Interested in becoming a Rhodes Scholar?
A few years ago one of Roopa Unnikrishnan’s clients remarked that the fact that she was a Rhodes Scholar meant she was a “certified smart person”. “It is a stamp and it has opened many doors,” acknowledges Unnikrishnan who was the 110th Rhodes Scholar from India in 1995, and is now a director with Pfizer, New York, the US.

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Winners all: (Clockwise from top right) John Eccles, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Bobby Jindal, Edwin Hubble, Bill Clinton and Girish Karnad

“On the other side, it also ensures that there is always a small voice within me asking if there isn’t more I should be doing with my life,” she says.

The Rhodes Trust awards the scholarships annually for studies at Oxford University. The trust was founded in 1903, based on the vision expressed in the will of Cecil John Rhodes who set up the famous De Beers mining company and was a student at Oxford between 1873 and 1881. It covers all fees at the university in addition to a monthly stipend. The trust also meets the cost of a scholar’s air travel to the UK and return to India on completion of studies. Rhodes Scholars can pursue any full-time postgraduate course offered by the Oxford University, except MBA.

The scholarships came to India only in 1947. For the first 38 years, India had one or two scholarships every year. But now six Rhodes Scholars are selected from India annually.

Rhodes was pretty clear about the kind of people he wanted. He didn’t want just bookworms; he wanted candidates with literary and scholastic attainments and the energy to use one’s talent to the full, as exemplified by a fondness for and success in sports. He instructed that the scholarship should be awarded to individuals who are courageous, devoted to duty, have sympathy for and protect the weak, are kind, unselfish and friendly as well as have moral force of character and the ability to lead.

According to the Rhodes Scholarships Selection Committee of India, “A Rhodes Scholar should not be one-sided or selfish. Intellectual ability must be founded upon sound character and integrity of character upon sound intellect.”

“It’s clear that they don’t look for just academic brilliance but a well-rounded personality. I think good grades plus strong extra-curricular skills and interests is the clincher,” says Arghya Sengupta, a final year student at the National Law School of Indian University (NLSIU), Bangalore. Sengupta is one of the six awarded the scholarship this year. He will be pursuing his masters in law.

True to the strict standards set by the man it takes its name from, Rhodes Scholars have excelled in diverse fields. The illustrious list includes former US President Bill Clinton, Olympic gold medallist Jack Lovelock, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India, vice-chancellor of Delhi University Deepak Nayyar, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, the governor of the state of Louisiana in the US, astronomer Edwin Hubble after whom the Hubble telescope is named, John Eccles who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 1963 and playwright-actor Girish Karnad.

Candidates who have a first class degree in the humanities, sciences, law, engineering, agriculture or medicine from an Indian university and are less than 25 year of age are eligible for the scholarship. Final year degree students with a bright academic record can also apply, which is what Sengupta did.

Candidates have to send in an essay on their life along with the application form, and this is what decides their fate. If you want to make it to the interview, “prepare the best possible story of your life”, says Unnikrishnan. And make sure it is a great read.

Here’s what Sengupta did. “I prepared a few drafts of the essay and showed it to my peers and people who knew me well. I revised the draft several times, incorporating relevant suggestions, so that it best reflected my achievements, my ambitions and me. The essay is a candidate’s best chance to show the committee what he stands for so that has to be very well prepared,” says the ex-student of St Xavier’s Collegiate School, Calcutta.

When it comes to Rhodes Scholarships, the all rounders win over the “specialists”. If Sengupta is a keen quizzer, debater and mooter with many national and international prizes, Unnikrishnan is a shooter who won a gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

The application format and other details can be obtained from the official website of the Rhodes Scholarships Selection Committee of India (http://www.rhodesscholarships-india.com). The process takes almost a year, with the application process for 2009 starting in July-August 2008.

The zonal committees (based at Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai / Pune and Bangalore) go through the applications, shortlist candidates and conduct preliminary interviews. The chosen ones are called for the second round of interviews in Delhi, where the final six are selected.

The questions asked at the interview are wide-ranging. For instance Sengupta, besides being quizzed on his area of specialisation, was asked to air his opinions on the situation in Nandigram, Indo-China relations and the hosting of the Commonwealth Games.

Unnikrishnan was able to get through to the interview stage on her second attempt and she has a piece of advice for all aspirants. “Just be yourself,” she says and adds, “The first time around I had over-prepared, and one of the interviewers was able to shake my confidence pretty thoroughly. The next time around I just decided to tell it like it is.”

“Being an all rounder certainly helps objectively, but honestly I think the key aspects are a well-written application highlighting different facets of one’s personality and the interview. And the interview is always a subjective process,” says Sengupta.

“My advice to students? Take some time to truly think through your vision of the future, and your part in making that future come to bear. The more certain you are about the questions you wish to address, the greater your ability to work towards useful goals at Oxford, and hence the better your chances of showing the Rhodes nominating committee that you are a worthy candidate for the scholarship,” says Unnikrishnan.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)