College sends out 20 scholarship apps.
The College's Scholarship Advising Office, which many students have criticized as being inefficient and disorganized in years past, submitted nearly 20 applications for Rhodes and Marshall scholarships this week. The deadline was Monday for Rhodes scholarship applications and Wednesday for Marshall scholarships. This year, the Scholarship Office has tried to allay complaints that they are to blame for the low numbers of students selected for prestigious fellowships in recent years. Kristin O'Rourke, who took over as scholarship adviser this year from Marilyn Grundy amid complaints of incompetence, offered an optimistic view of this year's applicants and the office's future. "Our goal this year was to make the process as smooth and crisis-free as possible," O'Rourke said. To aid applicants during the chaotic process, O'Rourke helped many seniors during a "pre-application" period over the summer, offering feedback on different aspects of the application. "Getting feedback from different sources, different layers of commentary, makes a big difference," O'Rourke said. This fall, the office solicited professors from various departments to help review and edit applications, and made Iona McAulay, a writing editor in the art history department, the scholarship office's official writing editor.