Anonymous wrote:The military academies basically identify certain students as freshmen who they think are Rhodes caliber, and then they groom them very intentionally. The LACS are often similar -- small schools, intensive interactions with the students. The applications get read a dozen times before the student submits them, they control who gets to apply (may only recommend one or two students every year to apply), and they do practice interviews with the students (and I imagine the military students interview really well.)
If big state schools aren't having students win these awards, it's likely they don't have the same kind of emphasis and pipelines for creating these applications.
As someone who has sat on a lot of interview committees for a lot of these types of awards, what I am struck by is that it truly seems like the end of political correctness or wokeness or whatever you want to call it. These applicants this year read much more traditional to me -- fewer social justice type projects for the students, fewer social justice majors, and I'm wondering about racial and ethnic demographics. It would be interesting to compare this year's crop with the previous five years or so.
How can you get a “read” on this year’s applicants? You can’t unless you served on a district committee. Rhodes is notoriously woke at Oxford and derided for it.