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<p>OK, I don’t want to knock Elon - I love it, and my daughter loves it there. But after a recent visit, I had time to think about the title of this thread, and ask myself where Elon needs to improve. </p>
<p>My answer would be housing - not the quality, but the quantity and location. At the current time, only 60% of students live on campus. Freshmen and Sophs are required to live on campus, but after that almost everyone moves off-campus. Elon is working to increase available on-campus housing and to replace some of the less desirable dorms. But as of now, a large number of freshmen live in an area known as Daniely Commons. (my daughter does not live there). Most of them say they like it, but in my opinion it’s too far from the rest of campus. Housing was the only thing I was “iffy” about when my daughter decided Elon was her first choice, because I prefer schools that guarantee housing for 4 years or who house 90%+ of their students on campus - although I realize that is mostly smaller LACs that do that, at larger and state schools the percentage of kids living on campus is much lower. Also, the Greek houses on campus only house a dozen students each, so most of the Greek organizations have off-campus houses (I didn’t realize that until my recent visit) and that’s where most of the partying takes place. I prefer schools that keep their Greek houses on campus, because it’s easier to keep things under control that way. I realize that off-campus Greek houses are the norm at many colleges, but it’s not my preference.</p>
<p>My daughter also believes it’s harder to be at Elon without a car than the tour guides lead her to believe. I’m not positive she’s right - I don’t think she’s really taken the time to figure out the BioBus schedule, and she has a ZipCar account that works fine if she just plans far enough ahead to reserve the car. But I can see that Elon is a car-oriented place.</p>
<p>On the plus side, she loves her professors - she says she can tell they really care about their students. She loves that the students come from a wide variety of places. She loves the weather and the beautiful campus. She loves the 4-1-4 schedule and the many study abroad options (including the 3 week January travel classes). She loves the emphasis on volunteering and community service. She loves her fellow students. She loves that the place really does “run like butter.” She loves Elon.</p>