<p>I feel like there's a lot of old info about Lehigh on this site and I'm looking for fresh input! I'm a prospective student (senior in high school) and have narrowed my ED choice to Lehigh and another school. I really want a feel for the social life and attitude on campus. What is the role of greek life on campus? What do freshman do on the weekends? Does Bethlehem ever get boring? What are some popular clubs? How much work does the average student have (most relevantly one from the college of arts and sciences)? What's the average Lehigh student like?
I know these are a lot of questions but answers to any would be appreciated! Also, if you have some more input on the school I'd love to hear it just anything to get a feel of the place (and yes I've visited campus).
Thank you guys in advance :) </p>
<p>I agree with OP here and was gonna post my own thread(but I couldn’t have said it better). I would love to hear any new info as well…because most info online is from 2005 and things change… I love this school but have been worried because I am definately a social person that loves to think and discuss my classes but I don’t wanna be too much of one and not the other. I want to hear what Lehigh is like today. Please someone reply. I hope by commenting it will go up as a popular thread.</p>
<p>Second year student here. Greek life plays a large role at a school at Lehigh with about 40% of students being involved. Parties are abundant particularly on Tuesdays and Fridays/Saturdays for obvious reasons. Greek life is also involved in community service. Overall the environment in frats and sororities is exclusive (although some will argue against this many have expressed a general consensus which agrees with my statement). </p>
<p>Freshman do a variety of things on weekends from going to a local restaurant, the Lehigh Valley Mall, to getting wasted. These are only a few options and you can find your own niche. </p>
<p>Bethlehem is pretty boring and sketchy at that. Nevertheless, there are some fun things like local eateries, Arts Quest at Steel Stacks, and Dorney Park in Allentown is just a bus ride away. While Bethlehem isn’t the best it is near Philadelphia and NYC so Lehigh is still in a strategic location.</p>
<p>There are so many clubs that it is difficult to answer which is most popular. One of the largest is University Productions which brings various entertainers and performances to Lehighs campus. You are bound to find a club you like considering how many there are.</p>
<p>Workload is manageable in CBE and CAS, a little more rigorous in College of Engineering. If you set your priorities and balance activities you should be fine.</p>
<p>Average student is white, upper-class, and an alcoholic in training (just half joking). Diversity is increasing although I certainly wish there was more. If I could use another word to describe students it would be conformity. Unfortunately a lot of people here just follow the majority. That doesn’t mean everyone is like that though. I certainly am not and have made some amazing friends with very unique people. </p>
<p>Hope this helped.</p>
<p>Which dorm did you live in, rfav32? </p>
<p>I’m sure your comment gives your “feel” of Lehigh, but it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve seen firsthand. Lehigh graduates are in high demand because they are bright, sociable, and independent thinkers. </p>
<p>Marky95 brings up an excellent point. This is my own individual “feel” everyone has different experiences. If I came off as applying mine to all students I apologize. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>I of course agree with your other statement that Lehigh grads are in high demand, that is a major reason why I came here. The academics are superb. </p>
<p>& Taylor. Not the best but dorms are generally nice as well.</p>
<p>Would a kid most comfortable in sweats, lower income, and not interested in Greek life, be an outcast here?</p>
<p>@laralei: No. Everyone at almost any university will be able to find their unique niche. I have only met very few snooty people who only hang around with people of similar socioeconomic status. I am not a part of Greek Life as is 60%of the school so that shouldn’t be a concern. Hope everything goes well in your college search process.</p>
<p>First year student here. Went ED1 last year, would definitely recommend it if you could see yourself at Lehigh. Your chances are twice as good as RD. Personally, I don’t party and don’t plan on going Greek. It’s nothing against fraternities, it’s just not something I’m interested in. I can’t say it’s been easy to find people with similar habits, but I am confident that I will find my niche if I keep looking. That scene is there if you want it, but pretty easy to ignore if you don’t. Like rfav32 said, the MAJORITY of students aren’t involved in Greek life, and statistics that you see will be inflated due to Greek academic societies. Sure the social fraternities as opposed to academic ones are prominent, but they’re not dominant.</p>
<p>Lehigh engineers has a great blog written by first-year students and all different types of engineers. Even if your not looking into studying engineering, the first-year blog lets you see what it’s like taking classes, different clubs, and events. <a href=“Some things to know about Africa | First-Year Lehigh Engineers”>http://■■■■■■/1yCEgfh</a></p>
<p>Hey, second year student here. I can pretty much answer any questions you may have so feel free to message me or anything. I’m pretty involved on campus so here’s my take on the feel of Lehigh.
Well, for starters, I’m a girl so you’re going to get a female perspective. I come from a middle class family and from a town where there were a lot of upper-middle to upper class families. I applied to lehigh EDII.</p>
<p>Greek life is a pretty big thing at Lehigh. I’d say the administration tries to downplay it, but honestly it’s big. That being said… you don’t have to get involved or even like greek life to have fun and enjoy Lehigh. If you want to party, as a girl you can go out, have fun etc. and not be in a sorority. There are times when it gets awkward to go out, but you can still find parties to go to. As a guy, if you want to party you have to find what people call “ratio” for your freshman year. Basically since Lehigh has more guys than girls, you have to show up to a party with more girls than guys in order to get in at most places (This sounds about as stupid as it is, but it’s just the way people operate).
You have to realize that the stereotypes of Greek life from movies and TV shoes are not true. There are sororities and fraternities that somewhat fit those stereotypes, but there are so many greek organizations on campus that you can find one that suits you. Each house kind of has their own ‘identifier.’ I don’t even know how to explain it, but each house has something they’re known for. So like ‘so and so’ house is known for being ratchet or ‘so and so’ house is known for going to the gym a lot. Stupid stuff like that, but sometimes it happens to be true.</p>
<p>On the weekends, honestly, freshman go out and party a lot of the time. The university holds events that attract some people such as movie nights, or dances or trips to the ice skating rink etc. If you aren’t into partying, then find friends who don’t want to go out and hang out with them. There are always weekends when people opt not to go out and have a great time hanging in the dorms with friends.</p>
<p>Honesty time again… Bethlehem isn’t that great if you don’t have a car (Which freshman can’t have cars, sorry). On the south side of Bethlehem which is the side Lehigh is on, you can walk and go to a few different restaurants and places to eat (itallian, fro yo, asian, subway, coffee shop etc). Other than that, there’s not much to do within walking distance. If you take a 15-20 minute walk across the river to Northside, you will find a nicer area to walk around and the “main drag” of Bethlehem. On the north side, there are nice restaurants and some nice shops to go into including the Attic (a thrift store) and the Moravian Bookstore. You can always go to steel stacks which is about a 15-20 minute walk and they have movies and concerts there. There’s a club on campus, Residence Hall Association, and they offer trips to places like Dorney, NYC, midnight movie premieres etc. every so often.</p>
<p>Popular clubs really depends on what you’re interested in because there is a club for everyone. Ones I can think of that have a lot of people are Engineers without Borders, University Productions and Dance Marathon. But there’s this HUGE club fair in the first week of school where all the clubs have tables on the front lawn and you go through and get tons of free stuff and meet people from each club. it’s amazing.</p>
<p>I can’t necessarily speak to arts and sciences because I’m not in CAS, but my friends who are in it typically have a lot of reading work. Reading work takes longer just because you can’t really BS it and it takes as long as it takes you to read. It really depends on which major within CAS you’re looking at as well. My friends who have all the reading are IR, psych, polysci majors, but if you’re a major like bio/biochem/chem etc. you’re going to have a lot of labs and a lot of problem sets. Engineering and business I would say typically have the most work. CBE is known for all the group projects and presentations the classes give. Engineering is just known to be hard and have a lot of work (that will pay off when you get a diploma).</p>
<p>There’s no average Lehigh student which is, I think, one of the best parts of Lehigh. I mean there are people who believe the typical student is a rich white kid from a privileged background who loves greek like, but I have to really disagree with that. While there are a lot of students who are like that, they don’t “rule” or “define” what Lehigh is like. I have friends who love their greek organizations and friends who are super into doing things with the office of multicultural affairs and friends who do both things.</p>
<p>I have no regrets about applying to Lehigh and even after two years I still love this place as much as the day I came.</p>
<p>Thanks iustudent17, I will show this to daughter, your comments seem very balanced and honest and fair. She loved visiting lehigh, it is at the top of her list right now.</p>
<p>@SpaceCoastMom Glad I could help! If you have any more questions, let me know.</p>
<p>@lustudent2017 Thanks so much! Your answers pretty much backed up a lot of what I’ve heard from some friends at Lehigh.
Reading your debrief on the University did spark another question though. It sounds like the only thing to do at Lehigh is go out and party - is this true? I’m of course abundantly aware of the party culture and see myself embracing it for the most part but hearing yet another negative review of Bethlehem piled on top of all the ones I’ve heard is a bit worrying since the town is seeming increasingly fruitless for carless freshmen. I’m not looking for a place to hide from the party culture, but I’m wondering if there are any other fun activities students occupy their free time with. I know this is an extremely broad question, but if on a typical night you choose not to go out to a party, what might you be doing instead?
Also, just a random question I wondered while typing this out, do frats or sororities host most/all of the parties? I’m planning on going greek, but still wondering if that’s the main scene. And when do freshmen start rush?
Thanks again for your help!! </p>
<p>The relationship between Lehigh and South Bethlehem is somewhat strained, but I sense that it is improving. The Steel Stacks are hosting more performances and events that are very accessible to students. The school also participates with the local middle school, Broughal MS, with tutoring and community events. A new program called Lehigh After Dark runs activities at night as an alternative to going out, the most popular of which is Trivia Night every Thursday. Social greek houses will host most parties, but athletic teams will often host as well. If you choose to ‘go Greek’, the recruitment process starts the first week of the spring semester for guys and the last week of winter break for girls (they come back one week earlier). </p>
<p>Hey @wiseuse “It sounds like the only thing to do at Lehigh is go out and party” Not true at all! I only kind of touched on that because that’s what people usually want to hear about in relation to Lehigh social scene stuff. Partying is a large part of the nightlife culture at Lehigh, but of course everyone needs nights in and not everyone likes going out. So what is there to do if you aren’t partying? Lehigh holds movie nights and activities through Lehigh After Dark. I’ve been to a few of them. People have fun at them and sometimes they’re interesting, but they can be hit or miss. Personally, I enjoy hanging out in my residence hall lounge with friends, doing movie nights, walking to North Bethlehem and getting dinner with friends, Netflix/Hulu binges, ordering food in and just talking with friends etc.</p>
<p>One fun thing that students like to do that I’ve done like… 8 times is to hike to the Bethlehem Star. It’s technically not legal to hike up there, but I don’t think anyone’s ever really gotten in trouble doing it. It’s about a 20-25 minute walk up to the top of the mountain. There’s a large cleaning with a giant lit up star that you can see from Bethlehem (city). The view from up there is amazing and it’s a great way to just get outside! (It’s exciting at night with flashlights). Lehigh does run buses to the mall and the movies which is another opportunity to get off camps. My friends and I were actually recently talking about how we usually have more fun staying in someone’s room or apartment as opposed to going out!</p>
<p>Sororities and frats are not the only ones to hold parties. The sports teams (varsity and club) and some of the bigger clubs host their own parties. Most of the parties are hosted by greek life organizations off campus. Freshman women come back a week early from winter break and rush before classes start for the spring semester. Freshman men begin rush the first week of classes. Of course most people rush freshman year, but if for some reason you aren’t eligible to rush (getting cited for alcohol, grades, money etc), many greek organizations rush upperclassmen in the Fall and you can also rush as a sophomore or junior!</p>