To anyone looking at this post now when deciding between the 2 schools for 2016, I have some insight I’d like to add. Elon is the obvious choice for several reasons. Taking a look at HPU-ignore for a second their: far lower admissions standards, lack of presence on most national rankings list, lack of a Phi Beta Kappa chapter (national standard of excellence for colleges), or lack of accreditations. These are facts, not opinions. The HPU president has a past of highly successful public speaking, making him a great salesman. High Point then followed Elon’s lead of building a beautiful campus (and took it a huge step further). HPU then for a while (not sure if they still do) would send admitted students Godiva Chocolates in their acceptance package. Does this seem like a school putting academics first? Or trying to sell an image of Utopia, where kids can bathe in the hottubs before spending their evening at the student arcade? (yes, both are real on campus)
5 years later after “avgmom” predicted HPU and EU would be on the same level nationally, I’d argue the distance between the 2 has only increased. So much so, in fact, that Elon does not consider HPU one of their “peer universities”. Those schools Elon compares themselves to are: Richmond, Lehigh, JMU, Villanova, Bucknell, Davidson, Loyola MD, and a few others. This is from Elon’s office of institutional research page online, if you’re interested. And, for example, URichmond, a top liberal arts school, has Elon listed as one of their peers, and not HPU. So even other administrations have recognized and publicly demonstrated that Elon and HPU are competing on 2 different tiers.
I understand why some are drawn to HPU, the country club campus makes even Elon’s world class facilities feel a little drab and boring. But, if you’re focus is on getting the best education for your money, job placement, study abroad, and having the more well rounded college experience? I would do Elon 10 times out of 10 and never look back.