Chapter 88 Section 1 A university full of legends

Various legendary stories about Stanford University have been widely circulated on the Internet, some are true and some are fabricated.One of the most pernicious and far-reaching rumors is this: There are two hillbilly couples who found Harvard University and offered to donate a building to Harvard.The president of Harvard University said arrogantly that it would cost one million to donate a building, and then sent the old couple away with a few sentences.The old couple chattered as they walked, it was only a million, it was only a million.They had 100 million to donate, so they simply donated to a university, which is today's Stanford University.

This rumor was translated into various languages ​​and spread so widely that Stanford University had to refute the rumor on its website.In fact, there are many loopholes in this story. First of all, anyone who knows the history of Stanford knows that Leland Stanford Sr. was the railway king of California. He once served as the governor of California and the U.S. senator. , by no means a country bumpkin; we will introduce later that his wife is also a remarkable woman.Second, in the nineteenth century, one hundred million was an astronomical figure, and one million dollars was also a very large fortune.The largest bank in the United States, Citibank, only had deposits of tens of millions of dollars in the 1930s.Until two decades before Stanford University was founded, the largest endowment in US history was just $7 million, which established Johns Hopkins University and the Hopkins School of Medicine.Among the old Stanford’s donations, there were only more than 10 million in cash, which was already the largest donation in the United States at that time.The most valuable of old Stanford's endowments was more than 8,000 acres of land.At that time, California was a "land of barbarians", and the land was worthless, but now Palo Alto, where Stanford is located, is the most expensive place in the world, and the land price of these lands has increased by more than ten thousand times.Third, Harvard University and all universities in the United States have always been very generous to their donors.Frankly speaking, much more hospitable than Chinese universities and will not snub any philanthropists.This is one of the important reasons why American universities can receive huge donations.

The real story about Stanford is this.Leland Stanford Jr. and his wife sent their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., on a trip to Europe, where the child died.The Stanford couple was very sad, and later decided to use all their wealth (about tens of millions of dollars, equivalent to one billion dollars today.) For the children of California (Children of California, not the legendary children of the United States or the whole world) children) to establish a university in memory of their own children.The university was named Leland Stanford Junior University, or Stanford University for short. Stanford University was registered and established in 1885, the foundation stone laying ceremony was held two years later, and students were officially enrolled in 1891.There are about 500 students and only 15 professors, half of whom are from Cornell University.Among the first batch of students, Hoover, who later became the president of the United States, was born. (It is the president who was rated as the worst and brought the United States into the Great Depression of 1929-1933. But Stanford is still very proud of him and established the famous Hoover Research Center) Although Stanford is a private university, But it charged no tuition in its early years until the school became financially unsustainable during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The founding process of Stanford University was very difficult.Two years after Stanford started, the old Stanford passed away, and the entire task of running and managing the university fell to his widow, Jane Stanford.At that time, the overall economic situation in the United States was not good, and the property of the Stanford couple was frozen. (I guess that either the US property law was not perfect in terms of trust property at that time, or the Stanford couple did not transfer their property to their own trust Living Trust. This situation will not happen in the United States now) Principal Jordan (Jordan) and other school consultants Advise Jane Stanford to close Stanford University, at least until the crisis is over.At this time, Jane Stanford realized that her husband had bought a life insurance policy, from which she could get an annual annuity of 10,000 US dollars.This ten thousand dollars is roughly equivalent to the expenses of her former aristocratic life.Jane Stanford immediately began to save money, reducing her original seventeen housekeepers and servants to three, and reducing her annual expenses to three hundred and fifty dollars, which is equivalent to the living expenses of an ordinary college professor's family.She gave the remaining nearly 10,000 yuan to the principal Jordan to maintain the operation of the school.In Mrs. Stanford we see the virtues of a true philanthropist.Charity is not to use one's spare money to gain fame after being rich, let alone to make soft advertisements for oneself. Charity is a kind of good deed to help the society even when one is in difficulty.

After all, subsidizing the school on Mrs. Stanford's annuity could not keep the school going for long.Mrs. Stanford personally went to Washington, the capital, to seek help from the then President of the United States, Cleveland.Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court unfrozen the Stanfords' assets in their railroad company.The Stanford woman immediately sold the assets and handed over the entire eleven million dollars to the school's board of trustees.Six of the toughest early years at Stanford were finally over.Principal Jordan praised: "During this period, the fate of the entire school is entirely dependent on the love of a kind woman." Today, not only hundreds of thousands of Stanford alumni, but all of us should thank Mrs. Stanford.With her love and perseverance, she created a university that changed the world.

The second rumor about Stanford University is that Stanford was originally called the Harvard of the West, but later it surpassed Harvard, and now Harvard is called the Stanford of the East.Not to mention whether Stanford has surpassed Harvard in an all-round way. As the world's most famous university, Harvard will never call itself the Stanford of the East.Similarly, Stanford, whose heart is higher than the sky, is not proud of being the Harvard of the West at all.In fact, the person in charge of Stanford's public relations proudly said that Stanford is equal to Harvard plus Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when receiving the Tsinghua University delegation.Although Stanford's statement makes people feel a little arrogant, it does have its truth.

First of all, Stanford University has covered the collections of Harvard University and MIT in terms of professional settings.There is a common view (perhaps prejudiced) in American universities that "people at Harvard can write but can't count, and people in MIT can count but can't write", which reflects that Harvard focuses on liberal arts while MIT focuses on science and engineering. (Harvard actually has the best math and physics majors in the world.) And Stanford has a liberal arts minor.In fact, the comprehensive ranking of a university in the United States is meaningless, the key depends on the quality of the major.Medicine is the most popular major in America, followed by law, engineering and business.No matter how good a school's history major or political science major is, it will have little influence in society.Stanford is the only school in the U.S. to rank among the top in all four popular areas.Its business school and Harvard Business School have long been tied for the first place in the United States, its law school is second only to Yale University, its engineering school is second only to MIT, and Stanford Medical School is also in the United States. top ten.Compared with Stanford, other universities in the United States seem to lack arms and legs: Harvard and Yale have weak engineering departments, and Princeton and MIT have no medical schools and law schools.

Second, in terms of school-running philosophy, Stanford combines the strengths of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Stanford emphasizes both quality education and professional education.Facts have proved that comprehensive development helps Stanford University to cultivate all-round talents, and all-round talents are a necessary condition for being a leader in the industry.We will elaborate on this in later chapters. Stanford's campus is considered one of the three most beautiful campuses in the United States, the other two being Cornell and Princeton.Stanford people never hide their pride in their own school, even from professors to students, they often make jokes about other prestigious schools.The following are real exam questions given by professors from the Stanford Department of Electrical Engineering.A company wants to design a digital filter that meets the conditions of A, B, C, and D. They found MIT. The teachers at MIT don't know how to design such a filter. Can you help them design such a filter?I don't think people at MIT will feel comfortable reading this test question.Stanford people are proud of their pride. In addition to producing so many industrialists and incubating many multinational companies, Stanford University is world-renowned for its academic level.It has sixteen active Nobel laureates (half of them in economics) and dozens of Nobel laureates.In addition, it also has seven winners of the Wolf Prize, the highest lifetime achievement award in the field of mathematics (Note: the highest award in the field of mathematics is the Fields Medal, but it is only awarded to scholars under the age of 35, while The Wolf Prize is generally awarded to outstanding mathematicians.), four Pulitzer Prize winners, the highest award for journalism, more than 130 academicians of the American Academy of Sciences, and more than 80 academicians of the American Academy of Engineering.Its graduates are leaders in all walks of life around the world.

Among the many universities in the United States, the century-old Stanford University has a long history.Not to mention comparing with Harvard University, which has a history of nearly 400 years, even compared with its neighbor UC Berkeley, Stanford University started very late.For the first fifty years after its birth, Stanford University could not even rank among the top universities in the United States, let alone compete with Harvard University.After World War II, Stanford University was unable to make ends meet, and there was a serious financial crisis.Private universities in the United States rely entirely on their own fundraising, and the government does not provide a penny. If the best private universities are not managed well, they may face the danger of being unable to survive.The famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology has had a very serious financial crisis in history, and in the end it was overcome by the donations of its countless alumni who have achieved success in their careers and cared about their alma mater.At that time, Stanford University did not have so many wealthy alumni to rely on. Its greatest wealth was the 8,000 acres (32 square kilometers) left by the Stanford couple, which was equivalent to two Macao-sized lands, and the central campus of the university occupied less than one-tenth of that. (Stanford University has more unused land than used land.) After World War II, the electronics industry in the United States developed rapidly. Due to the closer connection with Asia than before World War II, California's emerging electronics industry and aviation industry became California's Breadwinner.Many companies are interested in buying land from Stanford University, but the Stanford couple's will stipulates that the school will never sell the land.In this way, Stanford University watched its own land fall and was unable to play a role in helping the school to tide over the difficulties.

Helping Stanford solve this problem was one of its professors, Friedrich Terman, who became known as the father of Silicon Valley.He carefully studied the Stanford couple's will and found that there was no restriction on the university's lease of land, so he excitedly claimed to have found a secret weapon to solve the problem-the establishment of the Stanford Science and Technology Park, which leased the land to outside companies for 99 years.The company that rents the land for these 99 years has the complete right to use it and build its own company according to its own wishes.As soon as the news came out, many companies immediately expressed their interest, and soon signed a lease with the school. In 1953, the first batch of companies, including the well-known Kodak Company, General Electric, Shackley Transistor Company (the pioneer Fairchild Company that later gave birth to integrated circuits), Lockheed Company (the largest arms dealer in the United States) and Hewlett-Packard Company entered Stanford Science Park.For Stanford, the impact of this incident is very far-reaching. It not only solved Stanford's financial problems, but also became an opportunity for Stanford to enter a world-class university.To the outside world, it contributed to the creation of Silicon Valley.

The first house in Silicon Valley in 1953