The Rhodes scholarship is not really an indicator of academic excellence. With the exception of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, USMA and Yale, all of which usually produce multiple winners annually, most other universities average fewer than 1 winner annually. Here are some of the more successful universities at producing Rhodes Scholars. As clearly illustrated below, quality of the academic institution and the number of Rhodes Scholars are very loosely correlated.
Dartmouth College 62
Brown University 55
University of Virginia 51
University of Chicago 50
United States Naval Academy 47
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 45
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 44
Duke University 42
United States Air Force Academy 38
University of Washington 37
Williams College 35
University of Wisconsin-Madison 32
Reed College 31
Cornell University 30
Swarthmore College 28
University of Oklahoma 28
University of Texas-Austin 28
Columbia University 27
University of Montana 27
Washington University-St Louis 27
Sewanee: The University of the South 26
University of Kansas 26
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 26
Vanderbilt University 26
University of Mississippi 25
Georgetown University 24
University of Arizona 24
University of California-Berkeley 24
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 24
University of West Virginia 24
Davidson College 23
University of Georgia 23
Bowdoin College 22
University of Nebraska 22
University of Utah 22
Amherst College 20
Haverford College 20
University of Idaho 20
University of Pennsylvania 20
Johns Hopkins University 19
University of Colorado 19
University of Iowa 19
University of Oregon 19
Carleton College 18
Emory University 18
Tulane University 18
University of Missouri 18
University of Nevada 18
University of Wyoming 18
Michigan State University 17
Middlebury College 16
Northwestern University 16
Oberlin College 16
University of New Mexico 16
University of Notre Dame 16
University of Alabama 15
Wake Forest University 15
Schools like Boston University, NYU and USC have produced fewer than 10 each.
Penn State and Purdue have produced 2 Rhodes scholars each, while Northwestern has 16, one less than MSU. Why would our learned Doctor Kat singled out two of the ‘weaker’ institutions in this area? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say “including Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota” (though I doubt that it is true)? I wonder if Dr. Kat has done proper research when she claimed that “Since the 1970s MSU has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any other Big Ten institution, including Northwestern, Penn State, and Purdue.” And it makes you wonder about the validity of her version of “Colleges that change lives”.
Well GoBlue, from a Rhodes Scholars production since 1970 point of view, MSU has definitely done better than Michigan, particularly in the 1970-1990 period. Since then, neither has been that good to be honest. That being said, I am not sure Rhodes Scholars are an indicator of academic excellence. If there is a scholarship that demonstrates widespread academic excellence, it would have to be the Fulbright.
As a current student at Michigan, I have to say that our residential college isn’t really much of a residential college. It’s basically a different set of curriculum requirements based around intensive language study and guaranteed housing for all RC kids in the East Quad.
Regardless, I’d encourage you to go to Michigan because of it’s versatility. We haven’t even finished our freshmen year, and I’ve had several friends change their majors already. I’m not going to blast MSU in any capacity because I don’t know much about their curriculum, but Michigan is well know for being good to excellent in many, many different areas.
Yo this is late but I was committed to MSU until I was admitted to U-M later and I was still like “well I’m probably going to MSU”
I wanted to do polisci but not 100% sure, but overall Michigan is a better school in all aspects. For polisci, the department has incredible professors that are world renowned along with programs like Michigan in Washington, internships with the UN and Canada Parliament, etc.
The biggest push that changed my decision for me was that MSU and U-M both had everything I wanted in a big school atmosphere, but U-M had everything MSU had and more.
I’m a current polisci major at U-M and I love it so far, it’s definitely tough but I couldn’t see myself anywhere else. Hope this helped, go blue!!!