Session gives info on Rhodes and Marshall scholarships

The 1998-99 Rhodes and Marshall scholarships recruitment season at Cornell begins with an information session and reception Monday, March 30, at 4:45 p.m. in Goldwin Smith Hall D, for eligible students interested in applying for these prestigious fellowships.

The program will include remarks by President Hunter Rawlings; Professor Danuta Shanzer, a former Marshall Scholar and a member of the university's Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships Endorsement Committee, who will discuss the university system in the United Kingdom; and Beth Fiori, interim fellowship coordinator, who will give a brief overview of the application process, highlighting points students should take into account as they consider whether to apply for these awards.

Current applicants and award winners also will share their experiences with the audience, largely composed of juniors of high academic standing who have been invited by the president's office. The session is open to all eligible students.

Various handouts about the Rhodes and Marshall and other prestigious fellowships will be available, and a reception will follow the session, so prospective applicants can speak informally with faculty and this year's applicants about the selection process.

This year three Cornell students won Marshall Scholarships – Jeremy Lack, ILR '98, Daniel Klein, A&S '98, and Jeffrey Tompkins, A&S '97 – making it two years in a row that Cornell has garnered three of these prestigious awards for graduate study in the United Kingdom. Only 42 Marshall Scholarships are awarded in the United States each year. Cornell's success in large part is due to the faculty's commitment to recruiting, advising, evaluating and generally supporting applicants, Fiori said. Faculty who have served on any of this year's prestigious fellowship endorsement committees have been invited to attend the session, and other interested faculty members are strongly encouraged to attend.

Students who hope to do graduate work in the United Kingdom and have a GPA of 3.7 or higher, but who cannot attend the March 30 session, can view the fellowships information on the Cornell Career Services web site at http://www.career.cornell.edu/ccs/Graduate_School/Fellowships/prestigious.html . Or they can contact Fiori at btf1@cornell.edu and 255-6931.