Hey y’all, does anyone know where the “Lehigh University Grant” appeared from? Im looking at my applicant portal under the Fin Aid tab, and I saw a “Lehigh University Grant” worth ~10,000 per year, in addition to my 14k Dean Scholarship.
I didn’t see any note of this in my initial applicant portal underneath my acceptance letter. Is this just an attempt to match the half-tuition scholarships or something of that sort?
I think that’s need-based financial aid
Do you think this was based on the CSS profile? Because I’m assuming it will change again once they process my FAFSA.
Probably, and yes it might. I’m hoping mine does, because they said “The financial aid application materials that you provided to our office indicate that your family’s resources are sufficient to meet the cost of attendance for the coming academic year” and I would love to know where they found those resources so I can use them 
Same here, Im hoping that FAFSA really brings that COA down. Honestly, I can really only attend Lehigh if I had gotten some sort of their Founders/Trustee scholarship that’s worth a crap ton more than the Deans scholarship. Dont get me wrong I’m really happy to get that Deans Scholarship, but $15,000 isn’t a lot considering their high sticker price…
What sucks more is that they delayed the FAFSA to march so Im predicting no aid packages get out until around late march/early april. Perhaps they’ll push the commitment date to June 1st?
Same here. Did you apply for the soaring together scholarship? That’s what I’m waiting on 
. Their COA is insane for them to not be more generous with financial aid…
Honestly, I forgot about the Soaring Together scholarship and its due date. Frankly, I didn’t see any real chance I could have gotten the scholarship anyways—Gender studies, while I find it interesting, isn’t my real forte. I couldn’t find real motivation to write a good essay that I actually enjoyed.
Plus, I’m pretty sure that they said that they were only accepting 44 applicants across all 4 years or something within that number. That also brings down any chance I had to even lower.
I didn’t see the 44 applicants across 4 years; that’s crazy. I have a good personal/family story with gender equity and it has to do with the career I want, so I wrote a good essay. But I haven’t actually done anything already to promote gender equity, so I’m keeping my expectations low. Do you know if they have any other little scholarships they’ll release when they accept everyone else? I was hoping so, but I doubt it. I like Lehigh, but it’s not worth a student loan for me so it’ll be crossed off the list if nothing else comes through, unfortunately.
I would not expect the financial aid package to change when Lehigh gets the FAFSA data. They already have all the information included in the FAFSA, along with even more information, from the CSS Profile.
One of the schools my S24 got into EA is in NYS (RPI), and they have a form schools publish that shows cost breakdowns and financial aid details. Even though the FAFSA data has not gone out to schools, the form from RPI shows what our FAFSA number is expected to be based on the data we put into the CSS profile.
(I posted about it here.)
Do you think it would be viable to potentially appeal, or talk to the financial aid department? Lehigh is really high on my list, especially after I visited during DAP, but at this rate I cannot afford even a single year at the college.
The worst they can do is say no, right?
There are a lot of threads where people talk about what to do if the school you really want to go to looks like it’s going to be unaffordable. I’m certainly not an expert in this area. From what I have observed, if what you need is a few thousand dollars you might have a decent chance of getting it. If what you need is $20,000 or even more? It’s highly unlikely.
The best recommendations I have seen say something like, wait until you have all your offers in hand. Then, if you have a “peer school“ that would have a total cost of attendance that would be lower, present that to Lehigh explain that you really want to go to Lehigh but that this peer school is going to cost you X much less. Tell them that if Lehigh can meet that cost, you would commit. Then you would need to actually commit if they met it.
Some schools are adamant that they don’t care. My older son is at WPI and they are very clear and explicit, but they don’t care what you say, financial aid offers and merit are nonnegotiable, and nothing will be changing. We had some extenuating financial circumstances (2 disabled children who will require care for their entire lives) and, after taking all of our information, they gave us a need-based grant of $4000… But took away a non-need-based grant of $2000. 
Sorry, I don’t know the specific dates. That’s all it says on their admissions page.
Is there any indication in your portal that you applied to Soaring Together? I applied but haven’t seen any indication of my application in the portal - so was wondering if that was typical or not. thanks!
Nothing showed up in portal last year when my child applied. Decision did come through portal.
No, there isn’t. I’ve gotten nervous over the same thing but good to know it isn’t just me!
It’s always good to know you’re not alone on this crazy college journey! Good luck to you. Post when you get it 
Has anyone on this site been invited to a Lehigh Launch interview? Curious if that process has started.
The admissions checklist has been removed from the portal. I think that was a sign of pending decisions in previous years. So maybe Friday!
