No, we do not require a major (or minor) in your teaching subject. However, we do want to see that you have strong content knowledge in your subject. This means if you are applying for the single subject program, we will want to see that you have taken a number of courses in your subject area and done well in those courses.
No, not necessarily. If you are applying to the single subject program, we do want to see that you have significant understanding of the subject you are applying to. However, this does not require that you major in the subject. Some students have a minor in the subject area while others have taken a number of courses as undergraduates or graduates. If you feel you have a strong understanding of the subject area, but this is not reflected on your application, please be in touch with us. We can offer you feedback.
We do not require subject matter competence for applicants to the multiple subject credential. In this case, we are reviewing the whole application without any specific subject matter requirement.
Yes. For STEP admissions there is no specific experience (or minimum required hours) necessary to apply. All we require is that applicants have meaningful experience working with youth in some capacity – this could certainly be a camp counselor, but also a church group leader, group tutor, teaching assistant, etc.
Not at all. Every year we have a number of students in this category and they fare just as well as others who have completed undergraduate or graduate degrees.
No, we do not have a minimum GPA requirement. Our admissions review is holistic and we consider all aspects of a student’s application.
General programmatic questions
Currently STEP offers teaching credentials in:
Multiple Subject — Elementary education with optional Spanish bilingual authorization
Single Subject — Secondary education in the following subject areas:
Teaching of English
Teaching of History/Social Science
Teaching of Math
Teaching of Science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics & Earth Science)
Teaching of World Languages (Spanish only. French and Mandarin have been paused for the 2022-2023 admission cycle.)
No, applicants can only apply to one subject area.
Yes, STEP leads to a Master of Arts in Education and a preliminary single subject or multiple subject teaching credential.
No. STEP only offers the combined MA/credential degree.
STEP does not allow for course transfer. All admitted students must ultimately complete all required courses as outlined by the program.
STEP is a summer start program. The new cohort will begin in late June 2023.
No, STEP only has one class per year and all students in the cohort begin at the same time, which is the summer term.
STEP is a 12-month teacher preparation program. Admitted teacher candidates will begin the program in late June, 2023 with a week of orientation and will start their summer school placements the following week. Teacher candidates will be in the program for four quarters: summer 2022-2023 and fall, winter, and spring 2023-2024. Teacher candidates will complete the program in the middle of June 2024. During this time, teacher candidates will spend about 20 hours per week in their school placements and will be full-time graduate students at Stanford.
The size of the STEP class varies slightly from year to year. For the current STEP class of 2023, we have 18 students in the Multiple Subject (elementary) cohort and 43 students in the Single Subject (secondary) cohort. The total size of the class is 61 students.
STEP is a fast paced and intense program; this makes taking on a job difficult. Students are encouraged to maintain a healthy balance between the program and their lives outside the program and a job inevitably impacts one or the other. For this reason, we do not encourage students to work.
No. Unfortunately, we do not grant deferrals under any circumstances.
Application requirement questions
The Stanford Graduate Application has now closed.
The application for the 2023-24 academic cycle was due on January 6, 2023 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time). Decisions will be released no later than early March 2023 and admitted students will reply to the admission offer by a date in mid-April 2023.
No, we only have one admission cycle per year. Prospective candidates can apply anytime between mid-September 2022 and early January 2023, when the application closes. All files will be reviewed after the January deadline.
On the online the application, the correct term for the 2024 cohort is summer 2022-23. Due to our summer start term, the summer quarter falls into the 2022–23 academic year.
Yes, peace of mind! Also, if anything is missing from your application, we can contact you with enough time. Aside from that, so long as your application is completed by the deadline, we will review it with all other applications.
To apply to STEP, start by choosing EDUCATION-MA as your program. Then designate summer 2022-2023 as your start term. If applying to the multiple subjects program, select “Elementary Education” as your specialization. If applying to the single subject program, select “Teaching of (subject)” as your specialization.
On the online application, there is a section for “additional documents,” which you can use to upload pdf copies of your score reports.
No. The application and all required documents must be submitted online.
The entire application is completed online including letters of recommendation. When you start your application, you will need to enter recommender information which will include an email address. Once you complete this step, your recommender will receive an email with submission instructions. Please note that you can enter the recommender information before you submit your application. In fact, we encourage you to enter recommender information as soon as you have confirmed your recommenders in order to give them as much time as possible to submit their letters on your behalf.
