That’s a pretty heavy drop in enrollment, when most of the top tier universities are holding steady or increasing.
It does not make sense for a private university to have two separate campuses under two separate brands long term. Perhaps all will go swimmingly, both colleges will boom, and all will live happily ever after. More likely, the next downturn will force major changes leading towards consolidation. The article in message #9 is pretty brutal – college with financial and enrollment issues, president gets hired away, Elon swoops in the next week.
My comment about athletics is that its possible to have a split campus (see Northeastern) where people spend 1+ years somewhere else thats not commutable (unlike Emory). It isn’t possible to have athletic teams in that type of situation, which can affect a significant number of students. Same reasons athletes often don’t study abroad.
I would describe Elon University as pretty “normie” but it does have a good theatre program. I just looked it up and the three most popular majors are Communications, Marketing, and Finance. That sounds right for the vibe to me. Campus is clean and well manicured with a lot of red brick. Overall I think it’s a good school with a good reputation but not for my artsy, quirky kids. I think Elon does a great job of helping kids with internships and the like. I’m sure Elon U parents can give you more insider info. My kids would not apply but we had been on campus for various events when they were in high school.
My kids had friends who lived in the towns of Elon and Burlington. The town of Elon is a small ex-urban town with not much going on. It is adjacent to the slightly bigger town of Burlington which is pretty small, too, but has had some manufacturing in the past. It is currently the HQ for LabCorp. Like most of the Piedmont of NC in the past there were a lot of textile mills. There are some nice historic homes in Burlington but more fast food chains. I would not, and have never heard anyone else, describe it as a “cute” town.