<p>Two good schools. Both seem very student focused, with plenty of resources and opportunities. Nice, comparable campuses, although Elon is a bit smaller. Comparable student demographics/profiles. Honors Fellows vs. $10k less tuition at MU. Good solid academics in major and minor or dual (International Studies / Communications).</p>
<p>Given likelihood of graduate school MU seems to have slight edge, but D loves Elon and was thrilled to be Fellow.</p>
<p>My D is also accepted to both schools, Honors Program at Miami and also an Elon College Fellow, our net cost is about 10% less at Elon. My D liked both schools, however MU is larger, Elon is approximately 6,000 students compared to 15,000 undergrads at MU. We spent time at Elon during the Fellows weekend and I came away impressed that my daughter would get a great education. We only spent 1 information session at Miami but we are going back for an admitted student day this month. Elon is 7 hours from our home in western PA and MU is 5 hours, not too much difference but I can make MU and back in 1 day and Eon would be an overnight. Both campuses are beautiful and the town of Oxford reminds of what a College town would look like. It does appear that the Professors are very engaged with the students at Elon, with the size of MU I wonder how much that will be the case. We are still trying to make a decision.</p>
<p>Both schools are very strong. So you probably can’t make a bad choice. Your D’s major may have some impact on the ideal school, and there are some size differences between the two that can be pros or cons for either depending on your point of view. Having recruited on dozens of college campuses across the country, I can say that MU has a much stronger reputation with corporate recruiters, whereas Elon is really just starting to show up on the radar screen. While Elon is definitely on the rise, it is still somewhat of an unknown commodity nationally. So from my perspective, MU has a much stronger career placement service. Likewise, there are significantly more MU alums in corporate America that can open doors for new graduates. All schools will tout a very strong list of employers for their graduates, but you should ask to see the numbers of the grads that were employed by each of the companies from any school you are considering. Again, both are great schools, but I think MU does have the advantage with respect to career placement.</p>
<p>I will chime in from a different perspective without revealing too much…please PM me if you would like more info…</p>
<p>Definitely agree with all the above from an academics only perspective…I am sure MU is more on recruiters’ radar at this point for a number of reasons…</p>
<p>Socially, a different matter…D is a freshman at Elon; close friend is a freshman at MU…friend is in the process of transferring; has found that many kids at MU come to school with their HS friends; live with them, pledge sororities with them…according to her it is very insular…and very difficult for an outgoing OOS female…</p>
<p>Elon, on the other hand, while geographically concentrated with mid-Atlantic kids, does not have this factor…</p>
<p>If you are in-state for MU, completely different experience…</p>
<p>Also, I would imagine that the recruiting issue is evolving as we speak…major initiative according to TPTB</p>
<p>Rodney… we are in state and actually that is still the biggest negative for MU, as D would prefer to make the break from the high school crowd and MU is a popular choice at her HS. Having said that, I know she would tend to gravitate to kids from out of the area / state and we’d hope that maybe being in honors might draw at least a more geographically diverse group. But still this perception and reality it sounds like, would be biggest concern.</p>
<p>And Big4, I hear you. In some ways it seems as if Elon is where MU was many years ago when the Public Ivy lists started to appear. Trajectory at Elon seems very good and I’d guess will catch up generally, although with a bigger alum base at MU it will always have some edge. I would agree that Farmer will always have a very big reach.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that from a grad school perspective either school would be favored over the other, test scores and grades being equal. It would seem that both schools will prepare students well for grad school, based on size and experience at Fellows weekend Elon probably has a slight edge (but for us this may be evened out on scholarship GPA requirements as Elon would be .2 higher) Any thoughts on the grad school issue?</p>
<p>I know this may be off thread but I am a newbie to these forums…My son has been selected as an Elon Communication Fellow and we are quite impressed with Elon, however we are going to visit Emory-Oxford this weekend as he has an admission there alongwith Miami-Ohio. Any thoughts from anyone on Emory-Oxford compared to Elon… I appreciate all the sound advice/thoughts about Miami-Ohio. Thanx…</p>
<p>^^Emory or Oxford does not have a communications major unless something has changed…</p>
<p>When my older D was interested in Emory back in 2008, Oxford was a two year entry program on a different campus and was mostly Atlanta and Ga kids attending…</p>
<p>Hopefully, other posters will be able to help in this comparison…Oxford, I know, is much smaller…</p>
<p>Emory is a fine institution, with Oxford being a stepping stone to the Emory degree. Definitely carries a cadre with the like of Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest.</p>
<p>I’ve known a couple of Emory grads who started at Oxford and only have excellent reviews of the school and experience.</p>
<p>My D is going to major in Pol Sci and is very interested in Internship opportunities. I think she has it in her head that since Elon is not close to a large city that she will have limited options. They talked about internships at Fellows weekend but I wasn’t sure how available they would be. Anyone have any thoughts on how it compares with MU in this regard, or any thoughts on internships at Elon.</p>
<p>I’ve got to say that with D accepted to honors fellows at Elon, we are pretty confident that there would be a sufficient opportunity for internships even if she weren’t the kind of kid to seek them out. And we were impressed in general with comments around faculty involvement over Fellows weekend. While D is in honors at MU, the numbers may be a little more challenging, but from being in-state and experiences of older D’s friends, we are also confident that MU will have many opportunities. I know many large companies from Cincinnati recruit MU very heavily. </p>
<p>As an aside, oldest D (Ohio State junior) just got a nice internship for the summer and advice is make sure D seeks out and prioritizes internship process, takes advantage of resume writing, practice interviews, etc., no matter where she goes. It also helped that her HS had a mentor/internship program and she got experience still in HS. If she can add anything now, even low pay/no pay to resume it seems to help. For instance D is trying to intern in Spain this summer through a Rotary program called Next Generations.</p>
<p>I’m very interested to follow the feedback on this thread. S1 is a freshman at MU and is absolutely loving every aspect. He’s in the Farmer School of Business and finds his classes interesting and professors very helpful and accessible. As an OOS freshman, he has not experienced any problems meeting friends or being included. In fact I’m so happy with every thing from a parent’s perspective, too, that I would love S2 who is a junior to also attend Miami. Unfortunately he’s basically written it off simply because his brother attends. So, Elon has just appeared on our radar. I literally had never heard of it before a few months ago whereas I’ve known about Miami since I was in college many moons ago. For us, Miami is 8+ solid hours driving (525 miles). Elon is 660 miles away which puts it over the distance S2 has specified. I have heard good things about Elon, though, and am wondering whether to put it on S2’s list.</p>
<p>Thanks IS12 and that is good advice. Both are good schools and regardless of where you go I need to remind my D that it is up to her to take advantage of her opportunities, especially when it comes to internships. I was not even thinking about the sorority rush/social thing. Just one more thing to throw into the mix when trying to make a decision.</p>
<p>Well my daughter settled on Elon and I can tell she is very excited with her decision. She did not see herself at Miami and it came down to Elon and Loyola MD. Now starts the next phase… We got a Hotel room for move in day but when we called for Hotels for Parents weekend the closest we could find was about 23 miles away in Greensboro. Lots to learn!</p>