(FORTUNE Magazine) – Applications for Rhodes scholarships by U.S. college students have reached a record 1,305, about 200 more than last year. Maybe not all the wannabes see this two-year spell at the University of Oxford as a steppingstone to the White House. But, says Sherrill Pinney of the U.S. branch of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, ''we call the increase the Clinton factor.'' Clinton is the first Rhodes scholar to even run for the office, though others, like Senator Bill Bradley, have gone into politics. The other alumni above include economist Lester Thurow, singer Kris Kristofferson, George Goodman (TV's ''Adam Smith''), and John Brademas, former president of New York University and a Texaco director. The scholarships are named for Cecil Rhodes, a Brit who led the colonization of much of southern Africa. An unremarkable student himself, he willed the funds for the scholarships at his death in 1902 as a way to find ''the best man for the world's fight'' with the ''courage and instincts to lead.'' Women became eligible in 1976. The foundation apportions 94 scholarships, worth about $9,300 a year, to candidates from 18 countries and the European Community. The U.S. is earmarked for 32; a given number of contenders is picked from each region of the country. Winners make the cut after an extensive interview process, by at least one outsider and several -- surprise -- former Rhodes scholars. Clinton once served on such a selection group. In 1989 the outsider on an Arkansas committee was Hillary. -- S.L.