The Rhodes Scholarship funds one to two full years of graduate study at the University of Oxford.
For citizens of the US, a UT Austin committee interviews candidates for this scholarship, and you must have university endorsement to be a UT candidate for the Rhodes Scholarship.
Citizens of other nations are also eligible to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship. For a complete list of countries covered by the Rhodes Scholarship, click here. Even if your home country is not on this list, you may apply for a Global Rhodes Scholarship.
Conditions of Eligibility
- Apply as a representative of one of the fifty states: either in the state in which you will have received at least two years of college training and a bachelor’s degree before October 1 in the year following election, or in the state where you were legally resident on April 15 in the year of application. Simultaneous application to more than one District Committee will disqualify an applicant.
- Be a citizen of the United States; pending application for citizenship does not qualify you.
- Be at least 18 but not yet 24 years of age by October 1 in the year of election.
- Have achieved academic standing sufficiently advanced to assure completion of a bachelor’s degree before October 1 in the year following election.
While there is no minimum GPA, those selected for the Rhodes Scholarship typically have GPAs of 3.7 and above.
Application Materials
- Proof of citizenship or lawful permanent resident status
- A certified transcript
- A current résumé
- A high-resolution head and shoulders photograph
- UT Austin endorsement
- At least five, and not more than eight, letters of recommendation. At least four of these letters should be written by persons from whom you have received undergraduate or graduate instruction. At least one letter (the fifth) should speak to your character and can be written by someone outside the university. Such letters might come from the head of an organization for which you volunteered, a coach, or a religious leader–someone who knows you well and can write a detailed description of your values and commitments.
- A personal statement not exceeding 750 words which you must attest as wholly truthful and your own work only (no one should help you with this essay).
- An academic statement of study not exceeding 350 words.
Application Deadline
The deadline for submitting your Rhodes application to the UT Austin Selection Committee is Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, by 5 p.m. CT. Application materials must be submitted through the ODPS Application for Endorsement form, to request access please email odps@austin.utexas.edu.
Letters of recommendation should be emailed to professor Douglas Bruster by the campus deadline. Please send questions to odps@austin.utexas.edu.