After almost two weeks of waiting, a handful of seniors received on Monday the official endorsement of Harvard College in their pursuit of the coveted Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.

According to the Office of Career Services (OCS), 41 of the 95 students seeking an endorsement for the American Rhodes Scholarship received one. And out of a group of only seven, three students pursuing the Canadian Rhodes Scholarship will move to the next level of competition.

From a smaller pool of 60 applicants, 30 seniors will now pursue the Marshall Scholarship.

Paul A. Bohlmann, the fellowship director at the OCS, praised the seniors moving on to the next level but warned that the battle is far from over.

"The competition is stiff. Each person is going toe to toe with others who also have their schools behind them. No one can ever expect to win one of these scholarships," he said.

Before being reviewed on an intercollegiate level, applications for both scholarships must pass through two committees to receive an endorsement from the College.

According to Assistant Senior Tutor and Lowell House Fellowship Adviser Andrew C. Blume, the first committee is made up of fellowship advisers from each house. Based on standards set forth by the Marshall and Rhodes Scholarship committees, the advisers decide whether the applications deserve endorsement.

After this preliminary reading, the applications and the comments of the advisers are sent to a faculty committee chaired by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68.

The faculty committee has the final say in the process and determines which applicants to endorse.

"The committee worked carefully and thoughtfully to understand each candidate, supported by the work of the House Fellowships advisers," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message.

"The group we endorsed is outstanding...and I have every hope that they will be successful in the subsequent stages of the selection process," Lewis added.

Over the past 30 years, approximately five Harvard students have won Rhodes scholarships each year.

While Harvard had eight Marshall scholars last year and eight the year before, Bohlmann said that Harvard usually averages only three or four.

According to Bohlmann, the Rhodes Scholarship was created in the will of Englishman Cecil Rhodes at the beginning of this century.

The Marshall Scholarship was first initiated in 1953 as an act of British Parliament. It began as a commemoration of the Marshall Plan, from which the scholarship takes its name.