Thamara V. Jean, Brooklyn, is a senior at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College of

the City University of New York, where she is Hunter’s first Rhodes Scholar. She majors in

Political Science and Media Analysis and Criticism. She completed her senior thesis in her

junior year on the Black Lives Matter movement which was subsequently published in The

Journal of Politics and Society. She followed this with research in the Harvard African-American

Studies Department on black nationalism in the 1960s. Thamara is especially interested in the

dialectic between Afro-pessimism and Black optimism and how that shapes African-American

political thought. Her interest as a social activist is to change destructive societal narratives

and philosophical traditions that bring about barriers rather than common understanding.

Depends on what you mean by "respect" - but in terms of intellect the latter is far more respectful than majoring in PoliSci and Media analysis and criticism. Obviously IMO winners will be more socially awkward on average - but I know several people like this and they aren't as bad as XO thinks. There are far more career opportunities open to the IMO winner - and undoubtedly a good number of the IMO people could do what the Rhodes students do, but basically zero or only on very rare occasions could the rhodes students do what the IMO ppl do - and I'm not even talking about the IMO challenge I mean even keep up with the kind of coursework the IMO students take in college.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3982287&forum_id=2#36094578)

Typical examples:

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/community/list-of-rhodes-scholars/scholars/rhodes-scholars-class-of-2018/nikita-arora/

https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/community/list-of-rhodes-scholars/scholars/rhodes-scholars-class-of-2018/camille-borders/

The pure STEM ones are still prestigious though.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3982287&forum_id=2#36092018)

Meanwhile if you look at this year's Rhodes students it's like 75% bullshit like race criticism or media studies.

Sure there will be some charismatic bros who go on to hold great leadership positions - that may be more enviable, but not more impressive IMO. The kind of computing power the IMO kids have is far more impressive to me, but their lives may not be more enviable.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3982287&forum_id=2#36094594)

Any smart, savvy college student (especially a URM) has a reasonable chance at striving their way to a Rhodes if they put their mind to it.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3982287&forum_id=2#36094554)