This season, it seems as though the men's heavy-weight crew team can't help but settle for a second place finish. The squad took second yet again this weekend in the Blackwell Cup against Yale and Columbia after the same finish against Columbia and Princeton the previous weekend.

International applicants to American graduate schools are on the rise for the second consecutive year. The number of international applicants increased 17 percent from last year, according to a report released this week by the Council of Graduate Schools.

For Penn women's tennis coach Mike Dowd, things are simply going according to plan. His Quakers head into their final weekend of Ancient Eight play with an undefeated record in the league and a firm hold on first place - an impressive performance by any standard.

Their final game isn't for two weeks, but for the Quakers, tomorrow's matchup might as well be the last one. No. 8 Maryland visits Franklin Field tomorrow in a game that may be the Penn men's lacrosse team's last hope for a playoff bid. While the regular-season finale is on May 5 against Denver, a win against the ACC powerhouse could put Penn (6-5, 3-3 Ivy) squarely on the bubble.

The men's golf team had won the Ivy League championship once in its 32 year program history. But make that twice now. The Quakers took home their second Ivy trophy Sunday afternoon, beating second place Brown by ten shots at Galloway National Golf Club in New Jersey.

When College freshman Alex Lee learned that an Asian was responsible for the 32 deaths at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, one thought crossed his mind: "I hope he's not Korean." Speaking about Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old Korean who committed the massacre, Lee was one of many Koreans and Korean Americans who expressed unease with being associated with Cho's racial identity.

1976 College alumnus Steve Stecklow is part of a four-person team to which the Pulitzer Prize for public-service journalism was awarded. Stecklow, a reporter for the The Wall Street Journal, worked at The Daily Pennsylvanian during his time at Penn. Since then, he continues to be involved with the Penn community and the DP Alumni Association.

(The reporter recounts his experiences covering the Virginia Tech tragedy in Blacksburg, Va.) After driving over six hours through the night to Virginia Tech and getting a few restless hours of sleep at the trusty EconoLodge, the idea of actually visiting the Tech campus left me with a mix of emotions.

Homicides are up in Philadelphia, and though city and police leaders are working to reverse the disturbing trend, they say there is no quick fix.

The Social Planning and Events Committee elected its new executive board in a closed election on Monday night. Newly elected members are: n President: College junior Max Cancre. n Vice President: College junior Anna Raper. n Treasurer: College junior Tony Rizzo.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a recent poll shatters the perception that the majority of young people are liberal.

Five seconds into the second half of the biggest lacrosse game of her life, Penn sophomore Becca Edwards was flat on her back. Playing against No. 15 Princeton with the Ivy League title on the line, Edwards's stick got caught with an opponent's while she tried to get the opening draw control of the second half.

Threats forced evacuations and cancelled classes on several campuses across the nation over the last two days as universities dealt with the possibility of attacks copying a Virginia Polytechnic Institute student's shooting spree. "Copycats are things that we have to look out for every time there's a shooting of this type," said Beverly Glenn, executive director of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence.

Computer Information and Science professor Sanjeev Khanna has been awarded with a Guggenheim Fellowship in honor of his work in theoretical computer science, University officials announced yesterday. Khanna's field specializes in the computer resources needed for certain computational tasks, like the analysis of algorithm complexity.

After five hours of debate and difficult questions last night, the Undergraduate Assembly elected its executive board for the 2007-2008 school year.

$56,766Amount Chaka Fattah's mayoral campaign agreed to return to donors yesterday.Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Much of Tuesday night's emotional candlelight vigil focused on healing and moving forward as a community. But as Virginia Polytechnic Institute students dispersed from the service, they faced a more immediate, practical question: With classes canceled through the end of the week, what to do with all their time?