Great question. We get it quite often at this time of year.
We’re currently signing all of our decision letters. (If you must know, I’m actually typing this while reaching over a pile of decision letters to do so.)
Our plan is to have these decisions in the mail by the end of this week and into your hands next week.
Feel free to get in touch with your Lawrence admissions counselor with questions about your status.
We are passing along this message about the Wisconsin Covenant from our friends at the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. High school seniors who signed the Covenant can receive up to $10,000 in grants for postsecondary education if they act quickly and complete the following two steps by April 1:
For what it’s worth, we highly recommend that students file these forms well before April 1, in order to be eligible to receive other state funds, like the Wisconsin Tuition Grant (for those attending Wisconsin’s private colleges) or the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant (for those attending Wisconsin’s public colleges).
In his commentary on NPR today, Frank Deford tells a touching story of a basketball game between two D3 schools, Washington College (Chestertown, MD) and Gettysburg (PA). We know the story is about two schools that aren’t even in our conference (let alone our time zone), but it’s worth repeating. From the original article posted at NPR:
When last we left the NCAA, it was February madness, colleges were jumping conferences, suing each other, coaches were claiming rivals had cheated in recruiting — the usual nobility of college sports.
And then, in the midst of all this, the men’s basketball team at Washington College of Chestertown, Md., journeyed to Pennsylvania to play Gettysburg College in a Division III Centennial Conference game.
It was senior night, and the loudest cheers went to Cory Weissman, No. 3, 5 feet 11 inches, a team captain — especially when he walked out onto the court as one of Gettysburg’s starting five.
Yes, he was a captain, but it was, you see, the first start of his college career. Cory had played a few minutes on the varsity as a freshman, never even scoring. But then, after that season, although he was only 18 years old, he suffered a major stroke. He was unable to walk for two weeks. His whole left side was paralyzed. He lost his memory, had seizures.
But by strenuously devoting himself to his rehabilitation, Cory slowly began to improve. He was able to return to college, and by this year, he could walk without a limp and even participated in the pre-game lay-up drills.
So for senior night, against Washington, his coach, George Petrie, made the decision to start Cory. Yes, he would only play a token few seconds, but it meant a great deal to Cory and to Gettysburg. All the more touching, the Washington players stood and cheered him.
That was supposed to be the end of it, but with Gettysburg ahead by a large margin and less than a minute left in the game, Coach Petrie sent Cory back in.
Nobody could understand, though, what happened next, why the Washington coach, Rob Nugent, bothered to call time out. The fans didn’t know what he told his players there in the huddle: that as quickly as they could, foul No. 3. And one of them did. And with 17 seconds left, Cory Weissman strode to the free-throw line. He had two shots.
Suddenly, the crowd understood what Coach Nugent had sought to do. There was not a sound in the gym. Cory took the ball and shot. It drifted to the left, missing disastrously. The crowd stirred. The referee gave Cory the ball back. He eyed the rim. He dipped and shot. The ball left his hand and flew true. Swish. All net.
The crowd cried as much as it cheered.
The assistant vice president for athletics at Gettysburg, David Wright, wrote to Washington College: “Your coach, Rob Nugent, along with his … staff and student-athletes, displayed a measure of compassion that I have never witnessed in over 30 years of involvement in intercollegiate athletics.”
Cory Weissman had made a point.
Washington College had made an even larger one.
Does this kind of thing only happen at Division III schools? Most certainly not. But it illustrates the value (and values) that can mark an athletic environment unsullied by big money—one of true amateurism, where student-athletes, who are no less dedicated to their sports than those at schools we see on TV every day of the week, compete for love of the sport and, in the process, can create great human moments that remind us that, while it may be just a game, it’s more than just a game.
Need proof? Just look at Weissman’s face in the photo, and that of his teammate in the background, as he releases his free throw.
…it does.
We occasionally read stories of other colleges inadvertently sending letters of admission to students who had, in fact, been denied admission. College admissions folks like us feel the sympathetic shiver down our spines that accompanies these extremely awkward, even painful moments, and, wiping our collective brow, whisper to ourselves, “Thank goodness we haven’t done something like that.”
And then we do.
We did not inadvertently send letters of admission to students who had, in fact, been denied admission—our official decision letters go through the kind of intense pre-flight scrutiny that accompanies rocket launches. (In other words, if you have received an admission decision letter from us, rest assured that your letter is correct.)
However, we did send a “congratulations on your admission to Lawrence” letter on behalf of one of our alumni to a small handful of students who had, on the contrary, not been offered admission to Lawrence University. We are embarrassed by it, and are reaching out to those students to clear up the confusion.
Now our admissions colleagues at other colleges get to feel that sympathetic shiver down their spines, and whisper to themselves, “Thank goodness we haven’t done that.”
May it ever be so.
If you have applied for Regular Decision admission to Lawrence, our system is entirely up to date with all documents we have received. Please check your Voyager account to see if your application is complete (if you haven’t done so already).
If you see that something is missing, don’t fret: you have until the end of this week (February 10) to get your materials in and still be considered in this round of Regular Decision admission. For questions or a friendly “It’s on the way!” feel free to contact your Lawrence admissions counselor via our nifty counselor-o-matic.
