Stanford University

Summary

Stanford University opened its doors in 1885 and sits in California’s Bay Area, roughly 30 miles south of San Francisco. Over half of the students here are pursuing graduate studies. The university is made up of seven schools, many of which are top-ranked for advanced degrees. Three of these schools offer both undergraduate and graduate programs: humanities and sciences, earth sciences, and engineering. Meanwhile, the business, law, education, and medical schools focus solely on graduate-level education. Stanford follows a quarter-based academic calendar, and all classes are taught in English.

About 8% of undergrads and 30% of grad students come from outside the U.S. Undergrads who start as freshmen get guaranteed housing for four years, with over 90% choosing to live on campus. First-year grad students also have housing secured for them. More than 60% of graduate students and around 30% of faculty call campus home. Stanford’s massive library system includes 20 libraries holding over 9.3 million physical books. Research funding here has surpassed $1 billion, including federal support for projects at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory—a U.S. Department of Energy facility run by Stanford. Every year, roughly 3,400 scientists from around the world use SLAC’s resources, and the lab produces over 1,000 research-based scientific papers annually.

University Data

Total number of students: 14,517
Number of international students: 3,326
Total number of academic staff: 2,268
Number of international staff: 792
Number of undergraduate degrees awarded: 1,512
Number of master’s degrees awarded: 2,205
Number of doctoral degrees awarded: 1,105
Number of research-only staff: 3,391
Number of new undergraduate students: 1,606
Number of new master’s students: 1,294
Number of new doctoral students: 1,012

Rankings

Stanford University holds the #3 spot in Best Global Universities, with rankings based on widely recognized indicators of excellence.

Global Universities Rankings

#3 in Best Global Universities

Subject Rankings

#38 in Artificial Intelligence
#9 in Arts and Humanities
#3 in Biology and Biochemistry
#3 in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology
#12 in Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems
#3 in Cell Biology
#91 in Chemical Engineering (tie)
#4 in Chemistry
#155 in Civil Engineering
#5 in Clinical Medicine
#6 in Computer Science (tie)
#21 in Condensed Matter Physics
#24 in Ecology
#4 in Economics and Business
#16 in Education and Educational Research
#66 in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
#5 in Endocrinology and Metabolism
#11 in Energy and Fuels
#14 in Engineering (tie)
#181 in Environmental Engineering
#3 in Environment/Ecology
#34 in Gastroenterology and Hepatology (tie)
#29 in Geosciences
#115 in Green and Sustainable Science and Technology
#3 in Immunology
#11 in Infectious Diseases
#53 in Marine and Freshwater Biology
#5 in Materials Science
#1 in Mathematics
#135 in Mechanical Engineering
#37 in Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
#24 in Microbiology (tie)
#3 in Molecular Biology and Genetics
#22 in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
#4 in Neuroscience and Behavior
#15 in Oncology
#1 in Optics
#10 in Pharmacology and Toxicology
#14 in Physical Chemistry
#4 in Physics
#40 in Plant and Animal Science (tie)
#4 in Psychiatry/Psychology
#8 in Public, Environmental and Occupational Health
#2 in Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging
#5 in Social Sciences and Public Health (tie)
#16 in Space Science
#6 in Surgery
#75 in Water Resources

2024-2025 Indicator Rankings

Stanford’s #3 Best Global Universities ranking is based on 13 performance indicators. Here’s how it stacks up in each category:

Global score: 94.5
Global research reputation: #3
Regional research reputation: #2
Publications: #15
Books: #14
Conferences: #21
Normalized citation impact: #24
Total citations: #6
Number of publications among the top 10% most cited: #4
Percentage of total publications in the top 10% most cited: #9
International collaboration (relative to country): #277
International collaboration: #933
Number of highly cited papers in the top 1% most cited: #2
Percentage of highly cited papers in the top 1% most cited: #18