Overview
Chapter 7 The Composition of a Cohort Our Class of Scholars
GRADUATES OF top universities or profes- sional schools will tell you that one of the most important parts of their college expe- rience was their fellow students, those they worked with, bonded with, became friends for life with. This is why the world’s great universities don’t just rigorously select stu- dents but also consciously build their fresh- men classes to include a great diversity in talents, backgrounds, and geographies. So it is with Baret Scholars. We create cohorts which will be the most culturally diverse experience of our students’ lives.
Class Size and Structure
AS CONTEXT, class sizes vary in leading ed- ucational programs. Top boarding schools typically have a senior class from 100 to 300 students. Harvard has a freshman class of about 1900 students while Tsinghua has 4,000. Rhodes awards about 100 scholar- ships per year while Schwarzman Schol- ars’ annual class can reach 200. Columbia University Business School has about 850 students in its first-year program. For Baret Scholars, following a 9-month recruiting and selection process, the class of 2025–2026 will consist of 180 students. We chose 180 students as our class size for two reasons. ● VERSATILITY & ENGAGEMENT: Its scale enables and facilitates multiple strands of the Baret program. For example, a meaningful cohort size ensures the development of many different “interest groups” from clubs, to teams, to many options for smaller traveling groups; it increases the probability that students will easily develop a number of friendships and is an attractive audience size for the hundreds of important speakers we will be attracting to our Morning Programs. ● LOGISTICS & COMFORT: The cohort size is large enough so that we can command attractive hotel and conference arrangements, but small enough that we can all fit on single flights from country to country.
Core Attributes of a Baret Scholar
Combined with the above advantages of scale, we break the cohort in 15 Hous- es of 12 students. Each house, supervised by a dedicated Fellow, will convene daily. (Further details about the Advising pro- gram can be found on page 56.). ClassDemographics GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The 180 stu- dents will be drawn from every part of the world. Though the exact composition of the cohort differs year to year, Baret’s ideal class looks something like the following:
DIVERSITY OF INTERESTS: To enrich every- one’s experience and enable various tracks within Baret, we draw together students with a wide variety of interests so that a cohort includes, for example, artists, writ- ers, athletes, techies, musicians, photog- raphers and filmmakers, the scientifically oriented, the entrepreneurially minded, and so forth. GENDER BALANCE: Baret Scholars is com- mitted to fostering a balanced gender rep- resentation. AGE PROFILE: Our students are a mix of recent high school graduates and current university students. LANGUAGE: Though dozens of languages will be spoken within the cohort and some of our morning program sessions will be translated, the day-to-day language of the cohort is English—thus requiring English proficiency by all cohort participants.
THERE IS no single “type” of student that is selected for Baret Scholars. As noted above, we place great value on diversity, believing that yields the best experience for everyone. Yet there are some qualities we look for in all participants. ● An enthusiastic, optimistic belief in our mission. ● A desire to contribute to the class by bringing and sharing a particular interest or expertise (from climate to music to athletics). ● A commitment to responsible and safe behavior: Students who will both look after themselves and their fellow classmates. We believe in fun (and there will be plenty every day), but responsible behavior is high on our list of qualities as the safety and security for the entire class is a promise we make to all.
South & Central America
25
Europe
25
Africa
25
Middle East
20
South Asia
20
East Asia
20
Southeast Asia/Oceania
20
US, Mexico & Canada
25
26
27
BARET SCHOLARS
THE BARET PROGRAM
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