Settled in 1776 by the Spanish, this second most densely populated city in the United States is the fifth largest, with a metropolitan population of more than 7,000,000. It was named for St. Francis of Assisi and is located on the tip of the San Francisco peninsula. San Francisco’s population experienced rapid growth as a result of the California Gold Rush of 1848. The discovery of silver in 1859 brought even more settlers to the area.

The devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire led to a quick rebuilding of the city. By 1915, the city was reborn and in 1939-40, it hosted a World’s Fair. Treasure Island was built in the middle of San Francisco especially for this event. Many banks, like Wells Fargo and Bank of America got their start in San Francisco. A college student looking for an internship in finance might want to take a look at some of the financial institutions in the “Golden Gate City.”

San Francisco is famous for its fog, its trolleys, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
Of course, there’s more to “Frisco” than meets the eye. Many Asian and Latin American immigrants established residence in San Francisco, adding diversity to its population. Chinatown is another one of San Francisco’s famous attractions. The 1950s brought Jack Kerouac and his “Beat Generation” to San Francisco, while the 1960s brought hippies. In the 1970s, the gay rights movement headquartered there. These gave San Francisco the reputation of being a city that attracted America’s counterculture.

The 1990s brought dot com companies along with a huge influx of entrepreneurs and computer application developers. Despite the crash of the dot com industry at the beginning of the 21st century, San Francisco continues to be a hub for high technology and entrepreneurial ventures.

San Francisco is a Pacific coast town with many hills and temperate weather. The winters are wet and the summers are dry. Summer temperatures tend to hover around 70 degrees Fahrenheit for the highs while the winter highs usually go up to about 60 degrees. A recent college graduate looking for entry level employment in a city by the ocean should try San Francisco. Besides its beaches, San Francisco also has Golden Gate Park, The Presidio, which appears in a movie by the same name, Buena Vista Park and Lake Merced.

San Francisco is also a city of culture. Its War Memorial and Performing Arts Center is home to some of the nation’s longest running performing arts companies. The San Francisco Symphony, The San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet all perform in the War Memorial Opera House. For museum lovers, there are the Museum of Modern Art, the De Young Museum and the Asian Art Museum. Sports enthusiasts will be happy to know that San Francisco is home to the San Francisco 49ers football team, the San Francisco Giants baseball team and it hosts a marathon every year that attracts over 7,000 entrants.

A student searching for a college or university should add those in San Francisco to his list of possibles. Below are some of the largest in the area:

*San Francisco State University – with a 2005 undergraduate enrollment of 21,000, it’s one of the Bay Area’s largest. The most popular majors are Film/Cinema Studies, Psychology.

*Academy of Art University – this university, which was “built by artists for artists,” has visual and performing arts majors in Commercial Photography, Fashion Design, Graphic Design and Film Production/Cinematography.

*Stanford University – this well-known university has majors in Economics, and Political Science and Government.

*University of San Francisco – one of the largest Catholic universities on the West Coast, this school’s most popular majors are Business Administration/Management, Nursing – Registered Nurse training (RN, ASN, BSN, MSN), Psychology.

*Academy of Art University - the most popular majors here are Cinematography and Film/Video Production, Computer Graphics and Fashion/Apparel Design.

These are some of San Francisco’s largest colleges and universities. Others include the following:

Alliant International University (formerly California School of Professional Psychology)
Armstrong University (Oakland)
Art Institute of California
California College of the Arts
California Culinary Academy Le Cordon Bleu
California Institute of Design and Merchandising
Laney College (Oakland)
Lincoln University (Oakland)
Merritt College (Oakland)
Mills College (Oakland)
New College of California
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking
The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
Wharton West

San Francisco is also a great place for college students to find quality internships and for recent college graduates to find entry level employment with some of the nation’s, and even the world’s biggest companies. Below are some of the largest in the area:

Safeway, Inc. - the grocery store chain offers internships and entry level job opportunities in retail, pharmacy, information technology and manufacturing.

Hewlett-Packard – college students looking for internships and recent college graduates looking for entry level jobs can find them in software design engineering, sales, finance, consulting and human resources.

Gap, Inc. – the retail clothing chain, which is the parent company for the Old Navy and Banana Republic stores, offers entry level job opportunities in management, human resources and information technology.

Wells-Fargo Company – around since the days of the California Gold Rush, this enormous financial institution has entry level jobs in sales, loss prevention, operations and accounting.
Intel Corporation – this international semiconductor and microprocessor manufacturer has internships and entry level positions in marketing, human resources, software engineering and finance.
This is just a sample of what San Francisco has to offer the adventurous student or recent college graduate looking a place to live, work and play in city replete with culture, diversity and a beautiful landscape.

Source: http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/
*Population statistics courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau – Census 2000.