Undergraduate Support: Endowed Scholarships

This promise of access to every qualified student is a vital part of Stanford’s identity. Scholarship funds endowed in perpetuity are the foundation of this commitment. By establishing an endowed need-based scholarship, you can:

• Support a community that includes diverse insights, perspectives, and questions

• Open doors to life-changing opportunities

• Benefit the world, as graduates from all walks of life become leaders in their communities and their workplaces

Staying accessible

Recent enhancements to Stanford’s financial aid program affirm the university’s pledge to provide access to students across the economic spectrum:

• Students from families earning less than $75,000 a year pay no tuition, room, or board. In 2023–24, that threshold will increase to $100,000, providing aid to additional families.

• Students from families earning less than $150,000 a year do not pay tuition.

• Many students from families with higher incomes (particularly those with more than one child in college) also qualify for financial aid assistance.

• Students are not required to take out loans, making it possible for all aid recipients to graduate debt free.

A critical and accelerating need

Today, approximately half of Stanford undergraduates depend on need-based aid from the university. As families come to terms with the full impact of the pandemic on their lives and incomes, we fully expect that more students will have an even greater need for financial assistance. In addition, the percentage of students requiring aid, as well as the overall amount of aid granted to students, is likely to increase substantially as Stanford seeks to further diversify its population.

• Stanford has nearly tripled its funding for need-based financial aid since 2006.

• In recent years, Stanford has relied on a larger share of the university’s general funds to meet the growing need for financial aid, redirecting resources that would otherwise be available for other educational and research priorities.

• For the next three to five years, the combined funding from endowed scholarships and expendable gifts like The Stanford Fund still leaves a projected shortfall of approximately $40-$50 million per year.

Stanford’s commitment to need-blind admission stands firm. That is why raising endowed scholarships remains one of the university’s highest fundraising priorities.

A named endowed scholarship fund can be established with a gift of $250,000. This provides partial funding for one student in the fund’s first year. Endowed funds of $1 million meet the full financial needs of one to two students annually. As a fund’s value increases over time, it will support more students.