Rhodes Scholarship Internal Application Instructions
This scholarship requires applicants to be nominated by Reed College. Complete the internal application in order to be considered for a nomination from the college. Nomination decisions will be made by the Reed faculty Fellowships & Awards Committee. These instructions are only for those who are applying through the US constituency.
For this scholarship, you will focus specifically on the University of Oxford, where you apply for two or more years of study. We encourage you to review Professor Emeritus Ken Brashier's website on applying for UK fellowships. It has not been updated recently, but it still contains insights into competitive awards in the UK.
ADVICE FROM PROFESSOR EMERITUS KEN BRASHIER
Internal Application Deadline
August 28th, 2024 at 12:00 PM noon, Pacific Time
Important Guidance: Support & Generative AI
This year the Rhodes Trust has issued new guidance covering the types of assistance you may receive when putting together your personal and academic statements for the scholarship. Please ensure you read this guidance, available here, before working on your internal application.
Additional caveat for the Rhodes Personal Statement: Reed College cannot provide any editorial review of your personal statement.
Application Steps
Please note: a minimum 3.70 Reed GPA is required.
For this award, you'll submit an internal application through CLBR fellowships for consideration by the Fellowships & Awards committee, which is composed of Reed faculty members. Your application documents consist of a CV, a personal statement, an Oxford course/s list, an academic statement, and your Reed transcript. Make certain to read the Information for Candidates - USA document for important information on all parts of the application. The requirements for each of these internal application documents has been copied from the "Information for Candidates" document, but has been abbreviated on this page in places. Refer to that document for all clarifications.
Please attach your application documents to an email as individual pdfs and submit them to clbrfellowships@reed.edu by the internal application deadline. We enourage you to register in the online application portal on the Rhodes website as well so that you may see the full application, but this is not a required element of the internal application.
Your internal recommenders will submit their recommendations directly to CLBR Fellowships via email. You will also need to fill out a waiver on the Reed website. See below for instructions.
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Include a full curriculum vitae (CV) which should include specific details about academic qualifications, publications, prizes, scholarships, positions of leadership, employment positions, involvement in student, voluntary, community or political activities and any cultural, musical or sporting accomplishments. If you have an ORCID ID, you may wish to include this.
Please do not include a photograph in your CV. Your CV should be wholly accurate and a fair representation of your achievements. You should anticipate that details will be checked for embellishments and inaccuracies. Material misrepresentation will result in disqualification of an application or, where appropriate, the rescinding of a scholarship. Examples of misrepresentation include exaggeration of roles, accomplishment, participation, or biography; embellished publication lists; inflation of GPA/grades.
Your CV should not exceed two letter size pages in length with a minimum 10 pt font.
Personal Statement
Include a personal statement of no more than 1000 words, which is your chance to tell your story in your own voice: Who are you? Your academic transcript and academic statement of study, your CV, and your reference letters will provide the substantive detail of your commitments and accomplishments, whereas the personal statement gives you the opportunity to make an authentic statement of who you are. The statement should address each of the following prompts by weaving them into your statement (the word allocation across the three is up to you):
- Tell us how you overcame a challenge in your life. Which Rhodes Scholar character qualities did you draw from? What did you learn from the experience?
- What would you like to learn from and contribute to the Rhodes community in Oxford?
- From your place in the world, how will you use your energy and talents to address humanity’s pressing challenges?
Oxford Course List
The Rhodes Scholarships cover at least two years of study at the University of Oxford and you will need to choose a course, or a combination of courses that covers this period. List the course or courses that you plan to take during the two years at Oxford. Include the course name, degree, and a link to the course page on the Oxford website. Refer to the "Information for Candidates" document for more details on selecting your course or courses.
Academic Statement of Study
You will need to write an Academic Statement of no more than 350 words. The reason for this statement is that entry to the University of Oxford is becoming ever more competitive and, should you be selected for a Rhodes Scholarship, you will have to submit your application to Oxford within a very short timeframe. Researching and writing this statement will help you prepare for that. Reed College's selection committee will use the statement to assess whether you will thrive academically in one of the most competitive graduate environments in the world.
The academic statement of study should, in a factual and concise manner:
- Tell us your reasons for wishing to study at the University of Oxford, what your chosen course(s) of study is (are), and how this fits in your academic trajectory. Furthermore, you may wish to explain how you hope to be stretched academically at the University of Oxford, and any academic support you imagine might be helpful.
- Demonstrate that you are able to, at a minimum meet or exceed the specific entry and other academic requirements of the course(s) you have chosen. Tell us how you are prepared for the course(s) academically and otherwise. It is very important that you have a firm idea of which courses are viable for you to study at the University of Oxford (if you are listing a one-year course, please give an indication of your intentions for the second year).
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If you wish to undertake a DPhil, provide a brief outline of your proposed research area, how it contributes to your future career plans, and list both the Department in which you propose to undertake your research and one or more researchers with whom you would like to work in Oxford.
Reed Transcript
An unofficial copy of your Reed transcript. If you are selected as a nominee, you'll need to request an official copy of your transcript, which you can do for free via the instructions in the link here.
Internal Letters of Recommendation
You will need four internal letters of recommendation for the internal application. The recommenders should be academics who have formally taught and graded you in your undergraduate (or, if relevant, postgraduate) studies and who can comment in detail on your academic ability and how well they think you would fare at Oxford. Make sure to give your recommenders several weeks notice and read our guidance on requesting letters of recommendation.
These letters need to be sent via email to clbrfellowships@reed.edu by the internal application deadline. The committee will only consider the first four recommendations received, so do not have more than four submitted for the internal deadline. These internal letters are only for the Reed faculty fellowships & awards committee, and will not be shared with the Rhodes Trust. Direct your recommenders to this link about internal letters and ask them to look at the page for Rhodes advice at the bottom. Please also send them this Guidance for Referees document.
Please note: the final application requires between five and eight recommendations (Rhodes calls them referees). You will need to consider up to four additional recommenders from whom you can request letters if you are endorsed by the committee. At least one of these additional recommenders will need to be a character reference.
Waiver
You will need to complete this online waiver form as the final step in submitting your internal application.
Applicants or faculty submitting application materials electronically by email will generally receive a confirmation within twenty-four hours. If you do not receive a confirmation during this time, please follow up with the Center for Life Beyond Reed at clbrfellowships@reed.edu to ensure that the application was successfully submitted.
Next Steps
You will hear about the status of your application from CLBR and/or a member of the committee within two weeks of the internal deadline. If you do not receive an endorsement from the committee, we still encourage you to apply for other awards later in the year. You may still be eligible to apply for the Rhodes again as an alum.
If you are selected for an endorsement, a member of the committee will reach out to you, as they'll need to speak with you in order to prepare the institutional endorsement that they'll write. Register for the application on the Rhodes website if you haven't done so yet. Reach out to your recommenders to let them know you've been endorsed by Reed, and add them to your application in the Rhodes application portal. Use your recommenders, the committee Rhodes liaison, and CLBR advisors to help you work on your application. Remember that this award has some restrictions on the type of help you can receive with your personal and academic statements.
In your application you'll need to choose your place of application, which will either be Oregon, or the state/U.S. territory where you are a permanent resident. If you are selected as a finalist, you'll need to attend an in-person social event and final interview for your district on November 15th and 16th 2024, which will likely require travel. The Rhodes Trust does not pay for this travel. Winners are announced the same day that the interviews conclude.
Please note that applying for this award will require a significant time commitment. One past applicant described it as being equivalent to taking a one unit class at Reed.