Fellowships by LACs

[Anonymous]

Why is it that so few LAC students win fellowships or national awards?
Example, this year’s Churchill scholars has students from Texas A&M, but there’s only 1 LAC with a student who won: Pomona. That’s abysmal.

[Anonymous]

Number of students.

[Anonymous]

I know math is hard, but it seems Churchill only offers 18 scholarship every year, and only in STEM fields.

https://www.churchillscholarship.org/the-scholarship

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know math is hard, but it seems Churchill only offers 18 scholarship every year, and only in STEM fields.

https://www.churchillscholarship.org/the-scholarship

Most of their scholars are liberal arts stem majors: Physics, Chem, Bio, Math. There’s also scholars in public policy. There’s almost always a student from Harvard and Stanford every year and they’re not massive undergraduate institutions. These are really poor excuses.

[Anonymous]

Congrats to Pomona

[Anonymous]

Sewanee picked up its 28th Rhodes scholar this year.

[Anonymous]

Look, top grads usually have better things to do than get a 1-year master’s, even if it is paid for. Say, a fully-funded Ph.D program? This is nice and all, but not as prestigious as you think.

Anyhow, doesn’t Williams offer something similar, exclusively for 1-2 of its grads? Pomona gives out 2 every year to its grads….

[Anonymous]

Pomona:
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2025/07/07-two-members-class-2025-head-cambridge-university-downing-scholars

Williams:
https://fellowships.williams.edu/oxbridge-fellowship-info-session-and-new-application-procedures/

[Anonymous]

So given that top SLACs give this to their grads in-house, OP is, once again, inadvertently advertising for SLACs..

[Anonymous]

That’s 5% of recipients, about the same percentage of students who attend liberal arts colleges.

[Anonymous]

Very disappointing

[Anonymous]

Unpopular opinion: we should consult AI about our stupid questions before taking up DCUM server space to demonstrate how bird-brained we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, top grads usually have better things to do than get a 1-year master’s, even if it is paid for. Say, a fully-funded Ph.D program? This is nice and all, but not as prestigious as you think.

Anyhow, doesn’t Williams offer something similar, exclusively for 1-2 of its grads? Pomona gives out 2 every year to its grads….

A funded masters is sweet. You’re also gonna get a top advisor and great recommendation letters if you want to go into the best PhD program. There’s not really a reason to reject the offer.

[Anonymous]

They do well with Fulbrights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, top grads usually have better things to do than get a 1-year master’s, even if it is paid for. Say, a fully-funded Ph.D program? This is nice and all, but not as prestigious as you think.

Anyhow, doesn’t Williams offer something similar, exclusively for 1-2 of its grads? Pomona gives out 2 every year to its grads….

A funded masters is sweet. You’re also gonna get a top advisor and great recommendation letters if you want to go into the best PhD program. There’s not really a reason to reject the offer.

If you are already in one of the best, funded Ph.D programs, that is “really a reason to reject the offer.”