Georgia Southern’s 2007 graduates a unique group

May 1, 2007

Georgia Southern University will have 2,344 degree candidates at the University’s spring 2007 commencement Saturday, May 5, beginning at 9 a.m. in Paulson Stadium.

The candidates include 1,855 undergraduates and 489 graduate students. Among the undergraduates, 55 percent are female.

However, those 2,344 graduates will earn 2,376 academic degrees. How can that happen? Among all those graduating, 32 will receive two degrees instead of the usual single degree.

Although the graduates come from 25 different states, 94.7 percent are native Georgians.
Among undergraduates, more than 96 percent are from Georgia.

This class is proof that higher learning happens at any age. The youngest person graduating with a bachelor’s degree is 19, and the oldest is 57. The average age for this year’s Georgia Southern graduate is 24.

This year Georgia Southern will award 79 doctoral degrees, and 77 of those will be to Georgians. Three-quarters of the doctoral candidates are female, and the youngest of those candidates is 30.

As is usual, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has the largest number of graduates with 582, followed closely by the College of Business Administration with 488, the College of Health and Human Sciences with 455, the College of Education with 445. The College of Science and Technology will graduate 270 and the College of Infromation Technology, 72. The newest unit, the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, will graduate 18 students with a Master’s in Public Health.

Georgia’s Lt. Governor Casey Cagle will give the commencement address at this year’s ceremony. Georgia Southern’s student radio station, WVGS-FM 91.9 ‘The Buzz,” will serve as the central communication point for anyone traveling to the Statesboro campus for commencement. ‘The Buzz” will provide ongoing traffic and parking information

For more information about commencement, go to http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/commencement/.