Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been coeducational since the 1971-72 academic year., the university had 5,911 undergraduate students and 1,781 graduate students. The university is classified as "Doctoral Universities R1: Very High Research Activity".
Campuses
Lehigh University is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the historically industrial Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. As of 2025, Lehigh encompasses, including of recreational and playing fields, and 150 buildings comprising four million square feet of floor space.It is organized into three contiguous campuses on and around South Mountain, including:
- The Asa Packer Campus, built into the northern slope of the mountain, the university's original and primary campus;
- The Mountaintop Campus, atop South Mountain, including intramural sports fields, Imbt Laboratories, and Iacocca Hall; and
- The Murray H. Goodman Campus, immediately south in Lower Saucon, including Goodman Stadiumand most of Lehigh University's sports facilities.
Administration
As a private institution, Lehigh University is governed by its board of trustees, established in 1866.Student governance
In 1988, a student senate was created at the university to act as a governing body for undergraduate students, though it is empowered only to offer recommendations to the university's board. Still, the student senate still has an impact as it determines which clubs receive funding and which are authorized to be listed as official university clubs. A separate student senate exists for graduate students.Academics
, Lehigh has 584 full-time faculty members, with 95% holding a doctorate degree or the highest degree in their field.The university offers undergraduate enrollment to all its colleges except its College of Education. The university operates on a semester system.
Colleges
College of Arts and Sciences
Based in Maginnes Hall, the College of Arts and Sciences offers a variety of humanities courses and visual arts programs and many music programs, including a marching band, the Wind Ensemble, and the Philharmonic orchestra. It has a dedicated Humanities Center, which is the site for many literature and other arts-based programs, including the Drown Writers Series. Lehigh also has a program called ArtsLehigh, oriented towards enhancing interest in the arts on campus.College of Business
Lehigh introduced business and economics classes in 1893, with the first dedicated classes in economics being offered in 1897 and the first professor of economics being hired by the school, John L. Stewart, in 1898. Stewart is credited with creating the College of Business in 1918, establishing its original courses and teaching most of the classes himself. The college's inaugural class of 1922 numbered just 77. Through the 1930s the College of Business Administration stayed consistent, with around 10 professors and 350 students, and in 1938 was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, with enrollment that year jumping to 465, or 25% of the total student body. In 1952 the College of Business Administration began offering a five-year course in Industrial engineering and business, as well as graduate courses for Master of Business Administration degrees and was expanded to include Master of Science degrees by 1964. In 1957 the college moved from Coppée Hall to the purpose-built Drown Hall.College of Education
More than 7,000 students have received master's, education specialist, Pennsylvania Department of Education teaching certificates and certifications, doctoral degrees, and professional certificates from Lehigh's College of Education as of 2018.P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
Graduates of Lehigh's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science invented the escalator and founded Packard Motor Car Company and the companies that built the locks and lockgates of the Panama Canal. Other notable alumni include Roger Penske, Lee Iacocca, John W. Fisher, and Terry Hart. Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, was founded at Lehigh. In 2005, George Tamaro, a Lehigh University master's degree in civil engineering alumnus, was the John Fritz Medal award recipient, issued by the American Association of Engineering Societies.College of Health
Lehigh's College of Health offers classes in biostatistics, epidemiology, population health data science, and others related to population health. The college opened on August 21, 2020, and was the first in the world to offer undergraduate, graduate, and executive degrees in population health. It is based at the Health, Science, and Technology building which opened in January 2022.Undergraduate admissions
Admission to Lehigh University is classified as "more selective" by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Princeton Review gives Lehigh an "Admissions Selectivity Rating" of 95 out of 99.In 2024, Lehigh University received 20,396 applications and admitted 5,289 students, resulting in an acceptance rate of 25%. Of those admitted, 1,501 students enrolled, yielding a matriculation rate of about 28%. Among the incoming Class of 2028, 50% of students submitted standardized test scores. For these students, the middle 50% SAT scores ranged from 1420 to 1520, and the ACT scores ranged from 32 to 35.
In 2023, the university received 18,415 applications. It extended offers of admission to 5,389 applicants, or 29%, after holistic review that includes examination of academic rigor, performance and admissions test scores. 1,531 accepted students chose to enroll, a yield rate of 28%. Of the 33% of incoming students in 2023 who submitted SAT scores, the interquartile range was 1370–1480; of the 10% of incoming students in 2023 who submitted ACT scores, the interquartile range was 31–33.
Rankings
In its 2024 ranking of best U.S. colleges, The Wall Street Journal, which ranks on the basis of student outcomes, learning environment, and diversity, that analysis ranked Lehigh as 14th-best, overall, for that year. In the 2025 edition of "Best Colleges Ranking" published by the U.S. News & World Report, a site which does not report its methodology on its reporting page, Lehigh was ranked 46th, in the "National Universities" category, with the following further category rankings: 25th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", 26th for "Best Value Schools", tied for 51st for "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs", and 45th for "Most Innovative Schools".Along with three other Pennsylvania colleges, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Lafayette College in Easton, and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Lehigh was a 2020 recipient of the Campus Sustainability Achievement Award issued by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in commemoration of its participation in the Solar Collaboration Project.
Lehigh University was nationally ranked in 2024, as
1st in "Best Science Lab Facilities", 10th for “Best College Library”, and 15th for "Most Beautiful Campus" according to The Princeton Review. Additionally, it holds the 2nd spot for "Best College Newspaper", 3rd in “Their Students Love These Colleges”, 16th in “Best Career Placement ”, 24th in “Top Green Colleges”, 30th in “Best Value Colleges ”, and ranks 4th for "Lots of Race/Class Interaction".
According to PayScale's 2024 report, Lehigh ranks 1st among schools nationally for business majors by salary potential, with an early career median pay of $95,300 and a mid-career median pay of $194,900. Lehigh ranks 12th among universities for bachelor's degree salary potential, with a mid-career median salary of $147,300. Lehigh University ranks 26th among schools nationally for computer science majors by salary potential and 34th among schools nationally for engineering majors by salary potential.
In the 2024-2025 Forbes rankings of America's Top Colleges, Lehigh is ranked 64th overall, 44th among private colleges, 49th among research universities, and 28th among institutions in the Northeast.
Lehigh University's College of Business is ranked 23rd in Poets&Quants' 2023 list of Best Undergraduate Business Schools. This reflects a rise from 27th place in 2022. Additionally, the university's part-time, online FLEX MBA program is ranked 13th among online MBA programs by Poets&Quants for 2025.
In 2023, U.S. News & World Report has identified Lehigh University's 1-MBA program as ranking 5th in the United States in salary-to-debt ratio. The publication recently evaluated MBA programs by the highest return on investment by examining starting salary-to-debt ratio from its 2023-2024 Best Business Schools ranking.
In 2018, U.S. News & World Report ranked Lehigh's part-time MBA program 20th in the nation.
In 2012, BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh's College of Business 31st in the nation among undergraduate business programs. In 2012, BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh the seventh-best overall undergraduate finance program in the nation, and ranked its undergraduate accounting program the 21st-best in the nation.
In 2012, Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review named Lehigh the 24th- best undergraduate college for entrepreneurship.