Comment of the Day
Posted on April 25th, 2012 in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
“I just wanted to add a few facts which may inform this discussion further. The Rhodes selection committee provides no funding for individuals selected to interview to fly to their home state/state of application. This automatically screens for a certain level of socio-economic privilege — like one of my friends said ‘do poor people ever win the Rhodes?’ It is a good question to ask. Secondly there is privilege within the Ivy-Rhodes, and, in particular, the Harvard-Rhodes nexus for preparing for this pinnacle status of a fellowship. Most public schools do not have the institutional resources to facilitate student applications to these very widely respected fellowships. Indeed many students in public school systems do not even know of the deadlines. These various points are often missed when the Rhodes is elevated as a peak achievement. And by peak achievement my focus is on relativity. It is viewed by many universities, students and the press alike as an achievement more extraordinary than other fellowships (like the Marshall or Fulbright), conventional vocations (health professions, teaching, etc), or community service based lifestyles.”
-Just posted on “Why Do We Care about Rhodes Scholars?”, 11/22/11
2 Responses
4/25/2012 1:45 pm
Might want to look at membership list of National Association of Fellowship Advisors: http://www.nafadvisors.org/members.php. Lots of public schools. Hundreds of professionals attend conferences where fellowship program reps (including from the Rhodes) talk about their offerings and competitions so that advisors can go back to their campuses, reach out to students, and facilitate applications (from identifying proposed courses of study to drafting essays and getting ready for interviews). Designated advisors might be full- or part-time staffers; or, they could be faculty with fellowship committee appointments. The point is, students from just about anywhere can apply with institutional support-including financial support to travel to interviews. Just go to some public, unknown college websites and search “Rhodes”; you’ll find responsible parties.
4/27/2012 9:36 am
Excellent student reporting in the four-part series “Money Matters” in the Brown Daily Herald , which considers questions of privilege, socioeconomic status on campus, and student employment goals, among other related issues. The last article on students flocking to jobs that offer structure and prestige (Teach for America is the biggest single employer of recent Brown graduates) is especially relevant to issues this blog has touched on.