<p>Oh nice, I’ll check that out. Thanks</p>
<p>Nice find BeanTownGirl!</p>
<p>The factors for admission are very interesting and pretty unique, I think. </p>
<p>Lehigh views GPA and class rank as “considered”, rather than important or very important. </p>
<p>They view the “rigor” of secondary school record and recommendations as very important, and standardized test scores, ECs, talent/ability, essay, level of interest, volunteer work and personal qualities as important. More important than even your actual grades! </p>
<p>This is very unusual. I didn’t know that. There are always students who are looking for good schools with high SATs and rigorous classes who have perhaps “overchallenged” themselves and don’t have the GPA and class rank. I think for most schools, your actual grades are the most important factor. </p>
<p>I used to think that these students (high test scores, lower grades) would be best served applying to schools in the UK, where they don’t even consider HS grades, just standardized test scores and AP scores. I’ll keep Lehigh in mind for the future.</p>
<p>Edward…since you specifically asked about aerospace and grad school…that is exactly the path I took. After graduating Lehigh I went to MIT and have been employed in the aerospace industry for a (very) long time. My roommate, incidentally, went on to get his PhD at Columbia. Lehigh was “elite enough”, apparently, for our purposes.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, this is really helping.</p>
<p>Rogracer, I know it’s been awhile, but can you recall where your fellow MIT grad students went to undergrad?</p>
<p>Also, what did you major in T Lehigh? MechE?</p>
<p>^Yes, and I was a T/A for a several undergrad classes, so I received pretty fair insight into the rigor of the two programs. You may be surprised to hear this but I thought a lot of the problem sets that were handed in at MIT were more leniently graded than they ever would have been at Lehigh. As far as undergrad institutions that were represented….it was biased a bit to the “top schools”, but there were plenty of students from so-called mid-tier and even lower-tier schools represented.</p>
<p>Very interesting. And how would you say Lehigh is viewed from the aerospace industry perspective? Obviously it isn’t an aerospace engineering powerhouse simply because it doesn’t have aerospace as a major, but would you say Lehigh is highly respected among your peers as a solid institution? </p>
<p>Also, would you say most of the people in the aerospace industry went to grad school?</p>
<p>Very few schools have a major in aerospace engineering. I think mechanical engineering or physics are good alternatives.</p>
<p>Yes, Edward, Lehigh is a very well respected school. But I think you are obsessing a bit too much about “prestige”. The aerospace industry employs engineers from about any school you care to name. This isn’t IB/consulting. Further, the vast majority of engineers in aerospace do not have degrees in aero, but rather in mech, materials, electrical, systems, optics, comp sci, or even industrial.</p>
<p>Haha alright thanks. I would say I’m more curious than obsessed but regardless, I see what you’re saying. For intended major, I’m debating between engineering and physics, but that is a concern that can wait for now.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have any opinions or thoughts on the matter? I’ve gotten what I wanted out of the original question, but I’m still interested in additional responses.</p>
<p>Its whole look is unique…there are other colleges with gothic architecture, but I haven’t seen any except Lehigh that made me feel like every building probably has a resident ghost and secret passages.</p>
<p>Haha yup I like it though</p>
<p>Lehigh is a decent school. It may be slightly overranked by US News and it probably shouldn’t be ranked as a national university as it has more of an LAC feel, but it is a decent school. It is in a very secluded location but it has a pretty campus. Not a bad school to attend even if it doesn’t have name recognition nationally.</p>
<p>No, Lehigh does not have the feel of a LAC. There are way too many labs and research centers spread around the campus for that…a feature that sets it apart from many of its peers that are the same size.</p>
<p>@informative
I think you are talking about Lafayette being a LAC.
Like what rogracer said, there are a lot of research facilities for engineering and business.
Go google the new STEPS building, which was recently built. Lehigh is definitely not a LAC.
I am a student at Lehigh and I have been in some of the engineering facilities because of my classes.</p>
<p>Interesting. By the way, I know I used Lehigh’s engineering as an example, but my plan to major in physics for undergrad</p>
<p>bump 10char</p>
<p>My daughter will be entering Lehigh in the fall. She applied ED1 and was accepted. Her top three choices were Carnegie Mellon, Tufts and Lehigh. Even though the other two schools may have more name recognition and “prestige”, she ruled them out after several visits to each school. Each time we stepped onto the campus at Lehigh, her face lit up. She has excellent stats, and in our opinion would have been accepted to all three, although no one knows for sure. I do know that Tufts sent her a letter saying that she could still apply even though the deadline had passed. They were willing to extend it for her. In the end, she couldnt match the feel of lehigh. She went to diversity weekend at both Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon and spent a lot of time talking to professors and students. She loves the Lehigh campus and for her, the most important thing was the ability to mix majors with engineering. She spent a summer at MIT’s school of design and fell in love with the possibilities of combining fine arts with engineering. Tufts would have let her do it although they were upfront about it not being easy to work outside the engineering department and carnegie mellon really didnt encourage the idea. Also, after talking to many students at CM, she walked away feeling that many of the students really didnt LOVE their school. After whittling away all the factors that were import to her, small school, campus feel, engineering and fine arts, she decided that she absolutely could see herself at Lehigh. There is more to choosing an education than what your friends think of your school. Does no good to go to a school that people on the other coast have heard of if you are not happy and not getting what you need to succeed. We support her choice and I think she will do well there. The students at Lehigh are hard working, top of their class students.</p>
<p>Buuuuuuuump</p>