I think their apps went down because they are not known for merit. So many of their peers give large merit aid.
@Luckyjade2024 They never gave out much merit aid, so that shouldn’t be the reason.
I’m guessing with rising costs and other peer schools giving a lot more merit may have something to do with it? Bucknell, Rochester, Miami and Case all offered very high merit.
Agree that merit is lower than Bucknell (which doesn’t offer great merit either), not sure about the rest.
Do many people consider Rochester, Univ of Miami, and CWRU as peers to Lehigh? Yes, I know Lehigh’s ranking has fallen, which may explain some of the app decrease too.
I also expect that some of the comments in the brown and white article linked above explain, at least partially, the decrease in apps.
I think they get a lot of crossover apps with U of R, Bucknell and Case
I know a lot of schools saw a decrease this year including UPenn &Cornell…cannot it be a blip not a trend?
Not really buying that kids apply to less colleges due to costs. They can get fee waivers if they qualify.
Harvard reported 40,246 applications for the class of 2024, a decrease of about 7% from the year before and the lowest number of applications in three years at the university.
21% is a pretty substantial number, not a “blip.” Harvard’s decrease in applications of 7% is 1/3 of that. Something’s going on.
It’s happening every at every type of school…It’s not a reflection of the quality of education at a certain school. The Ivies are mostly down, as well as colleges in every tier.
Another of the Ivy League schools seeing a decrease in applications is Princeton. The New Jersey college has seen applications fall by 11.6% in recent times.
Alabama State University has seen a whopping decrease in applications by 33.06% in recent years.
Rutgers University has experienced a fall of 11.12% in student applications.
University of Connecticut has suffered a decrease in student applications by 27.4%
Do you guys think we’ll hear anything tomorrow or Friday?
was admitted a while back off of lehigh’s waitlist … sent a letter of lOCI and received an email from the AOs like three days later telling me that i had a status update to my portal
Just got off an Admitted Parent and Family virtual session with Syracuse Assistant Dean of Students. He suggested that with all of the uncertainty regarding fall and possible students deferring their admissions until Spring or the following fall, they expect a “robust” use of their waitlist this year.
Oops - sent before I finished. I expect most schools have boosted their waitlists this year for the same reason.
Take heart waitlisters. Just got accepted off of Michigan. Schools are casting a wide net.
My son got off of the waitlist. Also got off of the Michigan waitlist. He is set on attending U of Miami, and did not get any money there. WIll try to leverage these new acceptances.
@BMSagain Did your son get offered financial aid from Lehigh? I assume you did if you are planning on using the offer as leverage at Miami.
@Yocco2 I agree with @Luckyjade2024 that the lack of merit does have a lot to do with the decline in applications. As an alumna, I know many other alumni who would have loved to send their kids to Lehigh but they do not have $600k available to send both of their kids. And fortunately, most Lehigh alumni are not going to qualify for need-based aid unless they have multiple kids or have had sudden job loss, huge medical expenses, etc. Unfortunately the result is that you see shrinking numbers of middle to upper middle class kids at private schools like Lehigh where annual costs approach $75k all-in. State flagship universities have become incredibly difficult to gain entrance to as a result. And many of those good universities that do offer more merit aid are seeing increases in apps as well as increases in their rankings.
@1stTimeThruMom It seems Lehigh gives the lowest merit compared to all its peers. I know there were some schools that I applied to which are known to give high merit (even though not my first choices) just in case.
If Lehigh were known for merit, they would get a lot more apps
@Luckyjade2024 Lehigh was never known for merit. I remember when my S applied several years ago less than 7% of students received merit aid. The reasoning was that Lehigh already attracted a very highly qualified pool of applicants and didn’t need to offer additional merit. Most higher-tier schools do not offer merit for the same reason. The schools that offer merit are typically mid- to lower-echelon schools looking to attract more talented students than their typical admits. Has Lehigh fallen enough in rankings to become one of those colleges?
@1stTimeThruMom You are absolutely correct. The middle to upper middle class family has largely been shut out of many private universities for years, increasing the demand, rankings, and competition for slots at state flagships. As already outrageous costs continue to rise, competition increases at other desirable, more “affordable” schools. Sadly, as these costs have risen exponentially over the years, schools’ definitions of what constitutes “need” has not kept up. Therefore, schools like Lehigh wind up competing with dollars against other schools for a much smaller pool of highly qualified but lower-income, diverse applicants, while ignoring a much larger pool of highly qualified middle income applicants whose families cannot afford the high costs but are expected to pay full or almost full fare. IMHO this equation will not work out in the long run for mid-tier private institutions as contributions dry up from jilted middle class alums who cannot afford to send their own kids to their own alma maters. Just leaves a bitter taste in their mouths, and rightly so.
I also just remembered another program that Lehigh used to offer that they “quietly” discontinued last year to free up more financial aid for lower income applicants - the Presidential Scholarship. If you achieved a 3.75 or better cumulative GPA throughout your 4 years at Lehigh, you were awarded a fifth year free. This was a popular program that allowed high-achieving students to attain dual degrees (many IBE students took advantage of this), get advanced degrees, etc. It was also one of the few programs that benefited students regardless of socio-economic status. Lehigh’s new 10-year strategic plan to increase the size and diversity of the student body in order to become a more “prestigious” university on the world stage (the Path to Prominence) is causing some issues that are already coming back to bite them.