Well, Engineering also has the highest median ACT of 33-35 at all of your Reach schools. And remember a 34 ACT equals a 1540 SAT, so its still a Reach. That said, good luck!
Re your visit at Lehigh, if their schedule permits you might be able to meet with a prof or advisor in the engineering department. We did this at most of the schools we toured with my S. Not only will it show a lot of interest, you will get to learn a lot about the program (resources, research opportunities, internship history, job placement, etc.) I found these folks at most schools were VERY willing to accommodate us and enjoyed meeting with my S. Also gave him great experience in the informational interview process. I simply looked up the email address for the Dean of X (In our case it was the business school) and let them know when S would be in town and asked if it would be possible to meet with the appropriate person to get a better sense of X department. They almost always responded favorably and connected us with a great resource. I think that would help a lot.
@rickle1 When I went to CMU, I met with two advisors from the engineering department, and it was super helpful getting to learn more about the program. I didn’t think it was an option when I visited Cornell or Princeton, they never advertised it as being an option so I didn’t. Thank you so much for the advice!
Taking that extra initiative will certainly show interest and you’ll learn far more about the school then you will from the traditional tours. I’m sure some schools won’t accommodate, but our experience was most will if you simply ask them. We had 7 or 8 do just that and it gave my S a true sense of the place. Not just the brochure material but a sense of how or if they care, level of service to expect, etc. Also gives you another person to stay in touch with throughout the admissions process.
Best of luck.
Union College, Clarkson and RIT
For anyone interested, I was accepted to Rutgers Honors Program for engineering and RPI so far. I’m a little surprised because I don’t think I got merit aid from RPI, but I feel like a large part of that could be because I didn’t visit and showed no interest in the school at all. I feel like not showing interest might hurt me with Lehigh/ Northeastern, but we’ll see. I’m hoping that the comparisons of me to my classmates is valid for Northeastern because I am with students who were accepted. Well, I’ll see in a few weeks!