I’m shocked that UVA has so many. I went there an eon ago, and I didn’t hear anything about applying for a Rhodes or Truman or Marshall or any other of those scholarships. I graduated from UVA with a 4.0 and went to Yale for law school, so I think I would have been competitive if I had applied. But I didn’t know anything about hothouse scholarships until I got to Yale and my classmates were talking about them.

Anonymous wrote:Someone should rerank this list based on how many alumni win Nobel Prizes, Field Prizes, etc.

That is essentially what the what ARWU rankings are (Highly Cited Research [HiCi], Alumni Nobel & Fields, etc.):

http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2020.html


1 Harvard University
2 Stanford University
3 University of Cambridge
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
5 University of California, Berkeley
6 Princeton University
7 Columbia University
8 California Institute of Technology
9 University of Oxford
10 University of Chicago
11 Yale University
12 Cornell University
13 University of California, Los Angeles
14 Paris-Saclay University
15 Johns Hopkins University

Methodology details:

http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-Methodology-2020.html

Where does UMD-College Park rank?

1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

Someone should rerank this list based on how many alumni win Nobel Prizes, Field Prizes, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/44935/2020-rs_number-of-winners-by-institution.pdf

Other "regionals" of note:

Georgetown 25
Johns Hopkins 21
Washington & Lee 17
VMI 9
Howard 3
U Maryland 2
Virginia Tech 2
UMBC 1
GWU 1

Most surprising absences?

UPenn
Columbia
Michigan
UC Berkeley
Cornell

Cornell - 31
Michigan - 27
Columbia - 27
Berkeley - 24
Penn - 23

Duke has twice the number of winners as Penn, with about half the undergrad population. Really surprised how low Columbia and Penn are.

Schools that proactively help groom applicants tend to do better, and having historical success leads to future success because the scholars help influence selection.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/44935/2020-rs_number-of-winners-by-institution.pdf

Other "regionals" of note:

Georgetown 25
Johns Hopkins 21
Washington & Lee 17
VMI 9
Howard 3
U Maryland 2
Virginia Tech 2
UMBC 1
GWU 1

Most surprising absences?

UPenn
Columbia
Michigan
UC Berkeley
Cornell

Cornell - 31
Michigan - 27
Columbia - 27
Berkeley - 24
Penn - 23

Duke has twice the number of winners as Penn, with about half the undergrad population. Really surprised how low Columbia and Penn are.

But they, in addition to Cornell, are the most pre-professional of the Ivies. So likely fewer students interested in pursuing a Rhodes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/44935/2020-rs_number-of-winners-by-institution.pdf

Other "regionals" of note:

Georgetown 25
Johns Hopkins 21
Washington & Lee 17
VMI 9
Howard 3
U Maryland 2
Virginia Tech 2
UMBC 1
GWU 1

Most surprising absences?

UPenn
Columbia
Michigan
UC Berkeley
Cornell

Cornell - 31
Michigan - 27
Columbia - 27
Berkeley - 24
Penn - 23

Duke has twice the number of winners as Penn, with about half the undergrad population. Really surprised how low Columbia and Penn are.

Anonymous wrote:...from a much larger base of students. Funny that you don’t think that matters.

So the biggest schools should have more winners then, right? But they don't.

Anonymous wrote:...from a much larger base of students. Funny that you don’t think that matters.

So what's UMD's excuse for having only 2? And why aren't much bigger state schools like Michigan and UC Berkeley not in the Top 10 or 15?

The UVA obsession on this board is so entertaining.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My alma mater, Reed College has the largest number for its student body size (32). Interesting that University of Washington is also up there...a lot of representation from the PNW.

Reed is a great school that draws a super driven student. Not surprising at all.

Reed is such an underrated place. The US News nonsense is absurd.

...from a much larger base of students. Funny that you don’t think that matters.

No, you still have it wrong. Because Washington &Lee and UVA are in the same Rhodes District, their applications are submitted and read together. A cut is made at that time and only the finalists are invited for formal interviews at the District 9 regional. At the regional, the UVA students who. Add the cut would be competing directly against the W&L applicants who made this cut (this year due to COViD the interviews were done by Zoom). One or two winners from the District are selected by the District 9 Committee and those lucky students get unconditional offers from Oxford. So either the UVA students are beating the W&L students at the first cut or they are beating them directly at the District 9 competition.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/44935/2020-rs_number-of-winners-by-institution.pdf

Other "regionals" of note:

Georgetown 25
Johns Hopkins 21
Washington & Lee 17
VMI 9
Howard 3
U Maryland 2
Virginia Tech 2
UMBC 1
GWU 1

Most surprising absences?

UPenn
Columbia
Michigan
UC Berkeley
Cornell

Cornell - 31
Michigan - 27
Columbia - 27
Berkeley - 24
Penn - 23

"Regional" Washington & Lee has produced 17 Rhodes Scholars to "National" UVA's 55. But wait! UVA has 9.3X as many undergraduate students. On a per capita basis, W&L has produced about 3X as many Rhodes Scholars as UVA. The miracles of math. . .

You can't use stats. in that fashion in this instance. First, women weren't even included until 1977 (Rhodes program started in 1903, but had a sporadic start). I know because I competed that year. Second both UVA and Washington & Lee are in District 9 for the Regional competition which means their students compete directly against one another. The stats and recent reports indicate that UVA is producing a Rhodes Scholar every year now. Washington & Lee didn't produce its first until 1954 and recently snagged one in 2016 and 2020. It's performance is erratic which is not uncommon for the smaller SLACs.

Normalization is common practice in statistics.

UVA didn't have women undergraduates until 1970, with a reduced quota maintained through 1972. W&L's "erratic" performance is a function of having far fewer undergraduates. If W&L produced one Rhodes Scholar for every one UVA produces, it would be producing them at a rate 9.3X higher based on relative enrollments.

Note that you could apply this approach to other schools to get a normalized view. Take Brown, for instance. UVA (54) is just barely behind Brown (57) on the list. But UVA actually has about 2.4X as many undergraduates as Brown, so Brown actually has produced 2.5X as many Rhodes Scholars on a per capita basis. UVA leads Duke, 54 to 47 (not sure if this count is current - Duke had 2 this year and UVA 1), but UVA has 2.6X as many undergraduates, so on a per capita basis, Duke is far ahead. Schools like Davidson (23 Rhodes Scholars with 1,950 undergraduates) are also far ahead of UVA on a per capita basis.

UVA has produced 56 Rhodes Scholars overall, 12 in just the last decade every single year. In 2013, two UVA grads received it. In 2014, two received it, and in 2016 two. Considering only 32 are awarded, the fact that one school picks it up for one or two students every single year is very impressive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1 Harvard 369
2 Yale 252
3 Princeton 215
4 Stanford 102
5 US Military Academy 94
6 Dartmouth 63
7 Brown 57
8 UVA 54
9 MIT 52
10 U Chicago 51
11 US Naval Academy 48
12 Duke 47
13 UNC 44
14 US Air Force Academy 41
15 U Washington 37

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/44935/2020-rs_number-of-winners-by-institution.pdf

Other "regionals" of note:

Georgetown 25
Johns Hopkins 21
Washington & Lee 17
VMI 9
Howard 3
U Maryland 2
Virginia Tech 2
UMBC 1
GWU 1

Most surprising absences?

UPenn
Columbia
Michigan
UC Berkeley
Cornell

Cornell - 31
Michigan - 27
Columbia - 27
Berkeley - 24
Penn - 23

"Regional" Washington & Lee has produced 17 Rhodes Scholars to "National" UVA's 55. But wait! UVA has 9.3X as many undergraduate students. On a per capita basis, W&L has produced about 3X as many Rhodes Scholars as UVA. The miracles of math. . .

You can't use stats. in that fashion in this instance. First, women weren't even included until 1977 (Rhodes program started in 1903, but had a sporadic start). I know because I competed that year. Second both UVA and Washington & Lee are in District 9 for the Regional competition which means their students compete directly against one another. The stats and recent reports indicate that UVA is producing a Rhodes Scholar every year now. Washington & Lee didn't produce its first until 1954 and recently snagged one in 2016 and 2020. It's performance is erratic which is not uncommon for the smaller SLACs.