Stanford University · Last verified September 8, 2026
Stanford
The best network effect in higher education.
TRI Score
96.4
Elite
#2 Best Universities
Overview
Our assessment
Stanford's score is driven by outcomes plus proximity: the density of founders, capital and hiring around campus produces measurable career advantages beyond the degree itself.
Best for
- Founders
- Computer science and engineering
- Interdisciplinary study
Not ideal for
- Students wanting a low cost-of-living campus city
Score breakdown
Why it scored 96.4
- Capability30%
- 98
- Value20%
- 92
- Ease of Use15%
- 90
- Reliability15%
- 97
- Professional Utility10%
- 99
- Momentum10%
- 94
How much the product can actually do, and how well it does the core job.
What you get for the price, including what the free plan really covers.
Time from signup to useful result, without training or a consultant.
Consistency, uptime, support responsiveness and predictable behaviour.
How well it fits real professional workflows, not demos.
Rate of meaningful improvement over the last two evaluation cycles.
Trade-offs
Strengths and weaknesses
- Unmatched startup network
- Very strong aid for lower incomes
- High local cost of living
- Highly competitive internal culture
Score history
How the score moved
- Jan 202694.0
- Apr 202694.8
- Jun 202695.6
- Sep 202696.4Latest evaluation cycle.
Head-to-head
Compared with
- No published head-to-heads yet.
Evidence
Sources
- Public dataPublic pricing and documentation
Where a claim could not be verified, we label it rather than estimate it. Read the methodology.