Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2005
September
2004: President Jill Beck greets members of the Class of 2008 on the first
day of Welcome Week.
This year’s
new students easily measure up to the strong academic profile that
has become a hallmark of incoming classes at Lawrence. Collectively, they
achieved an average ACT score of just under 28, with 24 percent ranking in
the top five percent of their high school graduating classes. The average high
school grade-point average among the incoming freshmen was 3.68.
Of the 358 members of the Class of 2008, 79 percent are candidates for the
Bachelor of Arts degree, 10 percent are seeking the Bachelor of Music degree,
and 11 percent are in the five-year B.A./B.Mus. double-degree program. Fifty-seven
percent of them are women, and 43 percent are men. Their top five areas of
interest, in order, are English, biology, music performance, history, and foreign
languages. They come from 32 states and 26 countries.
Whether from around the globe or just around the block, notable achievements
among this year’s new students are not limited to the classroom. Pyae
Phyo Kyaw, the first student from Myanmar to enroll at Lawrence, gave piano
lessons and taught English to several students at a school for the blind in
Rangoon. Megan Roberts, a violinist from Lake Villa, Ill., performed Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony with the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra at
Chicago's Symphony Center. Becky Vodehnal of Denver, Colo., is a certified
botanical
illustrator.
Softball
pitcher
Faye
Eaton of
Victoria, British Columbia, helped her Canadian team to a fourth-place finish
at the Fastpitch Softball World Series in August 2004. Audra Hilse of Ham Lake,
Minn., is in the process of writing two novels. Skyler Silverstrust of Riverwoods,
Ill., is the country’s youngest nationally certified trainer of police
dogs. Laurel Benson, Appleton, was among 19 national winners of the prestigious
Siemens Westinghouse competition for science, mathematics, and technology.
Eighty-nine percent of the first-year students were awarded need-based or merit-based
financial assistance, with the average aid package totaling more than $21,200.
The comprehensive fee for a year at Lawrence, including tuition, double room,
full board, and activity fee, is currently $32,418.