Though the Gates Cambridge Scholarship announced 30 winners Thursday, Penn students were nowhere to be found on the list.
Penn and Dartmouth College were the only two schools in the Ivy League to not produce Gates Scholarship recipients this year.
Four students from Harvard University and three students from Yale University were given the award. Brown, Cornell, Columbia and Princeton universities each saw one scholarship recipient.
Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships spokesman Aaron Olson said CURF was aware of three Penn finalists who were in the running for the scholarship this year. Olson could not provide the total number of Penn students who applied, as applications for the award are submitted independently of CURF.
The Gates Scholarship provides funding for full-time graduate study and research in any subject available at the University of Cambridge. In contrast to awards like the Marshall Scholarship — which allows students to pursue studies at any university in the United Kingdom — Gates recipients are limited to study at Cambridge only.
“It's an amazing and highly-respected award … but you have to go where the specific program is good, not just where the school's reputation is good,” Olson said. “That's not to say that we wouldn't have liked to have won, but we're happy with [the awards] we've gotten so far this year.”
According to a Cambridge statement, about 800 students submitted applications for the scholarship. After a series of interviews in early Februrary, the 30 Gates recipients were selected from a pool of 80 finalists.
Last year, four Penn undergraduates and recent alumni received the scholarship.
“You win some, you lose some,” Olson said. “We’ll now focus on next year.”
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