Agree that both Colgate & Lehigh are well known for excessive alcohol use. Lehigh also has issues with drugs. During the past decade, Bethlehem was a significant distribution/transportation hub for groups dealing in illegal drugs.
P.S. Nevertheless, graduates of both schools tend to be quite successful professionally.
Our HS has had top 2% students attend Lehigh. One boy comes to mind- he had so much fun that his gpa dropped below a 2.0 and he was placed on probation. He got his act together, graduated, and is very successful now. These stories happen at many schools- not just Lehigh.
Lehigh does have a serious side and many serious students. My D was invited to Lehigh Scholars and the list of activities/guest speakers etc was impressive. Maybe the speakers are open to all who might be interested? It’s certainly worth asking.
Just to give a little flavor to Lehigh. My DS is a second semester senior at Lehigh. The campus is beautiful. The school is undergoing a lot construction for new dorms and a student center. They recently launched a new health sciences center I believe. It’s also built into the side of a mountain and there are ALOT of steps. We joke that no one gains the freshman 15 there.
He’s a CSB major (computer science/business). He applied ED. Lehigh was the only school he really wanted to attend and was ecstatic when he was accepted. He’s had an amazing experience there and has worked very hard since he decided on the CSB major after freshman year and it’s a very rigorous curriculum which is best started freshman year. He wasn’t interested in a full semester abroad but CSB incorporated a summer program in the Czech Republic for 7 weeks which included a for credit class and an internship with PWC in a couple of areas. Worked well for him. Travel, class and internship.
However, he is not a part of Greek life, did not choose Lehigh because he wanted Greek life and none of his close friends are involved either. They occasionally attend a frat party but he’s more into video games and ultimate frisbee. He participated in one of the pre-orientation programs and made his 4 best friends during that 4 day program.
Bethlehem more of a town than a city as far as the part where Lehigh is located. There are shops and restaurants within walking distance of the school. There’s a mall and a Costco within driving distance. I believe there’s a shuttle that goes to the mall…not certain because my son has a car.
Good luck with your D’s choice! She’s has so many great ones 
.
So…no Wake dance scholarship for D and, not to be THAT mom, but I am surprised. I mean, her studio trains kids who get accepted to the best ballet programs in the country as well as contemporary programs like Alvin Ailey. Some kids even go right to apprenticeships at places like Royal Ballet. It’s very hard for me to believe that she wasn’t one of the better audition videos. We read her dance teachers recommendation, too, and it was beautiful. And we’ve seen Wake’s dance recitals and they are wonderful but clearly D would be a strong member.
I have to think this doesn’t have to do with her dancing. So, either she’s not getting accepted, or there are other reasons they use to give these scholarships out. And now we really do have to wait until mid-March to hear back from all schools. We were hoping she would at least be a finalist for this one and then we would have a clue about her admissions decision!
Seriously? I’m pretty shocked to be honest! Wow. That is scary. I’m sorry to read this. (And I also didn’t realize the scholarships were announced already.) Regardless, I’m very sorry to read this. I hope she gets accepted and this is just one blip.
I don’t think the scholarship recipients have been decided yet but D received an email saying she was not a finalist. It was addressed to “Dear Student” which I thought was pretty impersonal for a process that was extremely time consuming on the student’s part. It required a dance recommendation, some essays, a dance resume, and a lengthy video audition.
I guess we will never know but, if she gets accepted, I feel like she should reach out to the dance dept and see if she can get some feedback. Maybe her video wasn’t great. She just had a friend video her and it wasn’t very professional at all. We don’t know what other kids submitted. Her resume and recommendation spoke to her experience. Who knows.
I’m wondering if they use this for a diversity tool sometimes or if it is given more often to families who aren’t full pay. I think it’s understandable for her to not get the scholarship in the end but to not be a finalist just seems a little odd to us. Of course we never know who else applied.
Maybe they go to dance majors more than non-majors?
They don’t have dance majors. It’s just a minor and D knew she’d likely minor in dance if she was selected.
FWIW I have always learned more from losing than from winning.
Seems clear to me that your daughter faced a very high level of competition.
@homerdog I suspect (based on what I have heard from people) that at least some of these scholarships are used to bring more diversity to the school (economic or otherwise). There are kids out there who can’t attend college at all without one of these awards (my daughter did not get one of their scholarships either). I don’t fault schools for doing this, tbh.
I have no doubt that your daughter is a very talented dancer and will have some wonderful options (she already does!). Sometimes we just don’t know the reasons our kids were not chosen.
I agree that “Dear Student” is impersonal. It makes me realize, once again, that college is what students make of it and what they take advantage of while being there. There is no perfect school (even at $70,000 or more per year, ugh).
Hopefully Wake Forest will bring good news next month!
Heard from two other posters on CC via PMs that their Ds with a ton of dance experience also did not make the cut. At least D isn’t alone!
Sorry to hear this - was hopeful for her!
Without giving too much personal detail, I know (very well) a girl that was a Presidential Scholar for dance there. I can tell you that aside from being a very talented dancer, she was probably also near the top of the academic pool. For example, she chose Wake over Yale, UVA (OOS), Hopkins, etc. She was also the most involved person I ever met and her HS resume was crazy. She was not a URM candidate, so diversity wasn’t the reason for choosing her.
Dance was her minor and she LOVED it but it was definitely time consuming. I met many of her dance friends, attended recitals, etc., so I can reassure you that your D should NOT take this personally. It was quite the impressive group in a school of very impressive kids.
Not to take anything away from your D but to reassure you that, as with everything at these competitive schools, it really is a lottery system! March needs to hurry up and get here…
Thanks for posting. I do wonder if the scholarship committee sees the whole app though. They ask for a list of ECs. D reached out and asked if she should focus mostly on her dance ECs for this list and the director of scholarships said yes. So she sent more of a dance resume that gave more details about her dancing than the common app EC section ever could and did not even list her other ECs like editor in chief of the yearbook etc.
This process seems completely separate unlike when S applied for Vandy or Davidson merit that was given through the admissions departments. Wake made it sound like this is all about the talent that the student brings to campus- music, dance, debate, theater. The emails for this process come from some autobot and not from anyone’s personal email there.
It’s ok. I do wonder how much this will make a difference for her if she’s accepted. I can tell her until I’m blue in the face that she shouldn’t be upset about this and she should still reach out to the dance dept but I do think it will be hard for her to do that. If she’s accepted, I would like to see the person she has been corresponding with in the dance dept reach out to her and invite her to still audition for their company.
I do wonder how the artistic scholarships (at all schools) are handled without consulting with the admissions departments? It is all so complex!
I seriously hope she is accepted and that this doesn’t cloud her view when/if that happens.
We figure that applying for the scholarship shows interest in the school too. Hopefully that’s true and at least admissions knows she applied!
I truly believe all these little touch points need to be taken as signs … completely agree that a communication addressing someone as “student” in this scenario is just plain tacky and void of the personalization fully expected when applying to a program at ANY school. Particularly in these times when in person final visits are sure to be limited, schools have an opportunity to differentiate themselves (in both good and bad ways). That said, a ton of kids from our school go there - so Ehh. Loved the previous long time director of admission when our younger D considered it but surrounding area didn’t knock her socks off.
There are Ivy caliber students with great ECs/leadership who don’t get any of the various scholarships to WF. This makes me think that the competition for these awards is fierce, or they are looking at other things as well…or both. Nobody can take any of this personally, and we really never know what they are thinking and who else is applying.
We thought the campus was very pretty. If I remember correctly, there is a small shopping/dining area a few minutes down the road, with the city being a little further.
For sure. I know. It’s just that her dance experience and talent would get her into top programs in the country but didn’t elicit even a finalist spot so that is a little curious to us. Our understanding was that these are talent scholarships. Since we’ve watched many of their performances online, we can see that D would be one of the better dancers.
In general, I wish that colleges with any of these application scholarships would be more forthcoming in how they determine the winners. I’ve scoured CC in the past to find trends for some of them and many schools do use them for diversity but that is not ever called out by the school. Of course a college can use their scholarships however they want but, especially for the ones that require a heavy lift on the applicants part with a time-consuming app, they should be honest. Not saying that’s the case with this one. Just a general comment.
I wonder if Wake is need aware, and there is a list that goes to admission/FA with a box to tick “give this one a reason for attending/a financial boost” and kids who they feel might come anyway don’t get that tick, no matter how well they dance.
Like, why would you trust any college that a selection is being made purely for reason x, whatever that stated reason is, and there aren’t any so called institutional needs (ie pure business reasons) behind it.
Also - was Wake test optional before? The competition may have been much more fierce this year.
Wake is extremely need aware.