By
Justin Snider
, Amherst College
The Scholarships
Each winter, governments across the world award a number of prestigious
fellowships for foreign study to U.S. citizens graduating from American
colleges, as well as to recent graduates. These are national competitions with
fall application deadlines, usually (but not always) restricted to citizens of
the United States. If you are looking for a fun but academically enriching way
to stall your inevitable splash into the real world, you need look no further:
many of these fellowships provide free tuition at the host university alongside
a generous stipend to cover living expenses (we’re talking $1000 cash per
month!). What could be better than globetrotting - with a wee bit of studying
here and there - on other people’s money?
Three of the most well-known of these fellowships are awarded by the Rhodes,
Marshall, and Fulbright foundations. The Rhodes is by all accounts the most
famous, probably because a number of prominent politicians (including Bill
Clinton and Bill Bradley) rank among its alumni. Thirty-two Rhodes Scholars are
announced each year in December, and they go on to spend two years at Oxford
University, pursuing either a second bachelor’s degree, an M.Phil. (similar to
an American M.A.), or a D.Phil. (similar to an American Ph.D.) in the subject of
their choice. A total of forty Marshall Scholars are named each December as
well, usually on the heels of the Rhodes’ announcement. The timing of these
announcements has been a source of contention over the years because the
applicant pools, unsurprisingly, overlap: neither foundation wants to lose face
should a candidate have to choose one over the other. The Marshall Scholars,
unlike the Rhodes, have a choice of universities in Great Britain, although a
disproportionate number of them typically head to Oxford; Cambridge is usually
(and predictably so) the second most popular destination for Marshall Scholars.
The Rhodes and Marshall scholarships are funded chiefly by private endowments
and the British government, while the Fulbright scholarships are financially
backed by the United States government. Established in 1946 through the
legislation of Senator J. William Fulbright, this program is broader in scope
than either the Rhodes or the Marshall and usually lasts only one academic year.
“By fostering mutual understanding among nations through educational and
cultural exchanges” - so runs the rhetoric of the Fulbright catalogue - these
scholarships “build an alternative to armed conflict.” A noble and ambitious
mission statement, indeed. The grants allow for study on six of the seven
continents (Antarctica, alas, has been forgotten yet again), in over 100
different countries. A total of 953 scholarships were offered this past year.
While Rhodes and Marshall Scholars are almost invariably graduating seniors, a
considerable number of Fulbright fellows (or “grantees,” in the official
jargon) are advanced doctoral students who need to conduct research for their
dissertations abroad. Though the Fulbright program claims to give priority to
graduating seniors, statistics show this predilection is more a thing of utopian
dreams than reality: graduate students simply tend to be more competitive
candidates because their proposals are, on the whole, more convincingly
developed and articulated.
