Menlo College

Menlo College, often referred to as Menlo, is a private, four-year baccalaureate college specializing in business located in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, California.

Menlo College was founded in 1927 when the Menlo School for Boys (now Menlo School) added a junior college. The College gained prominence with its School of Business Administration (SBA), established in 1949. The College became co-educational in 1971. In 1994, the Menlo School and Menlo College became separate institutions with some shared facilities.

Menlo College enrolls about 600 students and offers programs in Management, Mass Communication and Liberal Arts. The College utilizes its location in Silicon Valley and its contacts in local technology companies to incorporate a focus on new and emerging careers into its curriculum.

Campus

Menlo College is situated on 45-acre (0.18 km²) campus in Atherton, California, 25 miles southeast of San Francisco and 20 miles northwest of San Jose.

History

Menlo College was founded in 1927 when the Menlo School for Boys grew to include a junior college. The institution, under the leadership of Dr. Lowry Howard, changed its name to Menlo School and Junior College. The college admitted 27 students that year. Enrollment rose to 112 the following year.

The effects of the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent depression reached Menlo in 1931, and the institution faced the possibility of having to close its doors. Deliverance came in the form of two generous acts. First, Board Chairman C. F. Michaels made a series of substantial loans to Menlo to help sustain its operations. That same year, the Town of Atherton voted to deed a strip of land to Menlo, allowing the institution to expand its campus. The property was originally the site for a proposed new road, but the town decided that the new road would not be necessary.

From the founding of the junior college through 1932, Howard and Michaels had been meeting with Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University, to discuss the possibility of having Menlo serve as Stanford’s lower division institution. The three developed a detailed plan wherein Stanford would drop its freshman and sophomore classes and Menlo would move its operations to the Stanford campus. The Stanford Board of Trustees reviewed the plans and turned down the proposal. Stanford would maintain its four-year undergraduate program. Wilbur remained interested in Menlo nonetheless, and in 1933, he appointed six members of the Stanford faculty to educational advisory roles at Menlo.

Menlo College, often referred to as Menlo, is a private, four-year baccalaureate college specializing in business located in the Silicon Valley town of Atherton, California.

Menlo College was founded in 1927 when the Menlo School for Boys (now Menlo School) added a junior college. The College gained prominence with its School of Business Administration (SBA), established in 1949. The College became co-educational in 1971. In 1994, the Menlo School and Menlo College became separate institutions with some shared facilities.