<p>UH-OH!
This thread has been great- a string of chuckles. Then I googled the OP’s “name” - laugh on.</p>
<p>The zona pellucida, formerly called the zona striata, is a membrane surrounding an oocyte, or egg cell, made of glycoprotein. It binds sperm and is essential to the acrosome reaction, which helps a sperm penetrate the egg cell during fertilization. </p>
<p>No question in my mind; the OP is outed.</p>
<p>ps. Thanks to all for the education, tonight, on what the Rhodes is about.</p>
<p>OK, I’m dense. How is the scientific explanation an outing of the OP? (Apologies for my stupidity.) Is it just that the username is a play on words?</p>
<p>Guessing they mean outed as a ■■■■■. This thread is ridiculous, IMO.</p>
<p>I would agree that it’s probably a ■■■■■. Since the OP’s d could be “outed” by the info posted, if the OP was writing about a real situation, they would have screamed to the mods to remove the thread.</p>
<p>Ok I just have to get this out. Who the **** are you to say that he has nothing to show except football? Do you know the kid personally? Have you met him and his family? Do you know ANYTHING about the kid? I have to say, coming from an adult, that could have been one of the most ignorant statements I have ever heard. </p>
<p>Though your daughter has won other “prestigious” awards, in no way does it qualify her for the Rhodes Scholarship. Maybe she didn’t have what the scholarship is looking for. Long story short, I hope your not treating your daughter like she deserved to get the scholarship. If you are, you will have one screwed up kid. For christ sakes, my parents doubt all the colleges I’m applying to because they don’t want to get my hopes up.</p>
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<p>The OP is named for the external covering of the ovum. Symbolic? - it could be a hint. :)</p>
<p>The OP poses as some disgruntled mother with a poor writing style and serious anger issues. For a while, we figure Zona P is just some unusual ethnic name. The choice of name from a scientific detail most of us wouldn’t recognize…I envision the OP laughing in a corner. And, his/her profile shows 27 years old.</p>
<p>Well, I found two students who meet the OP’s D’s description in post 1. Both exceptional. Both worthy of admiration. Both also seem to be the type to not let this bother them . At all. Water off a duck’s back. They seem very committed to greater goals than ribbon collecting. (OP. Only one of them attends a school where merit scholarships are given. ;)) </p>
<p>If the OP is real, and if the D is one of these two, no worries. Their biographies suggest they’ll be just fine without another “ribbon”.</p>
<p>One may hope that if this OP is a parent and there is an actual student involved, that he/she has a much better perspective on things than his/her parent!</p>
<p>“No need to restate the obvious, the Rhodes people are prestege whores.”</p>
<p>Whether the OP is a ■■■■■ or not, people who are not themselves prestige whores wouldn’t care very much about the Rhodes. It’s a brand name, just like Harvard. There are lots of other scholarships out there if you want to study in the UK.</p>
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<p>I am willing to bet that is a pretty easy program.</p>
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You want a Mulligan on that one, Hanna? Is that really what you wanted to say? Or maybe it came out a little bit stronger than you intended?</p>
<p>*First of all, he’s a sports management grad student. He got his Bachelors in 3 years (grad in 09), and he will have his masters in May.</p>
<p>You have no idea how difficult or easy that masters program is.</p>
<p>I am willing to bet that is a pretty easy program.*</p>
<p>Why? Are you familiar with the difficulty of a grad degree in Sports Management? </p>
<p>I agree it’s not Particle Physics…but that doesn’t make it “easy.”</p>
<p>No, what makes it easy is: </p>
<p>(a) It’s “Sports Management”. Give me a break. </p>
<p>(b) The starting quarterback on the University of Alabama football team can handle it during football season. No matter how smart he is. I have seen tough master’s programs, and been through law school. No one was on the practice field or working out 6 hours + per day, and no one was travelling every other weekend. Or doing media.</p>
<p>My two cents as somehow who actually went through the Rhodes interview process in a region with a rather famous athlete a few years ago: </p>
<p>The worst part is the media coverage. There were reporters hiding everywhere in the interviewee hotel, stalking us for quotes in the elevators. They were mostly sportswriters intent on deifying the athlete and their stories reflected a complete lack of perspective. Most annoying was one writer in particular who breathlessly wrote that the athlete had gone through dozens of practice interviews and thus worked harder than anyone else there. It’s rather awkward to be sitting in the green room watching ESPN and seeing breaking news updates on the status of the guy sitting next to you. The adulation was (and has continued to be) insanely over the top and was immensely disrespectful to the other interviewees. </p>
<p>I prefer not to get into specifics in public, but I will say that though I disagreed with the decision (particularly because there were a number of other deserving student athletes who didn’t get the same media blitz), the Rhodes Trust is a private organization and can award their scholarships any way that they would like. I suspect that a confluence of a positive PR bonanza and a desire to reward academically strong student athletes lead to events like what the OP was complaining about. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that and indeed is in the spirit of the Rhodes Trust’s guidelines. </p>
<p>My concern is that a number of state schools and LACs are putting enormous resources into trying to win these scholarships and are hyping them up to an alarming extent. When I visited several honors colleges in my junior year of high school, they immediately jumped on telling me all about the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman et. al. and throughout my undergrad career I was strongly encouraged to make those my ultimate goal. The problem is that there are so many exceptional students out there that it’s impossible for the selection committees to reward all of them (plus there’s a large element of luck involved), so many students end up working for years towards this one goal only to see their dreams unceremoniously crushed. And those who do win get promoted to near “living-legend” status by their schools (i.e. carving their name in stone!). On the other hand, the process is also exhilarating and a good way to force students to think about their goals, so it’s not a bad experience to go through anyways so long as you don’t neglect your applications to grad schools (the application processes and what’s rewarded in each are extremely different). </p>
<p>What’s needed is a bit more perspective that this is, in the end, just another scholarship and won’t make or break your life if you don’t get it (though it’s nice to have, particularly if you passed up on a “prestige” university for undergrad). It’s great if you can get it, but like any other prestigious label, it should be taken with a grain of salt and not a yardstick of one’s (or a university’s) intellectual worth.</p>
<p>I’ve known a lot of people who held down 30-hour-a-week jobs during real graduate programs (like law school, including Harvard Law).</p>
<p>But come on. We’re not talking about Harvard Law here. We know a Mickey Mouse program when we see it.</p>
<p>[Curriculum](<a href=“http://sportmanagement.ua.edu/ches/?page_id=9”>http://sportmanagement.ua.edu/ches/?page_id=9</a>)</p>
<p>In contrast, compare Auburn’s finalists to Alabama’s. The gymnast with a 3.91 in chemistry knows about balancing mind and body:</p>
<p>[Greg</a> McElroy not the only Rhodes Scholar finalist in Alabama; Auburn has 2 finalists | al.com](<a href=“http://blog.al.com/live/2010/11/auburn_rhodes_scholars.html]Greg”>Greg McElroy not the only Rhodes Scholar finalist in Alabama; Auburn has 2 finalists - al.com)</p>
<p>That being said, the Rhodes has had a required athletic component from the word go, and McElroy smokes the typical Rhodes finalist when it comes to achievement in that field, so why not?</p>
<p>Jesus Christ. Some of us have kids who are trying very hard to make it in this economic climate! The OP must be a ■■■■■, I have no other explanation! Crying over not getting a Rhodes??</p>
<p>I don’t have others’ sense of humor, I am not laughing…unless of course this guy is a ■■■■■, but even then I am not laughing…</p>
<p>I thought athletics were just as much a part of the Rhodes Scholarship’s initial criteria as the other ones. So what’s the problem?</p>
<p>The OP hurled insults at Myron Rolle, Clearly she has no idea who he is and what he accomplished off of the football field. Or of the not-for-profit foundation he has already set up, Or of his 3.8 taking premed courses. Marvin is a true scholar athlete. He graduated with his BS in 2 1/2 years with his advanced placement DE/AP/IB credits. He completed his masters in Medical Anthropology at Oxford.</p>
<p>I have taken medical mission trip to rural Jamaica, and one day I would be honored to travel to Exuma, Bahmas to volunteer at the free clinic Myron is establishing there, the birthplace of his parents. He has already acquired the land, and building plans are in the works. He completed his education at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and yes is playing for the NFL prior to attending medical school. He knows that he cannot carry out his dreams with the salary he would make as a physician. So after what is likely a short football career, he will be back in the classroom. </p>
<p>Sad that he is identified, and chastised, as an athlete. He is the real deal. But he would never tell you so. And his momma would never post something like this. Ever.</p>