Lehigh Student- Ask Me Anything!

Daughter has narrowed school choice down to LU and one other place so we’re trying to gather as much info as possible and hope to have more answered at the campus visit for admitted students. Thanks in advance for any insight.

  1. How does the dining plan work? We are confused as to the difference between meal credits and dining dollars if all only work at campus dining locations.

2.Is there a typical structure to the classes, assuming they are not project based or have a lab component attached? For instance, are grades based on mostly midterm/finals or assignments+finals?

  1. We are from the south so weather might dip below 40 a few days of the year. How often does it actually snow and ice over? Annual weather report only gives us sense of range.

Sorry – these seem like trivial details, but it is the trivial details that will end up helping to decide between the final two schools.

Thank you again!

1 Like

Hi! I can’t speak to the Lehigh specific questions as my daughter is in the same boat of deciding whether to commit, but I can speak to the weather since we live nearby! If your D does not or will not like to be cold, she will hate it up here. It’s 49 here today. We were at campus walking around today to try and catch vibes for a decision, and we were pretty cold most of the time unless we were in the sun and the wind stopped blowing for a minute, and we’re used to the cold temps here. As far as snow and ice, that varies year to year. It’s been mild the past few years. This year, we hardly got snow or ice. I’m sure when we do, the campus probably clears the walkways well and puts down salt. I don’t think snow or ice are the things to worry about, but rather the colder temps. Temps usually start to go low around November and don’t really go up and stay up until May (I’m talking at least 60-70 or higher). Of course, there are always days sprinkled in here and there that are warm. Heck, we’ve even super warm days in December! Just depends, but plan on cold temps for at least 5 of the months of the year.

1 Like

Freshmen can’t have cars but many upperclassmen do - many Ubers and Lyfts in the area. I always feel safe walking by myself and obviously in a group, even with groups at 3 a.m. doing late-night El Jefe’s runs.

3 Likes

I’d love to answer these - hope it helps.

  1. Basically you can choose 200,225,250, or unlimited meal swipes per semester. A meal swipe will get you into the Rathbone dining hall for buffet style meals. Dining dollars are more like cash - can spend them on small things at the cafe like coffee. One meal swipe can also be converted into $5.30 for breakfast or $7 for lunch/dinner, which enables those meal swipes to be used at places other than the dining hall.
  2. This really depends on the class - some are project-based, some are mixture of HW/Quizzes/Midterms/Finals. It truly varies.
  3. We had maybe 4 days of light snow this season - no more than 3 inches. Lowest temp I think was in the low 10’s for a few days, but it’s pretty mild here - 45-65 degrees for the majority of the months. Really not too big of an issue in my opinion, a lot of my southern friends just choose to buy a good winter coat and tough it out. I was looking at schools in Boston and that weather really scared me - they have tunnels for the snow - it is much nicer at Lehigh.
    I’d be happy to answer any more questions as well - hope you enjoy the visit!
2 Likes

Thanks for much for responses!

Another question that my daughter wanted me to ask – On Lehigh’s Instagram page, they have been posting all of these events and on their website they have posted past Lehigh After Dark events. Honestly they all sound like a great deal of fun. Do students attend these social events? She’s trying to gauge the level of interest in non-Greek social events.

What is the best dorm?

Would a very politically active and progressive student be able to find their people?

First year students can not pick their dorm. You can pick a roommate but are randomly assigned a room. Singles are the same price as doubles for first years which is unusual.

1 Like

Yes, a ton of students attend these events - even people in Greek Life! I know that especially in the first semester they would all be packed - Wingo is a big favorite, but everything they put on is well attended and well organized.

2 Likes

Agree that you can’t choose a dorm, but there is a way to game the system if you choose a living-learning community - usually they have designated dorms (i.e. the STEM community is usually in Taylor house) but all the dorms have their perks. Lehigh is fairly progressive as a whole, and we have a big Lehigh Democrats club that does a lot on campus.

2 Likes