Category: Survey

Survey Results # 19: “Oh you are special, special, everyone is special…” (Part one)

The title is a quote from one of Barney’s smash hits, (Yes, Barney the friendly purple dinosaur), and it accurately portrays how we feel about each member of our incoming class. In a recent survey, we asked the class of 2013 “What is the most unique thing about you”, and the responses were, well, unique!

Here are some responses:

-“My Bald Head”

-“I throat sing”

-“I own a pink hairless dog that has brown spots. No, this is not a lie”

– “I have a donkey that is buried in our yard (it is dead)”

-“My majestic nose”

-“I have a birthmark located on the underbelly of my chin”

-“I have a drag queen alter-ego named Siouxsie Queball” (Fierce!)

-“I can put a string into one of my nostrils and pull it out of the other” (a little gross, but ok)

-“I’m a closet birdwatcher”

-“Our family owns a Christmas tree farm”

-“Siamese cat named Yo-yo Ma, and my standard poodle named Hadji”

-“Cogito Ergo Nom” (I think therefore I am)

-“Some people call me a ping pong master”

-“I can sing the Element song by Tom Lehrer” (a pretty impressive feat)

More uniqueness to come. Stay tuned…

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 # 17 Who are you anyway?

When we meet with prospective students and families, we often get into discussions about what students are like today. So we thought we’d ask you. Who are you? And how would you describe yourself?

When we asked you to use one word to describe your generation here is what some of you said.

Wild

Very cultured (no fair: that’s two words!)

Ascendant

Visionary

Facebook

Connected

Lackadaisical

Brave

Unpredictable

Caffeine

Unrestrained

Creative

Apathy

Dreamers

Divided

Technological

Awesomesauce (available in Lawrence’s new campus store)

Multi-interested (thanks for reading our stuff!)

Survey Results # 16: And the Award Goes to… (Part three)

All proud personal moments from the class of 2013!

We all have goals, dreams and ambitions and sometimes the best recognition is not one that is given to you by someone else, but one that you give to yourself. Below is just a sample of responses from the class of 2013, in response to their proudest personal achievement.

-Reaching 5’10”

-Creating interpretive animal paintings

-Not getting eaten or lost in a Costa Rican jungle

-Developing a hypothesis on the birth of the universe

-Awesome minesweeper high scores

-Having a fast metabolism

-Successfully running a business

-Not getting hypothermia

-Getting hypothermia and surviving

-Completing bar mitzvah

-Making designs for a dragon catapult named Shanique

In the fall, the entire incoming class will be able to add their matriculation to Lawrence University to the running list of accomplishments…Congrats!

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.”