Elon University - is it as good as it "looks"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah that's what i meant. get a life.

not everyone is cut out for ivies. and more importantly, not everyone can get into an ivy. if your child can get into an ivy, doesn't absolutely hate the place when they visit, and your family can afford it, why wouldn't you go there?

Elon is not an ivy league school. I don't think it would be realistic to suggest otherwise. Elon's peer schools are places like College of Charleston, Richmond, Furman, W+L, Wake Forest, though I would agree it is probably a little easier to get into than most of those schools and a tick below on the academic qualifications of its students.

But Elon graduates can and do succeed in graduate school and the workplace. I'm proud of my school and proud of its graduates. It's a wonderful, special place and I think it really prepared me for what came after. Just one person's story.

This is pretty accurate except for the Wake part. Elon is miles below Wake.

And since W&L is clearly superior to Wake....

[Anonymous]

Bump. Most of the comments above were pretty negative. What do people think of Elon now (frankly I never heard about it until I started reading this board).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah that's what i meant. get a life.

not everyone is cut out for ivies. and more importantly, not everyone can get into an ivy. if your child can get into an ivy, doesn't absolutely hate the place when they visit, and your family can afford it, why wouldn't you go there?

Elon is not an ivy league school. I don't think it would be realistic to suggest otherwise. Elon's peer schools are places like College of Charleston, Richmond, Furman, W+L, Wake Forest, though I would agree it is probably a little easier to get into than most of those schools and a tick below on the academic qualifications of its students.

But Elon graduates can and do succeed in graduate school and the workplace. I'm proud of my school and proud of its graduates. It's a wonderful, special place and I think it really prepared me for what came after. Just one person's story.

This is pretty accurate except for the Wake part. Elon is miles below Wake.

And since W&L is clearly superior to Wake....

As an Ivy grad who hires students, I can tell you that I really don't give a kid who went to W&L or Wake any edge over one who went to Elon. All I care about is what the kid studied, whether he/she made the most of his time at the school, and how he/she presents in person. You can fuss over the pecking order among these schools if you want, but it's inside baseball that doesn't count for very much in the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you live in NC, it isn't looked upon so highly, more like middle of the road, I'd say.

PP here, I don't mean it is looked down on, but it isn't a UNC/Duke/Wake caliber.

+1. I'm from NC, and it's where kids looked if they couldn't get into Duke, Wake, Davidson, UNC or NC State. Prestige wise, probably in line with or below second tier NC State Schools (UNC Charlotte, etc) and privates like Guilford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah that's what i meant. get a life.

not everyone is cut out for ivies. and more importantly, not everyone can get into an ivy. if your child can get into an ivy, doesn't absolutely hate the place when they visit, and your family can afford it, why wouldn't you go there?

Elon is not an ivy league school. I don't think it would be realistic to suggest otherwise. Elon's peer schools are places like College of Charleston, Richmond, Furman, W+L, Wake Forest, though I would agree it is probably a little easier to get into than most of those schools and a tick below on the academic qualifications of its students.

But Elon graduates can and do succeed in graduate school and the workplace. I'm proud of my school and proud of its graduates. It's a wonderful, special place and I think it really prepared me for what came after. Just one person's story.

This is pretty accurate except for the Wake part. Elon is miles below Wake.

And since W&L is clearly superior to Wake....

As an Ivy grad who hires students, I can tell you that I really don't give a kid who went to W&L or Wake any edge over one who went to Elon. All I care about is what the kid studied, whether he/she made the most of his time at the school, and how he/she presents in person. You can fuss over the pecking order among these schools if you want, but it's inside baseball that doesn't count for very much in the real world.

+100
Well said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah that's what i meant. get a life.

not everyone is cut out for ivies. and more importantly, not everyone can get into an ivy. if your child can get into an ivy, doesn't absolutely hate the place when they visit, and your family can afford it, why wouldn't you go there?

Elon is not an ivy league school. I don't think it would be realistic to suggest otherwise. Elon's peer schools are places like College of Charleston, Richmond, Furman, W+L, Wake Forest, though I would agree it is probably a little easier to get into than most of those schools and a tick below on the academic qualifications of its students.

But Elon graduates can and do succeed in graduate school and the workplace. I'm proud of my school and proud of its graduates. It's a wonderful, special place and I think it really prepared me for what came after. Just one person's story.

This is pretty accurate except for the Wake part. Elon is miles below Wake.

And since W&L is clearly superior to Wake....

Can't disagree more that W&L is "clearly superior" to Wake........if anything they're running even these days. Check out the starting salaries (forget about US News rankings....[recall that W&L got caught with its hand in the cookie jar "fudging" its application numbers] as they're useless) for their grads....those numbers tend to run even and grads from both schools are gainfully employed or attending great graduate schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yeah that's what i meant. get a life.

not everyone is cut out for ivies. and more importantly, not everyone can get into an ivy. if your child can get into an ivy, doesn't absolutely hate the place when they visit, and your family can afford it, why wouldn't you go there?

Elon is not an ivy league school. I don't think it would be realistic to suggest otherwise. Elon's peer schools are places like College of Charleston, Richmond, Furman, W+L, Wake Forest, though I would agree it is probably a little easier to get into than most of those schools and a tick below on the academic qualifications of its students.

But Elon graduates can and do succeed in graduate school and the workplace. I'm proud of my school and proud of its graduates. It's a wonderful, special place and I think it really prepared me for what came after. Just one person's story.

This is pretty accurate except for the Wake part. Elon is miles below Wake.

And since W&L is clearly superior to Wake....

As an Ivy grad who hires students, I can tell you that I really don't give a kid who went to W&L or Wake any edge over one who went to Elon. All I care about is what the kid studied, whether he/she made the most of his time at the school, and how he/she presents in person. You can fuss over the pecking order among these schools if you want, but it's inside baseball that doesn't count for very much in the real world.

I like you, PP. My DC, a junior, will be looking at Elon.

[Anonymous]

Another NC native here. While the campus is pretty, Burlington is a little shithole of a town. I'd hate to be stuck there -- it's not a 'cute college town' or a 'pretty rural environment' ...it's got a Cheesecake Factory, an outlet mall, and access to a couple interstates you have to drive a good ways on to get anywhere worthwhile.

That being said, it's a OK school. Good second tier. I wouldn't have my kid go there versus say, JMU if we were going to get in-state tuition there or somewhere similar. Not worth $20k more a year. But for a free or heavily-discounted ride -- different story. It's a 'hey, you went to college and got a degree' kind of place, not a name that opens doors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another NC native here. While the campus is pretty, Burlington is a little shithole of a town. I'd hate to be stuck there -- it's not a 'cute college town' or a 'pretty rural environment' ...it's got a Cheesecake Factory, an outlet mall, and access to a couple interstates you have to drive a good ways on to get anywhere worthwhile.

That being said, it's a OK school. Good second tier. I wouldn't have my kid go there versus say, JMU if we were going to get in-state tuition there or somewhere similar. Not worth $20k more a year. But for a free or heavily-discounted ride -- different story. It's a 'hey, you went to college and got a degree' kind of place, not a name that opens doors.

A lot of successful people don't need a college name to open doors.

[Anonymous]

I know 5 people who went there. Three are now stay at home moms, one is a secretary, and one is a club promoter.

[Anonymous]

I've heard from someone who sent a child there that it is a big party school and lots of drugs. True?

[Anonymous]

Is there ANY school out there that doesn't claim to be for "A-B" students? The people I knew that went to Elon were C-D students with the occasional F and horrible SAT's. All had wealthy parents though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know 5 people who went there. Three are now stay at home moms, one is a secretary, and one is a club promoter.

I graduated Elon within the last decade, so clearly I have a much larger sample size than you, but I know many successful alumni in both industry and post-graduate educational pursuits.

Multiple classmates who went to top-14 law schools and now practice in Biglaw, others who received MBA's and doctorate degrees from Columbia, UNC-CH, Cornell, UVA, and other similar schools with strong reputations and pedigree.

One is the youngest-ever Regional Vice President at a financial services firm with $506 billion in assets, another is an SVP at a top-3 multinational commercial real estate firm.

Another is a "first 10" employee at a start up company that was valued between $8-10 billion this year. I know a couple who are now college professors at very reputable institutions, and many who work in public service at the state and federal levels. Countless others are gainfully employed in "normal" (read: perfectly acceptable) jobs in corporate America.

Do I know a couple of folks who moved out West and became ski instructors or moved back home to their hometown and haven't really put their education to use? Sure. But I also know some Ivy league graduates from my competitive Bethesda high school who did the same.

The school's reputation and caliber or admitted student has risen drastically between the 1990's and today. It's simply inaccurate that the school is filled with C-D (with the occasional F) students with horrible SATs. Maybe back in the day, but not anymore.

I'm under no illusion that Elon has the same reputational weight as, say, Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson, or Chapel Hill. That said, a college education is what you make of it and I've certainly never seen any of my fellow graduates held back by their Elon degree.

As for the student experience, the campus is beautiful (leaving a life-long lasting impression on alumni) and the class sizes are relatively small (~20-30). The school places a huge emphasis on experiential learning so there are many opportunities to "do" in addition to traditional classroom learning. There is a fairly prominent party scene (like most colleges, but maybe above the average) and many feel that it's an insulated "bubble" (i.e. Elon students keep to themselves on their campus, it's not a vibrant surrounding community). There are many students who come from fairly affluent families--up and down the East Coast--which aligns pretty similarly to the DC area.

The majority of students who graduate from Elon love their college experience and a very loyal to the school.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

But if you had your choice of in-state tuition versus Elon, you would go with the in-state school, right? I think some of these SLACs and LACs and less selective private universities are just priced way too high for the value. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know 5 people who went there. Three are now stay at home moms, one is a secretary, and one is a club promoter.

I graduated Elon within the last decade, so clearly I have a much larger sample size than you, but I know many successful alumni in both industry and post-graduate educational pursuits.

Multiple classmates who went to top-14 law schools and now practice in Biglaw, others who received MBA's and doctorate degrees from Columbia, UNC-CH, Cornell, UVA, and other similar schools with strong reputations and pedigree.

One is the youngest-ever Regional Vice President at a financial services firm with $506 billion in assets, another is an SVP at a top-3 multinational commercial real estate firm.

Another is a "first 10" employee at a start up company that was valued between $8-10 billion this year. I know a couple who are now college professors at very reputable institutions, and many who work in public service at the state and federal levels. Countless others are gainfully employed in "normal" (read: perfectly acceptable) jobs in corporate America.

Do I know a couple of folks who moved out West and became ski instructors or moved back home to their hometown and haven't really put their education to use? Sure. But I also know some Ivy league graduates from my competitive Bethesda high school who did the same.

The school's reputation and caliber or admitted student has risen drastically between the 1990's and today. It's simply inaccurate that the school is filled with C-D (with the occasional F) students with horrible SATs. Maybe back in the day, but not anymore.

I'm under no illusion that Elon has the same reputational weight as, say, Wake Forest, Duke, Davidson, or Chapel Hill. That said, a college education is what you make of it and I've certainly never seen any of my fellow graduates held back by their Elon degree.

As for the student experience, the campus is beautiful (leaving a life-long lasting impression on alumni) and the class sizes are relatively small (~20-30). The school places a huge emphasis on experiential learning so there are many opportunities to "do" in addition to traditional classroom learning. There is a fairly prominent party scene (like most colleges, but maybe above the average) and many feel that it's an insulated "bubble" (i.e. Elon students keep to themselves on their campus, it's not a vibrant surrounding community). There are many students who come from fairly affluent families--up and down the East Coast--which aligns pretty similarly to the DC area.

The majority of students who graduate from Elon love their college experience and a very loyal to the school.

Hope this helps.

We toured Elon not too long ago with DS and your report seems fair. It didn't really click for him (he ended up wanting a bigger school in a more traditional college town than Burlington) but it was nice, people were friendly, and I could see it being a good fit for a lot of kids. It seems to attract a lot of kids locally who might otherwise go to JMU or Virginia Tech, but want a smaller school.