General Information:
Deadlines and expectations for the scholarship are posted at the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship website and the Office of Student Fellowships Knight-Hennessy Scholarship page. The actual application for K-H opens over the summer, but you can see the questions here and begin preparing your materials.
A lot of people ask what Knight-Hennessy is looking for, and Marynel’s advice is to review the information about the scholars selected over the past several years. The scholars’ profiles offer a lot of insight into the types of backgrounds and accomplishments that impress the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship selection committees.
Stanford Deadlines:
The scholarship application due date is listed each year on the Knight-Hennessy Scholars page; your graduate program of choice will have its own application due date and you should check those carefully – some will have deadlines that are earlier than the Knight-Hennessy deadline(and you should choose the accelerated deadline for your program, if there is one).
Carleton Deadlines and Process:
You will complete the entire Knight-Hennessy application process before Marynel will receive a request from their application system to complete the institutional endorsement form and letter for you. Because Marynel needs to submit an endorsement by the same deadline, please ensure that your application is complete and submitted at least 48 hours before the deadline.
Preparing your Application:
As you begin to prepare your application materials, you’ll be making some important choices:
1. Graduate/professional program(s) – think carefully about which of these corresponds best to your interests and for which of them you will write the strongest possible application. Consulting with your advisor(s) and mentor(s) is a good idea. Be sure to check the GPA and other expectations for your preferred programs carefully; you must be admitted to a graduate or professional program at Stanford to be selected as a finalist for the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship.
2. Recommenders – you will need the requisite number of recommendations for the graduate program(s) to which you are applying, and you’ll also need two letters of recommendation for the Knight-Hennessy program itself. Keep in mind that the letters of recommendation for K-H are distinct from the letters of recommendation you will submit for your graduate program application. Even if one of your K-H recommenders is the same as one of your graduate program recommenders, the letters themselves should be different from one another.
3. Be sure you schedule any standardized tests required by your graduate program with time for the results to be received to meet the stated deadlines.
Feedback and Assistance from Marynel:
To receive feedback on your application materials, please provide a full draft of your answers to the essay questions and short answers by August 28, 2023, at 5pm Central Time. You are free to send drafted answers or meet with me over the summer but I must see a full draft by August 28 at the latest in order to coordinate review of your materials with my responsibilities for other fellowships.