Eligibility

To be eligible for admission to graduate study at Stanford, you must meet the university’s minimum requirements for academic credentials and English proficiency.

Minimum Education Requirements

You must hold, or expect to hold before enrollment at Stanford, a U.S. bachelor’s degree or its international equivalent from a college or university of recognized standing. 

For applicants who earned their qualifying degree outside the United States: If you are unsure whether your international degree is considered equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree, we recommend using the degree equivalency tool offered by World Education Services (WES).

For admitted students who earned their qualifying degree outside the United States: After accepting the offer of admission, you may be required at that time to submit a WES evaluation as verification of your academic credentials. (A WES evaluation is not required during the application process.) For more information, refer to Official Transcripts & Degree Conferral Documents.

English Proficiency

As a graduate student enrolled at Stanford, you will be expected to read English with ease, understand rapid idiomatic English as used in lectures and group discussions, and express thoughts quickly and clearly in spoken and written English.

Effective for applicants starting graduate study in 2026: You are not required to submit English proficiency test scores if you meet one or more of the following criteria:

• You are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
• Your first language is English.
• You earned a U.S. bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, or international equivalent from a university where all instruction was conducted in English.
• You have two or more consecutive years of professional or educational experience in English, in the past 10 years.

If you do not meet any of the criteria listed above, then at the time of application you are required to submit an official test score from an approved English proficiency test.