Lehigh University

Visited Lehigh, wanted to speak to the alumni folks concerning the class graduate placke (?) For class 2012. They ladies were all very helpfull, but apparently, the tradition has been discontinued. Had a great time revisiting Kevin’s old college and was able to see class of 1928 (Dave Miles) and class of 1968 (Dan Shemeyko) yearbooks, in pristine condition! Great job –alumni staff and thank you for your hospitality!

Lehigh is an excellent gem of a school in Bethlehem PA. Living costs are low in Bethlehem and the city is undergoing a transformation, 20 years after Bethlehem Steel closed. Great college. Good tour. Good campus and a classic college town. Admissions building is gorgeous and parking garage next door is convenient.

Lehigh is an excellent school, it has great facilities, dedicated faculty, and provides a safe environment to enjoy college. I think the reviews and assessment on
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) paint a pretty accurate picture. Also the alumni community is really helpful and the school offered fantastic career counseling even 7 years after graduation when I wanted to change fields.

Academics: A+
Social scene: D
Essentially, it’s work hard, party hard at Lehigh.
Yes, you have incredible opportunities for internships, work on campus, sports, and study abroad, as well as an excellent engineering degree. The professors are top notch, internationally experienced, and most are there to help you with any academic problem.
However, be prepared for Wednesday night ragers, passed out freshman in your hallway, an overbearing/​dominant Greek life (unless you’re into that), and senselessly drunk football and basketball games. Every opportunity to be drunk is jumped upon, including «MoCos» — morning cocktails — at 10 AM on Saturdays before every single football game. Oh, and bring plenty of neon and thrift shop apparel; every party is a theme party.
Also, if you’re not from northern New Jersey, the suburbs of New York, or the surrounding PA area, prepare to feel pretty isolated. The «in-​state» statistic isn’t quite accurate when two other states are 30 minutes away.

I’ll be a senior in HS in the fall and just visited Lehigh. It is in a godforsaken dump of a town in the middle of nowhere. The school is built on a steep hillside and the buildings look shabby and gloomy. All they showed us on the tour were 2 mediocre dining halls, one mediocre dorm room, and a science lab. And every other word out of the student tour guide’s mouth was «awesome.» What a waste of time visiting this joke of a place.

A neighborhood gem. By far the best and brightest of its class. The facilities are beautiful and well maintained, and the university has some of the best academic programs around. In many areas they are unrivaled. I did not go here, but it is the kind of place I imagine my children attending some day if I am so fortunate to have smart children and the wherewithal to send them to such a great university.

I don’t go to school here, but my bf does and I think I can speak well enough about it to give it an accurate rating.
The teachers are good compared to other universities. It’s not Harvard – so they can’t hire the top dogs in every field of study. The engineering department is famous for being amazing here. My bf has had good experiences studying electrical engineering. He really hasn’t enjoyed his literature classes because the professors were weird, and some of the math professors are inconsistent even though they are very smart. But engineering and music have been good for him.
As for the students… Lehigh students study hard, and party hard. They have great spirit and pride for their school. Lucky for them, their sports are D1 so they have ample opportunities to celebrate.
The greek scene is also huge here. Around one third of students belong to a greek organization. So you see lots of bros walking around campus, but there are also the nerdy engineering students to balance out the mix. It’s a very diverse university… I will also say that there’s tension between a lot of the greek organizations (naturally). I’ve seen some of my bf’s friends go greek and they have a lot of stories. I’ll leave it at that.
Also, freshman housing is terrible. The rooms are the smallest, oldest, stuffiest rooms (ie: M&M). But if you make it through that, your options aren’t too bad (Trembley and Campus Square). Off campus is SUPER shady!!! The univ is in kind of a bad neighborhood. So be really careful if you go off campus. And girls, never go anywhere by yourselves. Period.
There are some great family-​owned restaurants in the area. And North Bethlehem is beautiful. The best grocery store is 10 mins away (boo).
But overall Lehigh is good. I’d recommend it!

I took the Lehigh microscopy last weekend here. So, I will run down some of the things here from dining, lodging, parking, and the class itself.
LEHIGH MICROSCOPY (5 out of 5)
There are a number of courses here to take from SEM, TEM, SPM, and FIB. I took the TEM course which ran the 2^nd week. It’s actually called STEM or scanning TEM. A bit more advanced than what I am familiar with TEM. Overall, it was a bit jam packed with info but staff was very good with lectures and especially labs. I would have liked if we got to analyze our own samples but no time for individual samples. I have been to a number of workshops and this one ranks high on the same level of Univ of Md– CALCE Failure Analysis workshop.
DINING (5 out of 5)
We had lunch in Johnny’s Deli which was catered with Italian, Greek, and some other ethnic food. I thought it was fantastic since we all expected dining hall food in the dorms. We even had dinners in the University Center– Faculty Room. One of the nights, we had a banquet and it was absolutely amazing. I can’t speak for dining hall food but the catering service here is great if you are visiting here for a conference or workshop like this one.
LODGING (4 out of 5)
We had lodging arrangements at the Conference Services in Campus Square. It’s conveniently located in the heart of Lehigh’s Asa Packer campus. It is similar to dorm living with a suite of rooms surrounding a kitchen and bathroom. I would have preferred my own bathroom and kitchen. However, it was fine. Each room can be locked so no worries about that. Also, there are coin-​operated laundry machines on each floor. The size of the room are a bit cramped and some of my classmates equated it to a prison cell. Yeah, it is small and reminded me of my dorm room at Penn in the towers. Oh yeah, a classmate also complained of a room filled with smoke that she had to room with another classmate in the Comfort Inn.
PARKING (3 out of 5)
Unfortunately, you cannot parking in the lot directly next to Campus Square’s Conference Services. Most lots are for staff and faculty. You can get paid parking near the Zoeller Arts Center. Also, Lehigh Microscopy provided us with parking permits for the lots on Brodhead Ave. It’s further down and a 5 minute walk from Campus Square.
OTHER COOL THINGS
There was the South Side Film Fest going on around this time. I couldn’t make it because of class but it was nice to see some arts and culture around here. We also caught the Farmer’s Market on Thursday. A farmer brought some baby alpalcas which was cool. Plus, local bakeries, farmers, vendors displayed their produce, food, and crafts. If you make it up the drive on Mountain Top campus, you get a great view of Bethlehem below. There is plenty to see around here outside of class.

I graduated from Lehigh — not gonna say when and it was a great 3 years (I was in a special program and got outta there in 3 years).
When I was there the fraternity scene was HUGE — less so now and the partying had, indeed, calmed down due to Act 31 to outlaw underage drinking and keg parties.
Even so, Lehigh Students partied hard — and worked hard too.
I had a great college experience here.

Lehigh is my OTHER alma mater, and I received an Industrial Engineering degree from here.
Socially, the party scene changed a lot over the course of the time that I was there. Project IMPACT attempted to cut down on the drinking that went on, but instead, heightened the drug use and forced the drinking to unsafe places off-​campus. It was obvious that the administration no longer wanted the liability, but they were putting student’s safety at risk (there were rapes, stabbings and shootings about 2x a year on the outskirts of campus).
Just about every year that I was there, another fraternity would be kicked out of their house located on campus, and a sorority would move into the fraternities’ old house. The administration also did not want fraternities on campus anymore either.
The math department here is horrible. You would think that an engineering school would have an amazing math department, but they don’t. There are 2 professors that are good, and the rest are awful. I barely made it through my math requirements here.
The science departments (physics and chemistry) were mediocre, but the engineering departments really shined. Lehigh has some of the best engineering facilities of any private college anywhere. We have various engineering testing and research equipment for each of the different disciplines in engineering.
The Industrial Engineering department housed inside Mohler Lab is no exception, as they have a working metal machine shop and a robotics lab (that’s a little outdated, but still relevant). My only gripe is lack of computer labs in this building, as it’s normally really crowded at the end of the semester with students.
My professors were exceptional, especially Dr. Odrey, Dr. Hartman, Dr. Ross and Dr. Groover. They really made my Lehigh experience memorable. They were so passionate about what they did, that they instilled that same passion in me.
Overall, my education here was great, but socially, it left a lot to be desired.