Registration and Enrollment
Stanford Academic Calendar
The Stanford Academic Calendar provides all university enrollment and related deadlines (e.g., study list, change of grading basis, withdrawal, dissertation, apply to graduate, etc.). Students are strongly encouraged to review Stanford’s Academic Calendar each quarter to ensure they meet all university deadlines.
Enrollment
University Enrollment and Residency Requirement
University Enrollment and Residency Requirement: Unless an exception is granted, graduate students at Stanford are expected to pursue their studies on a full-time basis. Graduate students must enroll in courses to complete university, department, and program requirements such as admission to candidacy, successful completion of qualifying exams, etc, within established time limits. Graduate students must also meet the following standards of minimum progress as indicated by units and grades. See the Minimum Residency Requirements section below for more information. Students should select and enroll in courses in consultation with department staff, their advisor(s), or the Director of Graduate Studies. The University’s expectation is that the units counted towards all graduate degrees are primarily in graduate studies, and be taken for a letter grade. Doctoral students must complete 135 units. Ph.D. students may only apply a total of 45 units of transfer credit and credit earned for a Stanford master's degree toward the Ph.D. residency total.
Graduate Residency Transfer Process
After at least one quarter of enrollment, students pursuing a D.M.A. or Ph.D. may request transfer credit for graduate work done at another institution. Ph.D. or D.M.A. students may only apply a total of 45 units of transfer credit and credit earned for a Stanford master’s degree toward the Ph.D. residency total. Ph.D. or D.M.A. students who are awarded graduate residency credit, who then add another graduate degree to their academic plan, may be required to earn a higher number of units in order to confer their degrees. Students should visit the Minimum Residency Requirements for Graduate Degrees page for more information. The process of requesting transfer credit can be found on the Student Services website.
Preliminary Study List Deadline (first day of every quarter)
Students must be “in status” by 5:00 p.m. on the first day of classes each quarter. This means that, at the end of the first day of classes in each quarter a graduate student must be enrolled in no fewer than 8 units. Students not "in status" by 5:00 p.m. on the first day of classes are subject to a $200 late study list fee.
Final Study List Deadline (end of the third week of classes of every quarter except Summer)
Students may add, drop, swap or adjust courses or units (if variable unit course) to their study lists through the end of the third week of classes. Courses or units (if variable unit course) may be dropped by students up until the Final Study List Deadline without any record of the course remaining on the student's transcript. Courses may be swapped up until this deadline. No drops are permitted after this point. Last day for tuition reassessment for dropped courses or units.