Although California is often depicted as a state of laid-back surfers and beach bunnies, hard work and a competitive edge are more prominent at Stanford University. Located 30 miles from San Francisco, Stanford provides a picturesque location for an elite education, as the school is #5 in the nation, according to US News rankings.

Stanford is a university with a globally recognized reputation for academics, and as such, it's quite competitive -- just more than 7 percent of applications are admitted. The university provides an extraordinary student to faculty ratio of 6:1 and all but 2 percent of freshman return to Stanford after their first year. Stanford keeps class size small, with 70 percent of classes consisting of fewer than 20 students. Engineering, biological sciences, social sciences and biomedical sciences are among the most popular majors at Stanford. The university is one of the top research institutions in the nation.

Stanford University participates in NCAA Division I, with 34 varsity sports. The university is part of the Pacific-12 conference, which also includes USC, ASU and Oregon. In addition to varsity sports, Stanford offers 37 intramural sports programs and 19 club sports. Stanford's biggest athletic rival is UC-Berkeley.

Total undergraduate enrollment at Stanford is just less than 7,000. The gender split is nearly even and just 9 percent of students live in off-campus housing. Greek life is not overly prominent, with 18 percent of Stanford men in a fraternity and 20 percent of Stanford women in a sorority. Stanford offers a variety of housing options including co-op residences, themed housing and gender-neutral housing, which is still in testing stages.

Stanford University is not an inexpensive school, with tuition and fees totaling about $40,600 for one year. Annual room and board tacks on an extra $12,000. However, more than half of Stanford students receive need-based financial aid and the average award is $39,000.