Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Overview

Knight-Hennessy Scholars is an international graduate-level scholarship program for study at Stanford University. It was started by the endowment by Nike co-founder and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus Phil Knight in 2016. The program is named after Phil Knight and John L. Hennessy, Stanford’s tenth president. Knight-Hennessy Scholars looks to attract the most promising future leaders from all disciplines and geographies to Stanford University.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Aim of the program

With a focus on attracting students with a wide range of backgrounds from around the world it allows scholars to receive full funding to pursue any graduate degree at Stanford and have additional opportunities for leadership training, mentorship, and experiential learning across multiple disciplines. The program also covers study trips. In a small time this program has become the largest fully endowed scholarship program in the world.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Benefits

The program annually offers financial support comprising full tuition and fees, room and board, related academic expenses, and a stipend for living expenses. Students generally receive funding for up to three years towards a master’s degree. Scholars pursuing doctorates or medical degrees can receive additional funding beyond the three years from their departments.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars will have the opportunity to spend time with established leaders in both informal and formal settings. These encounters will be available both as intimate conversations exclusively within your community as well as one-on-one meetings with experts in your areas of interest. The presence of a Fellow in Residence, a distinguished global leader residing on campus, will allow for the chance to build meaningful relationships and go in depth in the Fellow’s area of expertise.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Number of scholarships

Roughly 2,000 graduate students enroll at Stanford each year. Up to 90 of these are expected to be Knight-Hennessy Scholars.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Campus

Scholars are housed among Stanford’s graduate students, approximately 80% of whom live on campus. Scholars gather at Denning House for presentations, workshops and social events.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Eligibility

Applications to Knight-Hennessy Scholars are open to citizens of all countries. If you earned your bachelor’s degree in 2014 or later, you are eligible to be a Knight-Hennessy Scholar.  Candidates who hold a degree from an institution outside the U.S. their degree you must hold the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree from a college or university of recognized standing. You are eligible to apply to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program if you are applying to enroll in any full-time graduate degree program at Stanford (for example, but not limited to, DMA, Eng, JD, MA, MBA, MD, MFA, MS, or PhD) or if you plan on pursuing one of Stanford’s many joint- and dual- graduate degree options (for example, but not limited to, MD+PhD, JD+MA, MBA+MS).

You are eligible to apply to Knight-Hennessy Scholars if you apply during your final year of study for your first/bachelor’s degree or within five years of earning your first/bachelor’s degree. For the cohort that applies in 2019, that means you must have graduated in January 2014 through September 2020 to enroll at Stanford in September 2020. For U.S. military (active or veteran) applicants, you are eligible if you earned your undergraduate (bachelor’s or first) degree in 2012 or later.

If you’re still in college studying for your first/bachelor’s degree, you’re eligible to apply as long as you complete your first/bachelor’s degree before you enroll as a graduate student at Stanford. If you have earned a graduate degree, you remain eligible to apply in 2019 as long as you earned your first/bachelor’s degree in 2014 or later. If you graduated with your first/bachelor’s degree more than five years ago (in 2013 or earlier), then you are not eligible for consideration as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. This applies even if you have earned an additional degree in 2014 or later.

Beyond the eligibility requirements listed above, you are eligible for Knight-Hennessy Scholars as long as you meet the requirements of the Stanford graduate program(s) that you wish to pursue. In most cases, you are eligible to apply to a graduate degree program even if you did not study that precise field as an undergraduate; please contact each graduate degree program for specific information about its requirements.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Standardized Tests

You must complete not only your Knight-Hennessy Scholars application, but also the entire application process for your graduate degree program — including any standardized test that your graduate degree program requires (GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, etc.) and, if needed, an English proficiency test (TOEFL; or, for MBA program only, IELTS). Although the candidates for the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship is expected to have performed well, there is no minimum requirement for your grades or scores.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Ineligibility

If you enroll in a graduate degree program at Stanford in 2019 or earlier, you are ineligible for consideration as a Knight-Hennessy Scholars program for your current degree program. You are, however, welcome to apply to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program if you either defer enrollment to 2020 or later, or if you apply for a new graduate degree program at Stanford that starts in 2020 or later.

Deferral of enrollment to a graduate program is the purview of that department. Some programs allow deferral while others do not. Regardless of the graduate program’s policy, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program does not defer Scholar offers. If you are selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and are unable to enroll, we ask you to reapply. We consider exceptions to this policy only under rare and unforeseen circumstances (e.g., delayed separation from the military, health issues).

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Deferment

If you defer enrollment to a Stanford graduate program, you may apply to start as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar for the year that you enroll in that graduate program. For example, if you have been admitted to the Stanford MBA Program and deferred enrollment to September 2023, then you could apply to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program in 2022 to enroll as a Scholar in 2023 — thus aligning your initial enrollment in the MBA Program and as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Application Requirements

You must apply separately to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program and to your Stanford graduate degree program.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program : Application One

1. Background Information

You must complete and submit the online application for admission (including personal and academic information, etc.). Contact information; basic biographic and demographic details; explanations of your activities, experiences, and interests; and other information to provide context about you. There is no application fee for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, but you must pay the application fee required of your graduate degree program.

2. One page resumé

Prepare a one-page resumé that includes highlights of your experiences, interests,  and academic record in reverse-chronological order. Stick to one page. Really. Remember that you have an entire application that will provide details to complement the resume.

3. Transcript(s)

Scan and upload transcripts of your academic performance at the  undergraduate level and beyond, for each institution you attended for an academic year or longer. This can be an unofficial or self-reported transcript. 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.

4. Standardized test scores

The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program follows the practices of your graduate degree program: if your graduate degree program does not require standardized tests, then neither does  the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program. Any required test scores are due by the graduate degree program deadline, not by the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program deadline. Your unofficial scores will suffice for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program.

You must be fluent in English — listening, reading, speaking, and writing — to study at Stanford. All Stanford graduate degree programs accept the TOEFL; the MBA Program also accepts the IELTS and PTE. The minimum TOEFL score for most graduate programs at Stanford is 100iBT or 600PBT; some departments only accept scores obtained within the last 18 months.

If you earned or expect to earn a degree from a university where English is the official and sole language of instruction, then you do not need results of an English proficiency exam. Otherwise, you do. Your citizenship, residence, and/or work experience do not exempt you from this requirement. You may read more about this policy on the Graduate Admissions website (TOEFL) or MBA Admissions Office website (TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE).

5. Recommendation letters

Ask two individuals who know you well, whose opinions you trust, and who want to see you succeed to write your reference letters. These recommenders must be able to provide specific examples, anecdotes, and evidence. Register the recommenders through your online application as early in the application process as possible. Recommendations are due by the application deadline: October 9, 2019 at 1:00 Pacific Time. (Don’t worry: you can submit your application even if your recommenders haven’t submitted your letters.)

The application system will send each recommender a personalized link to submit her/his recommendation online. For verification purposes, register your recommender using her/his work email account, not a personal account such as Gmail, Yahoo!, etc. Here are a few things to consider as you choose recommenders:

• Care about the content of the letter, not about merely the title or status of the person who wrote it.
• The strongest letters come from individuals who have interacted with you closely, extensively, and recently. The recommendations may be academic or professional.
• It is inappropriate to ask a family member to provide a recommendation. Also, consider that a peer is different from a friend.
• Your Knight-Hennessy Scholars recommendations are the only reference letters that will be reviewed before providing input to your graduate program.
• Once your graduate program shares its feedback with the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, they may also may review your departmental recommendation letters. As such, your recommendation choices for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program should make a compelling independent case, and also complement the references of your graduate program.
• It’s fine to ask the same person to provide recommendations for your graduate program and for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, but ensure that he/she submits distinctive letters of reference.
• You may not write, draft, edit, translate, or submit the letter of reference.

We ask your recommenders to assess some character and leadership traits in the reference letters, and to address the following:

• How do you know and interact with the applicant?
• How have the applicant’s actions and insights benefited others? Please provide specific examples.
• What is the most important constructive feedback that you have given the applicant? How did the applicant respond?
• How has the applicant changed most since you have known each other?
• Is there anything else that we should know about the applicant?

6. Short-answer responses

These responses help to see a different side of you. We ask you to answer three questions:

• What are your immediate and long-term intentions after graduating from Stanford?
• Please tell us eight improbable facts (things that are unlikely but true) about you.
• Please tell us when you: made someone proud of you, were most challenged, did not meet expectations.

7. Essays

These reflections give us a chance to understand who you are and how you aspire to grow and learn. There are two prompts:

• Connect the dots. How have the influences in your life shaped you?
• How will your Stanford education and your Knight-Hennessy Scholars experience prepare you to realize your intentions?
• Do not exceed 1,000 words for both essays combined.

8. Video supplement (after submitting application only)

After you submit your online application, you will be able to access the video statement through your application status page. You have until December 11, 2019 at 1:00pm Pacific Time to submit your video statement.

Although we cannot meet in-person with each applicant to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, the video gives us a chance to “meet” each applicant. There is no attention — zero emphasis! — on the “production value” of your video.

• You must record the video using the online application. We cannot review videos on other sites, and you may not upload external videos to the online application.
• Your video can be no longer than two minutes. If you only need 30 seconds, that’s fine.
• Prompt: Teach something to your cohort of fellow Knight-Hennessy Scholars.

9. In-person assessment (by invitation)

Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program : Application Two: Graduate Degree Program

You still need to apply separately to the specific Stanford graduate degree program that you want to pursue for autumn 2020. This is essential!

Review the full list of Stanford’s graduate degree programs to ensure Stanford offers the degree program that you wish to pursue. (Applicants to the Honors Cooperative Program or the Master of Liberal Arts are not eligible for the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program.)

• The deadline to submit your graduate degree program application depends on the specific degree program (see the table below for details).
• When you submit your graduate degree program application, all materials must be complete — personal statements, recommendation letters, transcripts, standardized test scores (if required), etc.

The deadlines below apply if you want to be considered as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar:

Graduate Degree Program	Application Opens	Application Deadline
MS in Physician Assistant Studies, School of Medicine	April 2019	August 1, 2019
MBA Program, Graduate School of Business	June 2019	Round 1 Deadline: September 12, 2019
MD Program, School of Medicine	June 2019	AMCAS Deadline: October 1, 2019*
MS in Management Science & Engineering, School of Engineering	September 2019	October 29, 2019
MA and PhD in Education, Graduate School of Education	September 2019	November 14, 2019
JD and advanced degrees, Stanford Law School	August 2019	November 22, 2019*
Any other Stanford graduate degree program	September 2019	Program’s standard deadline or December 10, 2019, whichever is earlier
*MD and JD/LLM/SPILS applicants: The deadline shown in this table corresponds to the date by when Stanford mustreceive your complete application materials. Since it may take a couple of weeks for applications to be processed through AMCAS or LSAC, we strongly encourage you to submit your application well in advance of the posted deadline.

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