Eileen Brooks, a senior from Lincoln, NE, majoring in economics, learned last weekend that she had won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University in England for two years. Rahul Rao `94, who is majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, will also be at Oxford on a Marshall scholarship, while Gregory McMahan `93 and Gerald McDermott, a graduate student in political science, have received Fulbright scholarships for this year.
Ms. Brooks learned of her award on Saturday in Minneapolis, where she and other students from around the country had been interviewed. "It's a really interesting and amazing group of people," she said. "It's very exciting." She plans to learn more about politics by studying public policy and/or international relations with the eventual goal of obtaining a doctorate in economics.
As a Rhodes scholar, Ms. Brooks will have something in common with President Clinton, something that pleases her. "I'm a real Bill fan," she said.
This is the first year that more women than men have won Rhodes scholarships.
Mr. Rao of Little Rock, AK, will use his Marshall scholarship to earn a second bachelor's degree through Oxford's two-year Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology Program. Afterwards, he said, he hopes to enroll in an MD/PhD program with the goal of going into academic medicine and public policy. With his Oxford education, Mr. Rao said he hopes to combine his scientific and medical skills with "concerns with how the health care system should be used."
Mr. McMahan, a chemical engineering major from Berkeley, CA, who has been to Japan several times, is currently in Osaka studying physical science. Mr. McDermott of White Plains, NY, is pursuing his political science studies in Prague in the Czech Republic.
A version of this article appeared in the December 8, 1993 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 17).
