GPA (Type: Weighted Cumulative 4.0 GPA): 4.2020, only class I ever finished with less than a 90 was an 87 in AP Statistics
SAT: 1360 (700 Math, 660 English)
ACT: Didn’t take
APs: AP Statistics (4) and AP Language (3) for my Junior year, and I’m taking AP Gov and AP Environmental Science this year
Clubs and Extracurriculars:
Played on school basketball team every year of high school
Writer for the school’s newspaper
Volunteered 154 total hours at a youth basketball camp as a camp counselor (over each of the past three summers)
Volunteered 80 hours at a hospital (over the past summer)
Helped my elderly grandmother over the past summer with yard work and driving her to church on Sunday mornings (not sure if this will help but I was told this counts as community service)
I am in the Nationals Honor Society, with an inductee ceremony planned for next week.
My major is Engineering, specific engineering field uncertain but leaning towards science engineering.
I know Lehigh is a bit tough to get into, with a 25-ish% acceptance rate. My SAT scores are a bit mediocre, but I think my high GPA will be enough to make up for it (especially if GPA factors more into the decision than the SAT). What do you think about my chances of getting accepted by Lehigh?
For Fall 2016, Lehigh had a 31.1% acceptance rate for applicants with SATs in the 1300-1390 range. So you appear to be a competitive candidate, but obviously there are no guarantees. The odds would be higher if you applied ED.
https://www1.lehigh.edu/admissions/undergrad/profile
Lehigh has a surplus of male applicants, and a surplus of applicants from NJ/PA/NY. So the odds may be lower if those factors apply to you, because of the extra competition. You didn’t indicate your gender or where you are from.
My nephew applied with a 1310 SAT and a 4.24 GPA (top 2% of his class) for engineering. He was waitlisted, then offered a spot if he could pay full price (he could not). I think he would have had better luck if he had applied ED.
Thank you for the replies! I am male and from Pennsylvania, so yikes, that’s unfortunate if that will hurt my chances. Regarding SATs and GPAs, how much of each is factored into the decision? By that I mean is it 50-50 for both SAT and GPA, or is the GPA factored a bit more, like 67% for GPA versus 33% for SAT, into the decision?
Either way, it looks like applying ED is going to be the best option for my chances. Thankfully it looks like the ED for Lehigh isn’t until November 15 so I’ll have time to make a visit before deciding if I’ll use my ED there.
I don’t think anyone outside of the Lehigh Admissions Department can definitively answer that. Lehigh is a not a public school, and so does not have to disclose their admissions policies.
Lehigh’s posted Class Profile and Common Data Set include detailed breakdowns on applicant test scores, but they don’t address applicant GPAs. So there is no obvious way to see how GPAs might be valued in the admissions process.
Note that Lehigh has both ED1 (Nov 15) and ED2 (Jan 1). So in theory, you could apply to another school via ED1; if the ED1 decision was negative, you would still have the option of applying to Lehigh via ED2.
Want to emphasize that Lehigh is posting those admission rates based on old SAT scores.
Lehigh’s old SAT average was about 1320 and the concordant score to new SAT is about 1385.
So a 1360 new SAT is high for old SAT but a little low for new SAT at Lehigh.
I’m a current freshman at Lehigh and I think you definitely have a good chance of getting in. Something I would suggest doing if you haven’t is taking a tour or setting up an interview because Lehigh is very big on interest. If you show them you want to go there you will have a far better chance of getting in.