Pennsylvania · 25.9% acceptance · private · Tier 3
ED rate (52.1%) is materially higher than RD (29.0%). If Lehigh is your top choice and you can commit financially, this is the highest-leverage round.
Lehigh favors applicants with strong STEM or quantitative trajectories who can show sustained project-based work, research, or leadership in engineering, applied sciences, or entrepreneurship, and who will contribute to an engaged on-campus community. They weight demonstrated fit for specific programs like the Integrated Business and Engineering pathway and the strong engineering majors more heavily than purely extracurricular prestige, and they value evidence of teamwork and initiative that maps to Lehigh’s project labs and interdisciplinary centers. Compared with peers, Lehigh is a bit stricter about math/science rigor and demonstrated quantitative promise, and a bit more forgiving on non-quantitative extracurricular breadth if the candidate shows deep commitment to one or two campus-relevant activities.
Use the supplemental essay to connect concrete Lehigh resources to your plans: name specific labs, the Mountaintop initiative, the Integrated Business and Engineering program, or particular faculty and student organizations, and explain a project you would pursue there in 2-3 sentences. If you hope to join Greek life, briefly acknowledge how you would balance that with leadership or an academic project to show you understand the social scene and its demands; if applying to engineering or IBE, emphasize past team projects, technical deliverables, and how Lehigh’s co-op/culminating experiences will advance them.
If you only have time for one thing this month, do this: