<p>We visited Lehigh earlier this week and really liked the university, however one of our concerns may be the age of some of their lab facilities for engineering. Can any current or recent students comment on this? Thanks.</p>
<p>@BoysWant2bEngrs,
Depends on which department you’re interested in. CivilEng, Bio+BioEng, BioChem, ChemEng. are on Mountaintop campus. IndustrialEng is in a completely different building in Mohler Lab. There are only few labs in Packard 3rd floor. Most MechEng and ElecEng. labs are on 2nd and 1st floor of Packard. They might not have taken you downstairs or the labs might have been closed.</p>
<p>If you take the special engineering tour, you get to see the basement of Packard, as well as many other labs. We didn’t make it to Iaccoca Hall on the mountain top, which is where ChemE is located. Would appear to be fairly modern, as Lehigh I believe took over that campus in the 70’s?, when Bethlehem Steel shut down its R&D up there.</p>
<p>I have toured the facilities many times; they are all “up to date”/“new”/“high tech”. However, most undergraduate engineers (in any college) won’t be using the expensive electron microscopes or other such “high grade” devices–those are reserved for graduate researchers (once again, this is common in any engineering college).</p>
<p>Lehigh does have a rustic feel, though, which may give the impression that facilities are a bit “old fashioned”. However, I can assure you that Lehigh’s equipment and labs provide students with the same opportunities as any other well respected research institution.</p>
<p>Thanks rubi32. We definitely got the classic feeling about the campus, and I’m glad to hear their equipment is state of the art. We also really liked Lehigh’s focus on research and co-op assignments that will give the students education and opportunities beyond the classroom. Seems like employers have high regard for Lehigh’s engineering program too, based on the caliber of companies that recruit on campus…</p>