Hi,
Looking for any insider information about LeHigh CS- son was accepted with merit so now taking a deeper dive as it is a great deal!
I am especially wondering about:
-Strength of the CS program- have seen some rather negative threads on CC (they are older though). Any red flags?
-The frat/party culture and social life for those who are not in fraternities.
Thanks in advance!
Congratulations to your son, Lehigh is a great place! Recent Lehigh cs graduate here, so hopefully I can answer your questions.
With regards to the cs offerings at Lehigh, the core class requirements are the same you will find at most colleges (top programs included). Where most accredited school’s cs offerings differ are in the offered electives. Lehigh offered a rather robust selection of well taught technical cs electives from AI/ML to Blockchain Algorithms. The rigor can vary depending on the college you are a part of and it’s requirements. For example, most cs majors are in the engineering school and are subject to the core engineering requirements like Physics and Chem classes. I found the program to challenge me, but never was it too overwhelming.
The social scene at Lehigh definitely has a stigma associated with it. This is largely due to how historically prevalent Greek life has been, but there has been a large effort to offer a broader range of social opportunities in recent years. This is not to say that the Greek Life is bad either. I joined a Greek house and made lifelong friends. They also tend to offer a better deal on meal plans than directly through Lehigh
The city of Bethlehem is a great college town with a lot of recent development. It’s a very historical place and there are lots of events year round at the “Steel Stacks” that draw people in from all over Pennsylvania. There’s plenty of shops on Northside, bars and breweries on the southside, and hiking in the valley itself.
Lehigh is a great place to go and learn computer science, but much like other computer science programs (and colleges in general), the skills and knowledge your son get out of it will be coorelated to effort put in. Every college will have the easy and hard classes, and it’s easy to figure out beforehand what a certain class/professor is like.
I hope this rant helped a little. Congratulations again to your son, and good luck with the rest of the process!
ps: Lehigh also has some pretty good ROI stats that you can check out online. The student body definitely seemed to be very career drive while I attended.
Any suggestions on preparing? My son has a good amount of scripting (Python) experience but I’m assuming lots of gaps as he is self-taught. Is it safe to assume that someone can be successful in Lehigh’s CS program without having prior coding experience?
Also, during your freshman year did you live on campus in the STEM themed housing? If so, how was it?
There is no getting around the fact that fraternities play a large role in the social culture at Lehigh - maybe not as much as 35 years ago - but it is still very prevalent. For example, while Lehigh’s main rival Lafayette has gone to a sophomore rush, Lehigh has retained freshmen rush. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was in a frat back in the day and made life-long friends there. However, if frats are a concern and/or not something that your son would not be into, I would think long and hard before committing to Lehigh.
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