Stanford Symphony Orchestra

Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University
Motto	German: Die Luft der Freiheit weht
Motto in English	The wind of freedom blows
Type	Private research university
Established	1891 (1891)
Founder	Leland and Jane Stanford
Endowment	US$24.8 Billion (2017)
President	Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Provost	Persis Drell
Academic staff	2,219
Administrative staff	12,508 excluding SHC
Students	16,430
Undergraduates	7,062
Postgraduates	9,368
Location	Stanford, California, U.S. Coordinates: 37°25′42″N 122°10′08″W / 37.4282293°N 122.1688576°W / 37.4282293; -122.1688576
Campus	Suburban, 8,180 acres (12.8 sq mi; 33.1 km2)
Academic term	Quarter
Colors	Cardinal and white
Nickname	Cardinal
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FBS Pac-12 (primary) IRA PCCSC MPSF
Mascot	None
Website	www.stanford.edu

Stanford University (officially Leland Stanford Junior University, colloquially the Farm) is a private research university in Stanford, California. Stanford is known for its academic strength, wealth, proximity to Silicon Valley, and ranking as one of the world's top-ten universities.

The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford was a U.S. Senator and former Governor of California who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution.

Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanford's death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.

The university is organized around three traditional schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate and graduate level and four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in Law, Medicine, Education and Business. Stanford's undergraduate program is one of the top three most selective in the United States by acceptance rate. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. It has gained 117 NCAA team championships,,the most for a university. Stanford athletes have won 512 individual championships, and Stanford has won the NACDA Directors' Cup for 23 consecutive years, beginning in 1994–1995. In addition, Stanford students and alumni have won 270 Olympic medals including 139 gold medals.