Backdoor to Stanford University Master's Degree

[Daithi]

There is no guarantee the following would work, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

Stanford University has a program called the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD) that partners with businesses. They also have another program called the Honors Cooperative Program (HCP) that allows students who are employed by one the businesses that are in the SCPD program to attend Stanford part-time to earn a Master's Degree, and nearly all these courses are available online.

So, your first step is to start your own company. Once you have your company up and running apply to Stanford's SCPD program to become one of their member companies. For a company with only 1-50 employees the fee to become a member is only $500. It takes only business 10 days for Stanford to confirm the acceptance of your application (I have no idea they accept any company or not). For our purposes, we'll assume your company is accepted. (Here is a link to apply to the SCPD program.)

The second step is apply for admissions to Stanford's HCP program as a student where you are an employee of the company that is in the the SCPD program. You will need to have taken the GRE, already earned a bachelors, and you'll need to meet the prerequisites for the Masters degree in which you plan to enroll. I am assuming it is easier to accepted via this route than applying directly to a Stanford masters program, but I don't know this for a fact either. (Here is a link to applying to the HCP Master's program.)

Here is a link to the different Master's degrees they offer. These all look pretty technical, but this is Stanford.

Now the bad news. It looks like tuition is $1340/quarter unit and you need 45 quarter units to earn your masters, so $60,300 for a masters from Stanford. I also don't know what if any programs are available to reduce these costs. (Here is a link for tuition.)

[TrailRunr]

This is not a backdoor except for the ability to pursue the MS with part-time status while working. Most people need to take a few courses as an NDO in SCPD in the intended degree to prove worthiness of admission to the HCP (and prove you can earn the MS part-time while working full-time). You must have a minimum grade of B/B+ in each course or they kick you out of the NDO program. If you get a B- in one class (that's not a passing grade in grad school), you are done. To take a course, you need to submit transcripts proving that you can survive the course. Your exams are proctored and need to be taken the same day as the on-campus section. The department is free to reject your application to add the class. Once you have done well A-/A/A+ in three courses, they get interested in seeing if you want to apply for the MS program in the HCP.

If you want a Stanford degree that's easier to get into, but don't mind a useless for employment major, look at the MLA program. But the MLA is not online.