Maybe I was easy to please, but I went to Holy Cross and was fine with the similarly post-industrial city of Worcester.

We spent most of our time together on a beautiful, walkable campus. The town had all the basics like CVS and Target, and some affordable hole-in-the-wall restaurants and dive bars full of character.

About one a month we’d go to Boston or visit friends at nearby New England schools.

Unless you’re really wealthy, most kids don’t have the budget or time to do much more than that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I respect the pro-Lehigh Valley posters, but these are not dynamic places - not the towns or campuses or the weather or the athletics. If you are going to spend that kind of money, at least check out similar-sized schools that are closer to major cities.

Wake - 250,000 people in Winston and better weather, sports and campus
Villanova - main line location 30 min to Philadelphia - a train stop is on campus
Miami (FL) - Coral Gables is beautiful on the edge of Miami

If willing to go further:
SMU - plug into Dallas
Santa Clara - basically in Silicon Valley

Or choose one of 20 schools around Boston (BC, BU), or DC (American, GU, GW). Please folks, position your students well - Lehigh Valley schools, especially at full pay, are not the ride they once were. The network your student has access to - whether by size, location or professional interest, is even more important than ever before with the current job market for young people and AI taking entry level responsibilities.

Fair points. But not everyone is a wuss when it comes to weather. And weather in PA pales in comparison to weather in humid disgusting DC and the south. Don't treat your kids like a wuss because you can't deal with a little snow and cold. Get out and ski and skate or just move to the retirement community!

PP suggested Villanova and Boston schools as well…not sure how you decided the post was all about weather.

I agree that attending college in slightly depressed 50,000 to 100,000 person towns, makes for some of the worst college experiences.

Lehigh grad here - quite some time ago now. For reference, I have collage age kids now to date myself.

I enjoyed the time that I had at Lehigh - it was a bit of a culture shock at first thinking about it. I grew up in a small suburb of Pittsburgh and was at Lehigh because of the huge amount of merit based aid that I received. Was less expensive for me to go to Lehigh than it was for my sister to go a small PA state school - Slippery Rock. Just a different vibe with all the NY, NJ, CT kids - I never heard of Choate or Exeter or any of the other $$ boarding schools before getting there. Not too many of my friends were driving BMWs at that age either.

But, I found my folks. I was in a fraternity, was president. While an engineering major, took advantage of the arts programs and played in the Jazz Ensemble - studied with musicians from NYC who were on campus. Was a tour guide. Lots of ways to get involved on campus.

Bethlehem, especially South Bethlehem is way more developed now. More stuff to do, more places to go. We did occasionally drive down to Philly on a weekend or into NYC as well.

Good Luck.

This forum can't help but bring up the cost of private colleges. I would imagine most of the parents that send their kids to Lehigh are not worried about the cost. This is the same for most of private schools that are similar to Lehigh.

You're saying I can't ski or skate when I'm in the retirement community?

Anonymous wrote:I respect the pro-Lehigh Valley posters, but these are not dynamic places - not the towns or campuses or the weather or the athletics. If you are going to spend that kind of money, at least check out similar-sized schools that are closer to major cities.

Wake - 250,000 people in Winston and better weather, sports and campus
Villanova - main line location 30 min to Philadelphia - a train stop is on campus
Miami (FL) - Coral Gables is beautiful on the edge of Miami

If willing to go further:
SMU - plug into Dallas
Santa Clara - basically in Silicon Valley

Or choose one of 20 schools around Boston (BC, BU), or DC (American, GU, GW). Please folks, position your students well - Lehigh Valley schools, especially at full pay, are not the ride they once were. The network your student has access to - whether by size, location or professional interest, is even more important than ever before with the current job market for young people and AI taking entry level responsibilities.

Fair points. But not everyone is a wuss when it comes to weather. And weather in PA pales in comparison to weather in humid disgusting DC and the south. Don't treat your kids like a wuss because you can't deal with a little snow and cold. Get out and ski and skate or just move to the retirement community!

Lehigh alum here..and I loved it. Someone mentioned not great for liberal arts but I would strong disagree with that. I'm a writer now and took fantastic writing and film courses at Lehigh, and was in theater productions there as well. The Zoellner Arts Center is fantastic. I lived off campus for 3 years and personally never had issues with crime, although some friends did. However, Bethlehem is a lot nicer now than it was when I was there. We also drove to Philly quite a bit senior year- it's really not that far if the scene at Lehigh starts to get boring. It's also a great size- not too small and not too big. You can always meet new people but it's never overwhelming.I'm also still very close with my Lehigh friends- can't say enough good things about it!