2025 College Rankings

In recent years, Stanford University’s activist administration has burdened one of California’s premier institutions of higher learning with a slew of extraneous commitments. The school has embraced nearly every activist cause, including land acknowledgments and preferred pronouns in bios. Its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy is extensive, with more than 15 DEI staffers per 1,000 students. Stanford filed a brief supporting affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions case before the Supreme Court. Last summer, however, the university adopted a policy of institutional neutrality—offering hope that it may begin to scale back its activist agenda.

Thus far, though, Stanford’s handling of controversial issues remains poor, especially in response to the wave of radical anti-Semitism that swept campuses in the 2023–24 academic year. Protesters established an encampment that lasted 41 days—the longest of any school that we studied—without administrative intervention. According to the AMCHA Initiative, Stanford is a highly hostile environment for Jewish students. This spring, the federal government announced an investigation into the university’s failure to address the problem.

Stanford faculty tend to lean liberal. On an ideological scale where 1 is “very liberal” and 7 is “very conservative,” students rate their professors at an average of 2.7. The vast majority of faculty campaign contributions in the 2023–24 cycle went to liberal or Democratic causes. Even so, an unusually high number of Stanford professors belong to groups like Heterodox Academy and the Academic Freedom Alliance, which promote intellectual diversity and free inquiry.

Unfortunately, that openness does not extend to the student body. Stanford students are far less tolerant of views that diverge from their own—particularly conservative ones. According to FIRE, students are significantly more likely to support banning right-leaning speakers than left-leaning ones. One of the most notorious of Stanford’s attempted de-platforming incidents occurred in 2023, when law students repeatedly shouted down Fifth Circuit judge Kyle Duncan during a Federalist Society event. An administrator who intervened ultimately sided with the protesters, further fueling the disruption. The university later issued an apology to Duncan for the incident.

Stanford’s curriculum falls short of the expectations set by its reputation. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the university a D in its What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. Stanford does not require students to take courses in history or government to graduate but does mandate DEI-focused coursework.

Still, there are bright spots in Stanford’s academic landscape. ACTA highlights two areas of excellence: the Zephyr Institute, which offers reading groups, seminars, retreats, and conferences exploring “perennial questions about the nature of the good life” in light of emerging social, technological, and cultural trends; and the Stanford Civics Initiative, which focuses specifically on democratic citizenship and civic education.

Stanford delivers strong value for students. We rank it third overall for the time it takes graduates to recoup the cost of their education—typically less than six months. Ten years after initial enrollment, median earnings among Stanford graduates exceed expectations by nearly $24,000, based on SAT and Pell Grant data. The Princeton Review ranks Stanford’s alumni network among the top 20 in the country for private institutions.