2025 US Rhodes Scholars - heavy on woke interests - only 10% white males, 2/3 female

The 2025 US Rhodes Scholar selection has just been released. 32 Americans have been selected as Rhodes Scholars by selection committees associated with the Rhodes Trust.

Looking at scholar bios that sometimes state a party affiliation, sometimes imply it, it seems that at least 9 of the 2025 Rhodes Scholars are Democrats while 0 are Republicans.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - woke - topics and interests dominate the biographies of the scholars. 19 - almost 2/3 - of the biographies are mostly about social topics and virtually all of those appear to have woke specialties such as DEI, social justice, green energy etc. Concerns over inflation, economic growth, freedom, freedom of speech, gun rights, the right of self-defense, and other topics more typical of centrist and right-of-center individuals are absent from scholars’ biographies. Most of the remaining biographies highlight topics in medicine, science and computing, often bridging several of them.

Out of 32 selected US Rhodes Scholars, only 3 are white males, an all time low of around 10%. ~2/3 of the class is female, close to an all time high. According to the Will of founder Cecil Rhodes only men are eligible to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. The Will is superseded by an Act of the British Parliament that made women eligible in 1976. Today the Rhodes Trust is led by Elizabeth Kiss who was formerly the President of all-women’s college Agnes Scott in Atlanta. The US Secretary - responsible for coordinating US scholar selection - is Ramona Doyle. Since 2018, when Kiss took office as Warden/CEO of the Rhodes Trust, women have outnumbered men ever year, sometimes by close to a 2:1 ratio. Around 1/3 of the 32 2025 US Rhodes Scholars are white. For context, around 1/2 of college students in the US are white.

Harvard has 5 Rhodes Scholars, Stanford 4, MIT 3, Yale 3. 4 Rhodes Scholarships were given to graduates of the United States Military Academy, of which 3 (3/4) are female. Yet, men make up more than 3/4 of the cadets - the selection pool - at West Point. The selection of majority or even exclusively female Rhodes Scholar cohorts from military institutions such as West Point or the Air Force Academy with male-majority student bodies (2/3 to 3/4) has been notable in recent years.

2025 US Rhodes Scholars. Source: https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholar-community/rhodes-scholar-bios/

Below is a summary of the 2025 US class of Rhodes Scholars:

Name	Ethnicity	Gender	Topics	Party	Institution
Abrianna E. Morales	H	F	victim advocacy, politics		University of New Mexico
Alvin Lee	A	M	edu governance, White House & Mayor of LA intern	D	Stanford
Aneesh C. Muppii	A	M	AI, White House OSTP		Harvard
Angelin T. Mathew	A	F	palliative care, cancer		Yale
Anushka Nair	A	F	misinformation, censorship		MIT
Ariana Palomo	H	F	migration, refugees		Brown
Ava O. Spinar	W	F	medical		United States Military Academy
Ayush Noori	A	M	AI, medical		Harvard
David C. Oluigbo	B	M	AI, medical, global health, systematic challenges		MIT
Francesca Fernandes	H, A	F	physics		Stanford
Francesco P. Rahe	W	M	overcoming relgious intolerance		U Chicago
Gabriella M. Sorrentino	B	F	DEI, migration		United States Military Academy
Jae J. Kim	A	M	environmentalism, social intervention		Rice
Jenna A. Smith	B	F	social justice, justice system		Duke
Kate E. Herndon	W	F	domestic violence, Obama-Chesky	D	U Alabama
Kate E. Tully	W	F	democratic regression, Africa	D	Stanford
Katherine G. Ameku	W?	F	politics, science	D	Coe College
Lena R. Ashooh	W	F	environmental justice, race, veganism	D	Harvard
Luiza Diniz Vilanova	H	F	education, low income youth		Columbia
Madeline C. Dierauf	W	F	folk tradition		Davidson College
Meredith G. M. Lehman	W	F	young Democrat, sustainable fashion, asylum, cancer	D	Eastern Mennonite University
Mikayla I. Tillery	B	F	urban & African american studies, DEI, green energy	D	Stanford
Noa J. Offman	W	F	social justice, prison reform		Georgetown University
Om H. Gandhi	A	M	bioengineering		University of Pennsylvania
Paras B. Bassuk	?	?	LGTBQ+, transgender, social policy		University of Iowa
Samuel T. Crowe	W	M	astrophysics, sexual violence prevention		University of Virginia
Sarah S. Cao	A	F	Chinese, international affairs		United States Military Academy
Sayda Martinez-Alvarado	H	F	DEI	D	Yale
Sean Wu	A	M	AI, medical		Pepperdine University
Shepherd Y. Dzina	A	M	peace, development, security		United States Military Academy
Sofia L. Corona	W	F	Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, green energy	D	Harvard
Thomas Barone	W	M	political rhetoric, journalism, history		Harvard

Ethnicity was estimated by visual check of the face: H = Hispanic, B = Black, W = White, A = Asian. Gender was estimated by visual check of the face and pronouns used in the published bio: F = Female, M = Male. Topics were estimated from the published bio and other publicly available information. Party was estimated from the topics, the published bio and other publicly available material. The institution was estimate from the published bio.