<p>I recently went on a visit to Elon with my son. The campus was beautiful and the people were extremely friendly. But there was a "disney world" feel that is hard to desbribe. How do others feel about the "perfect" on the surface aspect of Elon? Do the key elements of a good education really exist at Elon or is it more that the beauty is only skin deep?</p>
<p>Looking for input from both those that have gone to Elon as well as those who DID NOT decide to go even though they were accepted.</p>
<p>Changes…That’s funny, I never thought Elon had a “Disney” world feel. My S is graduating in few weeks from Elon. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time there, and I do feel he had a quality education for the value. I do feel that the elements of a good education exist at Elon as my son was always challenged in his studies. He was pleased with his professors and felt they really cared about their students.</p>
<p>I know he is going to miss being a part of Elon next year…now, he’s entering the world of the gainfully employed! Yipee.</p>
<p>I’m always cynical of the friendliness of the tours at any school, not just Elon. It is their job to market the school to get you to enroll. It is not until you actually attend that you have a true feel for the school. We recently completed the final college open houses with my D before she makes her final decision. I can honestly say that at each school we visited everyone was also very friendly. One northern school annoyingly friendly…I wasn’t sure how genuine it was.</p>
<p>We lived in Greensboro for seven years and now are back in New England. There definitely are cultural differences between the North and South. Perhaps that is what you are feeling.</p>
<p>So, no - I do not feel beauty is skin deep at Elon.</p>
<p>Elon is still on the list (got a few days left to decide) but I’m still a little iffy. If there was one thing I could change, I’d adjust the gender ratio…more males please? 50:50 would be ideal.</p>
<p>It’s funny because my daughter described Elon exactly the same way…like Disney. I think it was because the grounds were immaculate, and everything looked as if someone had just gone before you and spruced up!
She loved it when she toured, and it was her first choice for awhile. She had an older friend attending there and went to 2 overnight visits during the year to get a better feel for the campus but ultimately decided not to attend. She decided that the size was just too small for her and chose a school 3 to 4 times bigger.
Good luck with a tough decision!</p>
<p>If you meant my daughter… she applied to and was accepted at Elon, College of Charleston, University of South Carolina, and Penn State. She decided to attend SC and is just completing her junior year. Her friend at Elon is graduating this year and loved her time there, but my daughter just decided that a bigger school was a better fit for her.</p>
<p>my daughter is finishing up her Freshman year. She is an honors fellow and has had a tremendous year. I do not feel like the beauty is ‘only skin deep’ but goes on to encompass her education, her professors who genuinely care about her, and the friends she has made there. I am very pleased.</p>
<p>My daughter too is finishing her freshman year, and has absolutely loved it. I am sure that some have differing opinions, but when I have visited, they are hard to find. Every student, and parent, that I have talked to has really liked the school. Perhaps that is due to the self selection process. And I am sure there are those for whom Elon is not a fit. We are fortunate that for our daughter, and many others as well, Elon is a great fit. I agree completely that the gorgeous campus is not what makes Elon interesting…it is simply a bonus. There seems to be way more under the surface…so explore, investigate, and make the decision that is best for you or your child.</p>
<p>My son and I visited Elon in February, and we both had the same vague impression that the OP had: the campus felt like a movie set of a college. I felt this especially when the very nice tour guide took us to the lobby of the communications building. It was as if we were on a set or at a colorful museum exhibit of a lobby of a communications building on a college campus. I don’t post this to criticize the university, I just think it’s sort of fascinating that others are getting the same impression. Neither my son nor I could put our finger on what made the place feel make believe to us. We continued on to Wake in the afternoon and while the campus is newer it felt more rooted, more grounded. I know Elon has spent a lot of $$ on marketing itself. Maybe the downside of that is that it contributes to a facade.</p>
<p>I am finishing up my freshman year at Elon, and am transferring in the fall.</p>
<p>I just want to advice everyone to look PAST the pretty grass and buildings and decide if it’s a place you want to be. I do think Elon is a great school, and it was a great fit academically (Communications major). For me, however, the distance from home was too far, the student body was just too homogenous and like my high school for me to love, and I wanted to be at a school more well-known in the north.</p>
<p>I’m transferring to a city school next year, partly because I feel that I intend on living in the suburbs when I graduate (aka Elon), and want to truly “experience” something new in college. I can party and lay out in the sun anywhere, you know? </p>
<p>Elon’s a great school for a lot of people, but don’t make your decision based on it’s “image.” Really think about everything else, too.</p>
<p>C26 thanks for your insights. Can you tell us the 3 things you liked best about Elon and the 3 things you didn’t like other than distance from home. Thank you and good luck with your new school.</p>
<p>Two themes seem to be playing out in this thread – college vibe as a factor in fit, and high school as it relates to college. Being a CC constant reader, I’m good for at least two cents …</p>
<p>COLLEGE VIBE
Indeed, I can so relate to that hard-to-define feeling that Elon’s campus is disney-like. A few years back I attended a Fellows Weekend with son #1, followed by a move-in weekend, followed by an orientation weekend with son #2 a few years later, and I distinctly remember wondering how much of what I was seeing was staged. Yes, in response to remarks above, I had to peel back the layers to understand what was going on. </p>
<p>Elon’s administration engages students on many levels. Each public relations opportunity sponsored by Elon is characterized by loads of student involvement. Student leadership and school pride are very evident in many of the organizations that run the campus, and being novice at leading I think the students sometimes make it feel like they are portraying a model. Portraying a model, to me, is very disney-like and has the potential of coming out like overkill when students who strive for perfection are involved. But considering what it takes to learn to lead, I’d say it’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are enough administrators involved to provide overall direction and lend some maturity to the process. More so than any other university I’ve researched, Elon celebrates its students — just check out e-net on Elon’s website. And as for the campus grounds being immaculate, well just me being from the north, I think it’s a southern thing. </p>
<p>HIGH SCHOOL
…is life. People don’t just disappear after high school. They go to college, or the workplace or the neighborhood for that matter, and then they regroup. Key to becoming your own person is understanding how society operates and how to relate to each element within it without becoming overtaken. In other words, it’s about gaining perspective. Along with academics, it’s learning about relationships that matters. High school and college are microcosms of society, in my opinion, each one taken to a progressive level of complexity.</p>
<p>Check out another CC thread, “COLLEGE IS NOT HIGH SCHOOL…”, for more discussion on the subject. You will find that this topic is not exclusive to students and parents who are considering the jump to Elon. Northwestern, Dartmouth and journalism/communication majors in general get a pretty thorough grilling.</p>
it’s beautiful, and well-kept. as much as that seems to be just face-value, it really does help on the cold miserable days. it’d be tough to be in a gross, dirty place.
the school of communications. my teachers were EXTREMELY kind and definitely cared about the students. when i brought up the idea of transferring, both my advisor and my first semester teacher were so helpful and supportive. the program itself is just amazing.
freshman orientation activities were very helpful in the transition.</p>
<p>3 things i didn’t like:
outside of the school of communications, i found a lot of students to be slightly apathetic or not very driven. i’m not saying everyone needs to know what they want to do with their life, but it helps to have some sort of goals.
other than partying, there’s not a lot to do on the weekends. towards the middle/end of the year, a lot of kids end up going home.
honestly, my living situation was not ideal. i live in a dorm very far away from campus, in a suite with both the ra and two transfer students who didn’t want to associate with us. it made for a rough year.</p>
<p>as for the comment i made about high school…
I LOVED high school. when i chose elon, i think i chose it largely because it reminded me of my high school. this was a large misconception, and i was sorely disappointed when i found that i could not replace my friends from back home. i realized that i need a change and a new experience, not more of the same.</p>
<p>C26,
Sorry to hear you will be leaving Elon, and I wish you well. You come across as someone who has made an important discovery about herself and I hope you find city life fulfilling. Sounds like you’ll be missed by your advisor and teacher, but they too know that life goes on. Cherish your high school memories and good luck making new friends. With it being time for you to launch yourself… be careful where you walk at night and try to get out of the city every once in awhile to behold the sky and breathe the country air. God bless America, having choices is a wonderful thing!</p>
<p>I guess I don’t know why you are saying “Disney” like it’s an insult… they do a lot of things right including beauty, friendliness and safety. I mean, aren’t all colleges really an unrealistic academic and social concentration of young people? So having nice grounds and friendly people in a safe environment is suspect? Because that’s what Elon does well and I lthought most people wanted that. College is a preparation for real life, but usually isn’t real life.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not sure it’s meant in a perjorative tenor. </p>
<p>Elon’s indeed been recently recognized for its lovely, well-manicured and maintained campus. As has been noted in Keller’s book about Elon’s very recent, rapid rise on the radar screen for notably NE students of families capable of paying all or most of the bargain-basement tuition, campus beautification has been one of the key strategies to transformation of sleepy little Elon College Fightin’ Christians to highly visible and visited Elon University Flying Phoenix. (I added the flying, thought it was somewhat appropriate.)</p>
<p>And Elon’s borrowed a great deal of money to manicure, build, renovate the scenario some now describe as “disney”-like. It attracts attention and paying students in growing numbers. Perhaps one of the really laudable pieces of this pie is that the preceding president cultivated a campus culture that seems to perpetuate clean, neat, non-trashed or graffitied facilities. Who would not like both the facilities and the mindset that calls kids to put trash in its proper place!</p>
<p>But the certain irony in this may be that in fact the intended obsession with campus beautification leads to questions and observations like those on this thread in students looking forward @ Elon. And for those looking back, appreciating and valuing aesthetics of the place while cautioning that an immaculate, near-perfect physical place is wonderful, but not the only component to be considered in shopping for an alma mater. And perhaps caution of its potential for disappointing seduction. </p>
<p>Said simply, sometimes beauty’s skin deep. </p>
<p>And that’s not to say that’s the case @ Elon. In fact, as Keller candidly exposes, there are many more positives to being part of Elon aside from sometimes feeling like you’re in an upscale amusement park compelled to cleanliness.</p>
<p>And conversely cautions that all that glitters can be fool’s gold. Or at least some of it.</p>
<p>Wherever one comes down on Elon, it’s a most intriguing story of its journey from fossilization to fascination.</p>
…</p>