Lehigh presents a great opportunity to earn a business degree at private research university, soon to be in a new space – in the Business Innovation building, expected to open this April. Coming in at No. 27 in the 2023 rankings, Lehigh has held their place, with no change since last year’s rankings.
This year, the Class of 2023 had an average acceptance rate of 38.03%, more exclusive than 2021’s rate of 44.58%. The average SAT score was high as well, at 1413, up from the Class of 2021’s score of 1404.
The school shared that a solid 87% of students from the Class of 2023 had completed business-specific internships before graduation, down only 1% from 2021’s 88%. When it comes to full-time employment, 93.48% of the Class of 2023 landed full-time employment within 3 months of graduation – up a bit from Class of 2021, 91.67% for the Class of 2021. Companies that have consistently hired Lehigh graduates include the “Big Four” accounting firms, Citigroup, Vitech Systems Group, and IBM. Other top hirers are General Electric, Accenture, Prudential, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“The new facility will include a new trading center, a dedicated communications skills lab, and more entrepreneurial and innovation space to match the new curriculum we’ve designed,” says Katrina Zalatan, Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Programs.
In the four-year program, students can choose between aBachelor of Science in Business and Economics, Integrated Business and Engineering, or Computer Science and Business. In Business and Economics, majors can be in Accounting, Economics, Finance, Business Information Systems, Marketing, Management, and Supply Chain Management. The accounting major is further split into three tracks – Public Accounting Assurance and Tax Services, Financial Services and Corporate Accounting, and Information Technology.
FUNDAMENTALS FIRST AT LEHIGH
At Lehigh, all students begin with an intro to business course to learn the fundamentals of business and a Professional Development Track to help hone in on career strengths and professional development. Students also frequent guest speaker series and professional skill workshops, and have access to faculty advisors.
“Students come to us wanting to make an impact and when they leave, they should have a clearer vision of where they fit in and can make an impact through their contributions in business. We seek to give them a clear understanding of success,” Zalatan said. “Our employers keep coming back to recruit on campus and continue to engage our students because they think highly of them. In return, our students become alumni and come back to participate in classes and mentor students in programs.”
MORE CRITICAL-SKILLS TRAINING
In the Analytics and Decision Making Sequence, students learn calculus, statistics, and a new business analytics course right from the start. They engage in hands-on programming, learn basic concepts of data collection, organization, and exploration explore decision making. They also take a more in-depth business analytics course their junior year where they engage in hands-on data analysis and practice techniques for creating effective visualizations to support business decision making.
In the Business Communications Sequence, students discuss critical issues affecting society today and are introduced to writing claims in respective conversations with others. They practice delivering evidence-driven persuasive communications including memos, reports, and presentations. In their junior year, students build on their skills and learn how to translate and analyze data, organize a narrative around data, and make persuasive recommendations.
“We’ve always had a strong focus on technical education and we’re teaching our students more about data analytics. However, students need to take that learning and communicate, sell an idea, create a narrative around that information, and make it impactful,” Zalatan said. “It’s the heart of why you have business communications and our new curriculum is designed to run alongside technical training.”
In the Leadership and Management Sequence, students engage in group projects and co-curricular activities and practice leading with impact.
STARTUP ACADEMY IN SAN FRANCISCO
For about 5 years n0w, the College of Business and the Lehigh@Nasdaq Center has hosted the Startup Academy – a 10-week internship where students gain practical experience by spending up to 40 hours per week interning with early-to-mid stage startups based in Silicon Valley or anywhere around the world.
KEEPING UP WITH INDUSTRY CHANGES
The Segal Accounting Distinguished Lecture Series is a course where speakers who are thought leaders inform students on current accounting issues from their perspective. Past speakers include Rick Petrino, Executive Vice President, Corporate Controller, and Principal Accounting Officer of American Express Company, who is also a Lehigh alum.
In line with rapid changes happening in the finance industry, the school offers a FinTech Minor consisting of four courses, with topics including disruptive technologies like cryptocurrency, business analytics, blockchain, mobile banking, cybersecurity, machine learning, and mobile trading as applied to the financial services sector.
Lehigh offers a 12-credit Business Analytics Certificate where students work on computer programming, business intelligence, computer models, and data management.
Alumni say:
“Being able to simulate the process of starting a business and pitching to investors was pertinent to my education. It showed me that when starting a business, there are countless things you must account for and take into careful consideration. It changed the way I look at new products, business endeavors, or services.”
“We had a management capstone project that really brought together everything we had learned throughout our business curriculum. It involved a simulation where our grade was correlated to how well our ‘company’ performed in the market. This simulation also involved team projects that genuinely prepared me for working with a diverse group of people, as each student in the group had a different business major and was able to offer valuable insight to help our ‘company’ perform its best.”
“I did a study abroad summer program in Prague, Czech Republic where I had an internship at Deloitte in Prague and got to work with other students there as well. It helped me gain an international perspective of business because we had to bring our experience as Americans to help recommend ideas/strategies for companies in Prague as well as act as test subjects to provide insight as to how native English speakers interact with their websites. It was all around such an incredible experience to be able to work in business in another country, and an opportunity I would not have had if I weren’t in Lehigh’s Business program.”
“As part of the IBE (Integrated Business and Engineering) program at Lehigh, I participated in the IBE Capstone project. This is a year-long project where students get to work hands-on with a local startup, entrepreneur or company that needs help developing their business plan, finding their niche market, or really anything else in the business strategy or product development space. My experience was extremely positive; my team of five students (from all different business and engineering majors) helped a local entrepreneur develop a business strategy to bring his application for creating music covers to life.”
“There was a market simulation where my team and I went through and combined all the aspects of business degrees, from accounting to advertising and supply chain. I loved not only learning how to apply these skills in a simulation of the real world, but watching how my teammates approached their challenges. We learned to rely on others because no one person could do all the work to run our virtual company.”
“My senior capstone project was working with a local healthcare provider organization.In the beginning of the project our team had very limited knowledge on the topic. However, after a year of intensive research and collaboration with industry leaders, we were able to present information that could help the company determine how to move forward with their new business venture. This directly transitioned into talking points during interviews and some of first projects as a consultant.”
Where The Class Of 2020 Went To Work:
EY LLP – 38
PwC – 25
KPMG LLP – 18
Citi – 10
Deloitte – 9
Vitech Systems Group – 5
Bank of America – 5
Charles River Development – 4
Susquehanna International Group, LLP (SIG) – 4
Link Logistics Real Estate – 4
Amazon – 4
Crowe – 4
Goldman Sachs – 4
JPMorgan – 4
Vanguard – 3
Bloomberg LP – 3
Ross Stores, Inc. – 3
W. L. Gore & Associates – 3
Lockheed Martin – 3
