Elon University

Date: Jul 27 2011
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
I had the best first year college experience I probably could have asked for. I truly love Elon University and everything that goes along with it, but that's not to say there are a few things I'd complain about. I"ll tell you why I loved it so much and then the things I'd change:

1) I met the most amazing people and did the whole

discover who you are

thing…sure there are snobs at every school in the country and yeah there are people at Elon I never want to talk to or associate with in my life…but then there's my community of like 40 or 50 favorite people in the world. I have my closest 10 or 15 friends and then a big circle of close friends from my fellows program, InterVarsity and a few other clubs I'm involved in. InterVarsity is a campus ministry I got really into spring semester and I AM SO THANKFUL for it. If you are at all the type of person interested in their faith and are worried that Elon is 100% people who live their college lives constantly blacked out…don't worry about that! There are seriously a ton of people here who don't live that way. It's a typical college stereotype you're going to find anywhere you go. But there's a lot at Elon outside of it.

2) I love Burlington and the surrounding area. Whoever thinks there's nothing to do a) has no imagination and b) probably only considers something fun if they're drunk and grinding up on some stranger. I had so much fun exploring the surrounding area freshman year. The Tanger Outlets just opened and are 20 minutes away for great shopping. Downtown Greensboro is fun (Sisters Boutique and Tate Street Coffee please) AND come on we're 25 minutes from Chapel Hill. PLUS did I mention 3 hours from the mountains and 3 hours from the beach? That made for some amazing weekend trips. Now if you are looking for a big city with a ton of people this isn't the school for you. This is school is tucked into a suburban community and little adorable neighborhood. But once you make the right friends, the fun never stops. I swear.

3) The campus is gorgeous. Beautiful. In every season. Oh, and I love the weather. And all of the campus traditions. And I love the apartment I'm living in next year, so cute!

4) eh. Okay, if I wasn't a comm major (or maybe education major) I don't know if I would go here for sure…my general requirement classes were a little lame freshman year, although I did take interesting stuff out of all of them (except for college writing…that class was pathetic) and I was the type of girl in hs who got credit for 6 AP exams and worked really hard in a competitve school. Elon's freshman year coursework isn't necessarily the most challenging BUT it is what you make of it. You can seek out the easy professors or the challenging ones. If you want to be challenged you can find it—if you want to slack off you can do that too. HOWEVER, you cannot slack off in the comm school. I don't think I got hardly one A in my freshman fall semester comm course…my professor was tough! But also amazing. Everyone loved taking his class. And I had great experiences in the spring with my comm professor too. The best thing about the comm school is that it's so hands on and you get to actually DO stuff right off the bat…at other j-schools students don't touch things like camera and editing software until junior year

4) I just finished a paid summer internship with other journalism students from my hometown and can say I feel WAY AHEAD of them after being in the Elon comm program.

5) There is always something to do. There's alway something going on. If you're bored at Elon University you're probably pretty lame or you don't have any friends…

6) I think the size of Elon is perfect. About 5,000 so it's smaller (although growing) but the size makes for an aewsome community. I love going places and seeing people I know everywhere. I love walking down the sidewalk and saying hi to like 20 people at once. It's not like everyone knows everyone's business, but it's like we're a family in a way. Now, that being said…I might feel more comfortable about my ability to find a guy to date if the pool of guys to choose from was a little bigger…but we'll not get into that here. Don't get me wrong I've met some awesome guys (and a fair share of douche bags) at Elon. The awesome guys are some of my best friends though so I wouldn't date them. haha just a side note.

7) Oh, and I love dressing up for class! I rock the yoga pants every now and then, and you'll see people in a sweatshirt and baseball hat walking around. But you'll also see girls in pearls and Lily Pulitzer. Don't be intimidated by it though, it's great! When I visited a friend up north at a huge univeristy and saw guys basically walking around in wife beaters and boxers I was disgusted! I wanted my Elon bow-tie guys back!

I hope this helps in some way! Good luck choosing a school!