San Jose State University

San Jose State University International Student Insurance

San Jose State University, located in San Jose, California, was established in 1857. It’s the oldest public university on the West Coast and the first and founding college of the California State University system. It was founded by George W. Minns, a California lawyer, as the Minns Evening Normal School in San Francisco. In 1862, by an act of the California legislature, it became the California State Normal School. The campus moved to its current San Jose location in 1871. In 1882, a southern branch of the campus opened in Los Angeles that later evolved into UCLA. 

The school underwent several more name changes, from the State Teachers College at San Jose in 1921 to San Jose State College in 1935 to California State University, San Jose in 1972, and finally to its current name in 1974. San Jose State University currently enrolls more than 30,000 students each year and counting. Its colors are blue and gold, and its athletic nickname is the Spartans.

San Jose State Academic and Research Opportunities

In 1930, SJSU launched its Justice Studies Department with a two-year police science degree program, the first policing degree in the country. The school’s English department sponsors the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a writing competition in which participants try to compose the worst opening sentence for a novel. SJSU co-operates the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library with the City of San Jose, the first joint city-university library in the United States.

Notable research initiatives at SJSU include the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, and the J. Gordon Edwards Entomology Museum.

Notable Alumni at San Jose State University

Noteworthy SJSU alumni include Ray Dolby, founder of Dolby Laboratories; Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover and former First Lady of the United States; novelist Amy Tan; musician Stevie Nicks; and former Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krazanich.