Lehigh University Overview

Lehigh University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

What Is Lehigh University Known For?

• Lehigh has an impressive student to faculty ratio of 9 to 1.
• The student loan default rate at Lehigh is 1%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• The highest award offered at Lehigh is the doctor's degree.
• For the 2019-2020 academic year, 87% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Lehigh makes roughly $95,033 a year. This is 133% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• On average, it takes about 4.1 years for students from Lehigh to earn a bachelor's degree. This is excellent when compared to the average of 4.4 years.

Lehigh University Rankings

According to our 2023 analysis, Lehigh is ranked #27 out of 2,018 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country. Lehigh also holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in Pennsylvania ranking.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Lehigh has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#23	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#35	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#39	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#79	Best Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Lehigh.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Polymer & Plastics Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#2	Best Managerial Economics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Biochemistry & Biophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#3	Best Finance & Financial Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#33	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Lehigh has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#5	Best Accounting Schools	College Factual
#6	Best Marketing Schools	College Factual
#11	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Graduate Degree Schools	College Factual
#20	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central
#21	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#48	Best Education Graduate Degree Schools	College Factual

Where Is Lehigh University?

Contact details for Lehigh are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	27 Memorial Drive West, Bethlehem, PA 18015
Phone:	610-758-3000
Website:	www.lehigh.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/lehighu
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/lehighu

How Do I Get Into Lehigh?

You can apply to Lehigh online at: www1.lehigh.edu/admissions/undergrad/apply

Admission Requirements for Lehigh

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into Lehigh?

You'll need to do what you can to make your application stand out if you plan to apply to Lehigh. The school screens its applicants carefully and has a fairly low acceptance rate of 50%. So, don't just throw your admission packet together at the last minute!

Approximately 52% of accepted students are men and 48% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 46%, and the acceptance rate for women is 54%.

Average Test Scores

About 70% of students accepted to Lehigh submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 610 and 693. Math scores were between 650 and 740.

Lehigh received ACT scores from 28% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 29 and 34. Math scores were between 27 and 32. Composite scores were between 29 and 33.

Can I Afford Lehigh University?

The overall average net price of Lehigh is $51,063. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Lehigh, approximately 40% of students took out student loans averaging $8,803 a year. That adds up to $35,212 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Lehigh is 0.7%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Lehigh University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 5,203 undergraduate students at Lehigh, with 5,070 being full-time and 133 being part-time.

There are also 1,864 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 5,070 full-time undergraduates at Lehigh, 53% are male and 47% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Lehigh University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	410
Black or African American	229
Hispanic or Latino	486
White	3,113
International Students	473
Other Races/Ethnicities	359

Geographic Diversity

Pennsylvania students aren't the only ones who study at Lehigh University. At this time, 37 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 89 countries are represented at Lehigh. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Iran.

Online Learning at Lehigh University

In 2019-2020, 450 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Lehigh has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 100th most popular in Pennsylvania for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Lehigh

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Lehigh University was $55,260 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how Lehigh is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Polymer & Plastics Engineering	#4	#4
International Education	#4	#4
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	#7	#7
Chemistry	#13	#13
Manufacturing Engineering	#19	#19
Entrepreneurial Studies	#27	#27
Physical Sciences	#30	#30
International Business	#43	#43
Biological & Biomedical Sciences	#46	#46
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#61	#61
Industrial Engineering	#66	#66

Online Growth Rankings of Lehigh

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Lehigh University was 9.6%. This is the #1,410 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Lehigh regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of Lehigh majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	24%
Psychology	16%

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Lehigh University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Finance & Financial Management	0	203	0	3	0	206
Mechanical Engineering	0	95	0	30	5	130
Computer Science	0	103	0	13	2	118
Industrial Engineering	0	52	1	39	4	96
Accounting	0	73	0	3	0	76
Marketing	0	69	0	4	0	73
Chemical Engineering	0	46	1	13	6	66
Civil Engineering	0	46	0	14	6	66
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	38	0	3	23	0	64
General Psychology	0	56	0	7	1	64
Business/Managerial Economics	0	59	0	0	0	59
Computer Information Systems	0	59	0	0	0	59
Educational Administration	0	0	0	56	3	59
General Business/Commerce	0	20	0	33	0	53
Business Administration & Management	0	15	0	37	0	52
Biomedical Engineering	0	38	0	4	4	46
Electrical Engineering	0	19	0	14	12	45
General Biology	0	43	0	0	0	43
Instructional Media Design	0	0	15	20	4	39
Materials Engineering	0	23	0	11	4	38
Student Counseling	0	0	16	19	0	35
Public Health	2	33	0	0	0	35
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	0	22	0	9	3	34
Political Science & Government	0	24	0	8	0	32
General English Literature	0	15	1	13	2	31
Geological & Earth Sciences	0	19	0	6	3	28
International Relations & National Security	0	26	0	0	0	26
Journalism	0	25	0	0	0	25
Computer Engineering	0	18	0	5	0	23
Design & Applied Arts	0	23	0	0	0	23
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	0	21	0	0	0	21
Mathematics	0	18	0	2	1	21
Polymer & Plastics Engineering	0	0	3	16	0	19
Physics	0	4	0	8	7	19
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	0	18	0	18
Applied Mathematics	0	0	1	15	2	18
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	0	17	0	17
Sociology	0	15	0	2	0	17
Economics	0	0	0	16	0	16
Other Education	0	0	0	15	0	15
Statistics	0	7	0	8	0	15
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	9	0	6	15
Chemistry	0	7	0	1	4	12
History	0	7	0	2	2	11
Natural Resource Management	0	0	0	11	0	11
Special Education	0	0	0	10	0	10
Environmental Engineering	0	7	0	2	1	10
Anthropology	0	9	0	0	0	9
International Studies	0	8	0	0	0	8
Natural Resources Conservation	0	5	3	0	0	8
Cognitive Science	0	7	0	0	0	7
Music	0	7	0	0	0	7
General Architecture	0	6	0	0	0	6
International Business	6	0	0	0	0	6
International Education	0	0	1	1	4	6
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	6	0	0	0	6
Philosophy	0	6	0	0	0	6
Urban & Regional Planning	0	0	4	0	0	4
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	4	0	4
Other Engineering	0	4	0	0	0	4
Area Studies	0	3	0	0	0	3
Ethnic Studies	0	2	1	0	0	3
Romance Languages	0	3	0	0	0	3
Astronomy & Astrophysics	0	3	0	0	0	3
Drama & Theater Arts	0	3	0	0	0	3
Public Relations & Advertising	0	2	0	0	0	2
Teaching English or French	0	0	1	0	0	1
Manufacturing Engineering	0	0	0	1	0	1
East Asian Languages	0	1	0	0	0	1
Germanic Languages	0	1	0	0	0	1
Health/Medical Prep Programs	0	1	0	0	0	1
Classical & Ancient Studies	0	1	0	0	0	1
Architectural History	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	0	0	0	0
Management Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0	0
Information Science	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other Computer & Information Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	0
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	0	0	0
Education Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering Physics	0	0	0	0	0	0
Writing Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
Classical Languages & Literature	0	0	0	0	0	0
Biological & Physical Science	0	0	0	0	0	0
Science, Technology & Society	0	0	0	0	0	0
Religious Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
Urban Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	46	1,388	60	533	86	2,113

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By IR393DEME under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.