The Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences is the heart of the undergraduate program and grants the majority of Stanford University's degrees. The School has 28 departments and 20 interdisciplinary degree-granting programs. The School was officially created in 1948, from the merger of the Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences, most of which had existed since the Stanford University's establishment in 1891.

The school's departments are Anthropological Sciences, Applied Physics, Art and Art History, Asian Languages, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Classics, Communication, Comparative Literature, Cultural and Social Anthropology, Drama, Economics, English, French and Italian, German Studies, History, Linguistics, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, Spanish and Portuguese and Statistics; the school's most popular areas of study are biology, economics, English, history, political science and psychology.

List of Deans of the Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences:

• Clarence H. Faust, 1948-1951
• Douglas Merritt Whitaker, 1951-1952
• Ray N. Faulkner, 1952-1956
• Philip H. Rhinelander, 1956-1961
• Robert Richardson Sears, 1961-1970
• Albert H. Hastorf III, 1970-1973
• Halsey L. Royden, 1973-1981
• Norman K. Wessells, 1981-1988
• Ewart A.C. Thomas, 1988-1993
• John B. Shoven, 1993-1998
• Malcolm R. Beasley, 1998-2001
• Sharon R. Long, 2001-present