Author: Ken Anselment

“Why Lawrence?” Let our applicants tell you (in 47-ish words)

On our application for admission, we ask a fun little question: “Why Lawrence? It’s a short question seeking a short answer. 47 well-chosen words—give or take a few—should work.”

We appreciated some of the early questions from students about how to answer the question, along with their adherence to instructions.

  • “Can I go with 48, 49… maybe 50?”
  • “Do articles [“a” and “the”] count against the 47?”
  • “I have a few haikus. Is that cool?”

Posted below are some—but not all—of the entries that caught our attention. We asked students their permission to use their posts, and they gladly obliged, although some preferred to remain anonymous.

For future applicants to Lawrence, we hope you find some inspiration here for your 47 words, along with the comfort that there are many ways to answer the question, and the best answer is the one that is true to your voice.

OK, on with some of the entries.

From Elizabeth in Elgin, IL, a nice twist on the 1950s roadside advertising phenomenon of Burma Shave:

If a scholar lacks for fun,
Send him off to Appleton.
Bio, music, Russian Lit.
In Lawrence I have found my fit.
Lawrence lacks not for its fundin’
Evidence? Just see Björklunden!
Oh, let me be a racing cox
For Lawrence crew out on the Fox.
Offering just what I need,
Veritas est Lux indeed.
Burma Shave

Jillian from San Mateo, CA, dropped a little Greek on us.

Stimulating conversations, pianos and guitars, windy campus, MΩlΘe, study abroad, nurturing environment, LU-a-Roo, Cancer Biology, hands on learning, Appleton, SPAMALU, Japanese, Contemporary dance, college town, CORE, understanding not memorizing, Mathematics, varying seasons, CADY, music, Neuroscience, tapping toes, trees, integrative biology: cells to organisms, GLOW, creativity, community, intelligence, passion, determination, harmony.

Brittany from Libertyville, IL, shared with us a little-known, yet helpful tip about the Fox River (do not try this at home):

My tour guide told me that if one were to touch one’s body to the Fox River on campus, one would grow an extra limb. I hope to experiment on this and grow a third hand in order to master the art of the Double-Belled French horn.

Sarah from Minneapolis uses the signature sign-off from our admissions letters.

I want to live the Lawrentian way for life, not just four years. At Lawrence, I know my creativity would be fostered, and my writing ability would increase tenfold. Above all, I want individualized learning, and I want to be well and do well.

Harrison, also from Minneapolis, rocked the haiku (x4):

4 Haikus: 1.People say it’s dead / but Latin lives at Lawrence / roots to so much more 2.One-on-ones with profs / interacting afterclass / gives it all new depth 3.Spanish, English, film / top-ranked in all my majors / want to see the world 4.Students need a voice /LUCC speaks for them / I might run for prez.

Sam from Sacramento, did a great job preserving the anonymity of a semi-well-known Ivy school while showing Lawrence some love:

In exactly 47 words, Lawrence because: I can get Broadway shows right down the street. I can complete a senior project of my choosing. I can experience the outdoors. I can get a well-rounded “Schmarvard” class education. I can be something besides a number to a school.

Briana from Evanston (IL), on a favorite dessert around here:

Down to earth life (farms included), the opportunity to learn to play the harmonica I’ve had for years, and the pursuit of Breadpudding.

Emma from Wheaton (IL), gives us a Lawrence litany:

Why Lawrence? Blue-wrought iron railings at the Wriston Art Center; Björklunden; trivia contest; beach parties in the dead of winter;SLUG; tennis courts on the Fox River; fencing team; Con students; Freshman Studies; Francophone Seminar in Dakar; Convocation Series; Plato’s Republic; multi-interested students everywhere; the endless possibilities…

And, speaking of “multi-interested,” Arianna from Eugene (OR), captures the spirit well:

I am a musician. That point is indisputable. However, I also think of myself as a scientist, an artist, and an autodidactic bibliophile (yes, that’s how I think). Lawrence appeals to me because while the conservatory provides a strong musical community, the school allows students to pursue other interests concurrently.

Olivia from Clinton (NY), might be a budding spoken word artist:

An icy April visit: I walked along a campus coated in ice. Curiosity. Wonder.——————————————————————————— Chinese class: I was greeted by engaged students who welcomed me as if I were an old friend returned. Community. Acceptance. Zeal. ———————————————————————————–Lawrence: a place to revel in the excitement of education. Stimulates creativity. Fosters individuality. Champions diversity.

Grier showed us a bit of sass—the good kind—from Saint Paul (MN), also with footnotes:

Lawrence is awesome /Because it is so unique /And I am also //Here one is quite free /To learn whatever you want,* /To be quite nerdy //This now does conclude /My concise Lawrence essay /As three great Haiku**

*Apart from underwater-basket weaving
**Plural of haiku = whatever

Arianna from Bayside (WI) taps into her family’s history at Lawrence:

Embarking on a journey to a place full void of status quo, enveloped in life and learning, and achieving the sense of community that I have longed for since entering middle school. Where opportunity is seeping through the walls of the classrooms as well as the beautiful birches by the water at Björklunden. A place I will be able to call home for the rest of my life, just as my parents have before me. Why Lawrence? Because it is everything I could ever dream of in the next chapter of my life.

Max from Arlington Heights (IL) uses the space well.

Why Lawrence? 47 words? Here we go: Non-major musician? Conservatory is open to all. Non-major percussionist? Join LUPE. Anthropophobic? Nine to one student to faculty ratio. Want to learn Chinese? Associated Colleges in China. Study abroad in Minzu. Need a getaway? Björklunden. (If you can pronounce it.)

Joanna from Evansville (IN) captures the spirit of one of our professors, Julie McQuinn, perfectly:

Typical music history class: bland lecture about dead composers. Lawrence class: animated professor leading a discussion about music in Disney’s ‘Snow White’. Spacious campus, fun town, interesting people. Good place for a girl who lives to sing, and also loves AP Comparative Politics, being outdoors and talking sports.

Echo from Mount Prospect (IL) gave us warm fuzzies:

Because Lawrence is Lawrence. This question is kind of like, “Why do you love her?”; The answer (hopefully) cannot be found in a single characteristic, but rather a unique combination of characteristics that lets you make up your decision. I love her because of who she is; I want to go to Lawrence because it’s Lawrence.

Matthew from Washington DC, knows his nautical terms:

This prompt—word count taken from the two starboard digits of the year Lawrence was founded—is “Why Lawrence”. Out there, but not uncomfortably so. Lawrence’s intimacy, strong academics, and idyllic setting contribute to my interest in the school; I know it’s a place where I can thrive.

Eva from Beaver Dam (WI), with a few haiku strung together, a dropped in one of our favorite majors along the way.

Haiku to Consider:
Close-Knit and artsy,
College that will change my life,
Yes! Small class sizes!
Free to try and fail,
Liberal Education,
This is my purpose,
My major you ask?
It’s multi-interested,
Help me find myself,
I will now conclude,
Forty-seven words you said,
Consider me please!

Anmol from Middleton (WI) gave us a poem that really builds to a crescendo before giving us a giggle payoff at the end.

A poem: “47 Words”:
Teach me how.
How to learn.
How to sing.
How to be.
How to surpass limits.
Change my life.
Show me the light.
Forever more light.
Forty-seven phrases.
Scholarly, astonishing, fostering, distinguished.
Forty-seven descriptors.
Intellectual development.
Voice + Biology, Voice + Pre-Law?
Endless paths: learning and life.
Forty-seven million possibilities.
Word count:
Forty-eight words.

Hannah from Oak Park (IL) sent us a Lawrence postcard, ending with what may be the most essential thing.

Liberal arts education. Small class sizes with attentive professors. Surrounded by music. The infamous Trivia Weekend. Community, nature, and learning through Björklunden. Learning how to pronounce Björklunden. Gloriously cold winters. Interest houses, studentorganizations, and convocations. Beautifully green landscape and “green” architecture. International interest. Great community with great sandwiches.

Amanda from Williston, VT, spelled it out for us:

L is for Loving the Midwest, A is for Appleton’s small town charm, W is for Walking on a safe campus, R is for Really good cafeteria mac and cheese, E is for Enjoying Björklunden, N is for New Knowledge, C is for the Con, E is for the Experience.

One student nicely grabbed onto one of the significant features of 47:

Lawrence offers a uniquely holistic learning environment as well as a student body that fosters acceptance, understanding, and diversity. Also, given the significance of the number 47 in the Star Trek canon, this question is in and of itself a pretty great indicator.

A student from Albuquerque, finding that he only had 46 words, employed a familiar five-syllable word occasionally employed by haiku writers who need to complete their third line:

I am interested in Lawrence because I am looking for a well rounded education at a small liberal arts college. I am also a musician and I like the idea of having a conservatory and an exemplary music program built into the rest of the school. Refrigerator.

Hannah from Oak Park (IL) describes what she (and we) saw as a great match:

Lawrence University and I have a lot in common. It is confident in and proud of its unique identity. It strives for excellence and embraces diversity. And, with its request for a 47-word statement, it definitely has a sense of humor! We would make a great team.

Sater from Oconomowoc (WI)… who had us with “Well… Lawrence!”

Why Lawrence? Well…Lawrence! Greyfell: student created, written, performed. Freshman Studies ¡ coolest idea ever. Then, Senior Experience ¡ coolest follow-up idea ever! Inspirational. Fresh made food = yum! Informational. Professor Peter Peregrine and Professor Carla Daughtry. Bizarrchaeology! S.L.U.G. Dedication to green. The ability to gain “more light.” Enough Said. But…IHRTLUHC!

Madina from Dashogus, Turkmenistan gives us a blend of poetry along with pulls from course listings in our course catalog

1-1 Class ¡ my first reaction ¡ eyes popped out, jaw fell open Freshman studies ¡ smoother translation to college The friendliest-students and staff talk, reply to emails Code of Honor ¡ students take responsibility for their work Language program- LING 265,LING 310, LING 330… Eloquent colorful website! Diverse Clubs!

Lauren from Milwaukee

Lawrence offers qualities that excite me: a strong sense of community, open-minded students, approachable professors, emphasis on study abroad, customized classes, and a reputable conservatory of music. Bonus- I can learn how to properly pronounce and experience Björklunden.

Emei from Minnetonka (MN) shares a secret:

The most memorable recruitment e-mail I received described the typical Lawrentian as a “cool geek.” Secretly, I loved that label.There were plenty of colleges that fit what I was searching for–a Liberal Arts environment, serious academics and a close-knit campus. After many overnights on cold dorm room floors, sitting in on biology classes, meeting swim coaches and sampling some surprisingly great cafeteria food, I found a school that spoke to the cool geek in me. Lawrence is the one.

Kim from Albuquerque realized that Lawrence changed her mind about what a college can and can’t do:

Soon after starting my college search I became convinced that compromise was inevitable. I could study linguistics but not studio art, or I could live in a small community but I’d have to give up swing dancing. However with Lawrence I don’t have to compromise,it’s perfect.

A student from Portland (OR) gave us hope that the junk mail we send students (we can call it that; we write it) works:

You had me at your first brochure, with its funky type face and amusing narrative. I want to attend a school that, while being a serious academic environment, doesn’t take itself too seriously. I have always been someone that enjoys traveling off the beaten path, and I feel that Lawrence would be the perfect school in which to continue my journey.

Counter-intuitive thinking about return on college investment

This morning, as I was catching up on an old podcast while shaving, an interesting insight came to me.

(Warning: exercise extreme caution while simultaneously handling a razor and an interesting insight. Failing that, have a bandage handy.)

This particular podcast, NPR’s “Planet Money,” covers a wide range of topics, from how LeBron James is the “most underpaid athlete in the world today” to Duke’s $30,000 tuition discount. If you’re looking for an interesting peek into the finances of a major private research university, I encourage you to listen to the latter—and I highly encourage you to listen to it while doing something safer than shaving, like fluffing pillows.

The Duke story centers on the notion that, despite its approximately $60,000 cost of attendance, students who attend Duke are getting a $30,000 off-the-top discount—the argument is that it actually costs $90,000 to educate a Duke student after accounting for physical attributes of the campus, financial aid, salaries, lab facilities for big-name researchers, and other items.

The accounting isn’t what caused me to jump. As someone who works at a private college, I wasn’t surprised to hear what I already knew: colleges and universities are extremely expensive to run. (This is true even for public colleges, which, through their states’ budget support, are also able to heavily discount their real costs.)

My “a-HA!” moment came in the closing two minutes of the podcast, where the hosts pose the obligatory summary rhetorical question: Is it worth it? Or more accurately:

If you’re a student… are you getting a massive discount on the cost of your education, or are you subsidizing a giant educational edifice that you as an undergraduate student will barely come into contact with? [The answer: it depends on what kind of student you are…]

The question—and especially their “it depends” answer—forced me to rethink my perspective on the challenge that families rightly have been putting to every college in the country with increasing frequency: what is the return on the investment I’m going to make in your college?

We colleges—Lawrence included—usually answer that question with some combination of the following:

  • profiles of alumni with either (a) cool jobs, (b) nifty titles, (c) jobs at nationally-recognizable entities, or (d) some mash-up of all three;
  • lists of employers, graduate and professional school placements;
  • percentages of recent graduates who are employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation.

These may be answers, but they’re not necessarily the right evidence for return on investment. They also suggest a simple input/output relationship: if you attend our university, then this can happen to you, too.

But here’s the other part—which brings me all the way back to my “shaving incident.”

The return on investment question is deceptively simple: “If I invest X, what might Y be?”

But X and Y are way more complicated.

Because X is not just your cost of attendance for four years. It’s also the degree to which a student takes advantage of what the college has to offer:

  • If the school offers research opportunities for undergraduates, will you take them?
  • If the school offers the services of its professors to help you craft a meaningful and relevant curriculum, will you use them?
  • If the school provides a rich extracurricular life—filled with athletic, musical, and other activities—will you participate in or support them?
  • If the school offers a city community beyond its campus as a place for work, play, and service, will you get out into that community?

Even if a student answers affirmatively to all or even some of the above, Y is difficult to predict—and Y becomes less predictable (and, presumably, more transformative) the more students engage all of the elements of X.

College isn’t—or at least shouldn’t be—a passive experience. You can act upon it. Different colleges will provide you different student communities, physical and cultural environments, and degrees of flexibility in which you can shape them—and be shaped by them.

What is the return on your investment in a college?

(You know where this is going.)

It depends on how you invest yourself—not just your money—in it.

ESPN has 30 for 30. Lawrence is going with 47 for 44(ish).

So it doesn’t have the symmetry of the title to ESPN’s signature documentary series, but that’s what you get with a prime number like 47.

On our application for admission this year, we posed a devilishly simple short answer prompt:

Why Lawrence? It’s a short question seeking a short answer. 47 well-chosen words—give or take a few—should work.

The answers we received were, as you might expect, fun to read. (And for quite a few applicants, we could tell they were fun to write.) On the Lawrence Facebook page, we’re going to post a bunch of the short answers (not all of them 47 words) over the next 44 days leading up to the May 1 National Candidates Reply Date. We’ll ask the authors permission to use them, but we’ll protect their anonymity. We hope you enjoy their work as much as we have.

We’ll start with one here:

If a scholar lacks for fun
Send him off to Appleton.
Bio, music, Russian Lit.
In Lawrence I have found my fit.
Lawrence lacks not for its fundin’
Evidence? Just see Bjorklunden!
Oh, let me be a racing cox
For Lawrence crew out on the Fox.
Offering just what I need,
Veritas est Lux, indeed.
Burma Shave.
Seriously. This applicant closed with “Burma Shave.” If you’re unsure why that’s awesome, check out the collection of Burma Shave roadside ads from the 1920s and on.

 

We’ve added another application deadline: December 16

We have heard from more than a few students who experienced technical problems submitting their Common Applications for our November 15 Early Action deadline.

In recognition of those technical difficulties, and wanting to accommodate those students who don’t want to wait till Regular Decision to submit their applications, we have opened another application session—call it “Early Action, The Sequel”.

The deadline for this session will be December 16 with a planned notification date of January 15.

If you wish to apply by this deadline, simply complete your Common Application, choosing “Early Action” as your decision type.

We have one more application deadline after this one: January 15, our Regular Decision deadline, with an anticipated notification before April 1.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Early Action deadline day!

That may be one of the few times the words “happy” and “deadline” have shared a sentence, much less one punctuated with an exclamation point. (Then again, “I’m happy I made that deadline!” comes to mind.)

Today, November 15, is our Early Action deadline day. As we head together into this day and the weekend that follows, here are a handful of things to keep in mind:

  1. Lawrence University is a Common Application school.
  2. The Common Application is not yet perfect, which means that some students, their counselors, or their recommenders may encounter technical issues—I believe the technical term is “gremlins”—when they try to submit their applications or supporting documents.
  3. If you find yourself beset by a Common App gremlin, don’t worry: even though our application deadline is today, we build in some grace time after that deadline for students and their supporters to get everything in.
    • Think about it: if you’re interested in Lawrence, we want you to be able to apply, and we don’t want the mechanism of the application to prevent you from being considered.
    • Grace time=till Tuesday, November 19. That should allow you (and us) most of Monday and Tuesday to work through any technical issues you have. If we need even more time working on this together, know that we will be flexible.

If you are a student applicant experiencing Common App problems, please get in touch with your Lawrence admissions counselor, with the understanding that issues you experience over the weekend will be best addressed when our offices and high school offices are open on Monday, November 18.

If you are a counselor or a teacher trying to (but not succeeding when you) submit materials on behalf of your applicants, we have built a counselor portal and a teacher recommendation letter portal.

In the meantime, be well and do well.