<p>When you consider how many thousands of institutions of higher education are out there in the United States, it is simply astonishing how consistent the top 10 universities in the country are at producing Rhodes Scholars. Congratulations to all 32 of these fine young men and women!</p>
<p>Well let’s be a little careful here. As pointed out in the Princeton forum by Ptongrad2000, there is a bit of “incestuous” selection for the Rhodes scholarship, in that former scholars make up the committees that select future ones. Almost naturally, it would seem, they are inclined to pick a few kids from their alma maters.</p>
<p>UNC is doing a great job of producing Rhodes Scholars. UNC has produced 6 Rhodes Scholars in the past 5 years and 2 a piece in the last two years (one of their Rhodes Scholars this year was Canadian).</p>
<p>As much as it pains me to say it, Berkeley and Michigan could learn a thing or two about fellowship advising from the Tarheels.;)</p>
<p>It’s interesting to see how the top private schools can be divided into three distinct tiers. I’m not sure why Brown and Columbia have slightly lower figures. If anyone doesn’t believe that Penn isn’t the most pre-professional elite school, then look no further than this list for the gritty truth.</p>
<p>"And on a side note, the best publics do awful…</p>
<p>berkeley / 3
michigan / 1 "</p>
<p>Well at least you admit they are the two best publics. Shall we discuss Fulbright Scholarships now?</p>
<p>FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS (average number of annual recipients since 1993):
Harvard University (25)
Yale University 23)
University of California-Berkeley (22)
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (20)
Columbia University (18)
Stanford University (18)
Princeton University 17)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (16)
University of California-Los Angeles (15)
University of Chicago (15)
Duke University (14)
University of Texas-Austin (13)
Cornell University (12)
Northwestern University (12)
Pennsylvania State University (12)
University of Pennsylvania (12)
Indiana University-Bloomington (11)
Boston College (10)
Tufts University (10)
Johns Hopkins University (8)
New York University (8)
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (8)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (8)
University of Washington (8)
Washington University-St Louis (8)</p>
<p>Notice which schools are on top now? A much better indicator of academic quality than a scholarship given to maybe one or two students a year from any given school.</p>
<p>"Rhodes Scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship awarded to graduating college students. It is based on academics, leadership, moral and courage. Here are the top colleges over the history.</p>
<p>Ranking College Number of Rhodes Scholars
1 Harvard 323
2 Yale 217
3 Princeton 192
4 West Point 85
5 Stanford 82
6 Dartmouth 60
7 UChicago 45
8 Brown 45
9 Virginia 45
10 Naval Academy 43"</p>
<p>In reality only Harvard, not even that closely followed by Y & P, can make claims of superiority in the number of Rhodes Scholarships awarded over time. No other schools even come close, including Duke.</p>
The Fullbright is not considered to be a prestigious scholarship. Not even close. It’s fairly easy to attain as long as you are prepared, have an interesting proposal and apply to “non-industrialized” nations. The Rhodes, Marshall and Truman Scholarships are the true heavy-hitting British awards that have a lot of recognition and prestige.</p>
<p>Do you really think Michigan and Berkeley are better than Princeton and Stanford because they produce more Fullbrights annually? Far less students at the latter schools even bother applying.</p>
<p>Even though only few students win Rhodes Scholarships from a school in any given year, there is a remarkable consistency with regards to how a certain subset of schools produce Rhodes winners every year. Other schools, like Michigan and Berkeley, produce 1 Rhodes Scholar every decade which is frankly embarrassing. </p>
<p>
Why single out Duke? HYP are the oldest institutions in America and they’ve been producing Rhodes Scholars consistently for the past century so of course they are way ahead in the competition. Schools like Duke and Chicago, on the other hand, have only been producing Rhodes Scholars consistently for the past several decades.</p>
<p>Even if Duke or Chicago only produces one Rhodes every year, it is still a remarkable achievement and those universities can make claims of superiority because the scholarship is that hard to attain. Harvard and Yale are in a different league admittedly in this competition, just like Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Chicago and MIT are in a different league than Berkeley or Michigan.</p>
<p>Part of the big benefits of attending a well-endowed, rich college is that is provides a LOT of advising. Both Y & H have several advisors who help candidates with the app. The Big publics? Perhaps a part-timer (for 2-3 the student body).</p>
On the other hand, the Rhodes Scholarship numbers tell only a tiny portion of that story. For example, for 50 years now, Penn has had its very own Thouron Awards that fund study by Penn grads at British universities, and which are won by 4-6 Penn grads every year:</p>
<p>Perhaps as a result, Penn historically hasn’t offered as much support and encouragement to Rhodes applicants as have its peers, which was one of the reasons it started its Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships about a decade ago. Penn undergrads have since won 3 Rhodes Scholarships in the past 4 years, so we’ll see how that progresses. But I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions about the preprofessional nature of a school based on its Rhodes Scholarship record.</p>
<p>You do realize that the other top schools, like Penn, also dole out prestigious academic awards. I mean, Penn is in line with similarly placed institutions - it just doesn’t perform as well Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Stanford et. al</p>
<p>^ The Thouron is not just a “prestigious academic award”–read the pages to which I linked. It’s a fully funded fellowship for two years of graduate study in the UK (predominantly at Oxford, Cambridge, and LSE).</p>
<p>And I cited it not to argue that Penn performs as well as Harvard, Yale, etc. in Rhodes Scholarships, but to respond specifically to the quoted statement of lesdiablesbleus.</p>
<p>It should be noted that Duke and Chicago are the only USNWR top ten schools that offer merit $$$. What’s so “remarkable” about paying your top admittees (and potential post-grad scholarship recipients) a salary to attend your school? At the end of the day, Duke and Chicago are still the easiest schools to get into from the USNWR top ten.</p>
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<p>Despite their sub-10% acceptance rates, neither Brown nor Columbia are HYPS quality. That’s why.</p>
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<p>But Penn also doesn’t perform as well as the other non-HYP Ivies.</p>