In Rhodes race, Princeton trails its peers

While Princeton topped the U.S. News and World Report rankings for the seventh straight time this year, its dominance has not extended to the Rhodes Scholarship.

Christian Sahner '07 was the University's lone recipient of the prestigious award this year, while Harvard claimed six winners and Yale five. Since 2002, six Princeton students have become Rhodes Scholars, compared with 28 from Harvard and 15 from Yale.

But Associate Dean of the College Frank Ordiway, who co-chairs the University's Rhodes Committee, said the apparent discrepancy shouldn't cause students to worry.

"Every year there is a little variation," he said, pointing out that only one Harvard graduate student — and no Harvard undergraduates — received a Rhodes Scholarship last year. "I don't think it necessarily means that there are more students worthy of an award at Harvard or Yale."

Ordiway also noted that Princeton dominated the list of Marshall Scholarships with four winners, while Harvard and Yale each picked up only one.

But, he added, "that doesn't mean that we're not concerned about why we're not doing exceptionally well."

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said that "Rhodes alone is not a sufficient measure of any institution's success, in either absolute or relative terms."

"I think it is more appropriate to think collectively of the national competitions for fellowships to study in the United Kingdom," she said in an email.

Noting that both Harvard and Yale have larger undergraduate student populations and that Princeton won the highest number of Marshall Scholarships this year, "the differences in numbers of winners are not so stark."

Princeton boasted five combined Rhodes and Marshall winners, compared to Harvard's seven and Yale's five.

The University, in addition to offering an information session and identifying potential Rhodes candidates in their junior year, gives essay advice and interview preparation to endorsed candidates through the Rhodes Committee, composed of faculty and staff members. The University offers similar support to Marshall candidates.

This approach differs from those at Harvard and Yale. Harvard has a Rhodes Committee that helps students through the individual house system.

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Yale, however, has an office specifically devoted to helping students secure opportunities like the Rhodes, called the International Education and Fellowship Program.

Malkiel said the University will continue to make improvements to its advising process. "We expect to be able to do an even better job of encouraging, supporting and preparing students for these national fellowship competitions when all juniors and seniors are affiliated with their residential colleges," she said.

The University's Rhodes applicants were generally content with the University's advising process.

"I really think the Princeton Rhodes Committee does a great job," Sahner said. "They might want to cultivate [potential candidates] earlier, but I don't think Princeton has a flawed approach to how they're doing this."

Neir Eshel '07, a Rhodes candidate and Marshall Scholarship winner, agreed.

"Because I had been to the mock interviews and talked with Princetonians who had gone through the process, I knew what to expect and what questions [the Rhodes selection committee] would ask," said Eshel, who is also a managing editor at The Daily Princetonian.

While he found that Princeton applicants were "just as talented and smart" as those at Harvard or Yale, Sahner said that the campus environment may not be as attractive to budding Rhodes Scholars.

"Our campus is one that emphasizes well-roundedness as opposed to academic intensity or 'bookishness.' Nerdiness is not something that is impressed upon students at Princeton," he said. As a result, he explained, it attracts a different type of student than Harvard and Yale do.

With the upcoming changes at the University — including a new focus on the creative and performing arts and the implementation of four-year residential colleges — Rhodes Scholar David Robinson '04 hopes that the University will attract more potential Rhodes Scholars. Robinson is a former 'Prince' editor.

"For a thing like the Rhodes, what you really need is for people to feel almost eager to be a little bit different from each other," Robinson said.

The University's public image, correct or not, has made such diversity of interests difficult, he said.

"The public image of Princeton as a preppier place ... can influence the way that Princeton students are seen in different contexts," including the admissions process, Robinson noted.

Comparing winning a Rhodes Scholarship to winning the lottery, he said, "The wider the range of different people doing different things, the greater an institution's odds."

But not everyone accepts that it's important for an "institution" to do well in the process. English professor emeritus John Fleming GS '63, a Rhodes committee adviser and a former Rhodes Scholar, said that it is "very wrongheaded" to give credit to a university for the award.

"The Rhodes competition is intense and intensely personal," Fleming said in an email. "The honor of winning, though it may reflect glory on an institution, rightly belongs to the winner alone."

Eshel agreed, saying selection committees prize individual initiative. A large number of Rhodes Scholars at a university indicates "that there are opportunities that students can take advantage of; there are opportunities for students to excel," Eshel said.

But at the interview level of the Rhodes awards, he added "everyone is very qualified." Chance becomes an important element as the selection committee must decide between impressive, capable individuals.

Malkiel dismissed the notion that grade deflation hinders students' prospects for winning fellowships. "The students applying for these fellowships have the highest GPAs in the University," she said. "They will continue to have very high GPAs. They will continue to be highly competitive."