We are super excited to announce another exclusive live forum event featuring Sarah Bombard and Ali Kaplan representing Lehigh University.
@SarahB-Lehigh is a Lehigh alumni and has worked in the Office of Admissions for 15 years. She is currently a Senior Associate Director, leading the office’s marketing and communications team in addition to reviewing applications for admission, scholarships, and integrated programs.
@AliLehigh is a current senior at Lehigh University majoring in journalism with minors in marketing and psychology. She applied Early Decision I to Lehigh, despite the fact that her mom, grandpa and great grandpa all went to a rival school!
The event will take place here in the comments section below on Monday, Oct 2 from 5-6pm ET.
With most of the EA/ED deadlines just a few weeks away, this is a great opportunity to get your questions answered and get tips and suggestion from an admissions insider and a student who went through the process.
The AMA is FREE for all registered users. If you don’t have an account yet, REGISTER NOW!
Make sure to submit questions for the live event by commenting below. Also, fill out the poll below and let us know why you’re excited about this event.
**Please note that the event will cover only admissions or student life related questions, anything off topic will be dismissed and comments may be removed.
Curious what you would suggest for a student who didn’t get serious about high school until his junior year. All B’s freshman and sophomore year and now all A’s for junior year and assuming senior year as well. Should this student wait and apply RD as opposed to EA or ED to show an additional semester of A’s? Test scores are good – 1450.
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Should I EA/ED to Lehigh with my stats:
1540 SAT
~90% grades in High School (my country doesn’t do GPA)
Air Rifle Shooting EC - One Silver in School nationals. Three nationals played otherwise.
A bunch of other decent ECs including a paid internship.
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For this incoming Lehigh class, can you advise the acceptance rate for ED vs. RD and if the SAT/ACT statistics are the same? Also, same question specifically for the Engineering school - what is the acceptance rate ED vs. RD and are the SAT/ACT statistics similiar? How does ED reflect on a students interest in Lehigh as this is an admissions criteria? Thanks.
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Thank you everyone for attending today’s live AMA w/ Lehigh! We’ll go live in a minute and I’m excited to welcome @SarahB-Lehigh and @AliLehigh to their first College Confidential event. They will answer your questions in the next hour. Make sure to ask all your questions by commenting below.
I have a daughter interested in computer science. Can you comment on the competitiveness of that major and specifically if a female applicant would considered a “spike” in that major, ergo slightly better chance of an admit, all things being equal.
Thanks for your question, @murray93 !
B’s are not grades to be ashamed of! We’d love to hear about the student’s decisions that led to getting serious about school, but we’ll also want to have them demonstrate it by earning strong senior year grades. In ED 1, we’d want to see first quarter grades if available. ED 2 might benefit the student, since we’d be able to see their midyear grades before making a final decision. RD is always an option, and that would also give us access to midyears, but would have a lower admit rate since we have a larger pool of applicants.
@SarahB-Lehigh, I have a question for you. Does the fact that FAFSA opens on Dec 1 have an impact on this year’s admissions calendar? Does it affect the early decision notifications?
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It’s my understanding that AP exam scores themselves don’t typically factor into admissions decisions, is that true at Lehigh?
@AliLehigh, can you talk a bit about your experience? Why did you pick Lehigh and why did you apply early? How was the process for you and what’s your advice for students applying early in general and applying early to Lehigh in particular? Thanks!
Hi - thanks for hosting this! Am wondering: Assuming good grades, strong test scores, recs, & community service, is playing 2 varsity-level sports (1 Fall, 1 Spring; each for multiple years) twice as valuable in the admissions process as playing 1 sport (& using the reclaimed time to focus on schoolwork)? In other words, is there declining marginal value in the admissions process to playing more than 1 sport? 
Does it depend what one does w the time one would otherwise have spent in 1 of the sports? And/or on specifically what sport one would continue vs drop? Thank you!
Hi, @CC_Sorin - great question. We will accept the FAFSA whenever it’s available, and ask for the CSS profile and tax documents (as well as the Certificate of Finances for non-citizens) by the ED deadlines.
We’d love to get to know you through your applicatoin, @befuddled_astronomer —I can’t advise which application type might be right for you individually, but we have a significantly higher admission rate than in our regular decision round. If you know Lehigh is your top choice college, and want your best chance of an offer of admission, applying ED 1 or ED 2 is the best choice. If you want to compare financial aid packages, love more than one college, or simply don’t want to commit to one college so early, then we would be happy to read your application in regular decision!
How much more weight is given to students who are involved in a full year sport like club swimming vs a seasonal sport like high school swimming?
Thanks for having us, @CC_Sorin 
So just to confirm, the actual ED notification date should not be impacted, correct? I mean there won’t be a delay in sending out the notifications, right?