I would do the Lehigh scholarship in this circumstance. As I understand it, it is not actually “ED” at all as all of us conventionally understand it. Rather, the kid is a finalist for a scholarship that required them to commit early that IF they get the scholarship, they will come to Lehigh. If they don’t get the scholarship, they then CAN apply to Lehigh in the RD pool. If my family had a budget of $15-$20k, and my kid was a finalist for said scholarship at Lehigh and based on the kid’s and my research through Oct 24 with a Nov 1 deadline, the kid was fine with Lehigh, I’d do the scholarship thing with no regrets. I would however immediately have the kid start dialing Lehigh students with similar interests (academic and social) to zoom with them or whatever to get as much comfort with the culture as I could as other suggested. But, this does not seem a hard choice for me given the budget issues and not having to commit absent the scholarship which the kid is 1 of 2 to get at this point.
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