Furman or Elon?

ColdinMinny
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:01:43 +0000

Here is my review of Elon posted after our visit last fall:

Last stop on our “Carolina Tour”: Elon University, Elon, NC

Same format, Pro’s, Con’s and Neutral/Observations.

Pro’s: Another beautiful campus on another beautiful fall day. Matching architecture, with red brick dominant. TONS of new construction present, including a new gigantic Admissions building opening Jan 2015.

A lot of excitement on campus, enhanced by coming during Homecoming.

Best programs appear to be the Business school and the Communications school. They have two full TV studios, and produce their own programs, one of which placed second for an Emmy last year.

Very concerted effort to require/encourage internships and off-campus engagement. Large study abroad program catalogue.

A variety of Fellows Programs, including an overall Honors Fellows program and several additional school-specific Fellows, e.g., Business Fellow. These are competitive, and come with scholarships and additional requirements.

Extremely nice dorms, I mean almost over the top nice. Another parent and I were joking during the tour that these students are going to have a rude awakening when they hunt for their first “real world” apartment. The single we saw would easily run you $3K a month in a major city.

Relatively reasonable tuition. Total COA for this year is just under $42K, a substantial difference from its competitors.

Con’s:

The science facilities are disappointing, with the exception of the access to a human cadaver lab for Anatomy. The building exterior is gorgeous, the interior is, IMO, not up to par with many others toured.

The CS department–of particular interest to our S–was miniscule, with a single computer lab (at least that we could find and ID). This seemed incredible for a campus of almost 6K undergrads.

Obvious drinking/partying culture. This may be a plus to others, but when you have people drinking champagne inside the Math building, it is pretty obvious that it is an active culture here.

Campus is sprawling, and not necessarily in a good way. Buildings are scattered along one axis, and you would need a bike or leave plenty early from some parts of campus to get to classes. In addition, while freshmen and sophomores must live on campus, after that many do not, with apartments near and far. They state they want a residential campus, but they are not there yet. The cost of expanding admission classes without sufficient housing to date.

For OOS students, the Raleigh airport is a little over an hour away, but Elon does provide shuttles during breaks.

Elon, NC itself is not much to look at, and that is putting it kindly. We found a Subway, a cute coffee shop, and a gas station within walking distance. We took the time to drive around the area, and it is a big zilch. We did not tour Greensboro, which is about 15-20 minutes away, but they certainly were not talking Greensboro up during presentations.

Neutral/Observations:

Very much on the large size for an “LAC”, and they do have Masters candidates too. It feels that big, too, but the professors apparently are directly evaluated on interaction with students during office hours as part of tenure consideration. Current enrollment just shy of 6K.

Elon is clearly on an upward trajectory but is, IMO, going through some growing pains. My nickname for them would be that they are a “Veneer School” to some extent. They have spent enormous sums on fancy new buildings and absolutely deluxe new dorms, but do you need a brand new Admissions building that is 4-6 times larger than your Math, Statistics and CS building? Really? They make a concerted effort to show all the fancy new constructions, the lovely athletic facilities, this Great Hall that you could hold the UN in, but where does all that bolster your academics? I felt that they were catering to children of well-to-do parents who would like their kids matriculating into a safe, bubble environment with the very best of amenities. Elon certainly checks off those boxes. And if I had a child interested in Business or Communications, and he/she could get a Fellows appointment that would drive COA down into the low $20’s, this would be the school to look to and a bargain at that. In the end, for our S’s needs, it will not work. But that, as my departed Mother used to say, is why they make Chocolate and Vanilla, so everyone gets their own choice.