2026 cohort highlights

87 profile photos of young people, on a red background with white text above that reads "2026 Cohort, Knight-Hennessy Scholars, Stanford University"

The 87 scholars in the 2026 cohort are citizens of 31 countries, including the first scholars with citizenship from Croatia, Iraq, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. They have earned undergraduate degrees from 58 institutions, including 23 outside the U.S. and 21 represented for the first time. At Stanford, they will pursue degrees in 45 graduate programs across all seven graduate schools.

Scholars in the 2026 cohort

Hold a non-U.S. passport

51%

Identify as a person of color

47%
Among U.S. citizens/residents

First-generation college graduate

21%

U.S. military

9%
Among U.S. citizens/residents

45 Stanford degree programs

A bar chart showing a breakdown of the amount of scholars in the 2026 cohort are in each Stanford school. Stanford Graduate School of Business has 14%, Graduate School of Education has 6%, School of Engineering has 20%, School of Humanities and Sciences has 22%, Stanford Law School has 21%, School of Medicine has 22%, and Doerr School of Sustainability has 8%.

Note: Degree totals are unequal to 100% due to dual degrees.

31 countries of citizenship

Afghanistan
Argentina
Australia
Belarus
Brazil
Canada
China
Colombia
Croatia*
Germany
Hong Kong S.A.R

India
Iraq*
Israel
Mexico
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
Portugal*
Romania

South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates*
United States
Uzbekistan*
Zimbabwe

35 U.S. undergraduate institutions

Arizona State University*
Barnard College*
Brigham Young University
Brown University
California State University, Sacramento*
Clemson University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Harvard University

Howard University*
Indiana University Bloomington
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Texas A&M University*
Tulane University
United States Air Force Academy
United States Military Academy
University of Alabama
University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Davis*
University of Georgia
University of Pennsylvania
University of San Diego*
University of South Dakota*
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Vanderbilt University
Virginia Commonwealth University*
Yale University

23 non-U.S. undergraduate institutions

Ateneo de Manila University*
European Humanities University*
Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey*
Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nuernberg*
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Imperial College London
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati*
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)*
Lahore University of Management Sciences
New York University Abu Dhabi
Peking University
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv*
Tashkent State University of Economics*
Universidad de Buenos Aires*

Universidad de los Andes
Universidad del Rosario
University of Duhok*
University of Haifa
University of Lagos
University of Nottingham – Malaysia*
West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences*

*Indicates new in 2026