<p>I have a child accepted into Lehigh but I am getting concerned about the amount of blogs about alcohol drinking, and extreme hazing in the greek sysytem. I am beginning to wonder if my student should look at their other acceptences. Are there any other parents out there that can enlighten me on these topics?</p>
<p>I am a current freshman, so I’ve gone through everything your child will go through and it’s all fresh in my mind still.</p>
<p>There’s some ridiculous statistic out there somewhere that the school has thrown around a bit. Something like 10% of the students consume 75% of the alcohol on campus. We aren’t all belligerent drunks all the time. In fact, fraternities tend to look down on people who get out-of-control drunk. There are some times when the campus gets wild (Halloween, Lehigh-Lafayette Football Weekend, St. Patrick’s Day), but that’s to be expected at just about any school with a social life aspect. Most students will party at most 3 or 4 days a week: Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat. I managed to do the 4 night a week thing last semester for a while but it really started getting to me and so I backed down to 2 nights a week. I feel that the social scene is pretty much in line with what my friends have been saying they do at other schools.</p>
<p>As far as hazing goes: there are only two fraternities that I’ve really heard bad things about. From what I’ve heard about the others it really isn’t too terrible, just time consuming. I will say, however, that expecting pledging to simply be smiles and fun and rainbows would be a bit naive. I honestly believe that pledging isn’t anything that most kids couldn’t do with a little bit of mental resolve - my friends at military schools go through worse on a daily basis.</p>
<p>PABound - search the threads here - there are many many posts about this subject.</p>
<p>I can tell you I have a freshman non drinker at Lehigh who is very very happy.</p>
<p>I am not sure what your specific questions are, but yes, the majority of college students drink, some to excess, some in moderation or not at all. I have not seen anything at Lehigh that is not at other colleges as well. </p>
<p>If your child is interested in Greek life there is drinking in greek life, at Lehigh and everywhere else - it is a part of the scene. You do not need to be inolved in greek life to have fun at Lehigh however. My son leads a full active life without alcohol.</p>
<p>There was a hazing incident with a sorority this year which involved alcohol and the Sorority will be leaving campus and giving up their house. I know a few years ago, the same happened to one of the fraternities. Parties and drinking go along with greek life.</p>
<p>My recommendation is that you visit campus, walk around the hill on weekend nights, as my son and I did, and make up your own mind about Lehigh. Also keep in mind there is a fairly large sub free housing community called CHOICE at Lehigh.</p>
<p>Hope that helps somewhat!</p>
<p>Copaman: I am still surprised at the level, you even admit to, of underage drinking. My daughter is not naive and having attended summer seminars for academies as well as being a candidate for the academy, shows she is of strong mental resolve. That being said, she is of strong moral character with the intelligence that goes with it. Besides, hazing is illegal(even at the academies, married to a grad!). My hope if she should choose the none military route; would be of close friendships, outstanding education and a moral compass of making the right decisions not the easy ones in her life. Would she abstain from alcohol? I can’t make that choice for her. I would however, expect that she wouldn’t spend the next 4 years of her life in a drunken stupor.</p>
<p>“mom” thank you for your response. I have been on the threads and that is why I voiced my concerns. Her other universities/academies weren’t such an issue. All the Lehigh threads it seems to be an issue. It could be some people have blown it way out of proportion so I decided to ask to see if there were other parents with students already at Lehigh who could enlighten me. My D will fly out in April and see for herself what Lehigh has to offer and I hope it will be a great experience. She has narrowed her choices to 4 and won’t make her deicsions until she comes back.</p>
<p>I never said that hazing was legal. I said that I know that the things that he Naval Academy puts plebes through are worse than what my pledging friends have to go through — before I even begin considering to include Survival School in my argument. Surely if your daughter is an outstanding candidate for a military academy then she will be more than able to deal with pledging should she choose to go that route; this coming from the son of a 20 year naval veteran with several very close family friends at the Naval Academy or in ROTC. </p>
<p>I want to go ahead and repeat one of my main points from my first post. The student body is not in a constant state of intoxication nor do we focus on blacking out when we drink. We are actually fairly responsible. </p>
<p>Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll add that partying four nights a week is very tough, both physically and academically. I couldn’t keep it up. I now party two nights a week at most. Some weeks I don’t even go out. Surely two nights a week isn’t an outstanding number- that’s Friday night and Saturday night… I also said that the degree to which lehigh students party and drink is in line with other social scenes at other schools, and I’m not talking about the frat-crazed SEC. </p>
<p>Edit: perhaps it would be somewhat beneficial if we knew what other schools your daughter was looking at, in order to compare social scenes. When it boils down to it there will be underage drinking at any school with a social scene.</p>
<p>If this doesn’t make a lot of sense I’ll fix it when I get back to my room. Posting from an iPod is tough.</p>
<p>I was worried about it too, as was my son because of a lot of old overblown information out there. I see it as a good sign that people report hazing and frats and sororities are closed and told to leave campus because it is not tolerated. I much prefer that to a univerity that sweeps it under the rug. Now that he is there - I am not, nor will I ever worry about it again.</p>
<p>I must support Copaman here - Lehigh is a top engineering school, the students go on to lead very successful lives and work very hard in school. There are not students wandering around in a drunken haze all the time. There are groups of friendly students walking to the gym, the library, STEPS, the dining hall etc happily chatting about the funny TA in lab or the upcoming weekend. </p>
<p>Go, decide for yourself. I did and decided it was not an issue.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response! I will be anxious to see what she thinks when she comes back in April. It is her decision and for her to make (with a little opinion from Mom.) She will be in Engineering. She is accepted into the BioEngineering program. She comes from a family of electrical engineers, including her brother who is an EE/nano tech and pre med majors. I believe she picked Lehigh for its reputation in engineering as well as a smaller feeling school. I will keep you posted as to what her impressions were. Thanks again.</p>
<p>My son is A bioeng Major also - Cell and Tissue track - loves it!</p>
<p>Lets not forget that only about 38% of the total student body joins Fraternities and Sororities…</p>
<p>PABound - As a mom of 3 girls (one at Lehigh and all in college next year!), I really understand your concerns but the drinking situation is not unique to Lehigh. From stories I have heard from my daughters, their friends and other parents, the prevalence of binge drinking and the sexual repercussions of drinking too much on most college campuses is frightening. But I have to say that for students who choose not to overdo partying, there are so many wonderful opportunities to be involved in meaningful activities on campuses like Lehigh.</p>