Once you’ve decided to apply to the Bing Stanford in Washington Program complete the steps below. It is highly recommended that you carefully read every step.
1. Complete the online application
This may take longer than anticipated. Please give yourself plenty of time to read over, understand, and reflect on each part of the application. Your application should draw upon the interests demonstrated in your resume and transcript. If you are applying for Winter Quarter, please review our Winter Tracks page to make sure this more specialized quarter is the right fit for you. If you have any questions, you can contact our On Campus Coordinator for more information.
For example: if you’re interested in education policy and you’ve taken a class about education in America and you’ve been working at East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring for the past year, you should incorporate all of these experiences into your essays.
2. Request two letters of recommendation by following the instructions in the online application
- You will need to register each recommender on the online application.
- At least one must be from a faculty member or instructor at Stanford that can speak to your academic abilities. This letter does not need to be from a tenured faculty member it can be from anyone, including instructors and teaching assistants, who has taught you a course at Stanford University and is able to speak about your academic abilities.
- The other recommendation may be from anyone of your choice. For example:
- An internship supervisor
- A job supervisor
- Your resident fellow
- A second instructor
Letters of recommendation play a large role in your evaluation and if you’re accepted, they will also play a role in your placement. Thus, they should be thoughtful and truly representative of your abilities. Please carefully consider whom you ask to write your recommendations.
Letters of recommendation should be submitted online. Once you have registered your recommenders, they will receive an email with instructions for submitting your letter of recommendation. No printed material needs to be submitted with your recommendations.
3. Request an official transcript
Note - Please wait until the final study list deadline for the quarter has passed to send us your transcript. This will ensure that the classes you are currently enrolled in appear on your transcript.
- Log into Axess
- Click on the “Student Center” tab
- Under “Academics,” select “Request Official Transcript” from the drop down menu and then click on the arrow button to the right of the drop down menu
- Check the “Undergraduate” button
- In the “Select Option” drop down menu select “Electronic Transcript”
- Leave the quantity as “1”
- In the “Select Recipient Information” field, click the “Send Electronically” button
- In the “Contact Name” field type: Bing Stanford in Washington
- In the “Email Address” box select “Send to Third Party”
- In the "Email Address" field, type: jvizas@stanford.edu or ngrant@stanford.edu and then type it in again below to confirm the email address
- Click “Submit"
- Note - you should send your transcript to both Jill Vizas (jvizas@stanford.edu) and Nichole Grant (ngrant@stanford.edu) on our staff.
4. Create a 1 page resume
Your resume is extremely important in communicating your experiences to us, as comprehensively and concisely as possible. Your resume will be used in evaluating your application and in your internship placement, should you be accepted.
- It is required that your resume be only 1 page – you should easily be able to fit your education, work, volunteer, and leadership experience in that space.
- Candidates should have strong resumes that highlight experience pertinent to a Washington internship – such as past internship, work, and leadership experience, along with pertinent coursework.
- If you have questions about what you should or should not include, please contact a peer advisor.
- It is strongly recommended, though not required, that you bring your resume to the Stanford Career Development Center and make an appointment to have one of their counselors examine it before submission.
- Once you have completed your resume, please submit it in the online application
What Happens Next
A committee including the Director of Stanford in Washington will interview qualified applicants. You will be contacted regarding an interview shortly after the application deadline.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are interested in pursuing an internship at the Department of State or the White House please keep in mind that their internship application deadlines may be before the BSIW Program application deadline. We encourage you to consult the website of the Department of State and to consult the application deadlines on the White House Internship Timeline and FAQ.
