we all loved her. >> reporter: after starting as a grad student last year, lu quickly became a well-known figure in the school. >> i admitted her, i recruited her, i welcomed her, i advised her, and i taught her. so i interacted with her on so many different levels. >> her professor said she is was an excellent student, who had big dreams to study in the u.s., so she could go back to china as a businesswoman. >> reporter: how hard is that to know what a bright future she had, and that's been taken away from her? >> i can't say how hard it is. it's completely senseless. it's -- there's no rhyme or reason to it. it's such a waste. it's such a waste of all the time and energy and dreams that she had and we'll never know what she could have done. >> reporter: dreams cut short on monday on what was supposed to be a day of fun watching the boston marathon with two friends.