Lehigh University Visit Report by rualum

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - IBE session was good information-wise but the speaker was not dynamic. The general information session was longer (maybe a bit too long) but the speaker was very enthusiastic and spoke clearly.

Campus Tour: Yes - We walked around and saw several buildings, dining halls, dorms, library, etc. Beautiful campus, lots of trees, lots of steps! :0

Overnight Visit: No - Easy drive in from NJ.

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Campus:

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Very few students on campus and our very large tour group made student interaction impractical.

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Really nice campus with attractive buildings and scenic pathways. Lots of grass, trees, plantings, ivy.

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They were doing repair work on some of the buildings (scaffolding apparent) but said that this type of maintenance work is finished by the fall.

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Rooms seemed a bit small and dark. These are old buildings. No air conditioning. The freshman dorms are at the very top of the mountain so the most steps to get back to your room.

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They use blue light system and police escorts available at night if requested. The campus seems fairly contained.

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Beautiful college campus.

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Off-Campus:

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The surrounding area looked deserted the day of our visit (August weekday). A bit shabby, perhaps. Older, smaller town atmosphere.

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Campus Visit Notes for Lehigh University

Visit Description:

We visited Lehigh due to very positive reviews from friends and students. First meeting of the day was the IBE (Integrated Business Engineering)presentation and it was very informative. The speaker was difficult to hear, though. You will not get an engineering degree from the IBE program in 4 years; you must go for 5 years and that gets you a BS in business and a BS in your engineering major.

Next, the general information session was held in an auditorium with better acoustics. Speaker was dynamic and engaging but gave a ton of information in a short time; I think my son tuned out a bit here. He allowed too many repetitive questions (mostly about SAT scores, doh!)and so I felt that the presentation was a bit too long.

Immediately after, we went on a campus tour. The tour guide was enthusiastic and gave a lot of information about the campus. She spoke loudly so we could all hear. She mentioned that most students stayed on campus every weekend, which is understandable as it's pretty remote (they had a slide during the info session that said something like, "only 90 min to NYC!"). I asked if they went into the neighboring towns on the weekend and she said 'no, not really'. So probably not much to do there outside of campus.

We went to a bagel sandwich shop before our engineering tour. The 2 guys working seemed suprised by the crowd and went into panic mode. We noticed the chicken fingers were still raw on the inside so we took them back and they just took it all and threw it back into the deep fryer, lol. Pack a lunch as there is not really time for fine dining between info sessions.

The engineering tour started soon after and was a bit disappointing. Huge tour groups (last day of the summer engineering tours) and guides who did not speak loud enough made for a frustrating and rather disappointing tour. We were taken up to the 4th floor of the engineering building(stairs) went back down, and then up again. I guess these kids are used to steps, but by the end of this 90 degree day, I was definitely exhausted.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Some dining on campus but no time to get there between info sessions. The restaurants 'in town' looked closed for the summer. Bring a lunch if you're doing a full day of presentations a

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

Lehigh was an easy 1 1/2 hour drive from central NJ. Parking was available for free in the deck right next to the admissions building.