Six students from Harvard University won one of the world's most prestigious academic awards on Sunday, Bloomberg News reported.

Harvard students Alexander Diaz, Elizabeth Byrne, Katherine Warren, Paolo Singer, Andrew Lea, and Aurora Griffin are among the 32 men and women chosen as Rhodes Scholars, the most of any school this year.

This year's awards bring the ranks of Harvard's American Rhodes Scholars to 348.

Other schools that had multiple winners were Yale University and Stanford University with three students, and The United States Military Academy at West Point, the University of Virginia and Princeton University who won two Rhodes Scholarships each, according to a statement from the Office of the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust.

Schools with their first Rhodes scholarship winners this year were Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York University Abu Dhabi, a branch campus that opened in 2010.

The scholars were chosen from about 1,750 applicants.

Established in 1902 by British philanthropist Cecil Rhodes, The Rhodes Scholarships fund two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

Singer, who is from the Bronx, N.Y, told Newsday he's interested in finding solutions to urban poverty - especially in the developing world and he plans to pursue a master's degree combining studies of economics and geography at Oxford University..

"The number of people living in cities in developing countries will double within 30 to 40 years, and many of them don't have access to water, electricity, toilets and other basic needs," said Singer, who also wants to find solutions for residents of American inner cities facing huge socio-economic gaps.

According to Newsday, the Harvard senior Singer has participated in poverty and business development programs in South Africa, and in a microfinance program in the urban slums of India. He also led a civics education program in Boston public schools and he recently completed an internship at the White House.

Rhodes Scholars are chosen on the basis of scholarly achievements, personal integrity, leadership potential, commitment to others and to the common good, among other attributes.

Past winners of the scholarships include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, and Rachel Maddow, host of an MSNBC news show.