The Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships
	The qualifications

By their own admission, the Rhodes Trust and the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission are seeking similar candidates.  At one time, a Rhodes Scholar was regarded as more outgoing, well rounded and athletic, whereas a Marshall scholar was considered more focused on academics.  Now they almost mirror one another.  Wanting to improve its academic standing in the Oxford community, Rhodes House has in recent years placed more emphasis on academic success, and the notorious athletic qualification has paled into relative insignificance.  Marshall is also looking for outgoing young people to serve as good ambassadors to the United Kingdom, not pure scholars who will never leave the quietude of the library or laboratory.

In the broadest terms, they are looking for young leaders -- people who can connect theory to practice, emotion to reason, individual to community.  They want involved people who exhibit a restless curiosity and a rigorous compassion for others.  In their interviews, candidates are commonly asked, "What is your greatest accomplishment?"  The selectors want to know if that accomplishment includes a dimension of outreach, whether it be serving the greater scientific community or improving the circumstances of the less advantaged.

Rhodes Scholarships

Specific qualifications

The Rhodes Scholarship is available to U.S. students under 24 years of age by October 1 of the year of application and who will have received a bachelors degree prior to October 1 of the year they will begin to attend Oxford. (If you are not a U.S. citizen, check with me because the Rhodes is by no means limited to the United States. Americans in fact make up a minority of Rhodents.)

General qualifications

In the words of the Rhodes memorandum:

Proven intellectual and academic achievement of a high standard is the first quality required of applicants, but they will also be required to show integrity of character, interest in and respect for their fellow beings, the ability to lead, and the energy to use their talents to the full.

The following elaborate upon the above statement and originate from the American secretary of the Rhodes Trust and from a few personal reflections:

• Cecil Rhodes' will specified four criteria by which Rhodes Scholars are to be selected:
1. literary and scholastic attainments;
2. energy to use one's talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports [note as "exemplified" by sports -- sports are only one way to demonstrate one's energy and capacity to carry through with one's goals];
3. truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
4. moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings.
• The first quality is the most important; the second, least. As to the latter, energy is only "exemplified" by sports. Sports are just a single way of demonstrating one's energy and capacity to carry through with one's goals. They are a way of mixing with others, but many Rhodes Scholars have only limited if any athletic prowess. (Here I write from experience -- I have no athletic background at all.) The Rhodes selectors simply want people with sufficient vigor who will be able to make the most of this investment. Do not disqualify yourself on the basis of limited athletic achievements.
• The Rhodes selectors are explicitly aware that no one is a paragon of all four of the above categories. Instead they seek well-rounded students "with a bulge" -- that is, with a well developed talent or a sustained commitment to one or two areas. They want that person to use his or her talents or commitments to "fight the world's fight."
• These four qualities should be ongoing.  The candidate should be able to demonstrate a sustained commitment -- two years at a given interest is good.  Johnny-come-lately's are immediately spotted.
• Unlike the Marshall, Rhodes has no minimum GPA, but as the American secretary has noted, "The Rhodes Scholarship is an academic award.  While there are many things to enjoy on the Scholarship, students who do not want to apply themselves academically in an Oxford degree course should not apply."  Thus a high GPA will be expected of candidates.
• A Rhodes Scholar doesn't just study abroad in Germany during the junior year, but while there, gets involved in doing something unique and fulfilling, such as transcribing 12th century documents in the city archives.  That is, a Rhodes Scholar not only makes use of opportunity but pushes that opportunity to do something unique and meaningful.  A Rhodes Scholar doesn't merely candy stripe in the hospital but works with one disadvantaged individual over a sustained period of time, getting something out of the experience as well as giving out one's own energies.  A Rhodes Scholar need not be a "joiner" but defines his or her own role, pushing a bit beyond normal expectations (usually because he or she is so daft as to not recognize what the "normal expectations" were in the first place!).

Marshall Scholarships

Specific qualifications and structure of the selection process

The Marshall Scholarship is available to U.S. students having graduated after April 2000, usually with a post-freshman GPA of 3.7.

General qualifications

In the words of the Marshall rules:

In appointing Scholars the selectors will look for distinction of intellect and character as evidenced both by their scholastic attainments and by their other activities.  Preference will be given to candidates who combine high academic ability with the capacity to play an active part in the life of the United Kingdom university to which they go, and to those who display a potential to make a significant contribution to their own society.  Selectors will also look for strong motivation and seriousness of purpose, including the presentation of a specific and realistic academic program.

The following elaborate upon the above statement and originate from Marshall conferences and personal discussions with Marshall selectors:

• In the most general terms, Marshall scholars in the United Kingdom are expected to be able to communicate with many people who are very different from themselves, and once they leave the United Kingdom, it is hoped that they will be a kind of ambassador, one who understands and can be an advocate for Britain in their subsequent lives.
• Marshall selectors are often asked whether there are indeed shifts in desired student profiles and changes in directives "from the top."  Officially, the answer is "No."  It has been said that in the past, attempts were made to address imbalances in gender and ethnicity, but such is not necessarily the case now.  In the past, the disciplines of science and engineering have been popular, but now selectors will seriously consider most anything, even business oriented degrees if a degree of outreach and leadership can be demonstrated.  Thus a student's area of study is in itself not a problem.
• Yet the nature of that field of study may not necessarily foster an active, outgoing lifestyle needed for a healthy, beneficial interaction with one's community.
• For example, medievalists will have an uphill struggle because they have difficulty addressing the issue of increased Anglo-American interaction.
• A desire to study fine arts may suffer from an unsatisfactory justification to pursue such a program in the United Kingdom.
• A student who significantly changes his or her academic career -- chemists who in Britain would study international relations or even the history of science -- also faces an uphill struggle.  The selectors value consistency over hodge-podge academics.
• One selector told me he was uneasy about law and medical students because the Marshall Scholarship simply becomes a break from a pre-arranged program.  When asked "What will you do if you do not win?", those students who respond with plans of law or med. school "take the wind out of their sails."  (Compare this to the Rhodes qualifications above.)  The exception is a medical degree leading to research and a U.K. institution that can assist the scholar in that future research.  Yet a different selector told me of one successful candidate who admitted that this Marshall was his last chance to become a well rounded physician.
• Yet in all these cases, if a compelling case can be made and if a logic in pursuing these fields at specific U.K. institutions can be shown, a candidate need not be deterred.
• Students can pursue one year MAs in Britain using the Marshall as long as two successive one year programs are pursued and if they "make sense together."  Preference is given to two-year programs, and the pursuit of second undergraduate degrees is strongly encouraged.
• Students with a slightly less than 3.7 post freshman GPA may, in rare cases, be considered.  The selectors recognize that grade inflation has affected some institutions more than others, and a case can be made for Reed to be numbered among the latter.  Using the relevant statistics, the faculty endorsement will make a strong case on your behalf.

Wadham College Chapel, Oxford

Back to Rhodes & Marshall index

Forward to "Selecting and connecting"