, as well as laboratories and other buildings of the university, occupy more than 33 km² of land.
At Stanford's disposal there are more than seven hundred buildings with classrooms equipped with the latest technology, 18 independent laboratories, institutes and research centers are located, 20 libraries for students are located almost 24/7 (with 8.5 million books). Hospitals and clinics are located near the university campus. And on the territory of the educational institution there are a church, a shopping center (with 140 boutiques and shops) and even an art gallery.
Faculties of Stanford University: Medical School, Law School, School of Earth Sciences, School of Humanities and Natural Sciences, Engineering, Business School (included in the top 10 in the world ranking).
The bachelor's program consists of the top 5 areas: Computer Science, Human Biology, Engineering, Engineering and Science, technology and society.
Faculty of Engineering:
Anyone can submit documents to the university.
The annual cost of training is from $ 30 thousand to $ 60 thousand, there are free programs for gifted students. If there is no amount for annual payments, US citizens can take a loan for training, and give it after graduation.
Before submitting documents and paying a fee, a foreign student must pass the TOEFL exam, thereby confirming excellent knowledge of the English language.
Further, it is already possible to take for the passing of American tests (as in Belarus after school for admission to the university, and in your undergraduate).
Particular attention is paid to the personal qualities of the future student, therefore recommendations are needed from employers who sent the employee to study or from American teachers (I don’t have any idea where to get these to a foreign student, I think you can find information on the Internet).
An extract with grades, essays, etc. is also needed.
And ... a motivation letter (!). According to the requirements of the university, the applicant must have a clear idea of what he wants to do in the future and what benefits others can bring (especially applicants for a place in a magistracy or doctoral program). Since Stanford is imbued with the spirit of entrepreneurship, people here like to read motivational letters with original ideas.
The final stage of the introductory campaign is a personal interview. To determine the intellectual potential of the applicant and his degree of interest in learning, teachers ask questions not only about the chosen specialty, but also general ones.
Russian applicants have the opportunity to be interviewed in Moscow.
The requirements for admission can be found in more detail on the website .
Campus Overview
Hoover Tower - the tallest building on the campus - 87 m, built in 1941 and named after one of the American presidents studying at Stanford. It houses a library and archive compiled by Hoover during his studies.
Tower at night with a projection of the image of the tower itself (sorry for the quality of the photo):
Each university flowerbed contains unique plants collected from around the world:
Audience Photos:
A clock that strikes loudly and loudly with bells every hour:
Many fountains on the territory. This one opposite the shopping center, pasted over by student community announcements:
A few photos from the territory:
Impressions of the university are only positive. For non-students, you can visit the campus on weekends. Walking on foot or on a bicycle is very pleasant - ancient solid buildings, silence, running squirrels, the sound of water at the fountains, and most importantly the atmosphere saturated with the spirit of knowledge.