Were you a student at Lehigh or just attending the parties? |
Yeah… sounds like my friends. They were proud of how depraved they were Thursday through Sunday and how hard they worked mon-wed. The level of destruction and fighting and alcohol abuse was insane. And you’d wake up Saturday morning and all evidence had been erased by the crews of cleaners. It was bizarre stuff. |
I went to Penn but had three friends who went there and did a summer exchange program with a bunch of Lehigh students. Animals - all of them. |
You probably don’t need a hotel. It’s an easy day trip. Or combine it with a visit to the many other colleges in the general Pennsylvania area. |
Or she could stay in the Hyatt Place in a charming downtown. Trust me when I say that’s a much nicer experience than the holiday inn express our by the airport. The fringes of Bethlehem are really crappy, especially to the south, but the old historical part is a draw and quite lovely by any standard. Some of us know the area well. |
I'm from the area and agree that the historic downtown area is the best place to stay. The Moravian sites are worth exploring if you have some extra time, and there are shops and restaurants nearby. The Edge is good, and the Sun Inn Tavern has historic charm. The Moravian Book Shop is also great independent book store. The area around campus has its share of blight and should not color your view of Bethlehem as a whole. It has a rich history that dates back to colonial times. It was deeply affected by the highs and lows of the industrial revolution and the demise of what was once one of the largest steel companies in the US. |
+1 really liked this hotel and strolling the main street, checking out shops and galleries. |
That's a you thing. You just didn't notice the majority of students at the university who were not at your parties because you were too wasted. |
Lehigh is top school. It’s growing in popularity and getting harder and harder to get into with low 20s % acceptance rates. It has one of highest graduate salaries similar to Ivy League salary outcomes probably due to the large number of engineering and business school students. WSJ ranked it 15 overall which heavy weights ROI. Greek life has been reigned in somewhat and it is not what it was like 15 or 20 years ago but still has a good party scene. It’s known as a work hard play hard school. Endowment at $2.2B is pretty sizable for 6k undergrads. I see them moving up in the rankings especially since they recently received R1 status. |
This-lol |
It's always been a good school and play-hard-work-hard... but the play hard is really sinister-edged. Rich kids + high-pressure greek life == bad stuff. |
We stayed at the chain hotel down the road a bit but came in for dinner and breakfast to the Downtown, which has definitely seen better days. DC did not love how the college seemed to flow right into the kind of downtrodden downtown area. |
This thread is so interesting to me as far as how different people perceive the same place. I didn’t get “downtrodden” at all. Thought it was a charming little city. To each their own, I guess. At the same time, it’s right in the Allentown song lyrics: “And they're closing all the factories down Out in Bethlehem they're killing time Filling out forms Standing in line…” |
I wonder if Sofia Coppola and her rock star husband will stay at the Holiday Inn Express for Parents’ Weekend. |
I think you mean the strip by the school? That's not actually downtown Bethlehem as people in the area would describe it. The downtown of Bethlehem is further from the university, not adjacent. |