<p>Sorry guys for some reason I subscribed to the thread but I am not getting emails notifying me of replies.</p>
<p>Trueeast:
- The party scene is great. Quite literally there is a party every night if you look hard enough. The frats are all pretty awesome, I have 3 or 4 I go to consistently and they are all a great time. I really enjoy the frat/party aspect of Lehigh’s social scene. </p>
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<li><p>The girls are all fairly good. Clearly there are some less-attractive girls but that is true of any college. The ones I know, the majority are good looking. I hear from a lot of upperclassmen that our class’ girls are the best, and that it has been getting better each year.</p></li>
<li><p>Sign up for OAP (one of the PreLUsions) as soon as you can. It fills up fast, only 100 people can go, but you actually have friends when you arrive on campus. It’s really great. Plus you make connections with some people who have connections and you get back the day before everyone arrives and you have a night with a bunch of buddies to kick off the school year… if you see where I’m going…</p></li>
<li><p>EDIT: join a club sports team. I’d recommend Rugby or Ultimate Frisbee. Rugby from experience and UF from what I’ve heard. Good parties with good people, fun times playing the sport. Rugby “socials” always served as a pregame to the pregames… I’d go down to wherever the rugby party was, have a few, head up to my buddy’s room, pregame there, and then head up to the hill and hit the frat houses. Playing a sport also lets you meet upperclassmen, some of whom may be in fraternities.</p></li>
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<p>LINYMOM:</p>
<p>No worries about the questions. I will do my best to answer them all.</p>
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<li> Hmmm. Your first question is a tough one as I am not in the Admissions Office. I know that I had a bit of an engineering background in high school already, my school offered Project Lead The Way courses and I took all of them that I could. We had an MIT-sponsored InvenTeam that I was also a part of (Engineering Design and Development was the course. It was pretty much a 1 year, engineering-specific version of Science Research, which I’m about to describe for you). I took a 3 year research course that was more or less an independent research course: research problem, develop hypothesis, work out methods to test, run test, write research paper. I guess what I am trying to say is: don’t just take the hardest courses… taking more unique courses that are relevant to IBE will help too. How many kids are gonna apply saying that they’ve already done a 3 year independent research course? See what I’m trying to say? IBE looks for the students who are not only Lehigh’s finest (I can tell you I am not the most spectacular IBE student as far as grades/courses go) but for the students who seem like they have the drive and the potential to really succeed with not only the IBE program but post-graduation as well… standing out from the excellent applicants can help with that. Also, show interest in the IBE program. Lehigh really likes when you show interest.</li>
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<p>Definitely have a wide range of extracurriculars too; I was a regional coordinator for a charity out of UVM that went through my soccer club. I volunteered with the soccer club as a coach as well. NHS member… did a few charity events volunteering. I also build guitars.</p>
<p>Basically to answer the first as quickly as I can: Do really well in rigorous courses, make yourself stand out from a crowd of excellent applicants, show interest.</p>
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<li> I believe my SAT was a 2010 cumulative (the whole deal where they take your best scores from each section and put them together). My math was about a 700 if I remember. It’s been a while since I’ve thought about it so I don’t remember as well as I should and I am sorry. I do know that I was just barely higher than the Lehigh “Average”.</li>
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<p>I did take a heap of SAT IIs however… I recommend this. You can test out of some classes with a good enough SAT II score, once you get to campus. I just barely missed out on being able to test out of Chem 30. Math 2: 780 Physics: 770 Chem: 730 Biology E: 710</p>
<p>I would also suggest taking a good number of APs. I got credit for both First-Year physics classes that way, and was able to go right in to Chem instead. I was 2 or 3 credits away from technically being a Sophomore when I arrived on campus. Lehigh only accepts 5’s if I remember correctly.</p>
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<li><p>I have plenty of fun as an IBE student, as do the upperclassmen. I know a few guys who are very involved in fraternity life and they certainly have a good time. The IBE council also organizes several social events for IBE students specifically… they have all been very fun.</p></li>
<li><p>I could not tell you how I was given the Dean’s Scholarship, honestly. I mean perhaps I already have; good grades, APs, and interesting curriculum, but I cannot say for sure. I guess all I can really say comes back to the IBE thing: Do very well, set yourself apart with cool stuff, and show interest. I will agree that the price tag is very high and that any help is good help - I am seeing some numbers as far as average starting salaries go that seem to make it worth it though.</p></li>
<li><p>I did not apply Early Decision. I wanted to hear back from other schools and have those options open as well. ED’ing definitely helps your chances though</p></li>
<li><p>I considered Duke (reach, did not get in), UPenn (who also has an IBE program, reach, did not get in), Ga Tech (did get in with a scholarship), RPI (did get in, scholarship). I looked at Cornell but I did not like the feel of the campus.</p></li>
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<p>I really hope this helped, I felt like I couldn’t really answer a couple of your questions as well as perhaps you’d like.</p>
<p>wahoogrl08:</p>
<p>The guy had a question for me… the thread is about questions… if that’s the question he wants to ask me then that’s the question he wants to ask me. No need to comment on his question. There’s a joke about arguing on the internet out there somewhere…</p>
<p>dreampuddle:</p>
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<li> Honestly, the kids that I know in CHOICE ended up partying/drinking anyhow, but that is probably because of what I do socially and who I hang out with. There is certainly plenty of play going on in CHOICE housing, I just think that perhaps it is not as much drinking/pregaming/etc as in other places. CHOICE will not kill your social life or Lehigh experience. There is stuff to do on the weekends that does not involve drinking.</li>
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<p>That being said, a lot of the social scene revolves around parties. Frat parties, track house parties, etc. Not once have I felt pressured to drink, and I know people who go to said parties and do not drink. I had a night where I did not want to drink, and all I had to say was “No thanks, I can’t drink tonight,” and I was not badgered about it. I still had a good time (You can still play all the fun games that people play… some people even love to have a partner that says “I can’t drink”… more for them. You can also still dance and socialize). What I guess I am trying to say here is that Lehigh’s social scene <em>is</em> mostly parties, and people will most certainly be drinking there, but if you don’t want to drink then you don’t want to drink and everyone that I have seen is cool with that. It’s all about finding the right people to hang out with. I know that if I tell my friends I don’t want to or can’t drink -for whatever reason- they’re definitely cool with it, and everyone at the parties is too.</p>
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<li> Life of a First-Year is not bad at all. The classes weren’t stupid hard (yet), but I will say that Chem and Engineering 001 (Intro to C++, Excel, and MatLab) are challenging. Expect to do 3-5 hours of homework for Engr1, unless you’re familiar with programming already. C++ is a total pain in the ass, and I had a small background in Java already. I’ve heard that your class will not have to take that course though, lucky bastards. I could certainly have worked harder in all of my classes, but I ended the semester with a 3.26… I hold myself to a standard that’s higher than that and so I need to bring that up from where it is.</li>
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<p>The quality of the professor depends on who you get. I was blessed to have great professors this semester. A few of my friends did comment that they could not understand their professors’ accents a few time.</p>
<p>Your vision of an engineering student for First Semester, Freshman Year is pretty accurate. Expect to hit the books for 4 o’clocks and finals though, but I feel like that goes without saying.</p>
<p>EDIT: Holy massive wall of text… I hope it helped you all…</p>
I’m a female from PA and accepted to engineering. I was wondering, what kind of students choose CHOICE housing? I was considering it due to the fact that I don’t really have any intent to drink very much (if at all). Don’t get me wrong, I plan on partying, but I was hoping to find a group of friends and parties that don’t involve alcohol :)</p>