osru

Ertegun scholar in the 19/20 season here - will be happy to answer any question you guys might have! Quick recap of some important info that you guys might be interested in:
- Your respective faculties will decide who to nominate for the scholarship, and for that they'll arrange an interview with you in about two weeks. Afterward, they'll make a shortlist and send it over to the Ertegun board members, who will make their decision. I'm not sure if everyone interviewed will end up getting nominated by the faculty/department, but from what I know, the Ertegun board members will take about 30% of the eventual shortlist across ALL humanities programmes.
- That means if your faculty doesn't contact you for an interview in late February or early March, then I'm sorry, but chances of getting the scholarship will be pretty low then...
- The meeting will happen sometime mid-March. I can ask to find out when it's gonna happen, but anything beyond that is unfortunately confidential (no scholar has access to any information re: the nominees, etc.).
- They do have a preference for Master's degrees over DPhils. We always have a few people in archaeology, music, ancient history, theology, English (that is, counting the alumni who are still studying at Oxford). People from other fields aren't as lucky. I was the only classicist to have received that scholarship in the 19/20 academic year, and this year there's none.
Let me know if you have other questions!

Hi there! I've asked my contact, and she said the board meeting will happen in early March. If you don't hear back from them by the end of the second week in March, then you should probably assume that you are unsuccessful... I also just got words from another friend who has just been invited for an interview (out of interest in his privacy I don't think I can share info about his programme, but this likely means that interview invites will be sent out pretty soon from all faculties, if not already).
Clarendon doesn't require you to make a separate application. All applicants will automatically be considered - your faculty will be the party responsible for making the shortlist/nominations. I've heard that this year Clarendon will meet around maybe late March, which means results will prob be out earlier compared to previous years. You can also check the list of scholars to see the 'quota' they have for each programme - most programmes get two Clarendon scholarships each, except for History which has like ten thousand lolol
I can see that you're applying for the DPhil this season, so you'll stand a higher chance of getting some funding than if you were a master's candidate, but it really comes down to how strong your faculty is financially, or whether there are specific scholarships for your programme in the colleges. There's unfortunately no centralised tool to see all the scholarships offered by all colleges/departments, so maybe it's worth visiting each college to see the kind of financial support they offer. I myself am also waiting for funding info, so let's keep our fingers crossed XD

Afaik the nomination processes for these two scholarships are independent of one another, especially because they would usually try to get as many students covered by funding as possible. Ertegun results are also out before the Clarendon board meets, so I don't see why they would re-nominate someone who already has funding secured. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some overlap between the two lists.
The interview can be about anything, really. It depends on who will interview you, and I know people who were asked questions such as 'what changes would you make toward the Ertegun community?' or 'if you can think about an activity to organise in the Ertegun House, what would it be?' As for me, I remembered talking to my DGS a lot about my senior thesis back then (like, more than half an hour, because he was really curious about my topic). I guess my tip would be to approach it just as you would any other grad school interview? Of course, there's also the big 'Ertegun factor,' so if you are interested in knowing more about the community and what it's like living there, I can also share a bit about my experience!

Yep, every scholar will have one or two senior scholars who will fill the role of their 'academic big sibs.' I'm great friends to both scholars who mentored me, and hung out with them quite a lot! It really depends on the person, though, but in general I think the 'mentoring' is a great idea to familiarise new scholars to the Ertegun culture, as well as to introduce you to your new Oxford life. They'll usually try to pair you with someone similar in terms of interests, but my two mentors work in completely different fields from me, so that's actually not too big of a factor.
All my surprises re: the scholarship were pleasant, such as how I didn't expect there would be so many awesome activities for us throughout the year. My third term was kinda uneventful because of COVID, but the other two terms were splendid. Ertegun scholars are given a lot of freedom and support when it comes to organising activities, and it's not rare for someone to host an event, organise a movie night, or anything along those lines. (Those things would also be funded by Ertegun; I can't recall anyone ever being turned down, but of course it didn't mean we could ask for a 10-grand budget XD.) In addition, we can also make suggestions for termly events. For every (non-COVID) term there will be 6-8 cultural events in the House, and if there's something you really want to see (for example, a Beethoven concert), you can suggest it to the Director and they will take that into consideration.
Hope this helps! Feel free to let me know if you want to know about some other thing.