Woman Picked For Regional Rhodes Finals

The Massachusetts Rhodes Scholarship interviewing committee announced yesterday the selection of Laura Galwin '77 as the first female candidate from Massachusetts ever considered for Rhodes scholarship regional interviews.

This year is the first year that the Rhodes scholarship has been opened to female applicants. The scholarship enables students from all over the world to participate in two years of concentrated study at Oxford.

Intense Interviews

Each state chooses about 15 applicants from whom two are chosen for more intense regional interviews. Each region will select four finalists. Almost a sixth of last year's finalists were Harvard students.

Galwin said yesterday she is "aware of being different for being a woman." But she said she did not think of herself as a suffragette. "I don't view myself as being more of a representative of women than as of Harvard students; I just don't think in terms of women's issues," Galwin said.

Galwin competed against six other women and eight men on the state level. Galwin, a physics concentrator who intends to do her doctoral work in physical oceanography, said she hopes to concentrate in the theoretical backgrounds of music if she wins the scholarship.

She has been involved with various Harvard musical organizations including the Harvard Bach Society.

Winning the scholarship would enable her to take time off from academics and immerse herself in music, she said.