<p>I think this is mostly about the economy. My son was a high-performing student last year that applied and was accepted to Lehigh, as well as many other high-caliber schools. He was part of the 5-year trend of kids that have been applying to “many” acceptable schools (11 apps) looking for the right fit, which includes long-term financial considerations. I truly believe that that this scholarship chase is driving the number of applications through the roof at private schools. School like Lehigh and Bucknell have not dipped as far into their endowments as other private schools, and are losing a number of kids to state school (or to the private schools that provide more merit support). All these colleges use enrollment managers and scholarship money to drive their statistics…Lehigh has just not done as much as others. In the end, the true measure of a top-tier school is it’s perception in the business community: how successful the graduates are in the workforce and how committed the alumni are to hiring from the school. By this measure, Lehigh is one of the top-tier school at least in engineering, business and sciences. The admission statistics will eventually reflect that again.</p>