Author: Teege Mettille

Survey Results #18: Is this part of the freshman studies program?

We asked you, “if you could only do one thing for fifty hours, what would it be?”

The most popular answer was sleep…although one person added that it was only so that she could do many things in the next fifty hours. A good number of you responded with musical or athletic activities. Many of you expressed your interest to read several books, watch a marathon of movies, or even, according to one person, “watch one episode of America’s Next Top Model.” (One episode?! For 50 hours?)

One person wanted to jump on a trampoline. Another wanted to count dollar bills, with the ability to keep all the money he had counted after fifty hours. Yet another said, “over fifty hours? Get tired of whatever it is!” Someone, who is apparently very suspicious, said, “This question makes me nervous. Is this part of the freshman studies program?”

No – although you can get more information about freshman studies here.

Finally – one person seemed to catch on to what we were asking about, by responding “play a Midwest trivia contest.”

Trivia, as you will come to call it this January, is a non-stop 50-hour marathon of meaningless, useless trivia that will have you Googling the oddest phrases imaginable, calling people throughout the country, and running to the internet radio station to win points in the strangest “action question” you could imagine.

Once, teams were asked to produce a pound of human hair…and they did. (The winning team went to the dumpster of a hair salon.)

You can check out the student-maintained trivia site.

Or, read the “official” Lawrence University perspective of this tradition.

Despite what you may think now…there’s a strong chance you’ll find yourself drinking an energy drink at 4:00 am Saturday morning trying to figure out what Frank Zappa’s Fire Prevention Week poster said when he was in ninth grade.

Survey Results #15: “I Know Nothing About Robotics…”

You all certainly plan to be active once you get to campus! We asked you what clubs and organizations you were interested in joining or starting when you arrived at Lawrence University, and your responses couldn’t have been more interesting!

Before sharing the results, we’d encourage you to check out our campus life page, where you can find a full listing of all the current student organizations registered with the Lawrence University Community Council.

The first observation we have is how “multi-interested” you are! Most of you responded with more than one activity, and they were often unrelated to each other. About half of you who indicated an interest in music also indicated an interest in sports. Many of you who are interested in writing for The Lawrentian (school newspaper) are just as interested in joining an academic organization, like the biology club or the philosophy club.

However, almost without question, the strongest co-curricular interest of incoming Lawrentians is athletics. Whether it’s basketball, football, volleyball, baseball, fencing, badminton or crew, you seem to have every intention of being active.

The top five categories were:

1 – Athletics

2 – Music Groups

3 – Political Organizations

4 – Academic Clubs

5 – Community Service

A substantial number of you also stated an intention of joining one of the religious organizations on campus. Many of you specifically listed our swing dancing group or working in the Sustainable Lawrence University Garden.

Others of you have plans of your own, and are fully ready to start new clubs that don’t already exist. Some of the more noteworthy examples were:

– Minesweeper club (we’re not sure what this is…)

– Cupcake club (we think we know what this is…and we’re excited!)

– Cloud Appreciation Society

– “I want to start AIF (American Investment Fellows) to teach financial literacy in public schools.”

– “Robotics type club. I know nothing about robotics, but I really want to learn!”

– “My friend and I would love to start an a cappella group that does video game music, as well as pop tunes.”

This is why we like to call Lawrentians “multi-interested.”

Survey Results #12: National Wanderers

Lawrence University has students from nearly all fifty states. We thought it would be interesting to ask you which states you are most excited to meet other students from. While a good number of students said “anywhere from the east coast” and slightly more said “any southern state”, we did see some interesting results.

While we didn’t ask why you picked the state you did, here are the states you most want to meet people from:

1 – California

2 – New York (several people referenced an accent)

3 – Alaska (two people specifically referenced asking about Sarah Palin)

4 – Wisconsin and Texas (tied)

5 – Hawaii

So, those of you hailing from the above-mentioned states…you’ll be very popular when you get to campus in two months!

Make a point to stop by the admissions office once you’re on campus to see the “pin-map,” where we have a pin signifying the hometown of every Lawrence student. The fact that you are attending a campus with such strong geographic diversity, along with one of the most internationally diverse campuses is something you can all be proud of!

Survey Results #9: Twitter Is Forgettable?

Despite what you hear in the media, Lawrence University’s Class of 2013 has responded loud and clear that twitter and myspace are not their preferred social networking sites. We asked incoming Lawrentians which of the three sites they would pick if we could only keep one: Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. The option of “none, thanks” actually beat Twitter and MySpace…

Combined…

Times five.

Facebook is by far the most preferred site of the three.

1 – Facebook, 83.0% (151 individual votes!)

2 – None, Thanks, 14.3% (26 individual votes)

3 – MySpace, 2.2% (just four votes)

4 – Twitter, 0.5% (one solitaire vote!)

We will pass this information along to a campus department all of you will likely rely on: Information Technology Services. Although most of the information on their page relates to your life after you arrive on campus, it’s worth knowing that they are there, and how they will be able to help you. When you get some time away from Facebook, check it out.

Now, we’ll go tell ITS to plan some extra bandwidth for Facebook!

Survey Results #7: Who Watches You Play Badminton?

Lawrence University is proud to offer 22 Division III varsity sports, as well as many exciting club sports (crew, men’s volleyball, ultimate Frisbee and women’s hockey).

We asked you to share with us your favorite sports to watch and play. First, there’s a sizable number of you who don’t like to watch sports at all (19) and a smaller number who don’t like to participate in sports (11) in any way. Beyond that, your answers ranged from baseball, football and soccer all the way to cheering, kickball, kendo and something called frolf. We’re pretty sure that stands for frisbee golf.

Before giving you the top five answers for each question, we thought we’d drop in a plug for our athletics homepage. There, you’ll be able to find out pretty much anything you need to know about our varsity, club and intramural sports.

Now, the top five sports incoming Lawrentians like to watch:

1 – Baseball

2 – Soccer

3 – Basketball

4 – Football

5 – Tennis/Hockey (tied)

One person indicated that he likes to watch badminton more than any other sport.

And, the top five sports incoming Lawrentians like to play:

1 – Soccer

2 – Volleyball

3 – Badminton

4 – Basketball

5 – Swimming

** Although, if you combine baseball and softball, they would be in fourth place.

So the large number of you who like to play badminton can count on a small, but loyal, audience of one.