1. The student to faculty ratio of 5:1 is one of the best in the world.

2. Stanford is one of the most research-oriented universities in the world.

Since 1952, more than 54 Stanford faculty, staff, and alumni have won the
Nobel and Stanford has the largest number of Turing award winners (dubbed
the Nobel Prize of Computer Science) for a single institution. Stanfords
current community of scholars includes 19 Nobel Prize laureates and 4 Pulitzer
Prize winners.

3. Stanford is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires and 17 current
astronauts.
4. Stanford is well-known for its culture of encouraging and nourishing the
entrepreneurial spirit in its students. Faculty and alumni have founded many
prominent companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Sun
Microsystems, Wipro, GAP, Firefox, PayPal, Yahoo!, etc. and companies
founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual
revenue, equivalent to the 10th largest economy in the world. The Sun in Sun
Microsystems originally stood for Stanford University Network. Forbes
magazine has gone on-record remarking, It is almost impossible to name a
leading-edge company in Silicon Valley that isnt closely associated with
Stanford.

5. Stanford has a rich heritage of sports Stanford students have won
medals in every Olympic Games since 1908, winning 244 Olympic medals
total, 129 of them gold. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Stanford won
more Olympic medals than any other university in the United States and, in
terms of total medals won, would have tied with Japan for 11th place!
Stanford students won 16 medals at the 2012 Olympics12 gold, 2 silver and
2 bronze.

6. Given Stanfords focus on leadership, its no wonder that its list of alumni
includes 2 former Japanese Prime Ministers, former U.S. President Herbert
Hoover, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former Peruvian
President Alejandro Toledo, former President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano
Elias, President of the Maldives Mohammed Waheed Hassan, former Vice
President of Iran Mohammad-Reza Aref, former Honduras President Ricardo
Maduro, the Crown Prince of Belgium and former Ghanaian President John
Atta Mills.

7. Harvard University was founded before
calculus was invented.
Established in 1636, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the
U.S. The "New College," as it was originally called, had no calculus classes
because it didn't exist yet. The invention of calculus would come in the late 17th
century with Gottfried Leibniz's 1684 publication of "Nova Methodus," and in
part with Isaac Newton's"Principia" in 1687, followed by additional explanations
and reformulations by subsequent mathematicians. Also, European physicist,
mathematician and astronomer Galileo was still alive during Harvard's early
years -- he died in 1642.

8. Only 2% of students
throughout its history have
flunked out of Harvard.


9. John Harvards statue is the third most photographed statue in the USA (#1 is the
Statue of Liberty, and #2 is The Lincoln Memorial).
It sits in Harvard Yard, and is a popular destination for tourists. Students call it the statue
of three lies because the inscription underneath the statue reads John Harvard,
Founder, 1638. The three lies are:
1. John Harvard didnt found Harvard (he was a benefactor of Harvard, and thats why it was
named in his honor).
2. The university was founded in 1636 (not 1638).
3. The statue is not of John Harvard! All pictures of John Harvard were burned down in a fire
in nearby Harvard Hall, so the sculptor, Daniel Chester French, apparently used a random
good-looking student as a prop (no one knows how John Harvard really looks like).


10. This is a picture of the Johnston Gate, which is considered the main gate of Harvard
University.
Harvard has many other gates which are open 24/7 (anyone could visit the campus
during regular days). However, Johnston Gate is closed for most of the year.
Thats because Harvard students should pass through it only twice. Once when they first
arrive on campus during their Freshman year, and a second time after they graduate. Its
considered bad luck if they go through it more that those two times.

11. There are over 4,000 accredited colleges and universities in the U.S. which enroll over 15
million students and grants over two million degrees a year.
j


12. Columbia University (1754) was originally named Kings College, and Brown University
(1764) was originally named the College of Rhode Island. Rutgers (1764) was called Queens
College. All had the dual purpose of educating civil leaders and preparing a learned clergy.
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13.
Eight U.S. colleges make up the Ivy League: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth,
Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.
l

14.
Yale was named after Elihu Yale (1649-1721), a governor of the British East India
Company who donated a crate of goods to the fledging school.
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15.
Yale has the second largest academic library in the nation, boasting 9.5 million volumes.
Harvard's is the largest, with 13.6 million volumes.

16. U.S. colleges with an acceptance rate of 100% include Baker College in Flint, MI; West
Virginia University at Parkersburg; Mountain State University in Beckley, WV; and Northwest
University in Kirkland, WA.

17. U.S. colleges with the lowest acceptance rates, in order, are Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia, PA (4.0%); Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, TX (4.5%); Rust College in
Holly Springs, MS (7.6%); Juilliard in New York, NY (7.6%); and Harvard University in
Cambridge, MA

18. The number one country of origin of foreign college students in the United States is India,
followed by China and South Korea.

19. For the seventh year in a row, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) leads
U.S. institutions in international student enrollment, with New York University in New York
City coming in second.

20. Walk around the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on a Sunday afternoon,
and it's very possible you will see dozens of students feeding squirrels peanuts.
Far from being an isolated act of animal welfare, the weekly feeding is a regular
engagement of the Squirrel Club - an officially sanctioned student group
dedicated to nothing more than feeding peanuts to squirrels.
21. Need a hug? You might take a stroll through the Northwestern University
campus. Students there have created an interesting student group - the
Happiness Club. Members of the club strive to 'increase the happiness of
members of the Northwestern community' by providing students with free hugs,
hot chocolate, lemonade and smiley face stickers.

22. Everyone likes a ghost story - but do they like being a part of the ghost story?
Ohio University students living in Wilson Hall might be asking themselves that
very question. Students who live in this reportedly haunted dorm claim they have
communicated with spirits and hear mysterious rattling of door knobs, among
other things. The dormitory has garnered so much attention that it was even
featured on the show Scariest Places on Earth.

23. If you head over to Vincennes University in Indiana, you can choose from a
variety of business degrees, including accounting and hotel management. But the
one business degree program that you won't find offered at any other schools is
bowling management. This degree program allows students to get entry-level
jobs in the bowling industry and includes classes on sales, pinsetter mechanics
and pro-shop operations.

24. Columbia University has a unique annual tradition of its own. On Orgo Night,
the marching band storms into the Butler Library and plays the alma mater.
Occurring at the conclusion of the fall and spring semesters, the intention is to
provide students cramming for finals with a few light moments before returning to
their studies.

25. Tufts University has historically been the locale of a most unusual meeting of
students. In recent years, individuals at the school have engaged in the Naked
Quad Run - a nighttime streaking event held on campus each December.
Responding to concerns that the run has become too dangerous, university
president Lawrence Bacow outlawed the Naked Quad Run in 2011.

26. Carlton College might be known for its coordinated, pre-finals, stress-relieving
'Primal Scream', but it has a newer tradition that's picking up steam - a silent
dance party. Held on one of two reading days, students download the same hour-
long playlist onto their portable music devices and meet at the library. At 11pm,
students don their headphones and dance to music only they can hear. The
dance party doesn't stay in the library, though - students continue the party
throughout campus, listening on their headphones the entire time.

27. A curious class found at Georgetown University seeks to make philosophy
palatable for students by incorporating one very popular sci-fi franchise.
'Philosophy and Star Trek' addresses questions of important and serious
concern: Is it possible to travel back in time? How are the body and brain
connected? What is free will, and do humans have it?

28. Go! Fight! Win! We are the mighty mightybanana slugs?! That's right - the
mascot of University of California at Santa Cruz is the banana slug, resident
mollusk of the redwood forest. This slimy creature was originally intended to be a
joke of sorts. But, in 1980, when the chancellor thought that a sea lion was a
more worthy mascot, the student body were none too pleased. After five years of
refusing to be sea lions, students of UC Santa Cruz were finally able to adopt
Sammy the Slug as their official mascot.

29. Another strange but true feature found on many college campuses around the
U.S. are secret societies. Skull and Bones, a longtime secret society at Yale
University, is perhaps the most well-known of such groups. The society features
such prominent past members as George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry - two
alum who remain tight-lipped about the group's activities to this day.