Jessica Ashooh '06 and nearly 30 other Brown seniors and recent graduates could soon find themselves one step closer to an arduous cocktail party and an Oxford degree. This week an internal University committee will inform applicants for the Rhodes Scholarships whether they have been recommended by Brown as candidates for the two-year fellowship.
Although the Rhodes is merely one of the many fellowships for which Brown students apply, it is the oldest and perhaps best known. Associate Dean of the College Linda Dunleavy, who chairs the internal selection committee for Rhodes applicants, also helps Brown students apply for and win a range of fellowships each year as director of Brown's fellowship office.
"All competitions of this nature have a certain mystique to them in that you don't know the (winning) processes nor should you," she said.
Students approach Dunleavy interested in fellowships that provide for study in particular regions or specific disciplines or offer students more general financial support.
"We try to find a fellowship that helps you do what you want to do," she said.
Fellowship opportunities featured in Dunleavy's office and on its Web site span the full academic spectrum and are not limited to rising seniors. Juniors with a demonstrated record and interest in public service, for example, can apply for Truman Scholarships to support future graduate study. Udall and Beinecke Scholarships also award juniors with funds for grad school.
The one-year Fulbright fellowships are often awarded to individuals several years out of college. This past year 18 graduating seniors or recent alumni won Fulbright Scholarships.
The Fulbright, Truman, Rhodes and Marshall fellowships all require an initial nomination by the University. "We take that process really seriously," Dunleavy said. "We really are saying this is a student who truly represents us - someone really superb."
Some fellowships, including the Rhodes, Marshall and Luce scholarships, also require rigorous interviews. Applicants can prepare in mock interviews and "mocktails" - preparation for the Rhodes cocktail party - organized by Dunleavy's office.
"Fellowship interviews tend to be very confrontational in the way that a usual job interview isn't," said former Herald Editor-in-Chief Elena Lesley '04. Lesley applied for four fellowships in her senior year. She was awarded a Luce Scholarship and is a current candidate for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.
The application processes can be grueling, Dunleavy said, but she thinks most applicants find them rewarding.
"(Writing the personal statement) helped me to organize my thoughts and feelings as to what I want to do with my life and exactly why I want to do that," Ashooh said. "Also, the essay is really versatile and can be used for grad school applications, which is great."
But the Rhodes interviews and selection criteria have gained a reputation as especially demanding and unpredictable. South African diamond miner Cecil Rhodes specified in his will that winners demonstrate "moral force of character," an unselfish courage to affect change, and "fondness for sports," in addition to an excellent academic record.
Since Rhodes' death, the scholarship endowment bequeathed in his will has sent 32 American students to Oxford each year since 1904.
The program's initial criteria leave room for interpretation, but Dunleavy said winners typically share "genuineness" and "quiet charisma" that do not necessarily come across on paper.
"There are many students with perfect records who would not be selected as Rhodes Scholars," she said.
Jasmine Waddell '99 was a Truman Scholar and expected applying for the Rhodes would be a similar experience, but said she shortly realized that the Rhodes "is a different animal."
At the district interview Waddell was asked whether today's civil rights movement should include sexual orientation as well as race and class among its causes.
"It was meant to be tricky, but Brown taught me the full range of civil rights," Waddell said. "Coming from another institution, maybe I would have found that more difficult."
Waddell won the fellowship and said once students arrive at Oxford, the length and nature of their preparation makes no difference.
"West Point doesn't prepare you any more for the day to day reality of British life," she said.
Currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Wellesley Center for Women's Studies, Waddell served on this year's internal University committee. She said she faced some skepticism about Brown's New Curriculum - designed by another Rhodes Scholar, Ira Magaziner '69 P'06 P'07 - in her interviews for the fellowship.
Olivia Rissland '04, currently in the second year of her Rhodes Scholarship at Christ Church College, Oxford, said judges challenged her views on issues outside her academic focus.
"It's like defending a Ph.D. thesis you don't know anything about," Rissland said. "It's about how well you think on your feet."
One judge interrupted a discussion about health policy to ask Rissland if she would demonstrate her WBRU radio voice for the panel. However, some judges asked questions similar to those Rissland had practiced in mock interviews at Brown.
"So much of it is luck anyway," Rissland said. "I'm a highly competitive person ... but I thought it would be OK (not to win at the district level) because I was so impressed by everyone else."
Propelling students to Rhodes Scholar status is enough of a priority for some universities to warrant four-year training programs. The University of Arkansas begins identifying and preparing potential candidates in their first year. At the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, administrators have been promised a $1 million donation from an alumnus as soon as a student wins the school's first Rhodes.
Initially the domain of Ivy League universities and the military academies, Rhodes Scholar-ships had been awarded to applicants from more than 300 U.S. colleges by 2004.
"It's so unfortunate that the measure (of success in fellowship programs) is, 'How many Rhodes did you win?' " Dunleavy said.
The focus on the Rhodes draws public attention away from other competitive scholarships, she said. Dunleavy added that Brown is the only undergraduate institution that has had both of its nominees win the $300,000 Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarships every year since it started.
"But I don't feel directly the pressure that some other institutions may feel," she said. "There isn't a donor waiting to write a check."
Rissland said the intensive training adopted by some schools strikes her as excessive.
"I don't see the point of spending four years training for something that might not happen," she said.
Ashooh's interest in the Rhodes was first piqued as a sophomore when she attended an information session led by Dunleavy. A triathelete and international relations concentrator, Ashooh spent last semester studying abroad in Lebanon, where she immersed herself in the country's recent political protests.
She would like to study at Oxford's Center for Lebanese Studies - unique in the world - as either a Rhodes or Marshall Scholar, but she hopes to pursue a degree there even if she does not win either fellowship.
"Of course the Rhodes is really prestigious, and that is icing on the cake, but I think you should have solid academic reasoning for why you want to do something like this," she said.
Rissland agreed. "Even if you do have the academic record (for the Rhodes), you shouldn't just apply for it because it's one of life's glittering prizes," she said.
