Lehigh Visit

[Anonymous]

Colgate and Holy Cross are better options.

[Anonymous]

The music department is very strong. I think the party reputation is overblown in this thread. I grew up in the area and the Steel Stacks complex (event venue, former factory, where the casino is) is not downtown, it’s not even on the same side of the river as downtown. Large factories are not usually located on the center of downtown. The National Museum of Industrial History is near there and pretty interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colgate and Holy Cross are better options.

Colgate maybe, but not Holy Cross -- Lehigh is above HC in most rankings, though I would consider them peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We stayed at the Hyatt Place and ate at the Apollo Grill and Mister Lee’s. Bethlehem is the 3rd largest metro area in Pennsylvania. We are from the West Coast and my city kid found it perfectly fine for a college town and appreciated the closeness to Philly and New York area airports. Having talked to students, most live on campus 3 or more years. Living on campus for the first 2 is mandatory (with exceptions). My kid is not a partier but liked the campus and the vibe. It was also recently voted #1 for science labs by Princeton review and they liked the labs. That they liked the vibe and that it’s midsize vaulted Lehigh above several other schools on DC’s list.

Yeah, they live on campus... in a greek house. The scene is wild. The good news is there's a greek house for just about all types... but they all wind up drinking grain alcohol at some point. I've only ever been in about ten fights in my life—real ones—and 8 of them were at lehigh frat houses. If your kids aren't partiers, they will be by the time they leave.

The labs are also nice.

You have a very outdated perspective on Lehigh based on our research and tour. When did you have these fights? When is the last time you visited?

It’s only 20-25% Greek. The housing includes far more than Frat houses but dorms and apartment style units. We didn’t visit any casinos (which are on the outskirts of town from what I understand). Do you frequent casinos often to speak on such familiar terms about them? I find your multiple posts to be an indication that you have unexplained issues with the school which to me reflects you or your DCs were rejected from the school because your reality is not what we observed.

Well, I'm sure they don't advertise that fighting is a big part of the social scene.

The official greek numbers are 30-40 perecent if you read the school's own documents, and that only counts school-sanctioned frats and sorrorities. Quite a few are booted off campus for bad behavior or sexual assaults and they rotate back onto campus after serving the term. So it's definitely over 50 percent.

The casino is on the location of the old Bethlehem Steel. It's the center of the city—the literal focal point of everything.

It is not a given that they rotate back. My sorority was banned and then disbanded by the national.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We stayed at the Hyatt Place and ate at the Apollo Grill and Mister Lee’s. Bethlehem is the 3rd largest metro area in Pennsylvania. We are from the West Coast and my city kid found it perfectly fine for a college town and appreciated the closeness to Philly and New York area airports. Having talked to students, most live on campus 3 or more years. Living on campus for the first 2 is mandatory (with exceptions). My kid is not a partier but liked the campus and the vibe. It was also recently voted #1 for science labs by Princeton review and they liked the labs. That they liked the vibe and that it’s midsize vaulted Lehigh above several other schools on DC’s list.

Yeah, they live on campus... in a greek house. The scene is wild. The good news is there's a greek house for just about all types... but they all wind up drinking grain alcohol at some point. I've only ever been in about ten fights in my life—real ones—and 8 of them were at lehigh frat houses. If your kids aren't partiers, they will be by the time they leave.

The labs are also nice.

You have a very outdated perspective on Lehigh based on our research and tour. When did you have these fights? When is the last time you visited?

It’s only 20-25% Greek. The housing includes far more than Frat houses but dorms and apartment style units. We didn’t visit any casinos (which are on the outskirts of town from what I understand). Do you frequent casinos often to speak on such familiar terms about them? I find your multiple posts to be an indication that you have unexplained issues with the school which to me reflects you or your DCs were rejected from the school because your reality is not what we observed.

Well, I'm sure they don't advertise that fighting is a big part of the social scene.

The official greek numbers are 30-40 perecent if you read the school's own documents, and that only counts school-sanctioned frats and sorrorities. Quite a few are booted off campus for bad behavior or sexual assaults and they rotate back onto campus after serving the term. So it's definitely over 50 percent.

The casino is on the location of the old Bethlehem Steel. It's the center of the city—the literal focal point of everything.

It is not a given that they rotate back. My sorority was banned and then disbanded by the national.

What does a sorority have to do to get banned and then disbanded? I thought sororities don’t throw parties in their houses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote: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…”

Lehigh definitely does not fit in DCUM's very tight band of acceptable schools. I agree with the party hard assessment, but come on, it's an excellent school. And sometimes, when the town is a little downtrodden, the campus culture gets even stronger.

I guess it helps that my kids have grown up in an area that’s a little downtrodden. They’re not fazed. If you grew up in a perfectly manicured neighborhood, maybe you notice these things more.

I think there is a difference between a downtrodden area in a fairly dynamic place (think Penn and West Philly or Columbia and NYC) vs. the entire area is downtrodden and pretty boring.

I don't disagree Lehigh has much more going on then Lafayette or other local schools...but might as well just choose Bucknell (no, I am not the pipeline to the street guy) which is the equivalent of Lehigh plus the cute Bethlehem main street, and none of the other shit around it.

Or Franklin and Marshall which has Lancaster - cute small town, good food, arts, etc.

[Anonymous]

Lehigh is a better school than F&M, Bucknell, and Holy Cross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh is a better school than F&M, Bucknell, and Holy Cross.

No, that's not true. Better than Holy Cross. On par w/the others, and none of the others can match Lehigh in terms of fun social life.

[Anonymous]

Definitely better than F&M on Bucknell on just about every ranking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely better than F&M on Bucknell on just about every ranking.

But neither school has Lehigh's "social issues" or geography problem... You can expect a better outcome with those two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely better than F&M on Bucknell on just about every ranking.

But neither school has Lehigh's "social issues" or geography problem... You can expect a better outcome with those two.

Bucknell’s location is awful. Drinking is heavy there because there’s nothing else to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely better than F&M on Bucknell on just about every ranking.

But neither school has Lehigh's "social issues" or geography problem... You can expect a better outcome with those two.

Bucknell’s location is awful. Drinking is heavy there because there’s nothing else to do.

Not as systemic as Lehigh. And despite the insistence from parents here trying to convince themselves they enjoy staying at B&Bs in a sad old post-industrial rustbelt, about the only thing for college kids to do—outside of greek-related drinking and fighting—in Bethlehem is to get in their frat bro's car and go visit friends at Penn or Princeton.

[Anonymous]

is Colgate really considered better than Lehigh? Lehigh for business or engineering for sure - and Colgate is known for the out of control drinking culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is Colgate really considered better than Lehigh? Lehigh for business or engineering for sure - and Colgate is known for the out of control drinking culture

Colgate is where you go if you want a good education and like blacking out… but your family has been rich.

Lehigh is where you go if you want a good engineering education - but not like RPI good - like blacking out and are first in your family to attend college.

[Anonymous]

DD was very excited to visit Lehigh but very quickly changed her mind after seeing Bethlehem and how close the college is to it. It is very depressed economically and she also was more than concerned about safety.
Colgate is very beautiful. Neither school has much to do in the surrounding area.
Holy Cross is very pretty and while the town isn’t great it’s nowhere near as bad as Bethlehem. And it’s near Boston.