Stanford

Stanford University Profile and Rankings

Stanford University has a very high profile on the West Coast of the U.S., where it often is referred to as the Harvard of the West. That may have oversold the university at one time, however, it has grown into a prominent university in its own right in recent years. Located in Palo Alto, California, Stanford is in the San Francisco Bay metropolitan area.

The university also sits in the middle of the “Silicon Valley” high-tech corridor, where some of the most famous brands in the world have been born. Companies, such as Apple Computers, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Cisco originated close to the campus. And, that is no coincidence. The availability of good engineering students and university research provided a fertile environment for technological innovation and growth at the start of the high-tech boom in the 1980s. You could say that the university was at the right place, at the right time. Now, similar high-tech hubs have grown up around other leading engineering universities, such as in Boulder, Colorado around the University of Colorado, Austin, Texas around the University of Texas, and Raleigh, North Carolina, which is close to North Carolina State University, as well as Duke and University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. However, the first of these was Silicon Valley, which set a successful pattern for local high-tech industries locating near sources of tech focused universities’ graduates.

As seen in its team logo illustrated here, the university is also proud of its heritage in a redwood forested region. These are known as being among the largest, and longest-living of trees. The tree in the logo is the “Stanford Tree.”  The tree is both a symbol of the university, and of Palo Alto, the town where it is located.

Stanford has ranked high in a number of the RealRank ranking criteria, and also has a very high academic breadth rating, with depth in a wide range of academic subjects. The rankings in which Stanford has appeared can be found at the end of this profile.

The Basics

RealRank Ranking Categories

Key: Platinum: Elite Class; Gold: Very good; Silver: Successful, with room to improve;

Bronze: Mid to low range; NI: Needs improvement.

Academic Profile

Renowned Alumni

Here are some alumni of Stanford University who have made a big impact on the world. Do you think we should add any others to this list?

• Sergey Brin – Co-Founder of Google.
• Chelsea Clinton – Daughter of U.S President Bill Clinton and Senator/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• John Elway – Hall of Fame quarterback and general manager of Denver Broncos.
• Herbert Hoover – President of the United States, and visionary of the Hoover Dam.
• Corey Booker – Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and later U.S. Senator from New Jersey.
• Phil Knight (Philip Hampson Knight) – Founder of Nike.
• Ted Koppel – Newscaster and political commentator. Co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” series.
• Rachel Maddow – MSNBC political commentator.
• Sandra Day O’Connor – United States Supreme Court Justice.
• Larry Page – Co-Founder of Google.
• Sally Ride – Astronaut.
• John Steinbeck – Author. Wrote Grapes of Wrath (did not graduate).
• Peter Thiel – Venture Capitalist and one of the original funders of Facebook.
• Sigourney Weaver – Actress.
• Tiger Woods – Golfer.

Who else would you add to this list?

Most Popular Majors

The most popular majors at Stanford include the following, in decreasing order of popularity. This ordering may change slightly from year-to-year.