Students at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., can wear "Harvard: The Stanford of the East," T-shirts with good reason: Long known as the "Ivy of the West," Stanford often battles with Harvard for top place on US rankings. Stanford placed first in this year's Forbes ranking of American colleges, but it places No. 4 on this global list. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford has a $17 billion endowment and can boast that the founders of Google and Hewlett-Packard are alumni.
Paul Sakuma/AP/File
