Stanford University
Admissions: Total application fees are $70.
Exams Required: GRE & TOEFL / IELTS
Degree Programs Offered (Bachelors/ Masters MS / Doctorate Phd)
- Engineering
- Science
- Business
- Computer Science
- Biotechnology/ Bioinformatics
- Medicine
Rankings: Ranked 3rd in Top Universities Abroad
Questions about Stanford University Get free advice from alumni and community members.
About
The very famous Stanford University is a private research university located near Palo Alto in California. There is not much that can be said about Stanford which is not been said before. Simply, if anyone gets into Stanford, he takes it blindly. Of course, before reading further, you ought to know that it’s nearly impossible to get an admit here. To get an idea of exactly how competitive Stanford is, you don’t have to look further than the long list of prominent companies founded by Stanford alumni- Google, Hewlett-Packard, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems. And that’s not even one tenth of the list.
Location
Stanford is located in the Northwestern Santa Clara valley on the San Francisco peninsula. The wonderful city of San Francisco is approximately 60 kilometers northwest of the University. The bay area is pretty closed by and of course San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley aren’t too far either.
Infrastructure
Stanford University is built on a whopping 8180 acre campus. Although some parts aren’t exactly developed, the infrastructure in the developed region is an absolute treat to the eyes. The huge campus is home to over 25,000 trees, a beautiful lake, more than 700 buildings and its very own power plant. Stanford even has a 2 mile linear accelerator abbreviated as ‘SLAC’.
The libraries at Stanford together hold a combine total of over 9 million volumes including about 300,000 special or rare books and thousands of other digital resources, making it one of the largest and diverse library systems in the world. The two major libraries are the Meyer library and Green Library. All the research centres and laboratories are world class with state-of-the-art facility.
Residing Options
There is on campus housing facility at Stanford where the charges are roughly around $7000 per year. Students avoid staying off campus as the rent charges are at least $1000 per month. Moreover, the houses are pretty far from the campus.
Weather
Most students are of the common opinion that the weather at Stanford is pretty good. Apart from the winter months, when it’s slightly cold and wet, the rest of the year is sunny and pleasant. Stanford University area doesn’t receive snowfall and fortunately doesn’t experience extremes of temperature. It’s pretty normal to see people roaming around in shorts and tshirts.
Faculty and pedagogy
When you’re at Stanford, you can expect first rate education, and faculty to match. The professors are highly reputed pioneers in their own field, which is why Stanford can boast of over 50 noble laureates. In spite of their achievements, professors are extremely approachable and very understanding. All in all, the learning process at Stanford is fantastic.
Financial aid
Since Stanford is a private university, scholarships are few and far difficult to get and even if you’ve to be one of those, your profile should be more than breathtakingly good.
Jobs and placements
Stanford students usually are seen working for Bain, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Goldman Sachs, to name a few. Oh and they earn rather a lot.
Crowd and campus life
Since most of the students have probably been nerds throughout their life, don’t expect to meet a tremendously hep crowd. Having said that, the crowd still certainly ain’t that bad. There are a number of academic over achievers, who probably have some sporting achievements to brag about as well. Infact, in the 2008 Olympics, Stanford amassed a breath taking 25 medals for the US of A.
As for hangouts, most students prefer to stay on campus itself because there is always something or the other thing happening. There are a number of coffee shops and bars as well. Of course, when they get bored, students can make a short drive to San Francisco where you’ve a number of hangouts on Castro Street, The Mission, and SOMA. Downtown Palo Alto is also a quick and nearby retreat.
Alumni
- David Filo – Yahoo! co-founder
- Jawed Karim – Youtube co-founder
- Azim Premji – Founder and Chairman of Wipro Group
- Vinod Khosla – Co-founder of Sun Microsystems