Lehigh University Class of 2025 ED1 discussion, admissions, and college results.
Aye. Anyone else apply for ED1? The wait has been unbearable
I applied ED, anyone know when the decisions are released?
Mid - dec but last year was 18th Dec
Lehigh sent email on 12/8 announcing that decisions would be posted within the next week. Included was note to establish portal account.
The Office of Admissions at Lehigh University is finalizing its review of your application for admissions to the Class of 2025 and decisions will be posted through your Lehigh Applicant Portal within the next week. If you haven’t done so, it is imperative that you establish your Lehigh Applicant Portal by going to www.lehigh.edu/openapplicantportal as soon as possible. This URL is only used to establish your account.
decisions are out. check your portals.
My son got into the School of Engineering. From NJ, SATs 1400, WGP 4.28. We’re thrilled!
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This thread is dead (as is the entire Lehigh forum) compared to last year’s threads. 
My son was admitted ED to the CSB program. We are from CA and are thrilled for him!
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Can we rename this topic from ED1 to ED+RD, so more people can join?
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What are your thoughts on applications at Lehigh decreasing 20% and retention rate being at 90%? Seems like Lehigh has been struggling recently
Hi, I’m a current lehigh student. There’s been a few brown and white (our student newspaper) articles on these topics.
The decrease in applications was very unexpected, hopefully they go back up. The retention rate was low this year because of COVID. My friends who have transferred did so because of financial reasons stemming from the pandemic. Some people I know are also taking leaves of absence.
Most schools have not published their retention rates for the class of 2023 yet, but I’d imagine other private institutions have seen the same trend in retention rate this year.
I think this decline has everything to do with test optional. With the dramatic increase of ED applications to top 20 schools (MIT with a 62% increase, Harvard 57%, Columbia 49%, etc. in ED applications from last year), those students are likewise NOT applying to relatively less competitive schools (like Lehigh). All those kids who have very good grades but lower SAT/ACT scores would have felt shut out of a Stanford or Cornell in normal times, but now they think they have a chance with test optional. Those are kids who would have applied early to Lehigh or peer institutions. I don’t have data for schools with 20-40% acceptance rates, but I am hypothesizing that those types of schools had a decrease in ED applications. Just my opinion.
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I agree about the retention rates and ED being impacted by test optional at HYP+ schools. My S is a senior and he doesn’t know anyone who took a gap year or transferred. Lehigh also offered a 10% tuition discount to students who took 100% remote classes which were many because the school limited on campus to freshman, transfers and internationals. The sophomore class this year was a bit put off as well because the school decided very late to limit on campus to the foregoing students and that left the sophomores scrambling for off campus housing (even though the point of limiting the on campus housing was to keep kids out of Bethlehem to limit Covid spread).
I know other schools like Bucknell that maintained the same number of applications, yield, and retention rate while Lehigh saw a decrease in all three. Bucknell and Lehigh have always been considered peer schools, but I’m curious why Lehigh has been on the decline recently.
These might provide some insight. And maybe some posters with younger students at Lehigh will provide additional information.
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Well…no. This decline in applications was for last year, the '19-'20 application season. Test optional will probably increase applications to Lehigh.
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With this number, keep in mind Bucknell welcomed back sophomores during COVID, while Lehigh did not. Lehigh’s decision, and the late timing of their decision, caused some students transfer to schools that would definitely have them in person for the fall semester.
Bucknell’s retention rate for the class of 2023 was 92%, the same as usual. Lehigh’s 90.5% this year, compared to a normal 95%. This decline can be explained by the lack of sophomore housing fall semester and perhaps the sudden suspension of greek life that aggravated alumni.
Lehigh has only seen one out of the ordinary admissions year, which is not enough to say it is on the decline as the class of 2023 and 2022 received the most applications they ever have. This out of the ordinary admissions year makes sense because they received lower applications this year and more people deferred admission (source: Admissions adjusts to a year of fewer applications - The Brown and White).
Note that in this article, it says:
“The middle 50 percent of test scores for admitted students was identical to that of the class of 2023. The middle 50 percent of ACT scores ranged from 31-34, while SAT scores ranged from 1350-1480.”
I don’t think Lehigh is on the decline because even with less applications and more acceptances, the tradition of high quality of students was maintained.
Yes that is there accepted stats, i’m curious to see admitted stats when they come out
accepted and admitted are the same word, so these are their admitted stats