Skip to Content

PhD Program

 
  • Email
  • Print
  • Share

Housing and Other University Resources

Housing

Approximately 45 percent of the matriculated graduate students at Stanford live in University housing. Rental rates are generally lower than those in the surrounding community, and residents have the advantage of comfortable accommodations in close proximity to campus. The goals for graduate residences at Stanford are to provide an environment conducive to studying, the services and resources that facilitate academic achievement, and a pluralistic campus community. Community resources address individual needs, and include childcare programs, resources for persons with disabilities, and access to a number of voluntary organizations.

For the academic year, the quarterly rates vary depending on where you live on campus. For more information about on-campus housing options, please visit Housing Assignment Services.

Stanford's Community Housing Office compiles a database of off-campus housing opportunities to assist students in locating rooms, apartments, shared rentals, or houses in the Stanford area. Average monthly rents for apartments are $1,100 for one bedroom and $1335 for two bedrooms.

Library Facilities

The J. Hugh Jackson Library
The J. Hugh Jackson Library of the Graduate School of Business is a working laboratory for the daily preparation of assigned work, for information in subject fields, and for in-depth research.

The library, established in 1933, ranks as one of the nations largest academic business libraries. It contains an open stack collection of more than 300,000 catalogued items, several hundred thousand corporate reports, a periodicals collection with approximately 2,000 current subscription titles, and more than one million corporate 10K and annual reports on compact disc and microfiche, including annual reports for over 7,000 international companies. Electronic databases on CD-ROM are available for searching periodical articles and accessing company data. The library selectively collects United States government documents and maintains an outstanding reference collection of financial services, directories, and statistical sources. Computerized database searching is also available.

Stanford University Libraries
Doctoral students have access to all of the Stanford University Libraries. These include the Cecil H. Green Library, the J. Henry Meyer Memorial Library, and eleven branch libraries. Spouses also may use the libraries by obtaining a spouse card from the Registrars Office. The library system maintains an online catalogue accessible from public terminals in main and branch libraries as well as from personal computers.

Computing Facilities

The School maintains its own Information Resources Department, which operates a variety of single- and multi-user computer systems for instructional and research purposes. This includes Sun unix servers running the Solaris operating system. PCs are set up in all of the doctoral student offices. Information Resources further operates a microcomputer laboratory with many NT workstations available for student use, and also maintains a number of PCs for general use in the Jackson Library.

Doctoral students are encouraged to use the School's computing resources both for classroom assignments and in the preparation and conduct of their own research.

The PhD Association

The Graduate School of Business PhD Association facilitates active student participation in the development and maintenance of the PhD Program. The officers act as liaisons with the faculty and administration on matters concerning PhD students and the educational environment. Numerous events acquaint new students with advanced candidates and promote informal student-faculty interaction throughout the year. The PhD Association also helps entering students and their families to settle in the campus community.

Cowell Student Health Service

Vaden Student Health Service offers medical care for all regularly enrolled students. Cowell also offers a range of counseling and psychological services for registered students and for couples if one of the couple is a registered student.

Bechtel International Center

The Bechtel International Center is a meeting place for students and senior research scholars at Stanford from throughout the world and for internationally oriented U.S. students, faculty, and visitors on the campus. Through a variety of social, cultural, and educational programs, the Center facilities are used to acquaint students and scholars with the life of the University and the community, and to bring them together in activities of mutual interest. The Bechtel Center emphasizes the international dimensions of the University through its counseling services, through the cultural contributions to campus life by the various nationalities represented, and by bringing to the attention of U.S. students the many opportunities for work, volunteerism, study, and travel abroad.

Services of the Bechtel International Center include advising foreign students on matters such as immigration, housing, practical training, transactions with foreign governments, and financial-aid problems. Counseling also is available for personal matters relating to academic performance, psychological and cultural adjustment, and proficiency in English. The Bechtel Center coordinates an international reception and orientation program and provides a network of resources throughout a student's time of study at Stanford. The Center maintains contact with graduates in an effort to assist them in evaluating the Stanford experience after their return home.

Location

Stanford University is located on an 8,200-acre campus, adjacent to the residential communities of Palo Alto and Menlo Park in the Santa Clara Valley and 35 miles south of the city of San Francisco, a major cultural center of Northern California. The University also is near a large number of industrial, especially high-technology, firms, which have operations in Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area. The climate is temperate, with midday temperatures averaging 60 degrees Fahrenheit in winter and 75 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, with rainfall normally occurring in the winter months. This climate encourages athletic activities, with opportunities for many recreational pursuits.