Admission

Eligibility
What are the baseline eligibility requirements to apply for the Knight-Hennessy Scholar program?


Dates and Deadlines
When are the important dates and deadlines for your separate, concurrent Knight-Hennessy Scholars and Stanford applications?

Apply to Join
Applying to Knight-Hennessy Scholars
Where do we find the qualities that distinguish Knight-Hennessy Scholars?


Applying to Stanford Graduate Program
What do you need to know about your separate, concurrent application to Stanford?

A Multicultural Cohort
Your fellow Knight-Hennessy Scholars will have lived, studied, and worked in a wide array of communities and cities, colleges and universities, companies and organizations throughout the world. Knight-Hennessy Scholars also bring varied cultural perspectives based on (but not limited to) sex and gender identity, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, veteran status, and more. Each cohort includes a breadth of backgrounds, beliefs, lived experiences, and aspirations. This is a multicultural community united by independence of thought, purposeful leadership, and civic mindset.
A Multidisciplinary Cohort
Nearly 3,000 graduate students enroll at Stanford annually. Next year, more than 80 (growing to 100 over time) will be Knight-Hennessy Scholars. Knight-Hennessy Scholars span all seven schools at the university and bring a wide array of diverse academic experiences prior to enrolling at Stanford. If you become a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, you will be surrounded by fellow Stanford graduate students solving complex problems from different disciplinary approaches.
Each incoming Knight-Hennessy Scholar must also be a newly enrolling student in a full-time Stanford graduate program. When you apply to Knight-Hennessy Scholars, you must either concurrently apply to and be accepted by a Stanford graduate program, or you must have deferred prior admission to a Stanford graduate degree program. Your graduate program will be your primary affiliation, and the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program will provide you with access to an additional community and opportunities tailored to scholars.
You submit two separate applications:
- Knight-Hennessy Scholars application
- Stanford graduate program application (Deadline will vary by program.)
We can select you as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar only if a graduate program admits you to Stanford. The graduate program, however, may admit you to Stanford even if you are not selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar.

Register for a live online information session to learn more and hear from scholars.
The 2022 recorded session is on the way, but view the 2021 recorded session for program insights in the meantime.
Last updated June 10, 2021