Admissions

Begin by electing Design (MS) as your intended degree program on the online application.

Visit the Stanford Grad Admissions website for more details.

The statement of purpose and application website are the first parts of your application the admissions committee reviews. A strong, clear statement sets up the evaluation, and is a critical element in our admissions process. This is an essay no more than two pages in length, addressing the reasons behind why you are invested in learning design and more specifically, why at Stanford? Tell us what you are hoping the d.school can teach you and what you would like to learn. As an applicant to our program, you have decided to pause your current job in order to pursue graduate studies in Design for two years, full-time. This is a huge commitment. Why have you decided to do this at this point in your life? Each applicant’s reasoning is unique and personal. We look forward to reading yours and understanding your aspirations to becoming a designer. 

Include at least one letter from academia if the applicant has been out of school for a while.

One copy from all postsecondary institutions attended. Upload one digital or scanned version of your unofficial transcript(s) to the online application. Submittal of official or physical copies transcripts are NOT required unless requested directly by the Stanford MS Design Grad Admissions Office.

GRE scores are not required for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle for the MS Design Program.

A digital application website is required. Provide the full webpage URL when prompted in the online application portal. 

We are a masters-level program that teaches design thinking, creativity methodology, a human centered-ethnographic approach to design, strategic innovation, and design leadership. Once a basic mastery of these proficiencies is obtained, they are applied to solve problems that will benefit the world. Therefore, students who enter the program should have already mastered basic skills that they can bring with them as a toolkit for the program. For example, they could bring design skills such as quick idea sketching, product rendering, and prototype building. Or, they could bring skill sets in coding, storytelling, or manufacturing. Your website is intended to help us assess the toolkit you are bringing to the program: your underlying visual and creative abilities. Some of our current students’ websites are available here on our program site and each one is unique.

There are no specific guidelines on the kind of website you submit or how many projects should be part of this website. Think of the website as your vehicle to demonstrate who you are and how you think. Your website is our window into your creativity. It also shows us what kinds of design problems are important to you, so make it personal.

Passwords to projects that must remain confidential can be submitted via the online application portal also. However, we strongly recommend only doing this if the projects are highly confidential.

Please visit the Stanford Graduate Admissions website for the full requirements. To be eligible for graduate study at Stanford, you must demonstrate sufficient proficiency 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 full-time professional or educational experience in English, in the past 10 years.

You will not be required to submit English proficiency test scores in the application if your responses on the Personal Background page reflect that you meet the above criteria; no additional documentation is required at the time of application. If you are offered admission and accept the offer, you may be required to submit supporting documentation as a condition of admission.

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 the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) or the International English Language Testing System Academic Test (IELTS Academic) that meets the university’s minimum score for admission consideration.

Applicants will be notified of their application results by the end of March 2026. A large number of applications are processed each year. Please do not contact our program faculty or staff for application status updates.