Nov 25, 2013 08:25 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The majority of Rhodes scholarships announced this year belong to Harvard University. Out of 32 US recipients, six students at the Ivy League school have won the world's most prestigious academic award.

According to the statement from the Office of the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, Yale and Stanford University students have grabbed three Rhodes Scholarships each, while Princeton, University of Virginia and United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, have earned two scholarships respectively.

Harvard students, Katherine E. Warren and Elizabeth H. Byrne, 22, are among the six recipients of Rhodes Scholarships for 2014. The other Harvard students receiving scholarships are Paolo P. Singer of the Bronx, N.Y.; Andrew S. Lea of Richland, Wash.; Aurora C. Griffin of Westlake Village, Calif.; and Alexander J. Diaz of North Bergen, N.J.

"It was amazing when we heard the news," Warren, 23, said. "We were standing right next to each other and hugged each other for a full minute before we did anything else," Boston Globe reports.

While Warren is planning to pursue a master's degree in global health science, Byrne will study applied statistics.

The American students along with an international group will join the prestigious university in England next October.

The Rhodes Scholarships established in 1902 by the will of British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes. It funds two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in the U.K. Past recipients include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, and Rachel Maddow, host of an MSNBC news show among others.               

Winners are selected based on their academic achievements, personal integrity, leadership potential and physical vigor, among other factors. The value of the scholarships averages about $50,000 per year. Approximately 80 scholars are selected annually.

Not only did Harvard secure majority of scholarships this year, but it leads the overall list of Rhodes Scholarships.  So far, 347 students from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been named Rhodes Scholars, the most from any U.S. university. Harvard is then followed by Princeton with 233 scholarships and Princeton University in New Jersey that has received 201 scholarships.

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