Knight-Hennessy Scholars: Funding, Eligibility, Deadlines and How It Works

Quick answer

Knight-Hennessy Scholars (KHS) is Stanford University’s fully endowed graduate fellowship. It funds up to three years of a full-time Stanford graduate degree: tuition and fees, a living and academic stipend, and one economy-class trip a year to Stanford. Citizens and residents of all countries can apply, and there is no age limit.

The application for the 2027 cohort closed on 6 October 2026. KHS says the 2028-cohort application opens in summer 2027 and has not published that deadline yet. If you applied, finalists are notified on 27 January 2027 and scholars on 16 March 2027.

You also need a separate application to a Stanford degree program. Check the official KHS deadlines page before you act, because rules change between cohorts.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars at a glance

These are the facts we could confirm on KHS’s own pages.

Sources: KHS eligibility, founders and benefactors and the 2026 cohort announcement.

What KHS covers

Each funded year has three parts: a fellowship for tuition and associated fees, a stipend for living and academic expenses, and a travel stipend for one economy-class round trip to Stanford. New scholars also receive a one-time relocation stipend. Second- and third-year scholars can apply for extra funds for things like conference travel (KHS funding page).

How long KHS pays depends on your degree. This table comes from the same page:

So “three years” is a ceiling, not a promise for every degree. A one- or two-year master’s is funded for its length, and a PhD relies on the department after the KHS quarters end.

Tax: KHS says fellowship stipends are taxable and that it does not reimburse taxes. Read Stanford’s tax guidance for international students and budget for it.

Who can apply

KHS sets two baseline requirements. First, you must apply to, be accepted by and enrol in a full-time Stanford graduate degree, under one of four conditions: a concurrent application, deferred admission, adding a new degree, or a first-year PhD student applying for year two. Second, your first bachelor’s degree must fall inside the date window. This table shows how the 2027-cohort rules work in practice, based on KHS’s eligibility FAQ:

Meeting the date rule is not enough, because you still need an offer from your Stanford program. KHS publishes the window only for the open cohort, so the 2028 date will come from KHS. Our eligibility and selection criteria guide covers the excluded programs and edge cases.

How to apply

You submit two applications: one to KHS and a completely separate one to your Stanford degree program. Separate committees review them. You must receive a program offer to become a scholar, but you can be admitted without being selected for KHS, and KHS says applying does not hurt your admission chances (evaluation processes).

Our step-by-step application guide covers the essay, short answers, letters and video in detail.

Dates for the 2027 cycle

Stanford programs announce their own decisions between December and April, so some finalists already hold an offer in late January and others are still waiting. Dates come from KHS’s evaluation page and deadlines page, and they can change.

How applicants are selected

KHS reviews every application against three criteria: independence of thought, purposeful leadership and civic mindset. It applies them across the essays, letters, video and interviews. KHS picks finalists from the application, the video and a check that the applicant is still competitive for Stanford admission, not from the video alone. Our criteria and requirements guide breaks down each criterion.

The King Global Leadership Program

Every scholar takes part in the King Global Leadership Program (KGLP), a series of workshops, lectures, projects and experiences built around the KHS Leadership Model. The model describes nine traits KHS reinforces in its community, six behaviors it designs programming around and three goals for graduating scholars (KHS). If you want funding only, note that KGLP is a core part of the experience, not an optional extra.

The latest cohort

KHS announced the 2026 cohort on 12 May 2026: 87 scholars, the ninth cohort. They come from 31 countries and study in 45 programs across all seven schools. Of these scholars, 51% hold a non-U.S. passport and 21% are the first in their family to graduate from college. They earned undergraduate degrees at 58 institutions, 23 of them international. First-time countries were Croatia, Iraq, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan (KHS).

KHS received 9,223 applications for the 2026 cohort, and 5,144 were eligible, meaning the applicant submitted both a KHS application and a degree program application (KHS media FAQs). KHS does not state an acceptance rate, so our acceptance rate guide shows the arithmetic and its limits.

Frequently asked questions

How we researched this

Last checked: 19 October 2026. We read the Knight-Hennessy Scholars pages on deadlines, eligibility, short answers and essay, recommendation letters, evaluation processes, video statement, funding, leadership development and founders, plus the 2026 cohort announcement of 12 May 2026 and the sample application for the 2025 cohort.

Limits: KHS reviews its rules each cohort, and 2028 details are not yet published. The resume and two-letter requirements come from KHS’s sample application for the 2025 cohort, so confirm them on the current form. Application counts come from KHS’s media FAQs.

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