Selection

The Rotch Scholar is chosen annually through a two-stage design competition. Each of these stages is judged by a separate jury composed of several distinguished architects and other professionals, usually including a former Rotch Scholar. The first stage is a weekend-long preliminary competition that requires entrants to create a design in response to a specific architectural problem posed by the Scholarship Committee. The preliminary jury then evaluates the entrants' designs in terms of their creative potential to determine which candidates are best qualified to fulfill the goals of the program. The main criteria of the Rotch scholarship juries is to “search for evidence of imaginative capacity” in the design projects submitted.

In each of the last several competitions, the preliminary jury has chosen six to eight candidates to go on to the final competition. The finalists are given ten days to respond to another architectural problem and are then required to present their projects at the final competition in Boston. For competitors coming from out-of-state, all expenses for travel to and lodging in Boston are paid by the Scholarship Trust. After reviewing the entries in the final competition, a second jury selects the winner, who is then officially named that year's Rotch Scholar by the Trustees.

In 2006, the final jury chose an Alternate Scholar, who typically is invited to compete in the following year's final competition without reentering the preliminary stage.