<p>Like many expensive, selective colleges in the United States, Lehigh has about a 5% hispanic and black population. It's not that I do not like white people or can't get along with them, its just that my high school now is about 15-20% black and hispanic and I don't know if I want to go through another 4 years of "white-out".</p>
<p>I have not been to Lehigh yet, but 2% black means about 100 black students in the entire undergraduate school. With that said, my brother went to Vanderbilt and it had many "little class/race interaction" and "homogenous student body" reputations such as Lehigh seems to carry, yet he never complained and there seemed to be no problem when I visited him there a few times of the course of his 4 years. </p>
<p>Can anyone weigh in on the situation at Lehigh?</p>
<p>I'm sorry that no one has answered you, Kmacs. The campus is indeed overwhelmingly white.</p>
<p>Lehigh is trying to diversify, but it can't unless blacks and Hispanics decide to attend. It's not your problem, though. You should go to a school where you feel comfortable - as long as the academics are up to your standards.</p>
<p>hey, my boyfriend goes to lehigh and i visit him often...in fact i just came back from there yesterday. i can tell you that walking around campus, yeah you mostly see white kids but i definitely saw some black, hispanic, and middle eastern students.
also, i dont know if you've heard about "the movement" that they have going on right now...but some students started this and its really big on campus now. it's a "movement" to encourage diversity and acceptance on campus (it's not just about color, but sexual orientation etc). anyway its a pretty big deal right now, theres posters about it everywhere and they have really big walkouts where like 400-500 kids walk out of class and meet in a spot on campus.
so yeah, its definitely mostly white and all but theyre really trying to diversify, and unfortunately its becoming a vicious cycle where minority students like you hear about what a white school it is an decide not to go...so then you get less and less diversity.
anyway hope this helped, its a really nice school and awesome for engineering and stuff!</p>
<p>i'm a minority, and i would like to think that going to lehigh would be some sort of an adventure... call me absurd or something, but i'd really like to see more minorities at lehigh, and maybe i can help.</p>
<p>"Fit" is the important thing when considering a college. If you feel excited about going to a school - as you do about Lehigh - then you know it's right for you.</p>
<p>There has been one reply that has helped. What is the social scene on campus in terms of race relations and such. Is it kind of a segregated(and I dont mean like the jim crowe south or anything) type of atmosphere where the few minorities do not really interact with other races? Someone posted that the frats are segregated(and i checked some online and the ones with websites were 99% white), I dont want to go to a place where all the [rich] white kids stick together regardless, and everybody sticks strictly to their little niche.</p>
<p>I'm having a really hard time because I got into Loyola Marymount, and that is a really diverse school, and has a good law school(i want to go into law), but its hard to pass up such an outstanding University in Lehigh.</p>
<p>hey, i don't know if it was my response that helped the first time or not but i'll put in my two cents on the segregation thing from my experience....
i think it really depends where you hang out, and how much effort you put in to making a diverse group of friends. obviously if you hang out in the same places a lot and kind of stick with one group (which is what happens to a lot of people, at any college, at least initially in freshman year and stuff). for example, the majority of friends that my friend made initially during his freshman year were in his dorm, almost all white guys (he knew people of other races but didnt necessarily hang out with them). but he started going to the gym a lot more 2nd semester of his freshman year (usually to play bball) and he made a completely new, more diverse group of friends (and now those are the guys that he hangs out with a lot)...
the bottom line is, you could definitely get yourself in a 'segregated' rut if you wanted to, but i definitely think its fairly easy to make a diverse group of friends as long as you're open (it's not like anyone is going to NOT want to be your friend because youre black, you know what i mean? it's just a matter of meeting them, that's all).</p>
<p>thank you nycsenorita. I think I took a step backwards on Lehigh today. I am glad you told me about "The Movement" and I found their official site, but I'm dissapointed with what they are saying. More specifically, the problems at Lehigh. Lehigh is a fantastic school, but it's a shame they have such poignant racial issues in 2006.
I'm going to visit next week, and I will probably hold out my decision until May 1st, but it's unfortunate I may pass up on such a great school because of such an immature and ridiculous problem.</p>