My daughter is about to commit to Elon. We visited the campus and fell in love. She was very excited until she joined the class of 2024 Facebook group and started reading the profiles some of the kids posted…many of them said they loved partying and going out.
My daughter will be a science major and has a ton of interests, theatre, dance, singing, fitness, cooking/healthy eating… She loves going to movies, dance/ theatre shows, eating out , and hanging out and talking with friends. She is quite extroverted with adults but is more reserved with her peers. She doesn’t like to drink and is very worried that she won’t find any other people who don’t love to go to parties. , She is also worried that she will be considered weird if she doesn’t drink.
For those parents with kids at Elon, are any of your daughters/sons like this and did they have similar concerns? If so, what was their experience?
Hi! I may have written a post like this about a year ago! If you do a search, I do think you will find some threads about social scene at Elon.
So my son is a freshman, non substance user. Likes to hang out with small groups of friends. He is very happy at Elon; he found his small group quickly, and they do things such as hang out in each other’s rooms, sometimes do the Elon activities. He has a car and they have gone to the occasional concert in Raleigh or the NC state fair, but mostly its just on campus small hangouts, not parties. He is perfectly happy with his social situation.
There is partying there, and this was a concern for us too…that he wouldn’t find his people who WEREN’T into partying. But this wasn’t the case. When I was looking into it I felt comfortable that there were plenty of non partiers, and so far it has turned out that way for him. I asked him about it recently and he said sure, there are plenty of people who party, but no problem finding people who don’t. Another concern was the small town and therefore lack of a lot of “outing” options. But, so far this also hasn’t bothered him…since he just likes to hang out with small groups anyway (that may change in future years but so be it…he loves Elon and I think its strengths overcome this possible downside). With your D’s theater and dance interests, I would think that would open up many more on campus outing and activities and also a natural way to meet people that are more likely on her same social wavelength. Elon has a strong theater program so these kids should be easy to find!
I don’t know if there is a Theater LLC and if non theater majors can join it, but that could be a way to really match her up with those folks, who, IMO, tend to be less into partying and more into focusing on their program (Elon has a fabulous Theater program).
@Kasumiko My daughter is noting the same thing on the facebook page! She is likely not the rushing type and she noticed that almost everyone said they were. My guess is that those disinterested in greek scene are just not speaking up as much. She is committed, no second doubts.
My daughter is also planning to attend Elon in the fall. She is sociable and has many interests but is also not a partier. She may be interested in checking out the sororities. Does anyone know if one can be Greek and not a partier or is that an anomaly?
While all the girls may be partiers (I doubt it) there are NO parties in sorority houses nation wide. Alcohol cannot be served in a sorority house, even at a alum function or a wedding.
I think she’d find that there are a lot of movie watching parties, game nights, group trips to parties in other locations, but not in the sorority house.
Also, I think that on ANY school’s student Facebook or social media page, you get a skewed picture of the student body population and interest. As one mom said on the parent page after her son looked at the student page “do any boys go here?” LOL (Obviously they do, but they aren’t posting). But for any school, as in life, remember that you really are mostly seeing a certain type of students posting publicly, and presenting a certain picture, and the others are just not putting themselves out there, due to their intrinsic personality and interests but they are there.
FWIW my son’s small friend group has a few girls, none are substance users and they didn’t rush. I think you can find stats of Greek participation somewhere on Elon’s web site; I know it is higher for girls than boys. Also rush is in the Spring and I think a student would have time to figure out before then if it would be a good fit.
My son is also considering Elon and is not a partier. I remember the sorority/fraternity stats being lower than I would have thought, 39% of the women and 20% of the guys. So, many people in greek system, but much more who choose not.