Competing for a Rhodes

As the former Princeton Fulbright program adviser, I have a question: Is it possible that our students’ success in the competition for Rhodes scholarships in comparison with that of applicants from Yale (Notebook, May 12) is simply a fact of numbers? By which I don’t mean averages, but number of seniors. Yale has about 10 percent more undergraduate students than Princeton, as it has for a long time. When the Wythes Report recommendations are fully implemented, the undergraduate population of Princeton will approximate that of Yale now; but of course Yale is also planning to increase the size of its College by adding two new colleges. Presumably a larger number of Princeton seniors will yield a larger number of candidates — and eventually of successful candidates — for the Rhodes.

Our Rhodes record, seen in this light, doesn’t seem anything to be apologetic about, and in any case Frank Ordiway ’81 *90 and his staff deserve great credit for all the work they have done over the years to advise Princeton applicants for the Rhodes scholarship and for other prestigious fellowships.