Overview

Stanford is committed to need-blind admissions for U.S. applicants, meaning an applicant’s financial status does not impact their chances of admission. For international students, Stanford offers need-sensitive admissions but provides significant financial aid to those who demonstrate need. Additionally, Stanford’s scholarship programs are primarily need-based, aimed at helping students who might otherwise face financial barriers to attending the university. 

Knight Hennesy Scholars is on the best scholarship programs in the world. Knight-Hennessy Scholars will attract the most promising future leaders from all disciplines and geographies to Stanford University.

Who Can Apply?

• All world countries can apply for Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program
• First/Bachelor’s degree received in 2018 or Later; for enrolling in 2025. You are eligible to apply if you apply within four years and enroll within five years, after you earn your first/bachelor’s degree.
• You must be first-step mental sharpness, seeks out knowledge and new experiences, full of original ideas, makes sense of ambiguous situations and can hold a contrarian or dissenting point of view.
• You must complete not only your Knight-Hennessy Scholars application but also the entire application process including any standardized test that your graduate degree program requires (GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, etc.) and if needed, an English proficiency test.
• You must be ambitious, in the best sense of the word, driven to improve self, willing to take risks. Self-aware and persists and bounces back from adversity. Personally humble and kind, inclusive respects difference, concerned for and helpful to others and Low ego.
• You must be fluent in English — listening, reading, speaking, and writing — to study at Stanford. The minimum TOEFL score for most graduate programs at Stanford is 100iBT or 600PBT. All Stanford graduate degree programs accept the TOEFL, and the MBA Program also accepts the IELTS and PTE. 
• First, in addition to applying to Knight-Hennessy Scholars, you must apply to, be accepted by, and enroll in a full-time Stanford graduate degree program. Each incoming Knight-Hennessy Scholar must be a newly enrolling student in a Stanford graduate program including, but not limited to, DMA, JD, MA, MBA, MD, MFA, MPP, MS, or PhD programs. There are no quotas by discipline or program. Note that we will give priority consideration to those who will spend at least two years studying at Stanford. 

Application Procedure

• You must complete and submit the online application for admission (including personal and academic information, etc.). The university will ask for basic biographic and demographic details, as well as explanations of your activities and interests.
• You must submit the following documents:
  • Provide an unofficial or self-reported transcript of your academic performance in college and, if applicable, graduate school for each institution you attended for an academic year or longer. If you are unable to provide an unofficial transcript, you may download the self-reported transcript template. Your transcript must, if applicable, include the degree conferred and the conferral date. We do not need transcripts from study-abroad experiences if those credits are included on your transcript.
  • You will include a resume that frames your intellectual, personal, and professional background and accomplishments. Our rule is one page for every decade of experience after secondary school.
  • Two recommendation letters. 
  • Essay (You may submit a maximum total of 1,750 words for both essays combined) include that:
    • Connect the dots. How have the influences in your life shaped you?
    • How will you pursue your life’s calling? How will your Stanford education and your Knight-Hennessy Scholars experience to support this?
  • Two short answer responses: Please tell us eight improbable facts about you. Please list three goals/objectives that you are working toward right now (being admitted to Stanford and/or being selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar can’t count as one of those goals).
  • Video story: Your video can be no longer than two minutes in duration. If you only need 30 seconds to answer, that’s fine. There is no expectation or obligation for you to speak for the maximum time.
  • In-person assessment.

What Financial Support is Available?

• A travel stipend intended to cover an economy-class ticket for one annual trip to and from Stanford.
• A stipend for living and academic expenses (such as room and board, books, academic supplies, instructional materials, local transportation, and reasonable personal expenses).
• A fellowship applied directly to cover tuition (commensurate with the standard departmental level of enrollment) and associated fees.