<p>If any of you are in "decision making " mode and you are a science major you might be interested in knowing that this past Friday Rhodes College had 3 sophomores named Goldwater Scholars The Goldwater Scholar designation and Award is the preeminent UG award for math, science, physics , and engineering. Usually only about 30% of the Scholars are selected as sophs (the other 70% are this year's juniors). Realize, the sophs are being judged on their potential as serious scientists and by app time they've been in school 3 whole semesters. LOL. They receive up to $7500 to be used towards tuition, required fees , room , board, and books. To have three sophs win would be amazing for any university in the U.S. . For it to be from a school of 1700, it's...it's.....pretty dang good. ;)</p>
<p>(Maybe more interesting to some, the national numbers were very skewed. 189 Males, 132 Females. 3 of the females were sophs from Rhodes. If historical percentages hold Rhodes had @8% of the nation's sophomore female winners.)</p>
<p>But the money is the least of it. Grad schools love the award (as do MD/PhD. programs and the NIH) and it seems to be a decent indicator for later awards (6/32 Rhodes Recipients, 8/40 Marshall were GS). </p>
<p>I have not seen the breakdown yet but it is not unusual for Harvard, JHU, Yale, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan to get only 2 or 3 (you can only have 4). Rhodes has really made a big move. I believe Rhodes now has 5 over the last 3 years , 4 winners as sophs, and 2 students from the same bio lab. The labs these kids work in (and for) are doing serious funded research and these kids are given independent experiments to carry out. They have all presented their work at conferences (one girl in Utrecht) at their lab's expense. No Scut Allowed. LOL. </p>
<p>If you want a small school with all that Rhodes has to offer, plus Med School mentors, St.Jude's mentors, lots of volunteer opps but were still wondering if such a small school can compete with the big dogs, Rhodes just let out a big WOOF!! on Friday.</p>
<p>I'm sorry. $7500 a year. I didn't make that clear.</p>
<p>Thanks for this update curmudgeon.</p>
<p>This is quite a result for a school with only 1700 students. (425 or so sophomores?)</p>
<p>I think this speaks for several things that are good about Rhodes:</p>
<p>-the overall quality and competitiveness (in a good way) of the student body
- the strength of Rhodes' science offerings (labs, coursework, research, commitment of the faculty)
- the commitment of the faculty overall in recognizing what these types of awards to can mean to the individual student, and their ability to recognize and promote the students who are strong candidates for such prestigious awards.</p>
<p>My s is interested more in int'l studies and economics, and he really likes Rhodes, but I get the sense that overall Rhodes is a stronger bet for the sciencey / pre-med types than folks like my son. Not that Rhodes would be weak, but it's just that they seem to really shine in the sciences.</p>
<p>Au contraire. ;) Rhodes is A number one in IR. Just really first rate. A few ago Rhodes had a Rhodes out of that department and gets plenty of kids where they want to go. Rhodes has a literally fantastic poli sci and IR (I think they call it IS) program. I would say that the chem and bio are quite strong, but English, IS, and PoliSci are right there, too.</p>
<p>I tried and tried to find good indicators of the strength of Rhodes' IS and Econ programs.</p>
<p>Virtually all of my interactions with representative Rhodes students were with science majors, who had little concrete information about these other programs.</p>
<p>There are, notably, paid IS internships available from FedEx, and at least the description says that international assignments for interns are available. That's a definite plus.</p>
<p>I also noticed that Rhodes cooperates with American University to allow students to do a Washington Semester, focusing on one of several fields (Foreign Policy, Economics and Trade, etc.). That's also cool.</p>
<p>However, I cannot seem to find any reports on research programs/institutes nor significant student awards. </p>
<p>Other than the Rhodes award, are you aware of any of other achievements/activity in IS?</p>
<p>My S is interested in a Psych major. Do you have any input on how this major stacks up against others such as science or IS?</p>
<p>paintball, I have no data points on psych. Just haven't met any, sorry. </p>
<p>But my D's roomie is an IS and Greek and Roman Studies major. What a combo. I know there are 4 separate IS interdisciplinary programs (IS and History, IS and PoliSci, IS and Econ,...uhhhh.... IS and _____. I know that there are two foreign educated Prof's in the department (one very impressive fellow from Kenya). 7 IS profs I think. </p>
<p>I'd have to think there is a good deal of Psych going on as there is a lot of overlap between psych and Bio in the work of Dr. Blundon. Very impressive neuroscience dude. Check him out.</p>
<p>Paintball - I second curmudgeon's recommendation on the Neuroscience program. That's a very good program with several opportunities to engage in research and/or internships. </p>
<p>I was a psych major as well (long ago) and almost took a neuroscience focus. (I didn't - I took a Cognitive Science focus.) But there is and will continue to be a lot of movement and opportunity in the neuroscience domain -- it would be my first recommendation to anyone interested in human behavior as long as they can handle the science (bio, physiology, etc.)</p>
<p>Actually my S's strenght is Chem. His senior AP Chem is the same class taught to freshman @ Berkley and he has been a school approved Chem tutor since the 11th grade - perhaps one of these professors can rekindle his dwindling interest in combo with Psych. Looking forward to our visit in a couple of weeks! Thanks to both of you.</p>
<p>Ooh!! Chem I know about as D is a Bio and Chem double major. Big doings in chem. The other two Goldwaters were both won by Chem majors. Jackson-Hayes, Loprete, and Cafiero will get the fire lit. Huge opps, well supported. Can't be in a better place if they want to bust their rear and excel. Check out the research being done. One of D's friends will be in Scotland this summer working on her computational somethingorother.Last year as a freshman she presented in Utrecht. Very impressive kid.</p>
<p>paintball -- with a strong chem background and an interest in psych, I see a neuroscientist in the future. :-) . Neurochemistry, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, neuropsychology are some possible foci at the graduate school level. Rhodes' program would prepare him to go in any of these directions. </p>
<p>There is also the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program - he would have a leg up there with his strong chem background.</p>
<p>I see that hard sciences are clearly a strong suit, remains to be seen if my S moves in that direction. Thanks.</p>