Elon or Wake Forest??

<p>I'm so undecided......Any thoughts?</p>

<p>It depends what you are looking for in a college, what you want to study, etc. Give us more info</p>

<p>Someone said when I was visiting that Elon was a safety for Wake Forest… So I don’t know whether you care about name/rankings and all, but if you do, that could help. I actually applied to Elon instead of Wake Forest so I always thought they were similar in most respects, haha. What do you like about each?</p>

<p>I feel pretty qualified to answer this question as my older son was accepted at both schools and chose to attend Wake Forest. Younger son is looking at colleges now and has Elon atop his list. But - as superghuman said - you have to give us more info. I take it from your name you live in NC - so I’m assuming you have visited both. </p>

<p>What are you thinking of for a major?</p>

<p>Wake is almost $20,000 more per year than Elon - does that affect your decision?</p>

<p>I would agree that many applying to Wake use Elon as a safety school - my son did. I think most would agree that Wake is tougher academically.</p>

<p>Wake does the traditional 5 3-credit courses per semester ( a few lab courses are 4 credits). Elon has 4-1-4 - which is a little more interesting. I like the ability to take either a fun class or a very challenging class in January. Elon has great January study abroad options also.</p>

<p>Both have beautiful campuses - pretty even there.</p>

<p>Share a little more about yourself and your interests and perhaps I can be of further assistance.</p>

<p>Elon has swans.</p>

<p>And beautiful fountains too!</p>

<p>I am from Mass. looking to major in business. I was accepted as a business fellow at Elon and at Wake I would apply to the business program later. I want to be involved in greek life, service, and probably IM sports. I definitely want to study abroad as well. With financial aid and scholarships both schools are in the same price range, which makes the decision even harder. I have visited both schools and I love them both. I love the idea of Wake’s sports and schools spirit but I am also worried about the grade deflation and not having enough free time for ECs since there is a harder workload there. I want to be challenged but also involved beyond academics.
Does this help at all? Any comments?</p>

<p>Well, that is a tough decision. My son is a finance major at Wake - so I can speak to the incredible workload of that program. I believe Wake is ranked #1 for the workload of undergraduate business majors in the businessweek survey. And I’m not saying that is a good thing. Students apply to Calloway in February of sophomore year. Only about 40% of the applicants are accepted - although some who are not accepted initially may be able to reapply later. </p>

<p>Wake has a lot of distribution requirements. Certainly students do study abroad - but it might be challenging to be a business major, complete all distribution requirements and study abroad. My son entered with a lot of AP credit and is still finding it challenging to fit in everything for his finance major and a liberal arts minor that he wants to do. You may find the academic workload more manageable at Elon and you have the option to study abroad in January as well.</p>

<p>While I love Wake Forest - the workload is a bit of a negative. I think Wake > Elon in terms of prestige - but you may find yourself graduating with a higher GPA at Elon.</p>

<p>Greek life, community service and IM sports are big at both - but you may find yourself with more time to enjoy these options at Elon.</p>

<p>I’m going to leave it at that - hope it helped.</p>

<p>Don’t know much about Wake, but on a recent visit to Elon we met several business majors who had not only taken trips abroad during January term, but whose trips were financed or subsidized by Elon. Travel is very much encourage and internships are pretty much required as part of Elon’s engaged learning concept. As a business fellow at Elon I would think you’d have many opportunities.</p>

<p>Wake is a great school. Amazing school spirit and a long tradition of success. However… they brag about workload and act like it is a good thing for their students. In some programs, workload is important. Science and math, for example, require more out of classroom work. Business is a totally different world… you will not benefit from a heavy workload as a business major. It just doesn’t help you. You need work that will benefit you in the real world, and I promise you busy work won’t do the trick.</p>

<p>I am totally unbiased here, and I will say I got a much better vibe from Elon’s business program than I did during my visit to Wake. Elon really focused more on out of classroom learning while Wake’s business school gave me an elitist vibe that was very negative… I didn’t chose either school in the end, but between the two, and based on your interests, Elon sounds like a great fit.</p>

<p>I’d say in general Wake is more well-known nationwide and is more selective, but if you are interested in business, Elon’s business school is very highly rated. </p>

<p>I don’t know Wake well, but if you want Greek life, IMs and study abroad Elon is right up your alley. </p>

<p>You have 2 good choices. Good luck!</p>