[Sly Fox]

LU's mid-year graduation rate breaks school record

Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
February 4, 2006

Liberty University announced Friday that 534 students met graduation requirements in January, a school record for mid-year graduations.

The graduates include two for doctorate degrees, 184 for master’s degrees, 334 for bachelor’s degrees and 14 for associate degrees.

“We’re not having a graduation ceremony this month,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., the school’s vice chancellor. “The degrees have been conferred.”

The graduates are eligible to walk through the school’s formal graduation ceremonies in May.

The school said 111 of the new graduates reside in Lynchburg or its surrounding counties.

Falwell said that helps the school develop a local support base for its athletics and other activities.

“Lynchburg is a great place to live,” he said. “When students come here and see that, some decide to stay.”

A total of 170 of the graduates were from Virginia.

Falwell said the number of in-state students at the school has grown significantly over the past 10 years.

He said that growth has been spurred in part by a state tuition assistance grant, which gives students attending private institutions about $3,000 per year.

Nine of the January graduates were from outside the United States.

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