Here is the list from Canada:
Two of them are students at Dartmouth.
Last year when my D was a high school senior and in the time period between turning in her college application and receiving her ED results, she was offered a one day job working for the committee that was interviewing the Rhodes Scholar finalists in our district. She helped set up a light lunch for the committee, but her main job was to greet the applicants and sit with them while they waited for their interviews.
She got to meet and converse with some amazingly interesting, successful and motivated students, but she also got to be in the position of being the one to help calm them down. She was able to see that they could be human and nervous and more like her than she might have suspected from reading their dazzling resumes. She later found out that one of the candidates she liked and was inspired by the most (and who happened to have gone to her high school) was one of the winners. It was a fantastic experience for her, especially at that intense time when she was poised to find out where her own academic journey would soon take place.
@Twoin18 Regarding UVA and Berkeley, the Rhodes Scholarship has existed for quite a while. My understanding is the recipients in earlier periods tended to be more from Eastern schools that had established relationships with the people in the selection process. The difference between UVA and Berkeley was probably impacted by this, and you should look more at the pattern over the last 20 years or so to get a better picture. The process has become more broadly meritocratic and has better geographic representation.
As you can see, there is still very heavy representation from elite privates, which is probably to be expected given their selectivity. It helps, though, to have people who know the process and can help identify, nurture, and develop applicants.
@IzzoOne In the last 20 years (i.e. 2000-19) UVA has had 10 winners (2005x2, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014x2, 2016, 2017x2) whereas Berkeley had 4 (2003, 2008, 2013, 2014).
In the previous 30 years, UVA had 10 more (1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999) whereas Berkeley had only 2 (1988, 1989). See http://www.rhodesscholar.org/winners/winning-institutions/
So UVA has been fairly consistent, whereas Berkeley has not been so competitive for the scholarships, and if anything it’s had less relative success since WW2. I think the Jefferson scholarship is likely a big benefit for UVA, given the connections and focused mentoring it brings. I wonder if some Californian billionaire has thought about setting up something similar (sounds like the Boettcher Scholarship in Colorado could be an appropriate model)?
Last year a guy won who transferred to our local giant commuter school after completing the community college, having nearly dropped out of HS. I always wonder how much grooming went into his application. Our city’s winner this year also was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
@Twoin18 , Good data, and I think suggests Berkeley is “underperforming”. I think the Jefferson Scholarship dates from about 1981, though, and it has never been a huge program in numbers, so I am not sure it explains the difference. I think the schools that produce the most tend to 1) have a history of producing Rhodes Scholars 2) identify and encourage promising applicants, and 3) help applicants apply and prep for interviews.
The Rhodes Trust on the subject:
http://www.rhodesscholar.org/winners/college-and-university-winners/
Not exactly apples vs oranges- Rhodes vs Fullbright Scholarships…
Fulbright Top Producing Resarch Institutions 2017-2018
Institution State Grants Applications
Brown University Rhode Island 39 118
University of Notre Dame Indiana 29 86
Northwestern University. Illinois 25 119
Princeton University New Jersey 25 89
University of Michigan. Michigan 25 109
Harvard University Mass. 24 118
University of Chicago Illinois 23 100
Georgetown University DC. 22 113
University of S. California California 22 73
Indiana University. Indiana 21 63
U. California-Berkeley California 21 65
University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 21. 108
Fulbright Top Producing Research Institutions 2026-2017
Institution State Gants Applications
Brown University Rhode Island 30 110
Georgetown University District Of Columbia 27 116
University of Notre Dame Indiana 27 95
Harvard University Massachusetts 26 137
University of Chicago Illinois 26 111
Princeton University New Jersey 22 111
Columbia University New York 21 100
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Michigan 21 102
University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 21 92
University of Washington Washington 21 72
A kid from our HS, acquaintance of my son, was a finalist (as reported in local media), but apparently did not win (since he is not listed). A kid from my son’s public college won as well. But clearly most of the scholars are from the super elite colleges.
Congrats to all the winners!
“I think the Jefferson Scholarship dates from about 1981, though, and it has never been a huge program in numbers, so I am not sure it explains the difference.”
It TOTALLY explains the difference.
According to the Jefferson Scholar program, they’ve had 10 Rhodes Scholars in the past 25 years. Almost every (and quite possibly every) Rhodes Scholar from UVA in recent years has been a Jefferson Scholar. There’s only about 35 Jefferson Scholars per year, so the Rhodes output numbers for the Jeff Scholars program are super impressive. But not surprising.
Scholarships like the Jefferson, Morehead etc. were consciously modeled after the Rhodes (including the ultra-competitive Rhodes-like process to get them). So you start with a very small, highly pre-screened, uber-talented pool. And then you provide lots and lots of resources to coach those elite prospects up.
There’s powerful reasons (beyond the scholarship money) that kids routinely turn down spots at HYPS to accept one of these “state school” scholarships.
You have to also look at when University was founded.
@northwesty No. My point was UVA has had something like 53 Rhodes Scholars, most predating the Jefferson Scholarship. In comparing UVA to Berkeley, then, I was saying the Jefferson doesn’t fully explain the historical difference as there was success before the Jefferson existed, and UVA outperformed Berkeley before the Jefferson existed. To your point, it could well be that today, particularly for public institutions, scholarship programs like Jefferson are needed to compete on a more equal footing with the exclusive private schools, since strong candidates need to be enrolled and developed and prepped.
Interestingly, the University of Montana has produced about the same number of Rhodes Scholars on a per capita basis as UVA (28 total with an undergraduate enrollment of 9,300).
My daughter is a top (full ride) scholarship winner at a school and I can tell you that winning these types of scholarships (such as Jefferson) probably do factor in. First, the students are already high achieveing. Second, they are “identified” early on and are mentored, and given information about extra programs, etc. that can help them build their resume that will eventually go in to their application for Rhodes and Fullbright, or whatever else they may apply for.
But the most important factor I believe is that these students are on full ride scholarships. Money isn’t an object. Instead of spending their time working to support themselves through college, they’re able to devote time to pursuits which fit the selection criteria for a Rhodes scholarship. Some of these scholarships come with extra funding that would cover their living costs if they wanted to spend a summer doing volunteer work or lobbying, or organizing community groups or something else that makes them stand out.
UVa is less than 50 years older than Berkeley. Given that Berkeley was founded long before the Rhodes Scholarship was established, and that at the time the Rhodes Trust was established it was regarded as one of America’s premier research universities (a status UVa did not have at the time), I don’t think the comparative age of the two universities matters at all. (If age were important, Stanford and Chicago wouldn’t do as well as they have. and the USAFA wouldn’t have two winners this year.)
Separately, I heard an interview on the radio with Jin Park, the first Rhodes Scholar from the US who is an undocumented immigrant. He’s a DACA recipient from Queens, and a senior at Harvard. Undocumented immigrants were not permitted to apply until he petitioned to do so, and they changed the rules to accept his application. He is luminously articulate, super super impressive. As you might imagine. https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-11-27/first-daca-student-pushed-boundaries-prestigious-rhodes-scholarship
IMO, anyone who turns down HYP in order to increase his or her odds of winning a Rhodes is being just plain silly.
The rules for winning a Rhodes have been changed. I’m not sure when the changes happened, but for a lot of years, step one in the competition was at the state level. Then the state winners competed at the district level. Moreover, the selection committees included past winners in that district. You could compete in EITHER your state of legal residence OR the state in which you attended college.
To become the winner at the state level in California was really difficult–much more difficult than becoming the winner in Virginia. You also had to be “endorsed” by your college. Getting “endorsed” was highly political–with a small p.
Why was it more difficult in California? Because Cali has a MUCH larger population than Virginia. Add to this that Stanford and, to a lesser extent, Cal Tech and Pomona also had applicants and you can see it’s tough. And my understanding–purely anecdotal–was that the selection committee was biased towards Stanford in the sense that it had more past alums who were winners and therefore on the selection committee. There are fewer top colleges in Virginia and UVa alums alllegedly dominated the selection committee. Pure hearsay–way out of date–I admit.
The Rhodes folks made some changes. California is now split into 2 districts. As I understand it, Stanford and Berkeley are now in 2 different districts. http://www.rhodesscholar.org/applying-for-the-scholarship/districts/ Tha# ot should, at least over time, increase the # of winners from UC-B.
It used to be that New York and Connecticut were in the same district, so Columbia and Yale kids were at a decided disadvantage unless they were residents of some other , less competitive state.
Anyway…that’s a long winded way of saying that historic #s for the Rhodes per school may not be that useful for predictive purposes any more, although I think UVa still benefits from being included in a district with Indiana and Kentucky.
Anecdote: Embarrassing to admit now but, junior year, my department head called me into his office to talk about applying for a Rhodes Scholarship, which I had never heard of, but when I eventually talked to the committee chair and learned that the obligation to study in England was non-negotiable, I said I wasn’t interested and cut the interview short. Why in the world would I want to go to school so far away and, besides, I couldn’t leave my boyfriend. I didn’t understand there was any prestige associated with it and never gave it another thought. It was probably years later before I had any real understanding of what the scholarship was all about. I’m sure I was too clueless to actually win it.
I wonder how the DACA student is going to get a passport and be able to travel back and forth to England. It is risky for him.
ChoatieMom wins today’s humble brag prize!
: )
I had the same thought about the DACA student. It IS risky for him. He can almost certainly obtain a student visa from the UK given enough lead time to work it out, but he may have to risk not being re-admitted to the US once he leaves. I imagine that there are plenty of countries that wouldn’t mind having him.
There was a similar case a few years back. My D knew the kid and was stunned when it came out he was illegal. She’d known him when he was in high school and always assumed he was American.