@wdwlover This must be my favorite response I have received. Based on your response I am not sure whether you are planning on attending Lehigh University, another college, or a community college, but I will try to answer your questions.
Lehigh is around 2,000 miles away from my home. It has been tough without the ability to go home for the weekend. Many people who attend Lehigh live within 1.5 hours, so the commute home is quick. It seems you are very family orientated coming from a farm and being home schooled. I stayed at the dorms with a random roommate who I am very close with now. If finances allow, I will recommend staying on campus. Significant personal development comes from being alone in a new environment.
I do not have a ton of experience in the field of art or teaching; however, I do know that especially now a days, having a degree as an art teacher helps momentously in apply for jobs and intern positions. That being said, no college is not for everyone. American society focuses heavily on college but there are trade programs.
Whether college is worth it depends on a few factors in my mind. Firstly, why do you want to go to college? Is it from family pressure or is it because you want to challenge yourself? Secondly, does it make financial sense? Would you have to take out significant loans, or did you receive financial aid? Thirdly, would you regret not going to college? YOLO may be one of the dumbest expressions, but it has some truth to it. Personally, if I did not attend college, I would have felt like I missed out on something: but definitely different for different people. Something to note, Lehigh is very flexible in their class schedule so if you want to switch entire majors it is very possible.
I talked about this heavily in answer one but living very close means you can go home for the weekend. My sister is the same way. She had to attend a college very close to home. She would visit a few times a month, but the fact that she could come home anytime or day gave her solace.
It is funny to mention you got a C in math. My second semester of my senior year I received my first C: it was in Pre-calculus. College depends entirely on work ethic. Everyone who attends a college is coming from different high schools, and those high schools vary in quality and difficulty of education. As such, students are prepared differently for college. Regardless of the student's high school, how much they care, and study determines their grades. One of the reasons I chose Lehigh over other schools was because it was not "cut-throat", students are willing to help each other and classes are rarely on a bell curve. I went to a "good" public high school and find the difficulty a little harder but about the same.
College is a little different than high school. I believe Lehigh has a formal dance once a year. There are over 150 clubs at Lehigh, and I encourage you to look at them on their website. In my opinion college is better than high school because the people are less superficial and are happier because they want to be there. Fraternities and sororities are very organized in the terms of activities. They have multiple "dances" per semester and the organizations do group activities.
Best of luck, and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.
@mariaries, IBE is a program which combines business courses and engineering course. If you spend an extra semester you can earn a dual degree. I do not believe you get to choose which dorm you stay in as a first year; however, you can select if you want to be placed in a themed housing.
@AMALehigh I am about to deposit, but worried ab out the fall. Do you hear anything about opening the campus on time in August? Any changes to theme housing due to new dorm construction?
@AMALehigh Thank you so much for such a detailed, quick response. I would have replied sooner, but forgot my password to the site. Haha, I’m glad to hear my message was one of your favorites!
Thank you for such a thorough response, I couldn't imagine moving so far away from my family, I bet that was hard to do. I was considering a school closer to me (A community college) since by the time I graduate, I won't have enough credits to attend a University and the price is out of my league. It's about an 45 min-hour away from home so it's not too far, but I feel like it'd be a pretty long commute every day for 4 years if I decided not to dorm.
Honestly? I'm really unsure why I want to go. My family is actually semi-discouraging to the idea and though they will support me if I go, they think it's a waste of time and money. I guess I do kind of want that "YOLO" expirience haha. I've never had the sort of expirience that comes along with college, so it'd be something new and different for me (which is both terrifying and exciting.) I also feel like I need a career. As easy as working for the family business forever would be, it wont' give me a future of high pay or a sense of purpose which I'd like in my future. School has never been my favorite, but I feel like to obtain the future I want, I need it, you know?
As for the finacial aid/loans, I have no clue what I'm going to do. I've reached out to my guidance counselor and she sent me a bunch fo videos to watch- but otherwise, I have no clue how it works/what to do about that currently.
I actually just looked up Lehigh and it looks like a great school! I highly doubt I'd be able to get in with a 25% acceptance rate and it's quite a ways away from me, (I live in Florida.) However it looks like a great school and kudos to you for attending/getting in! It's also nice to know I'm not the only one who's gotten a lower grade in math and it doesn't lower my chances all too much in that sense. My friends are the type to cry over a 96 in science (this has happened, I kid you not) so it's really great hearing from an outside attendee of college that a not pefect grade in one course isn't going to make or break you.
Thank you! I honestly appreciate the advice a ton and it's so great to hear that college really is eventful and fun while focusing on academics and careers.
Sorry for rambling too much again and thank you so much for taking the time to reply with such detailed responses. This has been so helpful and has given me a lot to consider.
@Luckyjade2024 I think that all Universities are considering the potential of a changed fall semester. I am fairly confident that Lehigh along with most universities will open up in the fall, but it might depend on region. Also, themed housing does not have different dorms than other housing options, but rather themed housing is a group of like-minded individuals. As such, the introduction of new dorms will not affect themed housing as they can be placed anywhere.
@wdwlover Most community colleges do not offer dorms so off campus housing would likely be the best solution. I am not from Florida so it could be different down there.
What departments/programs/schools are best know at Lehigh? Are there certain programs that stand out academically? In particular are the humanities strong at Lehigh?
@amc2020 Lehigh is best known for its Business and Engineering programs but is definitely strong in other fields. I have not taken that many humanity courses but they have a lot of them. I took a psychology class and really enjoyed it.
My son is not able to decide between Kelley School of Business at IU and Business College at Leigh university- both as direct admit. We were not able to visit Leigh due to CoVID restrictions. I read all your responses in this thread but not much about business school. What unique thing would you say about your business school at Leigh compared to others ( also if you can compare to Kelley) , that he should consider before making final decision. It will be very helpful. Thanks.
@NYDAD99 Hi, sorry for the late response. Kelly School of Business was another school I was deciding between when I chose Lehigh. In my experience both Lehigh and Kelly School have strong alumni on Wall Street; however, I have learned that Lehigh alumni tend to be more active. While there are more Kelly Alumni, I have experienced strong support from current and former Lehigh students. I chose Lehigh because of its smaller size and its campus. Also, Lehigh is a short trip to NYC which many students take advantage of.
Hi @AMALehigh None of my family members have participated in Greek Life. Can you explain what is entails, such as the time commitment? I also heard Lehigh was a fall rush school vs a spring rush school, can you describe the difference. Thank you.
@AMALehigh, my daughter will be applying to college next year for business/finance major and Lehigh is in her top 3 along with Villanova and PennState. Can you compare business program at Lehigh with those two other schools - harder to get in, better internship opportunities, etc. ?. What do you like the most at Lehigh and what the least?
I’m working on finalising my college list so I can get started on the supplemental essays as fast as I possible.
While I was doing this, I was researching a bit about Lehigh University. The first time I had researched about Lehigh I saw only positive feedback. There were excellent college student reviews, very good feedback, good facilities, etc etc. But I decided to double check. And when I did, suddenly a lot of negative stuff came up. There were people who were saying that it’s a total party school, and all people do is drink and get high, and that there would be a lot of racism and sexism to deal with. As an Indian female student who’s gonna study in the US for the first time, it’s a big concern. They also said that the heads and the governing body is pretty useless and just ignore the complaints of students. including minor physical assault.
I wanted to know if this was just exaggerated or actually true because I was considering Lehigh as one of my top colleges.
Could you please give me your own experiencesor tell me what people you know went thru? I’m really stressed here. Please help!