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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our daughter just finished her freshman year at Elon.   She chose it because of the engaged learning, the medium size, the location (she wanted nice weather), and the fact that they do a beautiful job of handling food allergies, which is an issue for her, and which all other universities we looked at handled relatively poorly. She was an A student who took the highest rigor at her school and was very involved in EC's.   We are a very middle class family from the Midwest. There is no question that Elon is predominantly (though not solely) "rich" kids, but she said that it was never a problem for her, that the students were always very friendly and down to earth and she made a lot of great friends there. She was an A student who took the highest level courses offered at her school.  She found Elon to be challenging academically and she loved most of her professors (wish I could say there weren't a couple of duds in there, but for the most part she found professors engaging, interesting and available to help whenever she needed it.  She said she looked forward to going to her classes).   She had a great experience there and Elon has awakened a new love of learning in her.

Our son went to Vanderbilt and we loved that school for him. We love Elon equally for our daughter.  College choice is a matter of fit.  I think it's a silly argument to compare Elon against the Ivies/top tier schools.  Elon never pretended to be an Ivy.  They want that A-B student who is an engaged learner and will be involved on campus. They are looking for a certain type of community.  If you are a type A highly driven student who wants the prestige (like my son was), then apply to the Ivies and debate away about which school has a better reputation.  But if you're looking for a match for a student who loves to learn, wants hands on experience, wants access to professors who care to be in contact, that offers a variety of activities and clubs, where they can grow academically and personally, Elon might just be a better place.  Our daughter disliked the serious type-A vibe on the Vandy campus and would have been very uncomfortable there while our son basked in it and found it energizing.  She loved the friendly atmosphere and the genuine people she met at Elon.   Already in her freshman year our daughter has had better academic and career advising than our son ever got at Vandy.  She has had more conversations with professors than he ever did at Vandy, and she has had more hands on experience than he did at Vandy  until his internship senior year.  She is finding that it's more rigorous than the state schools her friends are attending and is involved in lots more on campus then they are; already holding leadership positions in a couple of her activities.  Our goal was to find schools that were good fits for our kids academically and philosophically, where they would be challenged and motivated.  We feel like we accomplished that in both cases.

Elon is a great  school and provides great opportunities for students to get experience through classroom activities as well as internship opportunities (much better than most schools we looked at), and provides a great education for those who take advantage of what it offers.  Is it the best match for every student? Of course not.  It doesn't make it a bad school.  Harvard and Princeton aren't matches for everyone either.  You've got to take your child's interests, personality and abilities into consideration.  If you haven't seen it, here is a link to Elon's list of rankings and recognitions.

http://www.elon.edu/e-web/news/rankings/

I think Elon's biggest drawback right now is their small endownment.   They are working on it, but haven't had as many years to build it up.  This means that Elon can't meet 100% of student need so many students get better financial aid packages elsewhere.   This attracts wealthy families who wouldn't get financial aid anyway because of the comparatively low sticker price (~$40k vs. ~$60k at many other private schools).    Interestingly I did see some complaining on the greek rank site about pledge classes not being as "hot" any more because Elon is going after more scholarly types and the population there isn't as preppy and wealthy as it used to be.  Take that for what it's worth, but Elon's admissions standards are going up every year as applications continue to increase in number and quality.

Elon has impressive leadership with a vision for what they want to be. They are successfully working on making that vision come true which I find to be exciting. I am very proud to be associated with Elon University and I can't wait to see where they are in 10 years.

[/quote]

Sound advice here.  Don't choose a school to impress others, choose a school that you will thrive at.  The presumptions others make based on the school you graduated from eventually give way to the reality of your performance.  [/quote]

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