Scholarship Application - Rhodes Scholarships

The U.S. Rhodes Scholarship application is available each year in early July.

The application deadline this year is 11:59 PM U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 4.

District receptions and interviews are now held annually on the second weekend of November (Friday and Saturday). District Secretaries will notify candidates regarding interview status at differing intervals, but in all cases no later than two weeks prior to the interviews. Election announcements are made at the conclusion of the Saturday interviews.

For those contemplating application, rules and requirements will generally remain similar from year to year.

This information is for candidates applying to the 2024 Rhodes Scholarship through the United States of America constituency, for entry in October 2024 to the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.

Am I applying to the right constituency/region?

What is a Rhodes constituency? A constituency is a country, a group of countries, and/or territories, regions or states, grouped together for the purposes of administering scholarships.
If you only have a connection to one Rhodes constituency and you meet the eligibility criteria below, you can apply to the Rhodes Scholarship for that constituency following the process outlined in this document.
If you have connections to more than one Rhodes constituency and meet the eligibility criteria for more than one constituency, you should apply to the one that you have the greatest connection to. Once you have chosen your constituency you should read the Information for Candidates and then apply as usual.
If you have strong and demonstrable connections to two or more Rhodes Constituencies but do not meet all of the eligibility criteria for any of them, you may be eligible to apply for interjurisdictional consideration. Please visit the ‘Applying for Inter-Jurisdictional Consideration’ page for more details about this as you will need to follow a slightly different process. Please note that while some eligibility criteria are waived for inter-jurisdictional candidates, this does not include the age or academic achievement criteria.
If you cannot see your country or region listed in the list of Rhodes constituencies (see list here) and you are not eligible to apply for inter-jurisdictional consideration, you may be able to apply for a Global Scholarship. Please visit our website to check if you meet the Global eligibility criteria.
Eligibility Criteria
Nationality/citizenship: You must be a citizen of the United States OR you must have been admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident, and must have maintained, and be expected to maintain, such legal status.

If you have been granted deferred action under the government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program AND your status is currently active, then you are also eligible to apply if you meet all other criteria below. It should be noted that the Rhodes Trust makes no representations and does not offer any support regarding (a) the DACA applicant's ability to travel to the U.K., and (b) the DACA applicant's ability to return to the U.S. or to travel to another country upon conclusion of the scholarship; DACA applicants must assume this responsibility themselves. DACA applicants, like all others, must apply for the U.S. Scholarship or the new Global Scholarship, but not to both. Where there are risks of legal uncertainty, the applicant must make a determination.

Age: You must meet either of the below criteria:

You must be aged 18-23 on 1st October 2023 (i.e. you must have been born after 1 October 1999 and before 2 October 2005).

OR (for older candidates who completed their first undergraduate degree later than usual)

You must be under the age of 27 on 1st October 2023 (i.e. have been born after 1 October 1996) AND you must also have completed your first undergraduate degree on or after 1 October 2022*.

* A university's policy determines the date of completion of academic requirement for a degree and this may be different from when a degree is considered awarded by the university or the date of a graduation ceremony. In ambiguous cases, the decision of the National Secretary is final.

Academic Achievement: You must have completed an undergraduate degree (usually a Bachelor’s) by July 2024, and you must have an academic background and grade that - at a minimum - meets or exceeds the specific entry requirements of your chosen course at the University of Oxford (https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/courses-a-z-listing).

Candidates will have a higher chance of successful admission to Oxford if they have:.