New applicants

The online application for the 2021 Stanford Sierra Camp season will be available in mid-November; please check back then. Questions? Email us.

Application evaluation

Stanford Sierra Camp is a program of SAA-Sierra Programs, LLC., with application priority given to Stanford University alumni. Alumni applying to Camp must be current members of the Stanford Alumni Association. If not members already, alumni may join as life members. Non-alumni pay a $300 use fee if they received a cabin assignment. Applications from non-alumni and university affiliates are ranked below all alumni applicants, regardless of application submission date.

Lottery

Applications time stamped by midnight, Monday, January 6, 2020, are grouped into cohorts based on the number of consecutive application years. Due to the popularity of Sierra Camp, all applications are entered into a lottery in which applications are ranked within their cohort by random, computer-generated numbers. This lottery determines an applicant’s rank on the waitlist: First-year applicants are ranked below applicants applying for their second, third, fourth consecutive year; the more years one consecutively applies to attend Camp, the higher one's ranking. Individuals who take a year off from applying will lose all of their application credits that they have built up. As a result, it's important to apply to Camp every year in order to ensure you retain your application credits.

While it may take an average of four years to be offered a spot at Camp—depending on an applicant’s flexibility in accommodations and weeks—once a spot is assigned, that applicant is guaranteed to attend every summer moving forward.

Flexible application credit

Applicants who are available for at least eight weeks of the summer program, request all lodging options that will accommodate their immediate family and apply before the January deadline will receive a flexibility credit. To retain the flexibility credit, applicants must be available for each of their requests through March 31 of that year.

Selection

Applicants will be notified by mail of their cabin assignments or waitlist statuses after February 17, 2020. Families on the waitlist will be notified as cancellations occur. Payment in full is due by March 1, 2020 for weeks 2–7, and March 15, 2020 for weeks 8-13.

Payment