How to Apply
The Environmental Social Sciences Department welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences and perspectives who would contribute to our growing community of scholars. We review applications holistically, considering each applicant’s academic record and accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and statement of purpose in order to best understand an applicant’s motivation and preparation for a PhD in the environmental social sciences.
Application Deadline
Applications to the Environmental Social Sciences PhD program must be received by the deadline of November 12, 2024 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time in order to be considered for the 2025-26 admission cycle. Applications will open in mid-September. Admission-related questions should be directed to the department at esosadmissions@stanford.edu.
Applicants to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program must apply to that program by October 9, 2024, 1:00pm Pacific Time, and apply separately to the Environmental Social Sciences Department by November 12, 2024.
EBS will be accepting applications in Fall 2024 for the 2025-2026 academic year.
GEP will be accepting applications in Fall 2025 for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Required Materials
Materials must be submitted online to Stanford Graduate Admissions, and all applicants must submit the following materials:
- A statement of purpose. This statement should highlight your motivation and preparation for graduate study in our program, and should succinctly describe at least one research question you could be interested in working on were you a PhD student in our program. This statement should not exceed two single-spaced pages in length.
- Three letters of recommendation. We highly recommend that at least one letter come from a university professor familiar with your academic work and performance.
- Transcripts. Please upload scanned (unofficial) copies of transcripts from every college and university you attended for at least one full year as a full-time student by the application deadline as part of your online application.
- TOEFL. For applicants whose first language is not English (with some exceptions as stated here), TOEFL scores are required. Stanford’s ETS institutional code for submission of scores is 4704.
- GRE. The Environmental Social Science Department will not require GRE scores for 2024-25 admission, but applicants can submit them if they wish. They will be evaluated with your application in a holistic manner.
Application Status
Due to the high volume of applications, we cannot respond to individual inquiries about the status of an application or of documents submitted. We will accept letters of recommendation and official test scores after the deadline. The office will be closed from December 23, 2024 - January 3, 2025. Decisions will be made on all applications by the end of March.
University information about Graduate Admissions and the online application.