Stanford University was started In 1885. The donation of $5 million comprised also 8,180 acres of Palo Alto farmland owned by Leland Stanford. The campus of the university was constructed within the period of six years and was located near the Inner Quadrangle and Memorial Church. The red tiled roofs and open arches make Stanford part of the Western landscape.
When Stanford University was found, there were great changes in American higher education: many well-known colleges became universities, and some new schools appeared. These new institutions had a more democratic ways of schooling (e.g. emphasizing research more than before) Stanford couldn’t help reflecting these new views in higher education of the US.
The new-found university tended to balance technical education and the cultivation of young imaginations, to find individual approach for every student and help him integrate in the society. David Starr Jordan, a leading scientific scholar became the first president of the university.
As soon as University was opened (in 1891), it became a competitor of the University of California, Berkeley. Though the new university gained its population among the students very fast not only because of the academic subjects provided, but also because it supported active student life and sports. Though in 1893 the college had to face serious problems – its president Leland Stanford died and the university faced financial crisis, which destroyed a lot of buildings on campus.
In the 1910s Stanford University breathed in new life. With Ray Lyman Wilbur at the head, Stanford began to function as a research institution. President Wilbur reorganized Stanford’s faculties into schools, Wilbur also suggested that Stanford would demand fees.
After World War II another stage of Stanford’s development began, as the U.S. government’s donated money for technological and military research. Stanford University became one, which received most donations. A lot of research was financed by the government. For example, in 1961 the Atomic Energy Commission gave $100 mln dollars for the aim of construction of the path-breaking Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Such investments helped Stanford promote development plans.
In 2002 Stanford University was no doubt of the best higher educational institutions in the USA. The university enrolls over 14,000 students a year, attracts proficient scholars and provides an alumni accepted in all the parts of the world.