<p>I was wait listed at Lehigh to my surprise. My educated guess is that it is because I applied to the CSB program. I also applied to neighbor Lafayette and got a 100k scholarship, and since the two are peer institutions, I thought that would bode well for Lehigh--not in terms of scholarship, but acceptance. </p>
<p>How important is demonstrated interest? I've never visited either school, but I sent a few emails to the rep. So far I've been accepted to Wash U engineering, Rochester, BU, and wait listed at Chicago for a frame of reference. </p>
<p>The CSB program is incredibly forward thinking, and speaks volumes about the school's ability to adapt to the times. As such, I was very interested. Although it I guess it was not meant to be...</p>
<p>Lehigh and Lafayette are huge rivals and are similar schools but as far as reputation goes Lehigh is well known across the country and Lafayette is not. I go to Lehigh so I am a little biased but its kind of like saying that the Astros are as good as the Yankees. Yes they are both in the MLB, but they are not the same caliber team. Same thing with Lehigh and Lafayette.
As far as why you weren’t accepted I have no idea. I know it is extremely competitive and that is especially true for most specialized programs. I had very good SAT scores and was 5th in my class in high school but I was denied a place into the IBE program. However the school does then consider you for regular admittance (which is how i was accepted) if you are not accepted into your program. I wouldn’t take it personally. When they have 3 times as many students apply as you can accept, it can be something as small as a typo in your essay that allows them to thin out their stack of papers. I’m sorry to hear you didn’t get in and good luck with wherever you choose to go!</p>
<p>demonstrated interest is huge. I believe it plays a very big role in decision making and could be something that would tip the scale one way or another. </p>
<p>Lehigh is a school that seems to care a lot about demonstrated interest. I don’t believe that the CSB program is much more competitive than any of the other engineering programs. I visited Lehigh about 4 times, did an interview, stayed overnight twice and met with my admission rep twice. Although stats were lower than the typical Lehigh accepted student, I was accepted into the CSB program.
They really do care a lot about coming to campus and that certainly helped me getting into Lehigh.</p>
<p>Demonstrated interest is a very big deal w/Lehigh. They want to see that your son/daughter genuinely wants to go there and not using them as a backup or second choice. My son visited 3 times, spent a weekend , sat in on two classes and really stressed in his essays that Lehigh was his # 1 choice and why. His GPA was very high but his SATs were in the 50th percentile for Lehigh, so he wasn’t a slam dunk. And I know in the interaction I had with Admissions, they mentioned they were impressed with my son’s interest. He was accepted at some other fine schools, but Lehigh was #1 for us, and my son is so pumped up to be attending this coming Fall as part of Class of 2018.</p>