Grants and Fellowships

Rhodes Scholarships

The Rhodes scholarships were created by the will of Cecil J. Rhodes, a British colonial pioneer and statesman. They provide for two years of study at the University of Oxford, with the possibility of renewal for a third year. The Rhodes Trustees pay the Scholar all educational costs, maintenance, and travel expenses.

Cecil Rhodes wished to advance international understanding and peace by bringing together talented young men and women in an environment highly congenial to personal and intellectual development.

Rhodes specified that the persons chosen as Scholars should have demonstrated literary and scholastic attainments; truthfulness, courage , devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindness, unselfishness, and fellowship; exhibition of moral force of character and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in one's contemporaries; and physical vigor, as shown by fondness for and success in sports.

District Committees invite selected applicants to interview sessions near the end of November.  Two Rhodes Scholars are selected from each district.   A candidate must be a citizen of the United States, at least 18 years of age, and no more than 24 years of age. He or she must be a college senior, sure to graduate by October of the year of matriculation at Oxford.

Deadline for Application:  Late September. (Forms arrive in late summer. They are lengthy and require five to eight references.) Official deadlines are posted on the linked site.  Applicants must also seek institutional endorsement.

Liaison: Professor Miriam Carlisle (Classics)

Rhodes Scholarship Web Site