U. trails peers in Rhodes race

Only one Princeton student was named a scholar this year, Wilson School major Henry Barmeier ’10, in contrast with Harvard’s five winners, Yale’s two and MIT’s three. In recent years, Princeton has had fewer Rhodes Scholars overall than these peer institutions.

In the past 10 years, Princeton has had a total of 13 American Rhodes Scholars, compared to 35 from Harvard, 21 from Yale, 15 from Stanford and 14 from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Since 1904, when the Rhodes Trust was founded, Harvard has boasted the most American Rhodes Scholars, with a total of 328, followed by Yale with 219, Princeton with 193, West Point with 87 and Stanford with 83.

While Rhodes candidates interviewed for this article were unable to point to a single explanation for Princeton’s performance compared to those of other schools, English professor emeritus and former Rhodes Scholar John Fleming GS ’63 offered two possible contributing factors.

“I think that more individual faculty members (who are the ones who know students best) should actively encourage students to apply,” Fleming said in an e-mail. “I myself would never have dreamed of applying without individual, personal faculty encouragement. I don’t think there’s enough of that at Princeton.”

While Fleming also expressed “admiration” for the University’s support for students involved in the application process, he noted that there may be qualified students who don’t apply because they don’t think they will win. “I think we probably have some potentially strong candidates who never apply because they don’t think they fit the ‘type,’ ” he explained. “Although I am unable to identify a Rhodes ‘type,’ I do see one absolute rule: Nobody wins a scholarship without applying.”

Fleming noted that the University has looked at this issue in the past. “The competitive hand-wringing about Rhodes winners is not new,” he said, adding that in his first years at the University, then-president Robert Goheen ’40 appointed a committee headed by Professor E. D. H. Johnson to investigate Princeton’s performance in the Rhodes Scholarship. “Professor Johnson’s conclusion was, ‘You will get as many Rhodes Scholars in the senior year as you admitted into the freshman class,’ ” Fleming explained.

“This was not a conclusion popular in Nassau Hall, where I believe it was misunderstood,” Fleming added. “Johnson meant simply that the competition is highly individualistic and committee selection procedures unpredictable. Hence, in his view, we ought to relax and enjoy the fact that, over the long run, Princeton has had a remarkable string of Rhodes Scholars.”

Associate Dean of the College Frank Ordiway, co-chair of the Princeton Rhodes Committee, and classics professor Joshua Katz, who serves as an adviser to the candidates, did not respond to requests for comment.

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Mark Jia ’10, a finalist for this year’s Rhodes Scholarship, praised the University’s guidance throughout the application process. “I’ve had a wonderful experience with the fellowship office,” Jia said in an email. “Dean Ordiway and his assistant Traci Miller have been irreplaceable guideposts throughout this process, and I am confident I would not have gotten as far as I did without their help.”

While interviewing in Boston, Jia said, he spent time with finalists from Harvard, Yale and MIT, during which the students discussed the fellowship processes at their respective schools. “It became clear to me that Princeton was incredibly lucky to have Dean Ordiway and Traci Miller in our fellowship office,” Jia said. “The quality of advice and preparation regime that other students underwent simply did not compare.”

Fellow finalist Caitlin Tully ’10 echoed Jia’s enthusiasm about Princeton’s Rhodes procedures. “Thanks to Dean Ordiway, Traci Miller and the faculty who routinely devote huge swaths of time to the Rhodes nominees … the process has been one of the most valuable experiences of my life,” Tully said in an e-mail. “The fellowship committee enabled me to reevaluate how I understand and articulate my place in [the world].”