Lehigh’s supplemental essays are pretty short, so it’s kinda’ useful to think of them as Polaroid pictures. They’re simple snapshots that speak to memories and moments that meant enough for you to want to capture them.
And remember, just like Polaroid pictures, the Lehigh supplementals can take a little time to develop. Waiting can be frustrating, but when the photo fully emerges, it’s a reminder of where you’ve been and what you value.
Want to get a better sense of what Lehigh is looking for? You’ll find an extensive, by-the-numbers look at its offerings, from enrollment and tuition statistics to student life and financial aid information, on its Common Data Set. For deep insights into how this private research university envisions student success (and how it wants to grow and evolve), read its strategic priorities. Reading through this will give you a strong idea of Lehigh’s values.
What are the Lehigh University supplemental essay prompts?
Lehigh University Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
For applicants to the 5-year dual degree Arts-Engineering program: How will the 5-year dual degree Arts-Engineering program, which requires a major in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering, allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals?*
OR
For applicants to the Computer Science & Business program: What makes the Computer Science and Business (CSB) program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For applicants to the Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts & Sciences program: What makes the Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts & Sciences (IDEAS) Honors Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For applicants to the Integrated Business & Engineering (IBE) Honors program: What makes the Integrated Business & Engineering (IBE) Honors Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For Applicants to the College of Arts and Science program: How will the unique combination of college, program, major and/or 4+1 program that you selected above allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals? (200 words)
OR
For Applicants to the College of Business program: How will the unique combination of college, program, major and/or 4+1 program that you selected above allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals? (200 words)
OR
For Applicants to the Integrated Business and Health Programs (IBH): What makes the Integrated Business & Health (IBH) Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals?
Lehigh University Supplemental Essay Prompt #2
How did you first learn about Lehigh University and what motivated you to apply? (200 words)
Lehigh University Supplemental Essay Prompt #3
At Lehigh, we believe in pausing to celebrate the good—meaningful moments that bring joy, pride or motivation.
What’s something great happening in your life right now?
It could be an accomplishment, a personal win (big or small) or something you’re genuinely excited about. If it matters to you, we’d love to hear about it. (200 words)
How to Write Each Supplemental Essay Prompt for Lehigh University
how to write Lehigh Supplemental Essay Prompt #1
For applicants to the 5-year dual degree Arts-Engineering program: How will the 5-year dual degree Arts-Engineering program, which requires a major in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering, allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals?*
OR
For applicants to the Computer Science & Business program: What makes the Computer Science and Business (CSB) program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For applicants to the Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts & Sciences program: What makes the Integrated Degree in Engineering, Arts & Sciences (IDEAS) Honors Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For applicants to the Integrated Business & Engineering (IBE) Honors program: What makes the Integrated Business & Engineering (IBE) Honors Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals? (150 words)
OR
For Applicants to the College of Arts and Science program: How will the unique combination of college, program, major and/or 4+1 program that you selected above allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals? (200 words)
OR
For Applicants to the College of Business program: How will the unique combination of college, program, major and/or 4+1 program that you selected above allow you to achieve your educational or professional goals? (200 words)
OR
For Applicants to the Integrated Business and Health Programs (IBH):What makes the Integrated Business & Health (IBH) Program the best fit for your academic and/or professional goals?
Arts-Engineering, IDEAS, IBE, and CSB applicants, this one’s for you! (Not applying to these programs? Head down to Prompt 2. )
Think of both of these as primarily “Why us?” prompts, with an option to sprinkle in a bit of “Why Major?” background and detail, but strictly for the program you’ve chosen, not Lehigh as a whole (save that for Prompt 2). A lot of the same principles will apply here, so we’ve taken the “Why us?” prompt advice and tweaked it for these, and the shorter word budgets:
Spend 1 hr+ researching 5-7 reasons why the program you’re applying to might be a great fit for you (ideally 3-4 of the reasons will be unique to that program and connect back to you).
Make a copy of this chart to map out your research.
Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 (recommended), or 3 in the full guide above.
Write a first draft!
We don’t have a Lehigh-specific example essay for this prompt yet, but if you’re applying to either program, check out the “Why us?” and “Why Major?” guides linked above for guidance, examples, and analysis—your approach here will be the same.
how to write Lehigh Supplemental Essay Prompt #2
How did you first learn about Lehigh University and what motivated you to apply? (200 words)
This is a short “Why us?” essay.
Because it’s so short, the key here is to find 2-3 things that set Lehigh apart from all the other schools you’re applying to.
Here’s the “Why us?” essay guide—in this case, the Cornell example is probably the best to check out. We talk a bit about how to tackle the shorter version of the “Why us?,” and the Tufts essay is a great example of that.
Here’s the short version of the guide:
Spend 1 hr+ researching 10+ reasons why [University] might be a great fit for you (ideally 3-5 of the reasons will be unique to [University] and connect back to you).
Make a copy of this chart to map out your college research.
Create an outline for your essays based on either Approach 1, 2 (recommended), or 3 in the full guide above.
Write a first draft!
As you write, try to avoid these common mistakes:
Mistake #1: Writing about the school's size, location, reputation, weather, or ranking.
Mistake #2: Simply using emotional language to demonstrate fit.
Mistake #3: Screwing up the mascot, stadium, team colors or names of any important people or places on campus.
Mistake #4: Parroting the brochures or website language.
Mistake #5: Describing traditions the school is well-known for.
Mistake #6: Thinking of this as only a "Why them" essay.
A word about the essay below: We know what this student did sounds super-impressive, but you don’t have to start a non-profit or produce your own eyewear to stand out in this essay. In fact, we believe this makes a great example not for the details he writes about but how he writes about them. Check out the Tips + Analysis section to see what we mean.
Example:
I intend to major in mechanical engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship. I’m in the early stages of designing a portable optical machine to produce durable eyeglass frames through my non-profit. The resources and opportunities at Lehigh--from the Baker Institute to the Hatchery, LehighSiliconValley program, Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, and faculty mentorship--will help me make my optical device a reality.
At Lehigh’s full-day VIEW program, I learned about the TE Capstone program that follows the IPD process created at Lehigh. This program offers the opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary team on real-world, industry-sponsored projects, such as medical devices or electric motor brakes, and allows students to put theory into practice.
In addition to academics, Lehigh offers many clubs that interest me, including Formula SAE and ASME. Fitness and competitive sports will always play a central role in my life, so I plan to join club soccer and golf. (148 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Be as specific as possible in your intro. Notice how this student isn’t just direct by getting right to the meat of the essay; they’re specific. They zoom in on a unique, interdisciplinary combination—a mechanical engineering major and a minor in entrepreneurship—then detail just how those offerings would help them design the device they’re working on. Your interests may not be so granular—in fact, you may still be undecided as to your major or career path. That’s okay too. The key is leading with that one special thing that Lehigh offers that you can’t find most anywhere else. Being direct and specific, as exemplified here, can have the added benefit of expressing a clear-eyed understanding of why you and Lehigh are a perfect match. Speaking of specifics ...
Use as many Lehigh specifics as you can. Because of the tight word budget, we recommend above that you research 2-3 examples of Lehigh opportunities that interest you, but this essay is a great example of how you can fit in even more details and not make it sound like a droll recitation of the course directory. In fact, we count 11 aspects of Lehigh’s academics and campus life that this student is excited about. You don’t have to have that many, of course—the key is to find those you’re truly jazzed about, and connect at least a couple of them back to things you’ve done or plan to do.
Don’t forget about the first part of the prompt. The prompt doesn’t just ask, “Why us?” It also wants to know how you “first learned about Lehigh.” This student attended its “full-day VIEW program,” which is great, but don’t think you have to have had a similar intensive experience on its campus. That’s not too realistic in the COVID era anyway. Maybe you have a friend who goes there and raves about the place, or maybe Lehigh came up in your research on “best colleges in X major.” Whatever your answer is, use this as another chance to explain why you’re excited about being a Mountain Hawk.
Try to show variety in your interests. College is about more than academics, and Lehigh has some robust out-of-the-classroom opportunities that can make for a well-rounded, fulfilling college experience. By broadening your “Why Lehigh” reasons to clubs, organizations and activities—as this student does with the Formula SAE and ASME clubs and plans to join the club soccer and golf teams—you can show Lehigh that you plan to play an active role in its campus community.
If you have to choose, pick substance over style. With a pretty tight word limit, you want every character to count. If you feel like you can be poetic and coherently convey why Lehigh is the school for you, go for it. If that seems impossible, it’s okay to prioritize content over poetry, as this author does.
how to write Lehigh Supplemental Essay Prompt #3
How to pick a topic:
One option: Spend a few minutes building a broad list of things that bring you joy (from the huge to the seemingly mundane).
And here it may be useful to differentiate “joy” from “happiness”—one way joy was traditionally defined is as a “deep sense of connection to the good.”
What gives you that sense?
Wandering in the woods by your house, alone or with your best friend? Some kind of success after a long, involved process? Time with family and loved ones? A pet project you started to improve your community? A hobby you do for the fun of it? Diving deep into cosmology?
There are ways this prompt is very similar to Stanford’s old “what’s meaningful and why” and “what makes you generally excited about learning” prompts. Check out that crash course here for discussions and examples of those.
Here are some example essays written for similar prompts from other schools, with tips + analysis:
Example:
Whispers and giggles in the dark. I step on a knee and climb up to the blue awnings above the elementary school playground. Lying flat on our backs with eyes pointed to the sky, we are eager for a glimpse of the twinkling lights above. Surrounded by my best friends, my squad, my people, my family—I never feel more at home. Free from the world below, nothing is off-limits. Our hopes, dreams, and fears are shared as the stars reflect off our eyes.
Other times I contemplate the stars in solitude. My mind quiets, the wheels stop churning, and I am alone with my thoughts. Staring up at the night sky filled with balls of burning gas, I realize those stars are a window into the past—millions of years ago. My brain immediately wanders to what Earth was like when those stars were still burning. Humans weren’t roaming. The ideas I love to analyze were not yet conceived. The history books I love to read weren’t written. Human history, our history, hadn’t even started.
For that magical moment, lying there and gazing up at those stars, I can catch my breath. I escape from a world that only seems to get busier and more stressful every day. Looking up in wonder, I feel nothing but peace. Stargazing brings me joy. (220 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Sprinkle in details that show more values. This student does a great job of sprinkling in details that illustrate even more values beyond what they might’ve already shared. They write about stargazing in relation to being surrounded by loved ones (values: maybe close connections, family, friendship, or community), but also in solitude, the ability to wonder and contemplate while alone—showing yet more sides of them that may have not been as apparent in other areas of their application.
Sneak in other interests. While stargazing is the main focus of this essay, this student finds a way to connect this topic to the history books they love to read.
Experiment with structure. You might notice that this student doesn’t directly name “stargazing” as what brings them joy until the very end. In fact, they only use the word once in the entire essay! The key to making this work is leaving enough clues early on so that the reader can pinpoint the activity pretty quickly (they talk about looking up at the sky, the stars, balls of burning gas). Whether you decide to name the topic at the very beginning like the other example essays, or at the end like this one, or maybe even in the middle, try experimenting with structure to see what works for you. You might surprise yourself.
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Example:
Hirigana’s grace, katakana’s vigor, kanji’s wisdom.
Hand-lettering these Japanese scripts in a Kyoto calligraphy class showed me typography’s power to elicit emotion. I found thrilling nuance in the tiniest details, from the precision spacing of raised ink onto washi to the personality injected through stylized kamon. This glimpse sparked my obsession with how fonts can subconsciously shape our perceptions and decisions.
I started noticing typography’s silent hand everywhere—in PowerPoint’s default Calibri telegraphing monotony; in my favorite book covers’ fluid hand-lettering whispering imagination. Diving into research papers and TED talks on font psychology, I learned how our split-second reactions to typefaces are informed by biases like the availability heuristic—judging a font’s meaning by the ease of associating it with past experiences (hence why I feel like a 5-year-old when reading something in Comic Sans).
Soon I was conducting my own experiments, probing into how design choices engage audiences. While refining Codin’s app interface, I was eager to iteratively A/B test not just layouts but subtle typographic elements—provoking amused head shakes from my team when I insisted on quantitatively evaluating the "spark joy" levels of various fonts. I also began leveraging typefaces to craft the narrative of my videos—using modern serifs to connote progress in how-to tutorials and whimsical scripts to evoke wanderlust in travelogues.
And now, the detective-like thrill of uncovering the hidden messages conveyed in the typefaces all around us—from highway billboards to restaurant menus—has trained my mind to find joy in the subtle details. (246 words)
Tips + Analysis
Show the greatness. This student mentions diving into research papers, listening to TED talks, and conducting their own experiments. This not only showcases the student’s excitement, but also shows us the level of dedication to something they’re deeply interested in and find meaningful.
Weave in your experiences. This student works in a variety of their previous experiences, from a Kyoto calligraphy class, to A/B testing, to video creation. While some of these may have shown up in their activities list or additional information section (or maybe even none at all), weaving in relevant experiences could either give readers a glimpse into a new side of your life, or at least gives readers the backstory for how some of these more unique activities came to be and how they mesh together.
Tie the joy to another quality or skill. The student centers a majority of their essay on their interest in typography, giving us examples for how they’ve explored the topic. However, this student concludes their example with this line: “…uncovering the hidden messages conveyed in the typefaces all around us… has trained my mind to find joy in the subtle details.” By writing about this interest and sprinkling hints throughout (e.g. “thrilling nuance in the tiniest details”, “typography’s silent hand”, “detective-like thrill of uncovering hidden messages”), they have also been able to call attention to their skill of being detail-oriented.
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Here’s one more example:
Example:
In climbing, if you’re trying hard, you spend a lot more time falling down than actually going up; more time at the bottom looking up than at the top looking down. It’s a sport that requires patience and perseverance, and where failure means you’re pushing yourself. Apart from incredible physical strength, climbing requires technique and being able to quickly solve puzzles--reading routes. I suppose that is why I love it. Everything I do, I go full-throttle. Climbing pushes me to break down mental and physical barriers. I enjoy finding solutions to problems, putting the puzzle pieces together, reading the moves on a climb. I can work on something hard for weeks, months even, to finally see it come together perfectly. I read the route, try the beta, fall often, reevaluate, and try a different approach. The only way I get better is by trying routes so hard that I fall. (150 words)
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And here’s an essay written for a similar prompt for MIT that works well.
Example:
My great-grandpa’s eyes twinkle as my 5-year-old self struggles to stir the giant pot of cioppino. Like this traditional seafood dish, I too am an Italian-American originating from California.
My very loud family crowds my house each holiday, relegating me to an air mattress, a sacrifice I’m more than willing to make. The rooms fill with stories and laughter as we down pizzelles and compete in a cutthroat cookie-decorating contest.
Likewise, my California beginnings, though brief, had a sizable impact on my life. I was a year old when we left, but California’s adventurous culture is part of my identity, reinforced by annual trips to visit relatives. From hiking San Jacinto Peak, to days at Disneyland, where my grandparents and mom worked, each excursion left me giddily exhausted.
The true centerpiece of our get-togethers isn’t the cioppino, but the stories and experiences that connect us as family. (147 words)
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Tips + Analysis
Delight with detail. Great-grandpa’s “eyes twinkle” as a 5-year-old stirs a pot of cioppino. The kids sleep on air mattresses when the family comes. They eat pizzelles and hike San Jacinto Peak. (Pro tip: Proper nouns catch the reader's eye and almost always add unique and interesting info.) The specificity in this answer conveys precise data about multiple aspects of this student’s identity (Italian-American, big family, California roots).
Values, values, values. This essay enthralls with food and fun, but ii’s ultimately talking about the importance of family and knowing where you come from. Why is it important to you to share this piece of your identity? Why do you value it, and why should Caltech?
Reflect, reflect, reflect. Notice how the final lines of this essay evince the student’s capacity for self-reflection. We believe this is a highly-prized quality that Caltech and all schools are looking for because it shows maturity and higher-order thinking. By zooming out on what you’ve shared, you’ll want to ask yourself: What’s the meaning that you find in it?
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Special thanks to Jessica B. for contributing to this post.
Jessica has a Ph.D in English from the University of Southern California and teaches English at a Los Angeles-area independent school, where she has also been English department chair and a class dean. Sandra Cisneros is her hero, and she loves books, her awesomely-sarcastic family, the beach, cozy sweaters, and more books. Oh, and her sweet pitbull/lab mix named Ruby.
Top values: Curiosity, equity, wonder
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