<p>Dear God, please help me. This scholarship has really gone to you know where in the past several years, not that it should have had high acclaims before that. Please, I beg of you steer your poor child away from this BS of an award. </p>
<p>Case point:</p>
<p>My daughter:
Received a full ride scholarship to a private school in our state. The school is well regarded but not an Ivy. She won two other highly prestigous awards including the Truman Scholarship and the Udall among some others. She is a terrific student and has already interviewed at T14 ant Tier 1 law schools around the nation. She applied for the Rhodes Scholarship and WAS REJECTED FLAT OUT WITHOUT AN INTERVIEW. Note: my daughter is in a different district than the individual below so I hold no animosity with him, but I do with the Brits who control this dumb selection (now that I think about it I wouldn't want her leaving our GREAT country to go over to that subpar place anyways).</p>
<p>QB for the Alabama Football Team:
I am sure that this McElroy kid is probably a really nice person, but I really don't understand and I feel that this whole process is fixed. MARK MY WORDS: HE WILL WIN THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIP FOR HIS DISTRICT AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY. The whole application is fixed for political reasons, and the Rhodes people only care about what looks good for them. I find it an absurd joke that colleges can't move football games for extreme measures, but SOMEHOW the University of Alabama managed to move the football game to make it convenient for him to attend the interview. I wonder what is going on here?????? Also, he is yet another Rolle (FSU football player) who has absolutely nothing to show for except that he plays football. This country really needs to get its morals together and get their heads out of the toilet. We treat athletes like gods and it is quite disturbing. He has no significant ECs nor is he a GREAT student...for Rhode's sake (I don't want to break a commandment so I will take this crappy scholarship's name in vain) he is a Business Marketing Major at UA, I think our pet Chiwawa could make a move for a 4.0 in the same program. Give me a break, and remember my predictions bc. they will hold true.</p>
<p>Ivy-Leaguers:
No need to restate the obvious, the Rhodes people are prestege whores. They LOVE to select Harvard undergrads bc. they are the most perfect individuals to ever roam the earth. Give me a break. Its funny how my daughter and several of her collegues could out-perform them on the national level in other National Scholarships, yet doesn't even get to the Semi-Final Round.</p>
<p>I know some will not agree, but what I have written is by and large the truth.</p>
<p>I am sorry your daughter didn’t advance to the interview stage of the process. It is quite competitive. She sounds like a talented young woman who will go far. I am sure you are so proud of her!</p>
<p>Rhodes has always been honest about athletics playing a strong roll. Back in the day I remember my ivy’s valedictorian knowing he couldn’t win because he wasn’t an athlete. But when it’s our kid it’s so painful. Hugs to you, but don’t let this get you or DD down.</p>
<p>Wowser. Do you sound hostile tonight! Sorry, but you don’t know everything about the other applicants. They may have beat out your kid by a miniscule amount – but I know that I have sat on scholarship committees and it astonishing how many fantastic applicants there are (and this was for relatively small scholarships). Do you choose the girl who has devoted hours to the Food Bank or the boy who has raised three Guide Dog puppies? Do you pick the artist who recreated a medieval gown with great historic detail or do you pick the young carpenter who built a three story tree house?</p>
<p>Please don’t rant about how unfair it is just because your wonderful kid didn’t win. It makes you sound sour – and it might keep another family from encouraging their own student. </p>
<p>One possibility here is that your student’s profile may strongly resemble the previous year’s winner from that district – or that, overall, they have a lot of winners from other districts that have a similar profile. Committee members have to be careful or they will be criticized that they “Don’t like boys” or “only pick soccer players.” </p>
<p>You also are unlikely to have full access to any letters of reference. A busy coach or teacher can print off a reference letter that isn’t tailored to the scholarship. Some scholarship committees don’t penalize the student for this – but others do. </p>
<p>Please hug your girl close – she is a winner in your heart. But don’t **** on all Rhodes kids as insider picks, because that isn’t true and isn’t fair.</p>
<p>Scholarships at that level are hyper-competitive, even just to get to the interview stage. Candidates with amazing profiles get flat out rejected all the time. </p>
<p>Surely you can at least appreciate that you just might be slightly biased in forming an opinion here about who “should” and “shouldn’t” have been selected. </p>
<p>However, I don’t understand your flat out bashing of the scholarship. Would you have felt the same way if she was selected… or is it just because YOUR daughter wasn’t selected that suddenly now the scholarship has gone to crap? </p>
<p>She didn’t get chosen. You win some, you lose some. Honestly, it’s time to move on.</p>
<p>It isn’t about winning- it should be something you do because you want to.</p>
<p>*Only forty Marshall and thirty-two Rhodes scholarships are available in the United States each year, so the question is logical – why bother applying? The number of students who “self-select out” of the Rhodes and Marshall process for this reason is probably huge. Yet if one wants to be philosophical about the chances, then ask yourself why an athlete trains for Olympic gold or an oft rejected writer continues to send in manuscripts to unyielding publishers. Reed has produced Rhodes and Marshall scholars in the past, and one of the longest serving national Marshall selectors told me that he considered Reed a natural source of Marshall scholars, and there are also Rhodes and Marshall scholars on the current faculty. In other words, these scholarships are not as distant as they might first appear.</p>
<p>Yet by definition, it is still a long shot, but someone will win. There will be much blood, sweat and tears shed during the process – there is no such thing as a casual application – but the process is also a great deal of fun.*</p>
<p>Despite the OP’s rant, you will see a very diverse group of students with an amazing array of accomplishments. While many do come from Ivy League schools, the 2009 group included students from CUNY, Augsburg College, Centre College, and many state U’s.</p>
<p>This statement makes you look foolish. You don’t think that playing on (and leading, in this case) a FBS football team, defending National Champions, is a significant EC?</p>
<p>Obviously you are upset that your daughter didn’t advance in the competition. Bashing a student-athlete who has moved to the next step reeks of poor sportmanship. As Captain Hook would say: “Bad form!”</p>
<p>Sory, ZP, but I think your post sounds petty, mean-spirited, and off-balance. Your obviously gifted daughter was not selected, nor even interviewed. THAT DOESN’T MEAN THE SCHOLARSHIP IS A “BS AWARD.” Nor that its program administrators are “prestige whores.” Nor that those who are selected are undeserving. Nor that your pet chihuahua (“Chiwawa?” Really?) could “make a move for a 4.0” in McElroy’s program at UA. Where is your gratitude for the prestigious awards your d has won? Or did you think they simply confirmed that she would never face a disappointment?</p>
<p>Sometimes really talented people don’t win. Sometimes they aren’t admitted to the programs they apply for. I’ve been on CC a long time and I don’t think I’ve ever read a post as envious as yours. I’m sure your d has responded with more maturity and grace. Even if you were just venting, you need to support what you’re saying with points that have some basis in reality. Yours don’t.</p>
<p>My nephew is being interviewed for a Fulbright. He has no athletics other than judo, and no major ECs. Also at a lower tier school. Maybe thats a better route for your dau?</p>
<p>Belatedly realizing that this puzzles me a bit:
I didn’t realize that interviews were part of the law school application process? I know that several T14 and Tier 1 law schools have on-campus visitation programs. But I always thought that med and law school applications differed in that prospective law students weren’t selected for interviews. This may not be what the OP meant (and I do wonder if he/she might be ■■■■■■■■, anyway) - can someone clarify about law school interviews?</p>
<p>Only 1 post & Zona comes on to rant? Perhaps a â– â– â– â– â– ?</p>
<p>Anyway, regarding Mr. McElroy: he is a member of the UA Honors College and I know for a fact that he has been involved with the Focus First/Impact Alabama eye screening program for underprivileged children in the state of Alabama. Also, he has already completed his Bachelors degree & is currently working on his Masters. Success and leadership in athletics is one of the components in the selection of the Rhodes recipient and certainly someone who only lost 1 game from 9th grade through this past October would get a checkmark in that category.</p>
<p>I have a strong academic student too & there were some scholarships she applied for that she didn’t get. That’s life. I can’t imagine having so much energy involved in 1 particular program that it would make me so angry. </p>
<p>Wowser, hopefully OP you feel better today. I wouldn’t get all knotted up about your D. Clearly she’s heading for a good law school and that is great in and of itself. Not making the cut is a minor blip and there will most likely be others. Hopefully she’s not as upset as you.</p>
<p>Prestige whores? Jiminy. lol. Your D applied for a Rhodes to study at Oxford? Or to win a Rhodes? It sounds like it might have been the latter. Probably not a good use of time, given the odds. Does she still have plans to make it to Oxford? Or was it all about the “ribbon”?</p>
<p>My kid was a flat out reject, too. But since her goal was to study at Oxford (hopefully with a particular researcher in a current field of interest) she is still looking into other options to do that. But it was the opportunity to study , and the scholarship, and yeah… the award would have been nice, too. She’s not immune. </p>
<p>For those science-y kids interested in the Rhodes, one caveat. The following is only my impression of the process. Other folks may have a different take. Understand the process. Understand the essay. It’s NOT about your research ,the quality thereof, and your plans for future research. Your readers will **not<a href=“all”>/b</a> be sophisticated scientists in your discipline, up to date on the latest research. (This may be applicable to other fields as well, and I think it is, but since I don’t “know” that, I’m saying “may be”.) </p>
<p>The selection process is far more about who they think you are (and will become) rather than what they think you’ve done. It is not a reward for past scholastic or scholarly performance. I know at least one kid who could not get that through her head. But I tried. As usual , my mule-headed kid did it her way. So be it. (And I had some knowledgeable advisors helping me help her. She changed her approach “some” in response…but)</p>
<p>p.s. She’s still doing fine. Didn’t slow her down a whit. Didn’t appear to leave a mark. (She’s a confident little cuss. ;))</p>
Does she still have plans to make it to Oxford? Or was it all about the “ribbon”?</p>