UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS GUIDE
Start with the education you want, then build an application that shows your interests, effort, and everyday experiences. This guide helps you work through each part.
Fall 2027 entry
GET TO KNOW THE EDUCATION
You apply to Stanford as a whole. The academic interests you list are not binding, and students generally declare a major by the end of their second year.
YOUR FIRST YEAR
Your first year includes COLLEGE (Stanford’s required first-year courses in civic, liberal, and global education) and usually your first writing course.
FIRST AND SECOND YEARS
Explore courses and questions that interest you.
AFTER YOU DECLARE
Develop your main field, then bring your learning together in a final capstone experience.
First-year courses, writing, language proficiency, and study across different subjects broaden your education.
In your first year: COLLEGE courses, or a year-long residential program in their place. For students who start in 2027–28, Stanford is extending COLLEGE from two quarters to three.
Across four years: Eleven courses in eight “Ways of Thinking/Ways of Doing,” from ethical reasoning to creative expression.
Writing: A first-year course, a second usually taken in your second year, and a Writing in the Major course later on.
Language: One year of college-level study in a foreign language, or the equivalent, such as a 4 or 5 on some AP language exams.
Your advisers: A full-time, PhD-level professional adviser, based in or near your residential neighborhood, helps with courses, majors, and research. Once you declare, a faculty adviser in your major joins in.
Where you live: If you enter as a first-year, you’re assured 12 quarters of campus housing, as long as you apply by each housing deadline.
WHAT STANFORD LOOKS FOR
Stanford considers your application as a whole, including the opportunities and responsibilities around you.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Academic excellence is central. Your transcript shows your preparation and how you have challenged yourself within your school’s offerings.
Letrado’s adviceTake the most demanding courses you can do well in, and choose them for what you want to learn, not the label. If your schedule limited your options, explain briefly in the Additional Information section.
INTELLECTUAL VITALITY
Show a question, interest, or commitment you have pursued in depth. What did you try, discover, or come to understand differently?
Letrado’s adviceIt doesn’t have to be a formal project. A question you kept researching, a book you reread, or a skill you taught yourself can work, if you can say what changed in your thinking.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Work, family responsibilities, creative projects, and community life all matter. Help the reader understand your role and its meaning to you and others.
Letrado’s adviceDescribe what you did, who relied on you, and how long you kept at it. Stanford says exceptional depth in one or two activities may say more than minimal participation in five or six clubs.
IN STANFORD’S WORDS
“Stanford students are brimming with curiosity, openness, and imagination,” its admission overview says. It wants to hear about “the ways you have expanded your perspective and sought new opportunities.”
One of the three short essays asks about an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning.
WHAT STANFORD DESCRIBES
If your school is in an interview area, a trained alumni volunteer may invite you, depending on availability.
One-on-one, in a public place or by video: early November for early applicants, mid-January to mid-February for Regular Decision.
Many applicants aren’t invited. Your application is complete without an interview, many admitted students never have one, and declining won’t count against you. Your interviewer’s report joins your file.
PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
For fall 2027 entry, decide which timetable gives you room to prepare well. Early Action has restrictions on other early applications.
Restrictive Early Action
Nov 1, 2026Regular Decision
Jan 5, 2027Submit by 11:59 p.m. in your local time. Restrictive Early Action is nonbinding; Regular Decision gives you more time to prepare your application and final-year work. With an optional arts portfolio, you apply earlier, and your school documents can follow by the standard deadline.
Common Application, personal essay, and Stanford responses; $100 application fee or a fee waiver. Stanford accepts the Common App waiver for eligible students in and outside the U.S.
Required, with no minimum score. You can self-report for review; official scores are needed if you enroll.
Official transcripts, the School Report, and a counselor recommendation.
Stanford recommends grade 11 or 12 teachers. Ask academic teachers who know your learning well. Give them time and useful reminders of your work.
Offered depending on alumni availability near your school. You can still have a complete application without one.
In Art Practice, Dance, Music, or Theater and Performance Studies. Sending one moves your application deadline earlier.
Testing: Use Stanford’s current timetable to plan your SAT or ACT. You do not need both. For Restrictive Early Action, take the ACT by the end of September or the SAT by the end of October; for Regular Decision, by the end of December.
Reporting scores: Self-report your highest scores; superscores are accepted. If you enroll, your official scores must match what you reported, or Stanford can revoke your offer.
AP scores: If you’ve taken any AP exams, even if you self-studied for them, you must report all your AP scores, including cancelled ones.
Midyear grades: The midyear transcript is due February 15, 2027, for Regular Decision applicants and Early Action applicants who are admitted or deferred. Students who have already graduated do not need it.
If you apply early to Stanford: You can’t also apply early to another private college, even under a nonbinding plan, or to a public university’s binding plan. Stanford’s own example: no MIT Early Action alongside it.
Exceptions: Other early applications are allowed if they’re nonbinding and go to a public university, a college with rolling admission, a university outside the U.S., or a scholarship or special program that requires applying early. Military academies are allowed too.
In the early round: Stanford evaluates early and regular applications the same way. Early applicants are admitted, denied, or deferred, and a denial is final. If you’re denied or deferred, you may apply to an Early Decision II plan elsewhere.
If you’re a QuestBridge Finalist: Stanford’s Match is binding. If you rank Stanford, the CSS Profile and federal tax forms are due November 1; if you don’t match with a binding college, you’re considered in Regular Decision automatically.
If you’re applying from outside the U.S.: You meet the same requirements, including the SAT or ACT, and if you take A levels, the IB, or a national curriculum, your school sends your results and any predictions. No English test is required, though fluency is a prerequisite. Transcripts and letters need English translations, which you can’t do yourself.
Paid agents: Stanford’s admission office says it “does not partner or work with paid agents or credentialing services,” and it expects all students to complete their application materials without such services.
WRITE IN YOUR OWN VOICE
Five short questions and three short essaysAlongside the Common Application personal essay, Stanford asks for five short responses of 3–50 words and three essays of 100–250 words each.
Stanford says there are no right or wrong answers, and asks you to let your genuine voice come through. Its admission pages don’t set their own rule on AI.
Letrado’s adviceEvery sentence you submit should be your own: no AI-written or AI-rewritten text, and no details AI made up. AI can help you brainstorm, check spelling and grammar, or understand a topic. If Stanford publishes its own rule, follow it.
Stanford asks what makes you excited about learning. Choose an idea or experience that genuinely excites you. Show where it took your thinking, not just the subject’s name.
Stanford asks for a note to your future roommate, since virtually all its undergraduates live on campus. Write like a person they might live with. Small habits, interests, and considerate details can say more than a list of qualities.
Stanford asks how your experiences, interests, and character would help you contribute. Consider the perspectives, interests, and ways of helping others that you would carry into campus life.
Two ask about the most significant challenge society faces today and a historical moment or event you wish you could have witnessed. Pick answers you can explain in plain words and are genuinely curious about.
Three ask about your last two summers; an activity, job, or family responsibility; and five things that are important to you. You do not need to turn every answer into an achievement.
YOUR COMMON APP ESSAY
WHAT THE COMMON APP ASKS
The prompts are the same as last year’s. The last one lets you write about any topic you choose, and it was last year’s most popular choice (28%).
You write the essay once, in the part of the application your colleges share, so write it for every reader rather than one school. Each college’s own questions come separately.
LETRADO’S ADVICE
Write the essay no one else could write. If another applicant could have written a sentence, swap it for something only you would say.
Sound like yourself. Plain sentences and everyday words work better than impressive vocabulary.
Tell it as it happened. Keep to the facts, seen from where you stood. Don’t add drama or invent details.
Skip the big lesson. A small, true observation shows more than a claim about growth.
Any topic can work. An ordinary moment, or a setback, often says more than a trophy.
MAKE ROOM FOR THE FINANCIAL QUESTION
Use the published budget as a starting point, then check the aid rules and application checklist for your circumstances.
FAMILY INCOME BELOW $100,000
With typical assets, Stanford expects no parent contribution. You’d still contribute from summer earnings, term-time work, and your own savings.
FAMILY INCOME BELOW $150,000
With typical assets, need-based scholarships, grants, and outside scholarships cover all tuition charges when you live on campus.
HIGHER FAMILY INCOMES
Especially if more than one family member is in college. Stanford encourages any family worried about paying to apply for aid.
These levels assume typical living costs in the U.S., so they may not apply if your family lives abroad.
How Stanford sets the parent contribution (opens in a new tab)PUBLISHED 2026–27 STUDENT BUDGET
$97,545Before travel and additional new-student costs. Tuition, fees, housing, and food are billed; the rest are Stanford’s estimates.
New-student fees add $775. Travel varies, and health insurance may add cost. Use the 2027–28 budget when it is published.
Stanford’s full student budget (opens in a new tab)Letrado’s advicePut the aid dates on your application calendar, and try Stanford’s cost estimators together early. If you’re an international applicant who might need aid, ask for it when you apply; you generally can’t add it later.
Stanford’s quick cost estimator and net price calculator give a first estimate. Stanford says neither will be accurate for families who live abroad.
Estimate your cost (opens in a new tab)ADMITTED TO STANFORD · E.B.
His application connected practical work with how he solved problems, explained ideas, and learned with others.
Years of repairing bicycles with his uncle gave him practical problems to investigate.
A teammate’s feedback led him to document his fixes so others could understand them.
At an auto-parts store, he learned to explain technical problems in language customers understood.
Stanford’s admission overview (opens in a new tab) says work and family responsibilities are “as important as any other extracurricular activity.”
HIS STANFORD OUTCOME
Offered a place at Stanford
HIS CHOICE: MITMassachusetts Institute of Technology · Photo: Marco Almbauer / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. Cropped.
He compared the final aid packages and discussed the hands-on engineering culture before deciding.
ALSO ADMITTED TO
WHEN YOU’D LIKE A HAND
Bring your questions to a free 45-minute introduction with your proposed mentor. Afterward, we’ll email a personalized plan with recommended next steps.
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