Celebrating the Holiday Season with Early Decision!

Winter can be a time of great anticipation in a high school senior’s life – half of the final year in a familiar environment is over, which is stressful in and of itself. Cold weather (for many of us) and anticipation of snow days are yet another thing to pile on top. Add to that the excitement of teams and organization awards ceremonies, winter holidays (what will the awful gift from your crazy Aunt Judy be THIS year?), and of course, the college application process? When it rains, it pours.

For some, the stress will be because many colleges – like Lehigh! – have a January 1^st deadline and for others, because they’ll receive an Early Decision notice from their first choice school. The Admission staff here in Bethlehem were busy this fall, and all told, read nearly 10% more Early Decision I applications compared to last year! We started on November 15^th, and currently, applicants are being passed through our Office of Financial Aid for review.

This year, we’ll be mailing all of our Early Decision I applicants their official notification on Friday, December 16^th. This means that these students should have a decision in hand by Tuesday, December 20^th, even as Early Decision II and Regular Decision applications arrive in hopes of joining the class of 2016.

If you’re working on applications, hang in there… we’re excited to read them!

Some of the most noteworthy words and phrases so far:

perspicacious

milieu

“prodigious intellect”

“foursquare assiduity”

“oozes integrity”

mellifluous

besotted

“…made leap-and-bounce progress.”

inimitable

“…accustomed prosaic life”

assiduously

temerity

elucidate

colluding

Have a cookie (I don’t care what holiday you celebrate, cookies are delicious) and a happy, healthy and hopefully relaxing break!

Sarah Knechel

Senior Assistant Director of Admissions

sck7@lehigh.edu

The South Mountain College Learning Experience

Lehigh University offers various types of inter-disciplinary programs that allow students to work on different academic disciplines that they are passionate about. One of those programs, South Mountain College (SMC) is an integrated residential academic program dedicated to the exploration of ideas across disciplines. Situated within the College of Arts and Sciences, SMC allows students of all majors to cross explore many of their intellectual curiosities.

Each semester, students are given an overarching theme on which to focus and the options are endless from there. Students are actively involved in structuring the courses and designing their own paths of study. Students receive a strong foundation in the liberal arts as the topics they chose are conducted in small discussion-based seminars, working closely with faculty.

Below you'll find a blog entry from Madeleine, a current South Mountain College student here at Lehigh. Read below to find out what Madeleine is up to this semester!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My freshman year at Lehigh has been a whirlwind, to say the least. The new friends, teams, ideas, styles, and locations far from home have changed my life more in the past couple of months than I could have ever imagined. Before I dive in too deep though, a little background about myself will help you understand my perspective. My name is Madeleine Smith, and I am from all the way out west in Colorado. I was looking for a school that could meet my unique interests, Cognitive Science and Scientific Writing, in which I plan on double-majoring, as well as serve the ideal purpose of a well-rounded college experience. I am a varsity swimmer, and so far the season has been great, although balancing athletics and school definitely takes a lot of time management. One of the main reasons I am so pleased with my education thus far though is due to the South Mountain College Program, which allows me to explore and untangle boggling, cross-disciplinary subjects, formulating connections from my own unique perspective. Through this blog I hope to give you an inside look on the busy freshman lifestyle and the innovative program that I have found to suit me so well.

I take two SMC courses per semester—Seminar and Investigations. Seminar will change every semester (this semester, for instance, I am taking an environmental seminar) with different, devoted faculty members who volunteer to teach SMC courses. Investigations, on the other hand, provides a year-long opportunity to explore a pre-determined common theme, which we as students decide at the beginning of the year. This year we decided to study the famous modern Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Mishima serves as the “common backdrop,” so to speak, of our year in SMC. Each of the members of the course eventually branch off to pursue related interests and formulate connections highlighting the individual perspective of each and every student. Though honestly I knew absolutely nothing about Mishima before we started this investigation, I have now read quite a few of his books and have decided to study Japanese history as my final, individualized project. The project is still in the works, but I am thinking of writing a final paper or thesis and accompanying it with a creative piece. I will keep you updated, but for now it is time to go swim!

Closer to Home...

For many years, I was the West coast recruiter for Lehigh. I spent my recent fall seasons traveling around what have become some of my favorite cities to visit, like Los Angeles, San Diego, Anchorage, Seattle, Las Vegas and my most favorite city to travel to, San Francisco (fantastic seafood!). Spending up to 8 weeks in the fall roaming the left coast was a lot of fun. I tried to take advantage of all the sites these fair cities, especially the food!

As much fun as I had on the West coast, it was finally time to move my travels closer to home and not be away from my family for such long periods of time. I was surely going to miss visiting the West coast, the great meals, the sunny, warm climates but was grateful to be able to get home on a more regular basis. I even got a few surprisingly good meals this year. One was at the Stoney Brook Grill in North Branch, NJ. Very god crab cakes and fantastic waffle fries (I’m a bit obsessed with french fries in general).

It was also interesting visiting schools on the East coast, especially in places like New Jersey and Philadelphia where Lehigh is very well known as a great school. On the West coast, my job really was to educate students and counselors about all the amazing programs and opportunities the university has to offer its students. Conversely, I found this year in my travels closer to campus that students and counselors already knew a lot of the basic information about Lehigh. Therefore, it led to many specific questions about specific/obscure programs or activities or research opportunities. It was quite a change of pace but still interesting to experience.

I thought I would be disappointed not working with and traveling to the West coast. Surprisingly, I genuinely enjoyed being on the east coast for travel season. I think I forgot how nice it was to be on the East coast for Fall. It really is beautiful. The West coast will always have a warm place in my heart but it really was nice to be closer to home.

-Majed Dergham

Director of Diversity Recruitment

mad305@lehigh.edu

Experiencing the Fall (and Summer?) in New England

Wow! Where did the time go this fall? Before I knew it September had turned into October, which quickly became November. With my region in New England I could not have been in a more beautiful region of the country during these months. The foliage in Vermont was breath taking before the colors changed elsewhere. The apple orchards in New Hampshire and Maine were as tasty as ever, but the wild weather this year may have taken a toll on the poor trees. One early October morning in New Hampshire I found frost on the car. Two days later the temperature soared to 80 degrees in Maine! Each day was another surprise weather-wise. The week following Halloween forced me to read with the widespread power outages from New Hampshire all the way down the east coast to Pennsylvania.

I was pleased with the area I was able to cover in the seven weeks I was gone, ranging from the Berkshires, MA to Newport, RI to Manchester, NH, to the home of the both loved and hated Boston Red Sox. I even made it to the gigantic L.L. Bean boot in Freeport, Maine and witnessed floating hands at one school (pictured below). Even so, I always wish I could meet with more students during this time. I love offering off campus interviews to meet one-on-one with prospective students. Many of my high school visits were small groups of two to ten students, which I also enjoy very much. I had the opportunity to see many of the remarkable New England private schools that previously I had only heard about with their college campus-esque appearance and atmosphere. A fantastic fall with much anticipation to soon select a fantastic class of 2016.

Kate McAuliff

Assistant Director of Admissions

kcm210@lehigh.edu

Georgetown Cupcakes, Ben's Chili Bowl, and the Pentagon -- Lehigh Adventures in the "DMV"

Hello World,

“How you doin?” (in my best Wendy Williams voice). It’s your trusty Lehigh admissions representative Angelo Lee here and I’ve dusted off my blogging keyboard to give you the 4-1-1 about my adventurous fall travels. So sit back, relax, grab a cup of your favorite brand of hot chocolate (my favorite application reading drink by the way), and enjoy this brief snippet from my travels to the DMW (cue the orchestra…ready…and here we go…)

Now for those of you who may not be as familiar, I’m not referring to the place where you go and sit for hours on end to get a learners permit or license (hours might I add that you’ll never be able to get back…insert sad face here), but I’m talking about the area where I was born and raised – the DMV better known as the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.

Now as a graduate of a DC public school named School Without Walls (and yes, we do have walls), I always love coming back to the DMV area because not only is Lehigh a quick three hour drive down the I-95 corridor (well two and a half if you have a lead foot like mine), but I also get to experience things in DC, Maryland and Virginia that I can only find and experience in this region. Eatonsville, for example, is by far one of my new favorite DC restaurants and the crab cakes in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor are among Maryland’s best. I’m not sure if I am more of a fan of DC’s go-go music or Baltimore’s house music, but certainly neither city lacks in culture nor in musical talent.

I had some of my favorite interviews this fall while drinking hot chocolate in a Barnes & Noble in the heart of Annapolis, Maryland and the view from my hotel in Arlington, Virginia was simply amazing. I could see the city of Arlington, the Pentagon, and the entire region for as far as the eye could see. The junk food addict in me simply loves Georgetown Cupcake as well as Ben’s Chili Bowl in the District and I always make time to shop at the Fair Oaks Shopping Mall (after all of my high school visits of course) in Fairfax, Virginia where interestingly enough I participated in one of the largest and most intense college fairs that I’ve ever experienced in all of my years in college admissions (this is my seventh recruitment cycle). It’s estimated that there were more than 13,000 students and their families who attended the Fair Oaks college fair this October and I had a great Lehigh alumnus, Dan L. – Class of 1977, to keep me company. Side note, but I am always in awe of the great careers of Lehigh alumni (Dan is an engineer that works on projects for the federal government) and what’s nice is that our Career Services center can certainly assist you if you’re looking for career opportunities and internships.

(With the orchestra still playing in the background and leading up to a crescendo to the finale)…I was also able to see the new Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument in DC and contrasted to the historical juxtaposition yet beauty of the Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia, there certainly was no lapse in me seeing the sights and monuments of the DMV this travel season. What’s most important though and my absolute favorite aspect of fall travel this year is that I got to spend time with family AND I was able to get a few home cooked meals prepared by mom as well as a few loads of laundry done too, lol. It’s crazy the little things that you miss once you move away from home.

The DMV is certainly home sweet home and if you give it the opportunity, you’ll be able to say the same about Lehigh. We have information sessions twice a day (at 9:45am and 2:00pm Monday through Friday) and we would certainly welcome you to the Lehigh Valley with open arms. (End music, dramatic pause…annnnd insert applause, hahaha)

Angelo Lee

Director of Transfer Admissions

Senior Associate Director of Admissions

acl209@lehigh.edu

One of the best parts about working at Lehigh University is the opportunity that we get as staff members to interact with current students. It's amazing to see their involvement on campus and sometimes I am truly taken aback when I hear that they are not only doing great in their classes, but are also involved in a myriad of other organizations. As Admissions counselors, we love to tell prospective students about all the amazing opportunities here at Lehigh. It makes our job so much easier when we are able to specifically talk about current students' experience here on campus. One student in particular that I've had the pleasure of working with these past few months is Samantha Soto '13. She currently holds a leadership position within our Admissions Ambassador student group. Below, you'll find out what Sam is up to this Fall semester...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello! I'm Sam Soto and I'm a Junior in the College of Business and Economics here at Lehigh double majoring in Marketing and Human Resource Mangement with a minor in Psychology. After 3 years here at Lehigh I have learned that this is never a boring moment, there is always something you can be doing when you're not busy studying. To relax my friends and I always enjoy taking the free shuttle that Lehigh provides on Friday and Saturdays to the movie theater at an outdoor shopping mall nearby. The shopping mall also has some popular clothing stores and really good gourmet restaurants so sometimes we'll take the first bus and shop and have dinner before we go to the movie. It's a great way to have some time to get away from thinking about classes and any assignments you have due!

I've actually been really lucky this semester as far as classes go. A lot of my homework is reading-based and some of it involves real-world applications that I can actually use once I graduate. For example, in my HR management class we recently had an exercise where we had to read bios on four applicants to a job that we were hiring for. Each person had very unique qualifications that would help them for the position by my team and I had to choose which one we believed would be the best. Once we made our decision we had to defend it by using what we had learned about class about trends in the job market or legalities that you must follow in the recruiting process. This was an amazing exercise that I know will help me out in the future.

This past weekend was perhaps one of the most fun campus, as we celebrated our school pride. Lehigh has one of the most played college rivalries with this little college in Easton, PA (not even worth typing their name!). Overall the event was so much fun, as alumni from decades ago come back to watch the game and mingle with current students. The week before is pretty much a major school spirit week as we have tons of fun events like Bed Races going on throughout the campus. During bed races student teams of 5, 4 runners and 1 rider, race down the University Walkway on beds with wheels that are decorated to represent their organization. Tons of people showed up to cheer their organizations and groups on, and celebrate Lehigh history. And of course, we won the big game!

There are also a ton of special events that happen before and after Lehigh-Laf. Not only were there tons of Halloween events that took place on campus and off but the South Bethlehem community, where Lehigh is located, also had a "Just Desserts" event. The Just Desserts event is when different community shops create different types of desserts for ticket-holders to try. I heard that it is dangerously delicious and I have a major sweet-tooth so that is something I always look forward to! Like I said, there is always something to do in the Lehigh community and encourage anyone reading this to come and visit and see what there is to do for yourself!

Excerpts from the Road: The Milkwaukee Custard Taste-Off!

Wherever I go, I try to get the local flavor, sometimes literally. Ok, always literally. I decided that this year was the year I’d do the great Milwaukee Custard Taste-Off!

I visited Kopp’s and Leon’s, both regarded as top custard spots in the city. Although it was tempting to make sure the custard was consistent across all three Kopp’s locations, I settled for sampling just one. Each stand has standard vanilla, and rotating special flavors. On the day that I visited, Leon’s was offering chocolate and butter pecan. I tend to be a custard purist, so I went with the basic vanilla in a cone. Leon’s vanilla custard was almost a solid chuck of custard, like hard ice cream, and very tasty. It almost pulled itself off the cone because it was so incredibly thick.

Kopp’s vanilla was smoother, but by no means runny or soupy. It was also quite tasty, but then I saw the special menu. The “Peanut Butter Kopp’s” and Red Velvet cake special flavors were unbelievable! Normally, my preference is to go with the thicker, creamier frozen custard, but it’s pretty hard to beat the unique taste paired with just-slightly-less-thick custard. I might be a little biased because the special flavors were so appealing to me – had their flavor of the day been something else, Leon’s might have won.

For this trip, I’m siding with Kopp’s. But, in the spirit of the Lehigh-Lafayette rivalry, I’ll be glad to continue the challenge year after year.

Sarah Knechel '06 '08G

Senior Assistant Director

sck7@lehigh.edu

Trains, Planes, Automobiles...and Boats!

In my 8th year in the Office of Admissions at Lehigh, I experienced something new today. I took a boat to a high school visit.

As I travel internationally and often can't rent a car, I have long been reliant on public transportation to bring me to schools to meet students. I have taken planes, buses, taxis, subways, railways, motorcycles and even tuk-tuks. Today was the first time a ferry was part of the routine. I am traveling in Istanbul which is a city divided between two continents: Europe and Asia. My hotel is on the European side and my appointments for the day are on the Asian side. Rather than sitting in traffic to cross the car bridge to Asia, my taxi driver quickly veered to the right to line up for the car ferry to Asia. Perfect! Rather than sitting in traffic for an hour, we took a 15 minute ferry, sat outside on the deck and had a cup of tea. How lovely! Now, if only my commute were like this everyday!


Laura Severin
Director of International Recruitment
las204@lehigh.edu

Admissions Counselors Hit the Road

It's that time of the year! Admissions counselors spend weeks traveling to different parts of the nation and the world meeting with prospective Lehigh students. This is a very fun time of the year for us, as we are able to meet one-to-one with students interested in being members of the Class of 2016. It's great when we are thousands of miles away from Bethlehem and yet I am able to meet a prospective student at a high school visit and talk about our beautiful Linderman library or about Chicken Finger Fridays. As we enter the thick of travel season, stay tuned to read about all of our wonderful stories from the road. Also, if you have seen us out at a college fair or at your high school, let us know! We love hearing from you.


Maria Asayag
Assistant Director of Diversity Recruitment
mga210@lehigh.edu

Many Reasons to Celebrate

September 1 this year was cause for celebration for many reasons. Our students returned earlier in the week for classes, which always energizes us. We love it when the kids are on campus - they truly make this the vibrant place that it is.

Additionally, September 1 marked the return of Krista from her maternity leave. While we are thrilled that she was able to spend quality time with her little one, we couldn't be happier that Krista is back in the office every day.

September 1 also marked the start of our travel season for the staff. It was Barrett Frankel's last day in the office before she headed out on the road - one of our road-warriors, Barre covers the most of the South for several months. We wish her all the best and a safe return. One departure, though, means that many more in the coming week or two. During this time the office becomes quite quiet, despite the volume of visitors.

For these reasons, we decided to get together for a pot-luck lunch, which had an international theme. We have quite the cooks and bakers in this office (which extends to spouses). Check out our spread!

Among the many options (including the very worldly tortilla chips!) was Spanish tortilla, Thai spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce, and homemade baba ghanoush.

Seriously, we have too many fantastic bakers associated with this office....

The celebration didn't end there, though. We decided to throw Maj, who will become a father in the next month or so, a baby shower! Capping off the pot-luck lunch (where we stuffed ourselves silly), we enjoyed watching Maj open gifts. ("This is...........a blanket!," he would say proudly after reading the label.)

We had a great time coming together for this pot-luck and baby shower - reminds us of the great people we have working here.

I hope that you'll get to meet some of us while we travel this fall!

Jessica DeSantis '03 - jed305@lehigh.edu

Lehigh Goes to PACAC

One of the greatest resources for admission counselors are our colleagues and peers. PACAC held its 40th annual conference this year at the Seven Springs Ski Resort in Champion, PA. Maria and I were lucky enough to not only attend, but present a session with other counselors from Bryn Mawr college and Bucknell University. This is my fourth PACAC, and I think that my favorite part of the conference is just getting to know other counselors, and check in with old friends. All of the extra activities are a blast, too. As a runner, I was initially disappointed to miss the annual 5K, but after a 7.11 mile run where the elevation change was over 1155 feet, I'm not as chagrined.

Having educational sessions and great conversation surrounded by beautiful scenery and great food doesn't hurt, either!!




-Sarah Knechel '06, 08G
sck7@lehigh.edu

Meet one of our Summer Tour Guides!

Hi everyone,

My name is Ekom Uko. I am an International student from Nigeria and I am currently a rising sophomore at Lehigh University. I am majoring in Electrical Engineering and would also love to possibly minor in Public Affairs. I am a Diversity Delegate at Lehigh and also a Lehigh Student Ambassador, so I work a lot with the Office of Admissions and prospective students during the school year. I am presently working at Lehigh during the summer as a summer tour guide and also as a Computer Lab Monitor.

I chose to become a summer tour guide because I planned to stay here at Lehigh over the summer. I love working with prospective students and I am also totally in love with Lehigh’s beautiful campus and as a tour guide, I get to do both of those things at once. I get the opportunity to help prospective students and to also show them around this amazing campus. I have been able to answer some of the questions prospective students have concerning Lehigh or college life in general and it has been very satisfying to give these students and their parents a tour of our magnificent campus.

It always pleases me when I see them fall in love with Lehigh as well. I usually get asked the question, “So how did you choose Lehigh?” from at least one member in my tour group, and I go on to tell them how much I fell in love with the programs Lehigh offers, the people, and the campus without even one visit. Weird isn’t it? However, by the end of the tour, most of them agree with me. So just a warning to future visitors: It is extremely difficult to NOT fall in love with Lehigh after a tour. Lehigh University is a great a school, and I enjoy every second I spend here as a student.

If you would like to ask me any questions about our campus, feel free to post a comment below!