Each year we recognize public universities that have the most winners of the two most prestigious undergraduate awards: Goldwater and Udall Scholarships. The former is valued at $7,500 and goes to STEM students in their sophomore and junior years, and the later, valued at $5,000, is primarily for undergrad environmental research.
We consider the awards to be especially noteworthy because they are indicators of undergraduate research opportunities and mentoring, so important for postgraduate awards and careers.
In 2013, the University of Arizona, Montana State University, and the University of Minnesota each had five students who won either Goldwater or Udall awards.
North Carolina State, Pitt, and Wisconsin each had four students who earned one of the awards. North Carolina State has been especially strong in this area for two years running.
Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon State, South Carolina, UT Austin, and Washington State all had students who earned three prestigious awards. Georgia, like North Carolina State, is building a strong record of achievement in this area.
The year 2013 yielded a smaller list of Udall Scholars than in the past, only 50 nationwide, versus 80 awarded in previous years. The University of New Mexico led all universities, public and private, by winning three scholarships this year.
Udall scholarships valued at up to $5,000 are awarded to sophomore and junior level college students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care. Many of the awards are for environmental research.
The universities of Arizona, California Berkeley, Georgia, and Minnesota each had two student Udall winners in 2013.
During the past two years, the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia have seen five students earn Udall awards, leading all public universities.
Below is a list of public universities with two or more total Udall winners in the last two years:
The most prestigious undergraduate scholarship is awarded annually by the Barry M. Goldwater Foundation to outstanding students majoring in mathematics, science, engineering, or computer science, and this year eight of the major universities we follow on this site won three awards each.
Public universities with three Goldwater scholars for 2013 are Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Oregon State, Pitt, UT Austin, Washington State, and Wisconsin. The leader among all public universities is Montana State University, with the maximum number of scholarships allowed–four. North Carolina State is the overall leader the past two years, with a total of seven Goldwater scholars.
The Goldwater awards are important indicators of the value of undergraduate research and the attention young scholars receive. Out of 271 of the $7,500 scholarships awarded in 2013, a total of 159 went to science majors; 71 to engineering majors; 27 to math majors; and 14 to computer science majors.
Goldwater scholars are also highly represented among winners of graduate awards such as Rhodes, Marshall, and Churchill scholarships. In recent years, 80 Goldwater winners have also won Rhodes scholarships; 118 have earned Marshall scholarships; and an extremely high number of 110 Goldwater scholars have gone on to win Churchill scholarships.
Below is a list of the universities we follow that have at least four Goldwater awards in the last two years.
Five years ago, while he was serving his second deployment in Iraq, Alexander Nye Gutierrez would have had a difficult time imagining his life right now: A junior at the University of South Carolina who has been named a finalist for the Truman Scholarship.
Gutierrez, who is pursuing the highest degree possible from the South Carolina Honors College, will interview April 1 in Atlanta for the scholarship, one of the country’s most prestigious academic awards. The road from Washington D.C.’s Gonzaga College High School to the deserts of Iraq to the brick walkways of the USC campus has been a winding path of discovery for the 29-year-old Gutierrez.
His late father was a graduate of The Citadel, where Gutierrez also attended for one semester after he graduated from high school in 2002.
“It clearly wasn’t time for me to be in college,” Gutierrez said. “I decided I’d be better off serving some time in the armed forces first.”
So he joined the U.S. Army Reserves, and quickly found himself selected by his unit commander to go to language school. Soon he was in Iraq, working in psychological operations. Nearly three of his six years in the Reserves were spent in active duty.
Four weeks after he returned from the war in Iraq, he enrolled at USC for the spring 2009 semester, ready to put his military service behind him.
“It wasn’t the best idea. It was a very, very difficult transition,” he said. “I withdrew that semester and the next semester. I needed time to deal with what it was like to make a transition to being a civilian.”
By fall 2010, Gutierrez was back on the USC campus, ready to earn his degree. He had learned to appreciate and understand what his time in the service meant to him.
“It gives me sense of perspective on things,” he said.
He jumped into the classwork, and after his first year received an invitation to transfer into the prestigious South Carolina Honors College. He calls the experience “extraordinary,” pointing to his close relationships with advisers, small classes and challenging coursework as the reasons for his success.
Gutierrez is pursuing a Baccalaureus Artium et Scientiae (BARSC) degree – the highest possible at the university — with concentrations in Middle East studies, mathematics and international relations with a focus on security. He spent a summer working as an associate with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in 2012, and he continues his work as a research aide for IDA. He plans to pursue graduate degrees in mathematics/statistics and security studies, with plans to do security-related work for the government after he completes graduate school.
Next on his agenda is the interview for the Truman, a scholarship he hopes will be a perfect fit for him.
“The Truman Scholarship puts an emphasis on public service and becoming a change agent,” he said. “It’s incredibly humbling and thrilling and a little surreal to be a finalist. To be named a finalist for the state and the university, I’m very proud of that.”
The Gates Cambridge Foundation has announced the 39 American scholars selected for graduate study at Cambridge University, and Rutgers University leads public institutions with two scholars for 2013.
In addition, Arkansas, Auburn, Binghamton, Christopher Newport, Maryland, Michigan State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Salisbury University, UC Berkeley, and UT Austin have bachelor’s degree holders who won Gates awards. The U.S. Naval Academy also has an awardee this year, not unusual for the academy.
The overall leader in 2013 is Harvard, with five scholars. Yale, Princeton, and Stanford have two scholars each; MIT and Duke have one apiece. Other private institutions with Gates winners are Penn, NYU, Pomona, Chicago, Boston University, Case Western, De Pauw, Notre Dame, and Franklin Olin College of Engineering
A student from the University of British Columbia was also honored with an award this year.
The Gates Cambridge Scholarships are among the most prestigious in the world, paying the cost of graduate study at the eminent English university for multiple years of study.
The most recent selections for the George Mitchell Scholarship to study for a year in Ireland have been announced, and special congratulations are due to students from the universities of Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and the U.S. Naval Academy, the six public institutions with award winners for the class of 2014. Each year, 11 or 12 scholars are chosen; this year, the number was 12.
Mitchell Scholarships fund study in Ireland at several prominent universities, including University College, Dublin, and Trinity College, Dublin. The scholarships are announced in the year preceding the full academic year of study. Therefore, the winners just announced in 2012 will begin study in 2013 and complete their work in 2014, thus making up the “class of 2014.” In addition to paying for tuition and housing, the scholarship carries a stipend of $12,000.
Students from the following private colleges were also selected: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Brown, Cambridge, and Washington University St. Louis.
Here are the public university winners for the class of 2014, listed by university. (See also the cumulative list, by university, which follows).
Minnesota–Martin Chorzempa was raised in Bloomington, Minnesota, and in 2011 graduated summa cum laude in finance and international business from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He will study economics at University College, Dublin.
Arizona–Emily Fritze,a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is a 2011 graduate of the University of Arizona with a degree in political science. She is currently a special assistant to the Under Secretary of Energy, working on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. She will study Higher Education at the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Alabama–Sarah Johnson of Mesquite, Texas, will graduate from the University of Alabama in 2013 with a degree in mechanical engineering. She is a Goldwater Scholar and plans to pursue a Ph.D. She will study advanced mechanical engineering and Queen’s University Belfast.
Naval Academy–Jonathan Poole of Yarmouth, Maine, will graduate in 2013 from the US Naval Academy with a degree in applied mathematics. He aims to increase educational and business opportunities in his home state, and eventually to become involved in politics there. He will study International Public Policy and Diplomacy at University College Cork.
Auburn–Marian Royston will graduate from Auburn University with a major in history and a double minor in community and civic engagement and political science. Royston’s long-term goal is to work on rural policy issues to expand social and economic opportunity for rural residents.She will study Community Development at Learning at Queen’s University Belfast.
Oklahoma–Robin Tipps, a member of the Quapaw Tribe, was raised in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He will graduate in 2013 from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in sociology-criminology. His goal is to be a tribal attorney, and he hopes one day to be chairman of his tribe. He will study Public Law at National University Ireland Galway.
Overall public university leaders in Mitchell awards, not counting service academies, are listed below:
Georgia, Indiana, Washington–3 each
Alabama, UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Penn State–2 each
Arizona, Arkansas, Auburn, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio U, Oregon UC Irvine, UCLA, UT Austin, Wisconsin–1 each
Unlike faculty Fulbright Scholars who receive prestigious grants to do research abroad, Fulbright Student Scholars are still undergraduates or graduates who are completing work on master’s or doctorate degrees, and in some cases, bachelor’s degrees.
The public universities that lead in the number of Fulbright Student Scholars over the most recent three-year period are Michigan, Arizona State, UC Berkeley, Rutgers, North Carolina, Washington, Maryland, Pitt, and Illinois.
Earning any Fulbright award is a signal achievement. For this year’s report on public university leaders in student awards, we will also recognize leaders in the percentage of Fulbright applicants who were award the scholarships. (Note: thanks to the Chronicle of Higher Education for the publishing the number of applicants along with the number of awards.)
Below, please see the top 20 public universities for Fulbright student honors in 2012. Once again, Michigan led all universities, public or private, in the total number of Fulbright Student Scholars. We also want to congratulate Oklahoma State, Arizona State, South Carolina, and Ohio University for the high percentage of their student applicants who actually won the award. (Arizona State and South Carolina are also among the top 20 in total awards among public universities. Any school with 11 or more awards is also in the top 30 nationally, among both public and private national universities.)
The average success rate for the top 40 national research universities, public and private, was 25 percent. Below we will list the percentages for all schools who exceeded the average percentage. The average number of awards earned by students from the 50 major public universities we follow most closely was just over 8.
Fulbright students from U.S. universities may study any subject abroad, except for clinical medicine. Below are the figures for 2012:
Now that we have the full list of Marshall Scholars 2013 , we thought it would be a good time to report on the number of Marshall scholars among the 50 public universities we follow, since 2001, the year we use in our metric for Marshall awards.
Below are the universities and the number of Marshall Scholarships since 2001:
We now have a complete list of the 2013 winners of the Marshall Scholarships, which fund two years of graduate study at any university in the United Kingdom.
Up to 40 Marshall Scholarships are awarded each year to students at U.S. universities, but this year only 34 scholars were selected. Below are the 34 students and the 31 universities they represent:
Abilene Christian University–Brittany Partridge, a political science major and founder of the Red Thread Movement, which raises awareness of modern-day slavery and works to save Nepalese girls from the sex trafficking, will study at University College, London. The Red Thread Movement has supporters at about 75 campuses across the nation. She also won a Truman Scholarship this year.
Air Force Academy–Ian Gibson, also a Truman Scholar, will study political science at the London School of Economics.
Boston College–Aditya Ashok was a winner of the Truman Scholarship in 2011; he majored in history and biology and will study global health at the University of Glasgow.
Brandeis–Elizabeth Stoker, a graduate in theology and Christian ethics, will study philosophy at Oxford.
Brown–Nick Werle, a 2010 graduate in physics and modern philosophy, will work on master’s degrees at University College, London, and the London School of Economics.
Colorado State–Christopher Counts, a student in the honors program with majors in biomedical sciences and anthropology, will study at University College, London. He is the founder of Hygiene for Humanity.
Columbia–Dylan Liu, an engineering major, will study theoretical physics at Oxford.
UConn–Ethan Butler, a chemical engineering graduate and previous winner of a Udall award, will study at Imperial College, London.
CUNY John Jay College for Criminal Justice–Nicolas Montano, a senior in CUNY’s Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies Program at John Jay College, will pursue two master’s degrees–one in research in the social sciences at the University Liverpool and the other in criminal justice policy at the London School of Economics.
Duke–Kenneth Hoehn, a biology major with minors in computational biology and bioinformatics, will study at Oxford.
Georgetown (2)–Shea Houlihan, an international politics major, will study social research methods and international migration at the University of Sussex. Benjamin Buchanan graduated in 2011 with a degree in government and minors in Arabic and English, will pursue either a doctorate in war studies from King’s College, London, or a doctorate in information communication and the social sciences at Oxford.
George Washington–Stephanie Figgins, who graduated in 2011 with a degree in economics and international affairs, will study post-colonial culture and global politics at the University of London; she has been a journalist with the Voice of America in Cairo.
Georgia Tech–Jacob Tzegaebe, pursuing a five-year BS/MS degree in civil engineering, will work on a doctorate in the same field at University College, London. He has also earned an NSF grant and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Harvard (2)–Aditya Balasubramanium will study political science at the London School of Economics, and Alex Palmer will study at King’s College, London.
Illinois–Jonathan Naber, a 2011 graduate in materials science and engineering, designed prosthetic prototypes and established a non-profit organization to provide low-cost prosthetic devices to amputees in the developing world. Jonathan will pursue a degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is now working in Guatemala on a project to make the devices out of native materials.
Michigan–Spencer Smith graduated in 2011 with degrees in economics and math and will study economics at Oxford.
Montana State–Bryan Vadheim, a member of the University Honors Program, is MSU’s first Marshall Scholar. He will study at the London School of Economics and King’s College, London. His interests are water science and governance. Montana State also produced a Rhodes Scholar this year: Joe Thiel, who will study engineering at Oxford.
Naval Academy (2)–Katelyn Davidson, and English major, will work on an M.A. in gender and equality at Queen’s University in Belfast and an M.A. in international peace and security at Kings College, London. Ronald Allen, an economics major, will study public policy at Kings College, London. The Naval Academy also had two Rhodes Scholars this year.
Northwestern–Jennifer Mills, a triple major in earth and planetary science, integrated sciences, and chemistry, also has a minor in physics. She is part of the university’s highly-selective integrated sciences program. Already the author of two scientific articles, she will study and integrated science, she will study climate science at Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh.
NYU–Jessica Mason, a social work graduate, will study global policy at the London School of Economics and work on an MSc. at Oxford.
Ohio University–Keith Hawkins, already a Goldwater Scholar, studied astrophysics, math, and African studies in the university’s Honors Tutorial College. He is doing research now at the University of Hawaii and previously did research at Caltech. He will continue his studies at Cambridge.
Ohio State–Alexander Chaitoff, a Truman Scholarship winner in 2012, will complete an MPH at the University of Sheffield.
Oklahoma–Jerod Coker, a senior economics major, will pursue a master’s degree in economics and philosophy at the London School of Economics, after which he plans to obtain a JD/MBA from Harvard. OU student Mubeen Shakir, a biochemistry major, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship this year.
Pitt–Paras Minhas, a microbiology major and student in the honors college, will work on a Ph.D. at University College, London.
Princeton–Jake Nebel, a philosophy student, will work on an M.A. at Oxford.
Rice–Rahul Rekhi, a bioengineering major, will study biology and bioinformatics at Oxford. He has also won both Truman and Goldwater awards.
USC–Alexander Fullman, a political science major, will continue his studies in that field at Oxford.
UT Austin–William Berdanier, a Dean’s Scholar honors student in physics and math, has also won a Goldwater Scholarship. His undergraduate research has focused in part on developing fusion energy. He will study at Cambridge.
Virginia–Hillary Hurd was a Jefferson Scholar at UVA and majored in Russian and East European Studies. She will concentrate on international studies at Cambridge and at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Washington U St. Louis–Alexander Baron, also a Luce Scholar, has majors in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and political science. He will pursue graduate studies at Oxford.
Wesleyan–Zully Adler, a history grad in 2011, will study art history and print culture at Oxford.
Below is a recent story from the UT Austin Plan II site:
Marissa Nichole Duswalt, a spring 2010 Plan II Honors and Dean’s Scholars graduate in Nutritional Science (Registered Dietitian) will transition from her current position in the Office of the Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture to join the White House Office of the First Lady as Associate Director of Policy and Events for the Let’s Move! initiative.
The goal of the Let’s Move! initiative is to reverse childhood obesity, which impacts one in three American children. The initiative seeks to engage every sector of society in this effort, as everyone has a role to play to ensure that America’s kids have the opportunity to reach a healthy adulthood.
Duswalt says she is “honored to serve in this new role for this cause, as it has been a passion of mine since entering college at UT. As an undergraduate in the Plan II Honors Program as well as the Coordinated Program in Dietetics, I had the privilege of studying this critical issue across multiple disciplines. That academic path prepared me for working in government, and specifically on this issue, which embodies the intersection of science, economics, culture, and policy. It is a true honor to join Let’s Move!, and I am grateful to the incredible support from the University community that contributed to this moment.”
Although admitted to the MBA program at Stanford, Duswalt couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work in the White House on a project so close to her heart. She was passionate about civic engagement as an undergraduate, and of course, was encouraged to follow her passions. We have no doubts that when the time comes and she reapplies to Stanford, that she’ll be admitted once again as a Truman Scholar.
In 2009, Duswalt was awarded a Truman Scholarship. The selection committee recognized her interest and leadership in the fields of childhood nutrition, behavioral and culinary science, and American food culture. She’s particularly interested in investigating ways to remedy the increasing rates of obesity in American children. Her new duties in the White House Office of the First Lady will engage all her interests and skills.
Duswalt, a native of Rosenberg, Texas, and the first in her family to attend college, was one of 60 Scholars selected from among 601 candidates in 2009. Each Truman Scholarship provides up to $30,000 for graduate study. Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.
Recipients are United States citizens, have outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, are in the top quarter of their class and are committed to careers in government or non-profits. In return for the funding, Truman Scholars pledge to serve for three to seven years in the public service sector after receiving their graduate degrees.
Marissa’s Plan II/Dean’s Scholars Honors thesis, supervised by Dr. John Stephen Hursting, Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, studied the relationships between nutrition, metabolism and disease prevention. Marissa investigated how differences in the saccharide ratio comprising the carbohydrate portion of the American diet lead to obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
Duswalt is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She was a 2007 Temple Scholar, a Plan II Distinguished Graduate and a Presidential Scholar. As an undergraduate, she initiated a service-learning initiative to integrate civic engagement into the Plan II curriculum, and worked at the Health Promotion Resource Center as a Nutrition Educator.
