Any insight from those who have been awarded merit from Lehigh? My daughter was out to visit the school and loved the campus and all the great opportunities Lehigh offers, but the price tag is out of our range without merit money. She’s going into either bioengineering or chemical engineering.
@Matt34 Came across your note and saw no replies. We were in the same boat two years ago when our daughter was accepted as a Business major so I can give you the perspective of someone who did not receive merit aid. In general, Lehigh is focused on providing need-based aid, not merit.
When calculating the expected family contribution (EFC) there methodology is very unfavorable to middle class families as they include the equity in your home when determining how much you can afford and literally expect you to mortgage the house. In our case the FAFSA EFC came out to about $40K/yr, but the Lehigh EFC was the full list price (~$68K at the time).
There are many private schools that offer compelling merit based scholarships, but unfortunately Lehigh is not one of them.
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Run Lehigh’s NPC to get an estimate of costs. Not sure if merit is part of the NPC though. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/lehigh
Take a look at Lehigh’s CDS section H, for info on non-need based aid. Looks like 55 students from class of 2023 without financial need received non-need based aid (not including athletic scholarships). https://oirsa.lehigh.edu/common-data-set
My daughter is a top student at her school. ACT 35. All AP’s and Honors. No Merit Money.
I didn’t get merit, tried appealing to no avail.
Thanks for the insight. She’s going to apply and knows full well if she doesn’t get merit money, she can’t afford to attend. We shall see what happens. She will have multiple backup plans.
How much merit do you need? Lehigh is not known for giving much merit aid, and even need-based aid is not among the most generous schools.
Lehigh’s net price calculator does not include merit, what does that estimate for your COA? https://www1.lehigh.edu/admissions/net-price-calculator
Looking at Lehigh’s CDS for Class of 2023 (section H2A), 55 of 1,406 freshman received a non-need based merit award ($9,909 on average). Would that $10K make Lehigh affordable, using the NPC’s estimate of costs? https://oirsa.lehigh.edu/common-data-set
There are enough tools here, and for most schools, to have a good indication of whether a school will be affordable, or not.
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$10k would not make enough of a difference. We looked into Lehigh after it was mentioned as a school that offers merit to high stat kids, it doesn’t sound like that is necessarily the case?
Anyone get merit that was for ED?
Closing old thread. Posters are welcome to start a new thread.