Lawrence University Visit Report by momofsongbird

Visit Activities:

Admissions Interview: Yes - Pretty straightforward interview. Daughter alone first half, then I (mom) invited to join them. No tough questions...not many of the notorious open-ended questions ("Why Lawrence?") we had

Campus Tour: Yes - Good tour of all aspects of campus our group (6) wanted to see EXCEPT dorms. We were all disappointed that tour couldn't accommodate our request to see a dorm.

Classroom Visit: Yes - Daughter visited "amazing" class in religious studies. Very impressed with the small size, huge degree of discussion/participation, and high-quality thought going on. Prof was outstanding!

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Campus:

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Very friendly campus. Very casual, informal, laid-back atmosphere.

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Admissions folks had their hands full...busy visit day. But they were friendly, as were faculty and staff we encountered all over campus.

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Very nice campus. Feels more spread out than comparable sized "quad-based" campuses. Bumps right up to residential areas & downtown. Not unpleasant, just different from more self-conta

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Very nice facilities. Great new student center with lots of amenities (food service, gift shop, coffee shop, huge, beautiful group-study room with fireplace, river-view, etc.

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Our female guide told us students feel very safe on campus. Not only are security escorts available on request, but she said when you're out at night, security is a constant, visible presence.

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Not exactly the traditional quad-based, red-brick, old-timey campus, though it does have a few older bldgs mixed in with newer. Feels more contemporary. Nice campus w many fine bldgs & amenities.

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Off-Campus:

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Nice mix of residential and downtown area, which is more robust than the "downtowns" near other midwestern campuses...probably because Appleton is a small city (72,000).

Campus Visit Notes for Lawrence University

Visit Description:

Lawrence handles visits a little differently than other schools...you're more on your own in that they give you your schedule and send you on your way. Not that that's a bad thing...just different from other schools we've visited. I do prefer when they send you to have lunch with a student, because we've had great conversations (and learned A LOT) through those lunch-chats with students. Here, we ate on our own and then went back to Admissions for interview.

The tour was very inclusive and a bit long (1.5+ hours), especially considering it didn't include a dorm visit.

That was the main complaint of the 6 of us on the tour. We had all driven at least 4 hours and scheduled our visits well in advance, so we were surprised and disappointed when our guide told us they weren't prepared to show us a dorm that day.

Their chapel (non-religious...used exclusively for music performances) was lovely and very impressive. Science classrooms/labs also impressive. Nice library and very nice new student center.