stanford phd graduation rate

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Stanford Graduation Rate & Retention Rates

Stanford university 2023 graduation & retention report.

How long does it take to earn a degree at Stanford? Find out how many students return after their freshman year, how long it takes to graduate, and what happens to the students who don't.

Stanford Retention Rate

• First Time Undergrads Attending Full Time
• First Time Undergrads Attending Part Time
• Non-First Time Undergrads Attending Full Time
• Non-First Time Undergrads Attending Part Time

Stanford Drop Out Rate

• Methodology & References

The percentage of first-time / full-time students who return for their second year is tracked as the freshmen retention rate.

With 86% students making it past their freshmen year, Stanford has freshmen retention rates above the national average.

Nationwide, the average first to second year retention rate is 70.57%.

When looking at just colleges and universities in California, the average is 73.07%.

Stanford Graduation Rates

There were approximately 1,651 students in the class of 2015. How many of them actually completed their degree in a timely fashion?

Four years after beginning their degree, 75% of those students had graduated. By 2017, six years after starting their degree, 94% of the students had graduated and after eight years 96% of this class completed their degree.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a student is considered to have graduated on time if they complete their degree within six years, making the official Stanford graduation rate 94% .

The average Stanford student takes 4.28 years to graduate with their bachelors .

Stanford Graduation Rates vs. National Average

Approximately 65 students or 4% of the cohort did not complete their degree within eight years.

What happened to the 65 students who did not complete their degree?

7 are still enrolled.

20 transferred to another institution.

Stanford lost contact with the remaining 37 who we assumed dropped out.

Stanford Graduation Rates by Race/Ethnicity

Some Students Take More Time To Graduate

First-time, full-time students, under the age of 25 are known as traditional students. These students are more likely to graduate in four years than so called 'non-traditional' students that includes part-time students, transfer students, or adult learners. Some schools cater to non-traditional students and it may affect their overall graduation rates.

Traditional Students:

First-time, full-time students under the age of 25.

Non-Traditional Students:

Any student that is not first-time, full-time, and under the age of 25.

The majority of students at Stanford are considered 'traditional students' who are first-time attending full-time.

How does this school do graduating the type of student you are most concerned bout?

First-Time / Full-Time Stanford Graduation Rates

First-time / full-time students at Stanford University represent 97% of the students in the class of 2015, and 97.27% of Stanford bachelor's degree graduations.

With a four-year graduation rate of 75%, first-time students in the Stanford class of 2015 who attended classes full-time were more likely than average to graduate on time.

After six years, the Stanford graduation rate was 94%, and by the eight year mark, 96% of the cohort had completed their degree.

Nationwide, the average graduation rate for first-time undergraduates attending classes full-time is 37.92% after four years, 46.43% after six years, and 47.82% after eight years.

Stanford First-Time / Full-Time Graduation Rate vs. National Average

First-Time / Full-Time Stanford Drop Out Rates

64 first-time / full-time students or 4% did not complete their degree within eight years.

Of those who did not finish:

Stanford lost contact with the remaining 36 who we assumed dropped out.

First-Time / Part-Time Graduation Rates

Unfortunately, we don’t have access to data on Stanford first-time, part-time students.

Non First-Time / Full-Time Students

47 Stanford students were classified as full-time / not first-time. This represents 2.68% of the students in the class of 2015.

Non first-time students could include transfer students or adults who have returned to school after an absense.

With a six year graduation rate of 96%, returning students in the class of 2015 and attended classes full-time had a graduation rate higher than the national average for students in this category.

After eight years, the graduation rate was 98%.

Nationwide, the average graduation rate for non first-time undergraduates attending classes full-time is: 49.57% after four years, 53.83% after six years, and 55.07% after eight years.

Stanford Non First-Time / Full-Time Graduation Rate vs. National Average

Non First-Time / Full-Time Stanford Drop Out Rates

1 non first-time / part-time students or 2% did not complete their degree within eight years.

0 are still enrolled.

0 transferred to another institution.

Stanford lost contact with the remaining 1 who we assumed dropped out.

Non First-Time / Part-Time Graduation Rates

Unfortunately, we don’t have access to data on Stanford returning, part-time students.

More Resources:

An Explanation of Freshman Retention Rates.

How Common is it to Transfer to a Different College?

Are Non-Traditional Students Less Likely to Graduate?

How Many People Drop-Out of College?

How Average Time to Graduate Can Affect the Value of Your Degree.

National Center for Education Statistics

Image Credit: By Pere Joan under License

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Doctoral Admissions

Use this page to explore admissions data for Stanford's research doctoral programs. While the most common doctoral degree across the university is the PhD, the JSD in Law and the DMA in Musical Arts are also included here. The MD and JD are considered to be professional degrees and are not included. Note that any year referenced in this dashboard refers to the academic year in which the applicant was intending to enroll. For example, an application submitted in September 2018 for the 2019-20 academic year would be counted under 2019-20. These data are limited to new, external applicants only. If you are interested in the Biosciences programs in the School of Medicine, please read the important note below the dashboard.

More information is available about  doctoral program enrollment and demographics , as well as  doctoral degree conferrals, time-to-degree, and graduation rates . Note that local variation in policy and practice regarding admission, matriculation, and degree conferral may affect the departmental and school-level metrics below.

Methodology & Definitions

Application counts.

Applicant counts are based on the number of applications to doctoral programs from new applicants only. Current students who are transferring into a doctoral program from another graduate program at Stanford without submitting a new application are not included. If an application was transferred between programs during the admission process, the application is counted under the final program for which it was considered, not the original program.

Application Years

Applications and offers of admission are counted in the year in which the applicant was intending to enroll. The year in this case encompasses the summer quarter through the following spring, so the 2018-2019 application year would include students who intended to matriculate in Summer 2018 through Spring 2019. If an applicant was admitted and decided to defer their enrollment, that application and offer of admission are counted in the later, deferred year instead of the original year. The majority of new doctoral students matriculate in either autumn or summer. As these dashboards are updated annually in the autumn, the data for the most recent year will not include applicants or admits for winter or spring.

Admit Rates

The admit rate is calculated by dividing the number of offers of admission by the total number of applications received.

An Important Note about Stanford Biosciences

Prospective students may only apply to a single doctoral program at a time, with the exception of the  14 programs in Stanford Biosciences . Beginning with the 2022-23 application period, prospective students in Biosciences are permitted to select up to two programs for consideration as part of their application. (Prior to the 2022-23 application cycle, students were able to and would commonly select up to three programs for consideration.) A successful applicant will only be offered admission to one of these programs, which may result in an artificially low admit rate for some of these programs.  These programs include:

• Biochemistry
• Biomedical Informatics
• Cancer Biology
• Chemical and Systems Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Microbiology and Immunology
• Molecular and Cellular Physiology
• Neurosciences
• Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
• Structural Biology

Visit the  Graduate Admissions website  for more information about pursuing graduate study at Stanford.

The data are available for download in Google Drive .

• Data Source(s): PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, Institutional Research & Decision Support

Stanford University is committed to providing an online environment that is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities. If you cannot access this content or use any features on this site, please contact  [email protected]  to obtain alternate formats.

You may submit feedback on this dashboard through the  feedback form .

Graduate Student Profile

9,688 matriculated graduate students

• 411 Master’s Professional (MBA)
• 2,103  Master’s Academic
• 270 Doctoral Professional (JD, MD)
• 799 Doctoral Academic (PhD, DMA, JSD)

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number number and may not total 100%.

* Includes all reporting Hispanic/Latino, regardless of race.