Stanford #2 Healthiest College

Once again, Stanford has been voted one of the country’s healthiest colleges, ranking #2 in the Greatist.com list of the 25 Healthiest Colleges. Interestingly, Stanford represented the only school located in California to make the top 10:

1. Bowdoin
  2. Stanford
3. Virginia Tech
4. Rice
5. Washington University St. Louis
6. Brown
7. Wheaton College
8. Cornell
9. Univ. of Mass., Amherst
10. Bryn Mawr College

Starting with nominations from their readers through social media and reader suggestions from last year’s list, Greatist scoured the web for any mention of schools with exceptional food, fitness facilities, health services, killer health and fitness initiatives, and happy students. They then consulted student surveys from College Prowler and The Princeton Review and examined each school’s website to get the nitty gritty details on more than 100 schools. From there, Greatist scored each school for its dining services (and awards), fitness facilities, health services, happiness rankings, and health and fitness initiatives.

Greatist comments on several highlights of Stanford’s commitment to creating the best environment for leading a fit, healthy, and happy life:

“With more than 8,000 acres of gorgeous campus, Stanford kids have ample space to enjoy the outdoors (likely one of the reasons Stanford’s received positive press for having some really happy students). The school’s dining halls feature seasonal foods free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and trans fats. With the school’s new 10-Weeks to a Fitter You program, students can access fitness coaches to get personalized assistance with getting more fit in a fairly short amount of time. And we can’t fail to mention Stanford’s coolest club sports team — dragonboat — the water sport consisting of 20 paddlers, one drummer, one steersperson, and some major camaraderie.”