Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also grew up in North Carolina. While I do think Elon has improved over the years, when my high school class was applying to colleges (in 2000) it really wasn't on most people's radars. Part of this may be because if you are from in-state, the academics aren't better than many of the state schools and it's expensive. The top kids in the class were applying to Duke, Wake, UNC, or out of state schools. The next tier focused on UNC as a reach, NC state or schools like UNCG or UNCW. The only kid I know who went to Elon went because he got a scholarship to keep playing soccer.

Also worth noting that Elon is near Burlington which, frankly, is even more of a dump than many of the other towns in that part of North Carolina. Someone was knocking the area around Duke earlier but Durham is a far more vibrant and interesting place (the downtown is in the process of a pretty significant revitalization) than the Elon/Burlington area.

I also want to point out that there have been many development improvements in Burlington, especially in the area right around Elon. Elon itself has also improved its campus even since I graduated (2007). Also - as Elon is private, it doesn't give in-state students as much of an advantage as the North Carolina state schools do (such as UNC or NC State) so it makes sense for North Carolina residents to weigh it against the other schools, but not necessarily for out-of-state students. It is not as competitive as Duke (obviously - they also kill Elon in basketball...) or Wake, and it is not as big as UNC Chapel Hill.

Most of my friends were from all up and down the east coast - from Maine to Florida, and a lot of people from Ohio. The only bad thing about that is many of my friends moved back to their home states so we are now all scattered However - we still stay in touch! Elon has an excellent alumni network as well, particularly in the DC area.