<p>I don't want to sound like every Mom that thinks their children is fabulous, but my daughter was wait listed for Lehigh and I would love to know why. The basics, 1st in her class of 242, straight A's every marking period in HS, 4 years varsity soccer, captain 2 years, 4 years varsity swimming, captain 2 years, 4 years varsity lacrosse,captain 1 year, class officer, NHS, chorus, spring musical, Rho Kappa, Tri-M music honor society, Pres sr year 32 ACT, 770 writing, 660 Math, 800 essay, National Merit commended student (chose Lehigh as one of the 2 schools scores were sent), 4 AP classes sr year ( calc, US Hist, Eng, and Bio) 3 APs jr year Chem-4, AP GOv 5 AP Lit - 5, visited campus. Accepted to West Virginia Univ, plus honors college, Drexel, RPI, Lafayette - Marquis scholarship recipient, Univ of DE (honors college), Rowan (honors college), wait listed Univ of Penn. Merit money from every school. Rowan almost a full ride. What was she missing??</p>
<p>Demonstrated interest. Tell her to email her admissions rep expressing her interest in attending Lehigh, and that she hopes to attend if taken off the wait list. It will potentially move her up on the wait list</p>
<p>WMA -</p>
<p>The admissions process isn’t all about stats anymore. It can come down to a bad letter of recommendation, a lack of shown interest (did she visit, interview, email her admissions director on her own, etc.), an essay with a troubling message, or it can be as simple as they don’t think you’d be a good fit at the school. However, it is absolutely impossible for anyone on here to tell you why your daughter wasn’t accepted. </p>
<p>I personally was waitlisted at Villanova but accepted to other schools (i.e. Lehigh, Rutgers Engineering Honors, etc.). So I emailed my admissions officer and asked why. She told me that they require - not recommend, but require - their engineering students to have taken physics. I had not. So, she told me to take physics at a community college and I’m all but gaurenteed acceptance off the waitlist. </p>
<p>Something that stupid can be the reason she wasn’t accepted to Lehigh. </p>
<p>If you’re that concerned, have your daughter shoot over an email to her admissions office and ask why (of course without sounding as if you’re questioning their judgement). They just may tell you. </p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter, I’m sure she’ll love any of those schools. Except Lafayette.</p>
<p>WMA630 - I have asked that same question. Many students at my sons high school have gotten wait listed or denied at schools that we would have thought they would have gotten accepted. I am not sure what the schools are looking for in a student. Your daughter has wonderful stats and I am sure will be happy at any of the schools she was accepted. I do know that Lehigh is huge on showing interest. Did she have an interview? How many time did she visit campus? I wish her much success in whichever college she chooses.</p>
<p>A similar thing happened to me with Boston University, where my stats and extracurriculars should’ve made the school a safety, but I didn’t demonstrate enough interest, so I was waitlisted.
Although, surprisingly enough, I barely showed more interest in Lehigh, but I got in here.
Admissions can be a bit of a crapshoot at times, unfortunately.</p>
<p>The thing that made us mad about the whole thing was in Sunday’s Phila Inquirer there was an article specifically about Lehigh and their acceptance process. They listed the things that might red flag an admittance. We felt confident because our daughter didn’t fall into any of the catagories, ie didn;t take hardest classes sr year, poor grades sr year, bad reference letters. But the real kicker was they talked about one specific valedictorian (not our daughter but she is) that had lower SAT scores and a lower GPA but they took him because they didn’t want to send negative message to that child’s school (since the valedictorian wasn’t good enough, no one would be.) LIARS!!! We’ve contacted Lehigh and they are going to take another look at her application. At this point I feel that if you have to grovel that much for a school, they aren’t worth it!</p>
<p>You do realize if they reconsider, chances are there will not be merit money offered right?</p>
<p>I agree that this was a weird waitlist, given that you visited, but not sure you’re gonna like the result even if it is a successful appeal…</p>
<p>It could very well be that her admissions counselor for your area overlooked the app. Have you been to the admissions problems blog? Honestly it scares me to think these people hold our childrens futures in their hands. I would definitely ask them to revisit, especially since she is a valedictorian, and they DID mention it in that article, so obviously that is a strong consideration for them… unless nobody from your daughters school has ever applied to Lehigh before. Please keep us posted. Your daughter sounds like she’d do great at Lehigh!</p>
<p>WMA -</p>
<p>If you do appeal and it is successful, is your daughter going to attend Lehigh? </p>
<p>About that article in the Inquirer, I wouldn’t be so quick to call the Lehigh adcoms “liars” as we don’t know the other valedictorian’s stats nor do you know the reason why your daughter wasn’t accepted. I’m sure they aren’t making up the story, it is probably just a completely different situation from your daughter’s.</p>
<p>Is D a financial aide student? I ask because the more I read, the more I realize that the missing link between acceptance and rejection is money. (My opinion anyway)</p>
<p>sosomenza -</p>
<p>Lehigh is need-blind which means that they do not look at financial need in the admissions process. The exception is that they do look at financial need for those on the waitlist and for internationals.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments. Will our D attend Lehigh if accepted? Not without some merit cash. I assume if they do accept her there won’t be any money. Not sure where she’ll end up but Rowan gave her almost a full ride so that’s looking pretty good to us.</p>
<p>unfortunately My D is not going to be able to attend due to price tag. The Institutional Method of determining EFC killed me. So at least someone else that was waitlisted will get into IBE. Just hope you have the money honey… No merit… I tried for days talking to FA people… not budging. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>Lehigh2017. The statistics of acceptance indicate that Lehigh is not fully need blind. If only 60% of students receive financial aide. Then the other 40% must be considered full pay. Now since only a small percentage of population (say 3-5%) is in the rarified income of the full pay. It’s logical to assume that there is a preference to being full pay. I would suggest that Lehigh allocates 40% of the seats to fully pay/legacy/edowment students with the other 60% being allocated to need based aide students. BTW I’m in the be grateful for what you get camp. Lehigh doesn’t have to give anything, and for all they do, I’m grateful. But the numbers just doesn’t support that a 100% of the available seats are truly need blind.</p>
<p>“Now since only a small percentage of population (say 3-5%) is in the rarified income of the full pay. It’s logical to assume that there is a preference to being full pay.”</p>
<p>There’s no logic, but rather the assumption that a cross-section of the population applies to Lehigh, but only twenty-seven percent of the overall population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, and we know that family income affects college attendance as a positive correlation. There’s no evidence given that Lehigh is lying.</p>
<p>I find the expected family contribution calculations to be almost laughable. Yes we can put out that much if we don’t eat or heat our house for 4 years!</p>
<p>When I was applying to college in the mid-80’s I think this is pretty much how it worked - If your check cleared, you got into any city college program you wanted. If you didn’t fail out of high school, you got into any state school you applied to. If you graduated in the top 10% or so of your high school, you were in pretty good shape to attend any college you wanted (except Ivys). And if you were in the top 5% of your graduating class, the world was your oyster. That’s just not how it works anymore. Many more factors are taken into consideration…schools are looking at balance and looking to fill their freshman class with many different kinds of kids that bring lots of different things to the table. My son was admitted to Lehigh with stats that don’t touch your daughters. That’s not a brag…just a commentary on how we (parents and students) need to revamp the way we approach the college application process. I think if the parents are looking at “rejections” from the perspective of “what did she do wrong?” it sets our kids up for a “failure” that just isn’t there.</p>
<p>Vonlost: Logic is based on probable assumption. Also over 10K students applied to Lehigh. A big enough population (application pool) to assume a fair cross section (wide dispersion) of family income. Consider this: if a school reserves seats for legacy/edowment students can it be considered fully need blind? Also I never said Lehigh is lying, those are your words. I did say there are likely seats that go to full pay/legacy/endowmments students that are not considered part of the need blind pool of seats. Again I am thankful for what Lehigh gives-Thank you Lehigh.</p>
<p>Well, Lehigh says they are need blind, and you twice claimed they are not (“not fully” means “not”). Call it what you want.</p>
<p>I do not see any connection between Legacy/Endowment students and financial need. Lehigh does not need to look at finances to see if a parent of a student went to Lehigh or if they’re big donors. </p>
<p>If Lehigh only has a limited amount of financial aid, which they do, then many applicants will not enroll because they cannot afford to attend on the basis on not getting enough financial aid. The ones who do enroll more frequently, therefore, are those that CAN afford Lehigh without financial aid. I don’t think there really needs to be any more explanation than this. </p>
<p>I understand that you’re grateful for what they do give, but you are actually saying they’re lying, even if you never said that exact word. </p>
<p>Here is a section I just found on Lehigh’s website that confirms what I first said -</p>
<p>“Need-blind admissions: During the admissions process, Lehigh does not consider the family’s ability to cover tuition when making admissions decisions. (It is only during the waitlist period that Lehigh considers financial circumstances, among other factors.)”</p>
<p>[Lehigh</a> University: Financial Aid: Current Undergrad Students: Glossary of Terms](<a href=“http://www.lehigh.edu/~infao/current/faq/terms.html#needb]Lehigh”>http://www.lehigh.edu/~infao/current/faq/terms.html#needb)</p>