DEADLINE:
Global Endorsement Applications due: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 11:59pm via CARAT
US and Canada Endorsement Applications due: Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 11:59pm via CARAT
*Deadlines vary by country, check with URAF
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Rhodes Scholarships are given annually to students who demonstrate promise in scholarship, character, and leadership. The Scholarship provides for tuition and a stipend for two to three years of study at Oxford University.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Cecil J. Rhodes, the British colonial pioneer and statesman, dreamed of improving the world through the diffusion of leaders motivated to serve their contemporaries, trained in the contemplative life of the mind, and broadened by their acquaintance with one another and by their exposure to cultures different from their own. Mr. Rhodes believed that, in addition to its eminence in the world of learning, Oxford University—with its emphasis on individualized instruction and on the community life provided by residential colleges—offered an environment highly congenial to personal and intellectual development.
Mr. Rhodes wished his Scholars to benefit from education at Oxford and to return, enriched by their experience, to contributive careers in their home countries, without losing the affection for the University of Oxford and for the United Kingdom, which he believed that experience would nurture. The Scholarships are for this reason best seen as long-term investments in the growth of promising young persons and in the encouragement of ever-closer international relations.
Eligibility:
Applicants must be graduating Harvard College seniors or alumni under the age of 24 as of October 1 of the year of application. Applicants must hold a cumulative GPA of no less than 3.7. Applicants for the U.S. Rhodes competition must be U.S. citizens, Permanent Residents, or DACA Recipients. Citizenship requirements for other Rhodes constituent counties vary, check with URAF for more information.
Benefits:
Thirty-two Scholarships are assigned annually to U.S. candidates grouped into 16 districts, with two winners per district. Successful candidates will be placed in departments at Oxford University, according to the candidates’ preference insofar as possible. Scholarships cover all tuition fees plus a maintenance stipend of not less than £14,276 per year for two or three years. *In some cases a fourth year may be undertaken, but the scholarship will be reduced for that time. The Rhodes Trust will assist successful candidates with their traveling expenses to and from Oxford.
Selection Criteria:
The criteria which Mr. Rhodes set forth in his will still guide Committees of Selection in their assessment of applicants. The will contains four standards by which prospective Rhodes Scholars should be judged:
- literary and scholastic attainments;
- energy to use one’s talents to the full;
- truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
- moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.
Underlying these standards is the aim that Scholars be physically, intellectually, and morally capable of leadership, that is, persons who will "esteem the performance of public duties as [their] highest aim." From this statement one may infer that Scholars should plan to play an influential part in the betterment of society, wherever their careers might lead them. Mr. Rhodes wanted the administrators of his Will to seek out those qualities of excellence in young people which would contribute to "the world’s fight."
- Endorsement applications due (for "Global" applicants): Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 11:59pm
- Intent to Apply Survey due (for U.S. and Canadian applicants): August 1, 2023 at 11:59pm via Qualtrics
- Endorsement applications due (for U.S. and Canadian applicants): Thursday, August 10, 2023 at 11:59pm
- Applications due (for other Rhodes constituent countries): varies
- Endorsement Committee meeting: ~September 7
- Canadian national deadline: TBA
- U.S. national deadline: TBA
- U.S. District interviews: TBA