Trying to decide between Lafayette or Elon. Any advice? Elon looks good but weary of high acceptance rates and Lafayette is great but perhaps too small. For a prelaw student.
For full disclosure my D graduated from Lafayette and had a fabulous experience in every way (academically, socially, research opportunities, ECs, having fun, etc.) and got into a top grad school for her discipline. If you have any questions a parent can answer feel free to message me.
The question of school size is personal. My D (who attended Laf) wanted a LAC from the start. She thrives in the close knit personal environments that a LAC can provide. On the other hand my S felt LACs were too small and focused his search on mid-sized universities. Both had wonderful college experiences. So consider what YOU want over the next four years.
Congrats on your acceptances!
Thank you. This is very helpful. What was the social life like for her? Did kids mostly stay on campus or venture out to the town? My son is torn between the 2 schools. Lafayette is higher ranked and established but he liked the feel of Elon. But worries of the relatively unknown reputation of Elon, ranking and how that will impact law school admissions if he chooses that route.
It will not have any meaningful effect on law school admissions.
My daughter was down to these two schools when making a final decision last year. It is interesting that these are your child’s final choices as well, because the schools are quite different. My D ultimately decided that Lafayette was too small for her, plus she did not receive any merit there, which would have made it about $120+/more expensive than Elon over 4 years.
My D really liked the Lafayette campus, and I think she could have been quite happy, but she chose Elon and is having a great experience. Lafayette has great outcomes for placement in law school, if that is what your child is aiming for.
Don’t confuse acceptance rate with quality of education. Elon consistently earns high marks for undergraduate teaching and we have been very impressed with our D’s experience in both advising and course content (My D is a talker, so we hear a lot about projects, etc.).
Both are great schools. I do not think that Lafayette was worth $30+/more per year in our case.
Thank you! Very helpful. How does one compare the difference in acceptance rates? Will that impact academic rigor? Do you have a sense of social life in Elon? The town is not very big… not sure how much that should matter though.
From what I gather she had a very busy social life. She had friends from her dorm, classes, ECs. And down the road she joined a low key sorority and was in a living-learning house which further expanded her base. As far as I can tell a good deal of the social life was on campus but they did go into town for shopping, meals, etc. I think she spent more time off campus as an upperclassmen.
For law school one can do well from most any undergrad. I will say that she and her friends did find admission success for many different types of grad schools (including law school) coming out of Laf. But IMO a student’s post-graduation success will be more about what is achieved at any college rather that which college a student attends.
You are correct- the town of Elon is very small. My D was not interested in any urban campuses. She wanted a contained campus that felt collaborative and welcoming. She was also aiming for 5-15k students in a warm weather location- Elon checked all of these boxes for her.
She has never once mentioned being bored socially or academically. She has a great group of friends (both male and female) and it seems that they are always out celebrating someone’s birthday, going to a party, or having a movie night in the common room. A few friends have cars, so they have gone hiking and even drove to the beach in Wilmington one weekend. She joined a sorority and also volunteers 2 days/week at an assisted living facility. She stays quite busy.
I will say that a lot of Elon kids like to party (I’m sure this is true at many colleges) and there are “darties” (day time parties) almost every weekend. My D is pretty good at balancing academics and fun. She tends to go out Thurs-Sat, but then spends most of Sunday and the other weeknights studying in groups or alone. She is managing to maintain a busy social life as well a spot on the deans list for academics. She managed to find a group of close friends that are mostly in the honors or fellows program. This is helpful because they all need to maintain a certain GPA (and are used to getting the grades needed to get into these programs in the first place).
My D is planning to study abroad as a junior. As excited as she is for that, she is already mourning the fact that freshman year is almost over and that she will only have 2.5 more years on campus!
You applied to both. Acceptance rates mean nothing to a campus experience.
Where do you prefer?
What would your major be - pre law isn’t a major. Elon has business and journalism, etc. while Lafayette has engineering and yes communications, etc.
You can go to law school, ANY law school (Elon is on the Penn list of colleges represented, likely is at UVA being the region although they only list schools that sent 3 in a year), from any college - so pick the one you want to spend four years, day after day after day vs. be at a place you don’t like. The LSAT and GPA will matter much more than Lafayette vs. Elon.
These are different schools and will be different experiences.
PS - Elon has a law school but in Greensboro - not sure if undergrads can “soak” up anything from it.
Good luck