32 Americans Are Chosen as Rhodes Scholars for 2013

Thirty-two American students have been chosen as winners of Rhodes scholarships for 2013, the Rhodes Trust announced on Saturday. The scholarships cover all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford, in England, and up to four years in some cases.

The American scholars-elect represent 16 colleges and universities in the United States. They will join an international group of scholars chosen from 14 other jurisdictions around the world, and will begin their studies at Oxford in October 2013.

Applicants are chosen on the basis of criteria set in the will of Cecil Rhodes, the British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer, who created the scholarships in 1902. Elliot F. Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, said in the awards announcement that Mr. Rhodes sought to identify scholars who “would make an effective and positive contribution throughout the world” and who would “esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim.”

The American institution that produced the most Rhodes scholars this year was Yale University, with seven. Harvard followed with six. Cornell and Stanford Universities had two each, as did the U.S. Military and Naval Academies. Eleven public and private institutions had one each. They were: Brown University, the College of Idaho, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Luther College, Montana State University, Wofford College, and the Universities of California at Berkeley, Georgia, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

More information about the new American scholars and their plans for study at Oxford will be available on the trust’s Web site.