Lehigh moves up to #44 in the 2017 US News Rankings, from #47 last year.
Always good to see movement in this direction.
Yep…That’s good to hear much2learn.
Top 50, moving in the right direction.
Not a big fan of rankings but for a school of Lehigh’s size and resources, I think this is good…especially when you look at those schools with similar rank…good company to be in.
@SonofAsa1 “Not a big fan of rankings but for a school of Lehigh’s size and resources, I think this is good…especially when you look at those schools with similar rank…good company to be in.”
Me either. However, they matter more than I would like because potential students and parents look at them, even when they say they don’t. Besides marketing, they also have value in understanding how the school is perceived externally compared to peer schools. There is a fair amount of detail in the individual ranking categories and understand that shows where Lehigh is seen as strong and where it is weak.
Looking at the details, Lehigh should be ranked more highly by many measures. You can see this in the US News if you click on “scores and key indicators.” The Peer Ranking that is the single factor that is most significant in keeping the ranking from rising more. It is also clear that if you weigh outcomes more heavily, as The Economist rankings do, Lehigh deserves a much higher ranking.
If I were President Simon, I would want to have a very clear understanding of why Lehigh has better outcomes for students than their US News peers, but receives lower peer rankings. That is valuable to understand, whether or not Lehigh actually decides to change anything.
Do you think the ratings moved up because of the drop in acceptance rate?
Can anyone go back in time a few/five years and see where Lehigh peaked in the rankings? It would be interesting yo see how much ground we need to make up
@sparklyleo
2008-2015: http://publicuniversityhonors.com/2015/06/13/u-s-news-national-university-rankings-2008-present/
Lehigh peaked at #31 in 2008
Lehigh was also Princeton Review’s # 4 Party School this year…or the # 1 Private Party School.
@waitingdad
If that is accurate, President Simon may need to tamp that down at Lehigh, as other schools are doing. A good time is fine, but safety matters and it should not impair academics. No hard liquor & track homework by major. Some majors have a lot of homework, some have very little in comparison.
What I found interesting: it wasn’t just Lehigh. Two of Lehigh’s fellow Patriot League schools – schools that have a lot of cross-applicants with Lehigh – were also ranked as [Top Ten Party Schools:](UW-Madison Is Ranked The Top Party School For 2017 By Princeton Review | HuffPost College) Bucknell at #5 and Colgate at #10.
Not sure if this helps or hurts the reputation of Patriot League institutions. The perception seems to be that students at these schools both work hard and play hard.
@corbett I think it hurts. When US news ranking details show Lehigh graduation rate lower than it should be and reputation with peers low for a school of its caliber, it suggests a problem.
I am not sure how it compares to other schools, but if I were President Simon, I would want to understand that situation very well. The schools quality would put it 10-12 spots higher in US news, if not for those two metrics. Lehigh also loses good students over this reputation and parents (not me) were grilled admins on our admitted student visit. These are legitimate questions.
They just need to tamp down the party school rep. a little. Not be boring, just in control. For example, they should enforce the schools pledging rules that are not being enforced. If they are too restrictive, then relax the rules, but the rules are there to ensure that no one is hurt.
I think the work hard play hard culture is okay, but it needs to be safe, and the reputation should be clear about the work hard part so students know they are not there just to party.
Note that none of the top 10 “party schools”, except Tulane, are in large metro areas. The small city/college town locations plus big Greek life may influence partying?
Lehigh’s past president, Alice Gast was just terrible…both the students and staff are glad she is gone. John Simon is a refreshing breath of fresh air and hopefully will “make Lehigh great again!” Lehigh is an elite school with very bright kids…let them ENJOY the best 4 years of their lives! One of the student motto’s is “ConstantLY HIGH”…the kids study hard and play hard which makes them well rounded and confident by the time they leave with friends for life. If anyone is worried about safety at Lehigh they should not apply as that $60K spot would get filled in a split second.
“Some majors have a lot of homework, some have very little in comparison.”
Absolutely some majors are more challenging than others. All the engineering students I met at Lehigh, including my son, were proud of the hard work required for their major. Lehigh is not a school for a student who is worried they might have to work harder than another student in a different major.
TomSr may be on to something there.
Still, I wonder if Lehigh is really that extraordinary a party school. Most colleges have lots of parties, so I’d like to see how they come up with that ranking.
In my time, there were very few women, so our parties consisted more of lots of beer pong in the basement and juvenile behavior all night. Lots of fun for us though. I’m sure, now that there are so many more women, the parties are better planned and executed and probably better overall.
I know kikkydee’s son, who seems to have had an excellent college experience there, said they are not an overwhelming part of the social experience so I kind of think there may be a little exaggeration going on.
And like Much2learn said, as long as it’s safe and under some control, partying can be useful and good fun.
Lehigh ranks as party school because of how their students choose to answer the survey! I don’t think self reporting is the most reliable tool to accurately assess behavior. Especially when your students love the work hard/party hard slogan! Haha.
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/ranking-methodology
"We tallied the rankings lists in the current edition, The Best 380 Colleges (published August 2015), based on the data from our surveys of 136,000 students at the 380 schools in the book.
Our student survey has 80 questions in four sections. We ask students about: 1) their school’s academics/administration, 2) life at their college, 3) their fellow students and 4) themselves. Students answer by selecting one of five answer choices that range across a grid or scale. The answer choice headers might range from “Excellent” to “Awful” or “Extremely” to “Not at All”: some are percentages with ranges from “0–20%” to “81–100%.” This answer choice five-point scale—which is called a Likert scale—is the most commonly used measurement for this type of survey research: a consensus-based assessment.
We give each college a score for its students’ answers to each survey question. Similar to a GPA, it is a metric that provides us with a numerical base to compare student opinions from college to college—apples to apples, as it were."
“Schools by Type
Party Schools
Stone-Cold Sober Schools
Both lists are based on students’ answers to survey questions concerning: the use of alcohol and drugs at their school, the number of hours they study each day outside of class time and the popularity of fraternities/sororities at their school.
Schools on the “Party Schools” list are those at which surveyed students’ answers indicated a combination of low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities
Schools on the “Stone-Cold Sober Schools” list are those at which surveyed students’ answers indicated a combination of high personal daily study hours (outside of class), low usages of alcohol and drugs on campus and low popularity on campus for frats/sororities.”
There has always been drinking at Lehigh…the majority of students will have no problem and feel no pressure. Our President-elect who will not touch a drink, a few years said the following about his older brother Freddy who passed away from alcoholism at the age of 43… Lehigh Class of '60:
“Somewhere along the line, I think he was in college, he started drinking. It got worse and worse. He also smoked a lot.” Teach your kids… everything in moderation.