My son is a rising junior. Because the school is only about 90 min away, we did the Laf/Lehigh same-day thing during his spring break last April. He wasn’t that into Laf as it seemed kind of dead at mid-morning. But we’ll take another look. He LOVED Lehigh, which was interesting since he’s still sort of ambivalent about the college process. My concern is that, from what we saw, the social sciences/humanities seem like an afterthought at Lehigh – very little emphasis during the tour and info sessions relative to STEM and business. He’s interested in international relations with perhaps a history or econ double major. From what I’ve read there seems to be an interesting IR program, though hardly celebrated by the school. He has 3.72 GPA in all accel/AP courses. SAT will probably be in the 1390 to 1420 range. So two questions: 1) Is my concern about non-STEM/business programs getting shortchanged legit? (I don’t want to fork over all that cash if he’d be an academic mis-match), and 2) Would he stand a chance based on those numbers? Not asking if he’d be admitted, but would he be considered.
I was an IR major at Lehigh in the ‘80s and have kept in touch/kept an eye on the program ever since, and yes, it’s a surprisingly good program for a school that’s not at all interested in IR. The chair for part of my time there had been a dissident friend of Václav Havel’s and quit Lehigh to go home and help rebuild his country after the Velvet Revolution; the other chair was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and eventually left for Columbia and CUNY. Another prof left to run the intl political economy grad program at LSE, and I believe Henri Barkey’s still there. They seem to have replaced my profs with people with similar backgrounds and interests. Where Lehigh overlaps IR is in intl biz, which is close enough to econ to allow the depts to run relevant trade courses, and kids go from there to the usual grad programs, banking jobs, now and then a Foreign Service job. It’s an establishment program focused on the exercise of power and advising those who exercise it, which is often the same thing, rather than an academic exploration of, say, global gender issues. (I eventually left IR, but for reasons that had nothing to do with Lehigh or any lack of prep.)
With those grades and scores your son ought to be fine, sounds straight down the middle for Lehigh. The rest of the school will be a mismatch, yes. So will the IR program, for that matter, if your son’s interested in anything much beyond guns-and-butter political economy. Humanities are absolutely an afterthought. He may or may not care. There’s a silver lining, too: in the end, IR is the study of how men, mostly, who’re interested in nothing but money and power are horrible to each other and everyone else. You don’t come away with zero insight when you’ve gone to school with a few thousand 20-year-old men who’re interested in nothing much but money and power. Mostly money.
As for the money, even if it’s the best match in the world, Lehigh’s not worth that insane money. I can’t think of a school that is. However, if IR’s what he’s after, the…hm. I mean he may as well try the usuals — Tufts, Hopkins, Georgetown, etc. — but Lehigh’s not a bad option with those grades/scores. Might also be worth checking out GWU and AU; neither has a stellar rep overall, but IR is a big chunk of their business and they’re in the right place for it. In normal political circumstances.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. “Guns and butter” is exactly what he’s into – the gender/culture stuff not so much. He loves political economy, national security, comparative government, global business etc. We’ve thought about AU and GW, but I think being part of a “small but mighty” department would be a better experience than being another internship grubbing undergrad in DC. He can always do that in the summer or take a semester off.
I know lots of IR types at both AU and GW and they are hardly “internship grubbing undergrads”. The schools do a terrific job helping kids figure out what they are interested in, and have the “boots on the ground” to make those connections happen. I think GW is more “academic” vs. pragmatic when it comes to IR issues but I think both are worth looking at.
If your son is really interested in history-- or a lot of interdisciplinary things, not sure Lehigh is the place to explore them. Have you looked at Rutgers (strong poli sci and history), Macalester, U Maryland?
W&M
I was there in the ‘80s too…seems @tuckethannock gave you good feedback. In addition, Lehigh has Observer Status at the UN - suggest you read about that. My professors were fantastic; in fact one of the IR professors, Zdenek Slouka, connected me with another alumna and that is how I found my first job — a great one in NYC.