Jeff Miller '06

When Professor Nigel Smith first suggested that he apply for the Rhodes Scholarship, Jeffrey Miller '06 had no intention of following through. "I basically decided that I wasn't going to do it because I just assumed that people like me didn't win," Miller says.

This past year has proven Miller wrong, however; the English major from Dallas is the University's sole recipient of a 2006 Rhodes Scholarship. Established in 1902, the award provides 32 American students each year with the opportunity to study for free at Oxford University.

At Oxford, Miller intends to pursue a Master of Studies degree in English Literature from 1550 to 1770, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literature. He hopes to one day be an author and professor.

"[English] was always my favorite subject at school," Miller says. "My sophomore year in high school was when I realized that I wanted to be a writer, and ever since then I knew that I wanted to do English."

His greatest literary interest is John Milton, the seventeenth-century poet most known for his masterpiece, "Paradise Lost."

"[Paradise Lost] is, by itself, better than any one play that Shakespeare ever wrote," Miller says.

In addition to Milton, Miller also enjoys reading work by William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Flannery O' Conner, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and poets T.S. Eliot and Philip Larkin.

Miller's favorite classes at Princeton have included a course on the British novel, taught by Deborah Nord, and one on British drama, taught by Michael Goldman. Within the Creative Writing Department, Miller has had the opportunity to work with Chang-rae Lee, Edmund White and Joyce Carol Oates.

"The class that changed my life [was] the graduate seminar on Milton that I took with Nigel Smith," Miller says. Though he was initially skeptical of Smith's suggestion that he apply for a fellowship, a mid-July email from Dean Ordiway eventually convinced Miller to begin working on an application to Rhodes.

"I always feel bad asking professors for [recommendations]," Miller says. "I feel like I'm imposing on them...being forced to make a nuisance of myself," Miller says. But he had to get over that, fast; in addition to essays and an endorsement from the applicant's university, the Rhodes application requires no fewer than five and no more than eight references.

An officer of Ivy, Miller was in the eating club when he first received the news that he was a finalist. During the interview process in Houston in November, he met some of his fellow candidates.

"[There were] two kids who were West Point cadets, one of which had already won the Marshall the weekend before the Rhodes interview," Miller recalls. "There was a former United States Olympian, there were Truman Scholars. They didn't really brag about it...they were also very sociable, normal people [who were] ridiculously smart."

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Miller was interviewed by seven people at once, with questions based on his application. His description of his love of literature, for instance, led to the question, "If you found out that God didn't exist, how would that change your reading of Milton?"

Miller was also asked to explain why the NBA is predominantly African American, a query likely sparked by his participation in JV basketball during his freshman and sophomore years, as well as by his volunteer work as a traveling basketball coach.

Once interviews are concluded, Rhodes candidates are informed of their acceptance in person.

"They bring you into a room – all 10 finalists – and then they line you up on a wall," Miller says. "Then the head of the committee steps forward and says, 'I hope you'll join me in congratulating...'"

Upon hearing his name called, Miller reacted first with surprise, then with tears. The University honored him accordingly: "You sort of come back and the Prince wants to talk to you," Miller says. "They put me on the University website."

Miller also received a letter from President Shirley Tilghman, written the day he won his award, which he discovered just two weeks ago.

"She wrote it and she sent it to my university mailbox, which I don't check," Miller explains.

With graduation just months away, Miller says he now has little time for anything outside his thesis, a novella about a pastor whose wife leaves him and the impact that has on the family and their parish. In addition to a degree in English, he is working towards a Certificate in Creative Writing.

When asked what he will cherish most about his years at Princeton, Miller's response had nothing to do with the Rhodes Scholarship.

"That's easy," Miller says. "My friends. I've had unbelievable luck making some of the best friends of my life [here]. I imagine I'll be close with them forever."