Office of Fellowships Knight-Hennessy Application Steps

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Applying for the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship will prompt you to reflect deeply on who you are and what matters to you. Beyond the funding for your chosen degree program at Stanford, the fellowship offers plentiful opportunity for growth, collaboration, and awareness. Follow the steps below using the timeline to pace yourself. By doing so, you'll be sure to produce an application that represents you authentically and favorably. 

Note that this fellowship does NOT require institutional endorsement. However, if you start early enough, the Office of Fellowships staff will advise you on your candidacy, help you decide on recommenders, and offer essay feedback. K-H candidates must submit an application to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program AND apply separately to their proposed graduate degree program at Stanford. Read through all the steps below so you know what you need to get to the finish line.

The DEADLINE for submitting a K-H application is OCT 9, 2024 - 4:00PM EDT/ 1:00PM PDT
Your ideal timeline for completing the steps below and submitting BEFORE the deadline is:

~ Apr - Jul:        Steps 1, 2, 3, 4: Explore the Knight-Hennessy Program; Investigate programs
                              at Stanford; Meet with us; Open a K-H online application
~ Jul - Sep:        Steps 5 & 6: Reach out to recommenders; Draft & revise essays 
~ Sep - Oct:       Steps 7 & 8: Gather & upload supporting documents; Solicit recommendations
~ by Oct 8:        Step 9: Polish, Submit! (and don't wait until October 9th)

Get the information, then sit with it. The first step to applying for a Knight-Hennessy is to get a grasp of what it is. If you have not already done so, carefully read the Knight-Hennessy Overview page, including clicking on ALL the drop-down windows and reading the details there. Knight-Hennessy Scholars seek to live with the vision, creativity, courage, and collaborative impulse necessary to face the challenges of our world.

Forging partnerships and innovation in a kind of service to the world is a key piece. This is a key feature of this program and distinguishes it from other graduate funding opportunities with other missions. Can you imagine yourself as a part of that mission? If you can, then this application is for you. 

Gain some inspiration! Review experiences that Knight Hennessy Scholars have had by visiting their News page and by viewing conversations and shorts with folks contemporaneously enrolled. Talk with AC's Knight-Hennessy Scholars. You can find their current contact info in the Alumni Directory.

There is no point in applying to the Knight-Hennessy program if you don't have good reasons for wanting to pursue a degree program at Stanford University. Before you get too far down the road with the fellowship application, investigate the departments and degree programs in your field of interest. Talk with AC faculty in your field about whether or not these programs will help you achieve your goals, and whether or not you are likely to be a successful applicant at this time. 

You must apply separately to your chosen Stanford graduate degree program. Some programs have earlier deadlines for prospective K-H scholars: find more information and how to access these deadlines by linking from the Dates and Deadlines page.

To be a compelling Knight-Hennessy candidate, you must understand the program criteria -- Independence of Thought, Purposeful Leadership, and a Civic Mindset -- and how you demonstrate those criteria and align with the program's values. The program stipulates: "There is neither a typical nor a prototypical Knight-Hennessy scholar. Each cohort is diverse by design; no two candidates are equally strong across all criteria, and you may demonstrate different strengths in different ways."

Self-assess, and also meet with us to discuss your intentions and how you exhibit the criteria. This will help you determine whether or not to apply. If you have never met with anyone in the Office of Fellowships, request an appointment through the form.  If you have already met with us for a one-on-one appointment, just email us with your current availability within the regular work week. We'll send an invitation to talk!

Open an application in the Knight-Hennessy online portal. In this portal you will enter all the materials for your application. The application portal typically opens early in April. Find details of the application components and requirements on their Admission page. Read it closely before you start your application. If you have any difficulty with the online application system, write to khscholars@stanford.edu. Once you've created an application, you can: 

• Create a profile and type in biographical information, such as address, work history, employment, activities, awards & honors, test scores, etc. You will also be able to upload a resumé. 
• Enter the the names and contact information of two recommenders. 
• Input your essay and complete three short-answer questions. 
• Upload your transcript(s). Request your official AC transcript and study abroad or transfer college transcripts early enough to get them in the portal by the deadline.
• Add any Additional Information (optional) which might help your application forward and which doesn't easily or readily fit in the rest of the application.  

Reach out to potential recommenders. Choose two recommenders who know you well in a professional, community, or academic setting, whose opinions you trust, and who want to see you succeed. Professors and supervisors can often provide strong recommendations, but remember that the person who can speak fully to your academic strengths may not necessarily be able to address the qualities K-H is asking about. You can ask someone to submit a recommendation in support of both your K-H application and your application for graduate study, however, the content of their letters should be different. The K-H committee may also review the recommendations that are submitted in support of your graduate school application. 

Tips to remember. Knight Hennessy Scholars evaluators state the following: 

1. We care about the content of the letter, not about the title or status of the person who wrote it. We are far more interested in your accomplishments than those of your recommender.
2. The strongest letters we receive come from individuals who have interacted with you closely, extensively, and recently (typically in the last two or three years).
3. The strongest letters we receive come from those who have observed and can comment, with specific examples, on your progress towards a goal. Character references without supporting evidence, even when highly positive, do not meaningfully improve your candidacy.
4. Your recommendations may be from academic, community, or professional contexts.
5. You may not write, draft, edit, translate, or submit the letter of reference. We will require you to affirm in your application that you have not done so. 
6. It is inappropriate to ask a family member to provide a recommendation letter.

To request recommendations, you will enter the names and work emails of your recommenders. Do not enter a recommender's personal email address. Recommenders are asked to assess the character and leadership traits of applicants and address the questions below. Make sure the person you ask knows you well enough to respond fully to the prompts:

1. Please explain how you know and interact with the applicant.
2. We seek visionary thinkers who demonstrate independence of thought. Describe how the applicant demonstrates intellectual curiosity and creativity to address challenges.
3. We seek courageous leaders who demonstrate purposeful leadership. Describe how the applicant takes initiative to achieve meaningful results and effect positive change.
4. We seek collaborative community members with a civic mindset. Describe how the applicant acts in service of others to elevate the greater good.
5. Is there anything else — positive or negative — that we should know about the applicant?

Reach out to recommenders at least a month in advance of the deadline. You can also ask them early in the summer with a follow-up reminder in August.

Fellowship essays often require more work than do papers for a class. Reviewers read your application materials quickly, so the prose must be crystal-clear. This takes much revision for everyone, no matter how good a writer you are. The very act of writing can help you figure out what you want to say and even what you think. Allow time for your ideas and phrasing to develop. 

There are three short-answer responses and a 500-word essay for the KH. You don't have to write them all at once, and in fact it's a good idea to let your responses marinate so you can later refine them. Create a Google folder for your essays  so you can work on drafts until you are ready to copy and paste them into the portal. 

IMPORTANT NOTE about AI in regard to writing your essays and short answers: at this time, the Knight-Hennessy program expects your written materials to be generated by you, not AI, at every stage. See in Step 9 below the attestation you will have to sign before you submit your application. 

Here are the essay and short answer prompts: 

Three short-answer questions. These questions invite you to share in your own words what you have done, who you are, and what you aspire to do in the future. We ask you to answer three questions:

1. Describe your short term and long term academic and professional intentions. (250 word limit)
2. Please tell us when you: a) engaged with someone with a different perspective, b) acted with courage, and c) fell short of expectations. (250 word limit combined)
3. Please tell us eight improbable facts (things that are unlikely but true) about you. (150 word limit combined)

The essay prompt invites you to reflect deeply on your life’s journey and the people, events, and circumstances that have impacted it. (It also asks that you be brief with it -- no more than 500 words!) Reading Steve Jobs' famous "Connect the Dots" Stanford commencement address (2005) will inspire you and give you a sense of how to pick and choose from moments in your life to tell your story. 

There is no right answer, topic, or format — only you can tell your own story — and yet we hope you will focus much less on what you have done and much more on who you are. The strongest essays balance introspection with recognition of external influences, and are so personal that no one else could have possibly written it. The essay topic:

• Connect the dots. How have the influences in your life shaped you? (500 word limit)

The online application requires you to upload your academic transcripts from all institutions, a 1-page resumé, and, if needed, standardized test scores.

• Upload your transcript(s). Request your official AC transcript and study abroad or transfer college transcripts early enough to get them in the portal by the internal deadline. Please see Knight-Hennessy's Application Instructions page for more detailed information on required educational transcript upload. 
• Test Scores. If your graduate degree program requires test scores, then you will have to upload that now. 
• Resumé. Your one-page resume frames your intellectual, personal, and professional background and accomplishments. It is fine to include information that is duplicated in other sections of your application (e.g., Academics, Employment, Activities, Awards). Think of your resume as introducing the “headlines” of your experiences to date and providing context that helps us evaluate the rest of your application materials. Please see the K-H website for more information about what should be included in your resume.

In Step 5, you asked people if they would be willing to write recommendation letters for you. Now is the time to send the email solicitation for that letter from within the Knight-Hennessy portal. The information Knight-Hennessy sends will include the inter/national deadline. Before you trigger the request in the portal, send an email reminding them of your initial request; you may wish to re-send the information at the bottom of the Knight-Hennessy Overview page as a reminder. 

Along with your email, send drafts of the essays that you have written for your application. That way, they will know what you are saying about yourself.

Wow! You made it this far. Review your application carefully for errors. The best way to proofread is to print a pdf of the application and read it aloud while walking around the room. You'll catch many more errors that way than you would by reading silently. It's good practice. 

And, it should go without saying, but the foundation takes seriously an applicant's honor and integrity. Before you can finalize and submit your application, you must agree to the following (bold is the foundation's own language in reference to AI):

Your electronic signature below represents your agreement to the terms of this application and its instructions, and your confirmation/declaration that all of the information that you have provided in this application is your own work and, to the best of your knowledge, complete and accurate, and that no Artificial Intelligence (AI) language tools including, but not limited to, ChatGPT were used to produce the content of your application. You further agree that you will promptly inform Knight-Hennessy Scholars of any change in any of the facts presented or answers given in your application. Your signature also constitutes your consent to Stanford (or its agent) having the right to verify any information presented in or relating to your application.

Save a copy of your final version and please send a copy to us. In the case that you are offered an interview as a finalist, we would want to refer to it in order to offer you interview practice, should you be named a finalist. Before 4PM EDT on October 9, 2024, hit submit!

Have questions? Please contact us.

Physical address: 100 Boltwood Avenue, Amherst, MA 01002

Mailing Address: AC #2214, PO Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002