Party School?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Lehigh University
1

<p>I've heard Lehigh is a bit of a party school but the new rankings are off the charts: Short</a> Registration.</p>

<h1>10 for Beer, #13 for Hard Liquor, #10 for Greek life, #10 for Party Schools.</h1>

<p>I'm not naive: I went to extremely well regarded schools for high school and college and there was plenty of partying, legal and illegal, even back in the Stone Age. I'm looking for perspective for my son. He is still whittling down his list and honestly looking for reasons to cross schools off. Is the partying so extreme as to keep him from getting a good education? I'm not sure how much he will participate, but he is fairly social.</p>

<p>What is your experience?</p>

2

<p>My son is a senior bioengineering major. He tells me partying is there if you want it, but can be easily avoided and your energies directed in other directions. He rarely drinks and has never felt pressure to drink or felt left out because he is not a heavy drinker. </p>

<p>He loves Lehigh and gets kinda annoyed when these rankings come out as it really portrays the school in a bad light and it has not been his experience at all. </p>

<p>There is a small percentage who seem to do nothing but party, most I would say party on weekends when they can - but are pretty serious about their grades, so… play hard, work hard kind of thing.</p>

<p>Then there are those, like my son, who don’t really party but prefer to hang with friends, go to concerts, sporting events etc… socialize in their apartments, but stay off the “hill”.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for your perspective!</p>

4

<p>My son’s entering his second year at Lehigh (engineering), and everything that mumof2boyz wrote reflects his experiences there. My son’s extremely outgoing and sociable, and he wanted a work hard, play hard college experience. I haven’t heard of any social pressure to drink heavily or do stupid stuff. I’d even go as far as to say that everything I’ve heard sounds tame compared to his high school. </p>

<p>Just like every college, there will be some people that think one has to binge drink, but I can’t imagine anyone being able to do that and remain at Lehigh. The academics are wayyyyy too rigorous. There’s a great balance between work and fun at Lehigh that was perfect for him. He has a broad range of friends within and outside of his fraternity. </p>

<p>The physical campus is so beautiful, and the students are brilliant and fun-loving. I’m confident he’s going to leave Lehigh with an amazing education and future, and he’ll look back with fond memories of his time there.</p>

5

<p>I went to Lehigh not long after National Lampoon’s Animal House came out (was that the Stone Age?). There were virtually NO social regulations, and our fraternities were on tap 24/7. It was great. Back then, it was rumored that in a recent Playboy Party School ranking that Lehigh was disqualified for being “professionals.” Rumor or not, we knew how to have a great time, but we also knew (learned) how to balance our fun with our heavy work load. Obviously, today things are very different - the world is a different place. But everything is relative. Lehigh has always had a reputation for being a party school. The difference between many other party schools and Lehigh, however, is that at Lehigh education comes FIRST. Always did. These are bright kids who are there to learn. The work load is rigorous, as was noted by the previous posters. Kids who are there merely to party quite simply will not survive, so you won’t find much of that element on campus, at least not for long. You will also find most Lehigh alumni to be successful, bright, well-rounded, down-to-earth, and fun-loving. Perhaps it is because those are the qualities of students attracted to Lehigh, or maybe it is the outcome of attending Lehigh. Probably a bit of both. Regardless, it is truly a work hard, play hard environment, and graduates are well prepared for the real world. Greek or not.</p>

<p>I always looked at it this way - at Lehigh, you have the best of all worlds… rigorous but rewarding academics at an elite national research university, tops in engineering and business; phenomenal alumni loyalty, networking connections, job placement and earnings potential; great athletics in the Patriot League; a BEAUTIFUL campus close to NYC, Philly, the Jersey Shore, and the Poconos for skiing; and finally, a great party (and Greek) environment for those who are looking for it. Pick your poison - not everyone will want to or need to take advantage of every one of these benefits, but it’s nice to have options. My son is attending this fall, and plans on taking advantage of all the above! He was accepted to many other top schools, including Boston College, Bucknell, and Richmond. BC was close (no Greeks or engineering), but ultimately none could offer the great all-around experience that Lehigh does, at least not in his eyes. </p>

<p>Good luck to your son with his decision, but if he is seriously considering crossing Lehigh off his list merely because it was rated a top party school by Princeton Review, he’s truly doing himself a disservice by not considering everything else “good” it also offers (and yes, is highly ranked for as well).</p>

6

<p>When my son was considering Lehigh I too was worried about the party scene after reading College Confidential posts! My son chose to join a fraternity. Our experience is exactly as Yocco1 described. We are so happy with Lehigh and the his choice to join a fraternity.</p>

7

<p>Yocco, Thank you for a great summary.</p>

8

<p>I am currently Lehigh freshman and i applied early decision last year, So when I started digging deeper (after already being legally committed to attending) i started to freak out reading all the forums thinking that I was going to be stuck around a bunch of drunks and be kind of a loner, because I generally don’t like to drink. Since I was committed I had to come anyways and I’m VERY happy with my decision. I am part of “CHOICE” housing which is open to everyone and has nearly 200 students this year. We are a group of kids that basically pledge not to drink in our dorms or come back drunk. As a result the living enviroment is not as bad as a normal dorm and the people you are with are a lot more like you. Some do still go out and party, but they do not make anyone feel guilty for not going and they do not disrupt the halls when they return. I have a lot of really close friends from CHOICE housing and plan to continue living there next year. and no we aren’t all nerds. It is actually impressive how many completely normal people make the same decisions not to party away their college years.
I blog for my work study at Lehigh. We talk about all kinds of things from clubs to classes, to dorm life. I suggest checking it out ( especially the early in the year posts when we were all just starting living here)
this is one I wrote about my dorm: <a href=“6 o’clock dinner | First-Year Lehigh Engineers”>http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/11/06/6-oclock-dinner/&lt;/a&gt;
and this is the blog in general: <a href=“http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/”>http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>There is nothing wrong with being a party school if you’re ranked # 8 in Tech’s 29 Most Powerful Colleges!!! Have fun…the 4, 5, or 6 years go by real fast! I couldn’t get my kids to leave.</p>

<p><a href=“Tech's 29 Most Powerful Colleges”>Tech's 29 Most Powerful Colleges;

10

<p>I don’t think there is anything scientific about the party rankings. I visit one of the top party schools in the nation pretty often and their downtown bar scene seems pretty under control. In the summer I like to walk my dog at night all through the campus. It all seems pretty tame to me. </p>

11

<p>My son is a soph at lehigh. He is very outgoing, social. He joined a frat and they are a nice group of guys. You just have to find the right fit when you choose to join one. He will not even leave lehigh for a semester to study in Europe! Instead he is going to Prague with lehigh up this summer to take classes, do an internship and travel. He always states to me…oh thank god I picked lehigh…I can’t imagine going anywhere else. Yes they party but study hard. Lots of kids do not party at all. One of the best things he did as a freshman was the retreat the 3rd weekend of school. He made so many friends and learned so much about what leadership roles he wanted on campus etc. he has grown so much and dreads ever leaving Lehigh. So as long as he feels that way and is learning, developing and doing well in classes, I am happy! Let me know if anyone had any questions.</p>

12

<p>As many other posters on the Lehigh threads have expressed, Lehigh is a party school if you want it to be. It’s really up to the student what kind of experience they want to have. Yes, there are a lot of parties going on off campus and it’s very easy to go to parties and go out a lot, but if you don’t want to go out, there’s plenty of people who don’t go out regularly, or at all. Lehigh holds many events on weekend for people to do from concerts to speakers, dances etc. The CHOICE housing is another great option. While some many thing that CHOICE is for people who don’t drink or go out at all, it’s really housing for people who may go out (or may not), but don’t want the rowdiness of drunken or high college students brought back to the dorm. I know a few people in choice and they are a very close knit group and love choice a lot!
I personally chose not to go greek in January when sorority recruitment took place and even though I’m not in a sorority, I still go out on the weekends with my friends who are in houses.
The social scene Lehigh is what you make of it!</p>

13

<p>@waitingdad LeHigh may indeed be a great school but that Daily Beast list was a joke in many ways…I’m not sure how CSU Long Beach got mentioned and a number of other schools didn’t…and the most famous thing an alumni of Cornell did was invent Chicken Nuggets? </p>