ESSAY LENS · LEHIGH

What Demo's essay should highlight at Lehigh.

Reads each school's CDS factor weights, mission and program signals against the student's hooks, activities and intended major to surface the angle the essay should orbit — not generic advice.

Profile: demoClassification: ReachLens confidence: high

Run lens against

Profiles come from the intake wizard and the My Students drawer. Changes there appear here on reload.

Institutional signals · CDS-weighted

What this school is reading the essay for.

Essay = Important

Essays are Important here — strong enough to swing a marginal file, not strong enough to rescue weak academics.

Reads for fit

Lehigh weighs applicant interest — at least one supplement (or a paragraph of the personal essay) should name a specific course, professor, lab, or program.

Institutional voice

Echo (do not parrot) the school's voice — themes like "integrated learning", "research", "service" should appear as orientation, not vocabulary.

Mission themes to echo (do not parrot)

integrated learningresearchservice

Recommended essay angles · ranked

Three theses Demo could open with — best to weakest.

How Robotics team (FRC 4-year) rebuilt how the student thinks about computer science.

Why hereEven though Lehigh doesn't over-index ECs, this is the strongest evidence the student has of sustained intellectual ownership — and that's what the essay has to prove.

Captain, 3-yr Robotics team (FRC 4-year) — Led team to state finals; grew membership 40%
Concrete impact line: "Led team to state finals; grew membership 40%"
Lead with a scene from inside Robotics team (FRC 4-year) that only this student could have written.

What it actually meant to show up to computer science as the first in their family to apply.

Why hereIdentity essays only land here if they earn the reader something concrete — make sure the student names what they did differently because of it, not just what was different about them.

Personal hooks on file: first-gen college and bilingual (Spanish).
Second-strongest activity to anchor scenes in: Founder/Director, 2-yr Founded tutoring nonprofit — 500+ tutoring hours delivered to Title I students.
Land the close on a future move at Lehigh — a course, a lab, a community — not a generic gratitude statement.

The question inside Computer Science the student can't put down — and where it came from.

Why hereLehigh is reading for fit. An intellectual-obsession essay doubles as a why-us when it lands a specific Lehigh reference at the end.

Use Founded tutoring nonprofit or a class moment as the spark — show the reader the exact instant the question landed.
Avoid resume-language ("I have always been passionate about..."). Open in scene.
Pull one named program from Lehigh's catalog (e.g. Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE); Computer Science and Business (CSB); Integrated Degree in Engineering and Arts and Sciences (IDEAS); Technical Entrepreneurship) into the closing paragraph — not as a wish list, as a logical next move.

From the student's profile

Hooks the coach should pull forward in draft one.

01Lead with: first-gen college / bilingual (Spanish) / runs a tutoring nonprofit.
02Intended major (Computer Science) maps to a named Lehigh program — say so explicitly in the closing paragraph.
03Use Robotics team (FRC 4-year) as the scene-setter, not the punchline — open inside it, don't end on it.

Supplemental prompt library · 2024-25

Every Lehigh supplement — with a recommended angle for this student.

Filter

Why Us · 150w

“How did you first learn about Lehigh University and what motivated you to apply?”

Anchor in

Name Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE); Computer Science and Business (CSB); Integrated Degree in Engineering and Arts and Sciences (IDEAS); Technical Entrepreneurship and one specific course/lab inside it.
Name one place on or off campus the student would actually go (residential college, lab, club, neighborhood spot in Bethlehem).

Why this matters here

Lehigh weights applicant interest as Important — this prompt is the single most diagnostic essay in the file. Generic "prestige + location" answers get filed below the cut line.

Draft move

Open in scene; close on a future move at Lehigh. No introductions, no conclusions.

Avoid

Don't list "prestige, weather, dining hall." Don't quote Lehigh's mission statement. Don't recycle this paragraph for two schools.

Why Us · 300w

“What about being a student at Lehigh most excites you? How do you imagine yourself contributing to and being shaped by the Lehigh community?”

Anchor in

Name Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE); Computer Science and Business (CSB); Integrated Degree in Engineering and Arts and Sciences (IDEAS); Technical Entrepreneurship and one specific course/lab inside it.
Name one place on or off campus the student would actually go (residential college, lab, club, neighborhood spot in Bethlehem).
Lead with: first-gen college / bilingual (Spanish). Show, don't list.

Why this matters here

Lehigh weights applicant interest as Important — this prompt is the single most diagnostic essay in the file. Generic "prestige + location" answers get filed below the cut line.

Draft move

Spend 60% on a single concrete scene, 40% on what changed. Don't try to do two stories.

Avoid

Don't list "prestige, weather, dining hall." Don't quote Lehigh's mission statement. Don't recycle this paragraph for two schools.

Source: https://admissions.lehigh.edu/apply Cycle 2024-25 · authored

Working drafts · copy & hand to the student

Prompts the coach can paste into a doc today.

Common App personal statement — primary draft

Draft a 650-word Common App essay built around: "How Robotics team (FRC 4-year) rebuilt how the student thinks about computer science." Open in a single scene from Robotics team (FRC 4-year). End on the next move — what changed about how you'll show up next.

Lehigh supplement — direct fit

Draft a 250-word "Why Lehigh" supplement. Open with the question you couldn't put down (from the personal essay). Land on one specific Lehigh program (start from: Integrated Business and Engineering (IBE); Computer Science and Business (CSB); Integrated Degree in Engineering and Arts and Sciences (IDEAS); Technical Entrepreneurship) and one specific community or place on campus you'd join.

Backup angle — only if lead draft stalls

Backup draft: "What it actually meant to show up to computer science as the first in their family to apply." Use this if the lead draft doesn't earn its 650 words after round 2 of edits.

Supplements

Other essays in the Lehigh application to plan around.

Why Lehigh

Treated as a real admissions signal here (Important). Name one course, one professor or lab, and one community — and explain what the student would *do* there in week one.

Anti-patterns

What to keep out of a Lehigh draft.

At Lehigh (Reach), the essay is the most controllable lever the student has. Treat it as a 4-draft minimum.
Don't reuse the Common App essay verbatim as the supplement — at minimum, swap the closing paragraph to name something concrete at Lehigh.
Don't open with a quote from the school's mission statement. Admissions reads its own copy back to itself in 30%+ of essays each cycle.
Avoid: Lack of demonstrated interest or a generic application

Lens generated from Lehigh's 2023-2024 CDS factor weights, published mission, and the on-file student profile. Re-run the lens after the next session to capture new activities or hooks.