Elon University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Psychology
Minors: Neuroscience and Biology double minor
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Heterosexual Female
Summary
I was in a sorority and I had a leadership role in it.
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Private school in Baltimore, MD with a graduating class of about 100 students. There was a culture of going to college.
Major: Psychology
Minors: Neuroscience and Biology double minor
Extracurricular Activities: I was in a sorority and I had a leadership role in it.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
It’s a lot more exam-based than essay-based. There are different ways to do the major, and I’m doing mine with a concentration on biological science. Most of the classes are testing me on knowledge than writing papers, but that is also a path you can go down with other concentrations.
Did you especially like or dislike anything about your major’s department? Did they do anything especially well or poorly?
They do an amazing job of getting students involved in research. I’ve been doing research since sophomore year. I have been doing really exciting work with cutting-edge technology and working really closely with professors. I’m on track to publish my first manuscript in a scientific journal before I graduate and I’ve been at conferences and presented at symposiums. It’s definitely an experience I wouldn’t have had anywhere else. If research is something you want to pursue they’ll find something for you. It’s not like you have to be at the top of your class to get that opportunity.
Why did you pick your major?
I chose Psychology because I’ve known that’s what I want to do for a long time. The decision of my concentration came later. You have six core classes that touch on the main pillars of psychology, so as a sophomore I was exposed to those and found that I really like behavioral neuroscience and when I added my more science-based minors it narrowed my focus. That’s how most majors are structured to help you hone your focus.
Reasons to Attend
1) It’s a small school, so you’re not going to have a class with more than 30 students. I personally excel in a more personal environment. If you need that more personal relationship with your professor and other students it’ll be a great place for you.
2) The school does a good job of cultivating relationships between professors and students by holding symposiums and debates. Because of the personal relationships you develop with your professors, they care about you a lot and are willing to help you out. There are also various free tutoring services if you need help.
3) If you’re into studying abroad, Elon is a place where you can do that and go almost anywhere in the world. Elon markets that a lot.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If Greek life is something you can’t abide by it isn’t the place for you. It’s such a pervasive part of campus culture and social scene. If you don’t like Greek life or don’t want to be part of it, it may not be the place for you.
2) It is very hard to adequately use the Elon alumni network in terms of finding a career path outside of the communications or business school. It’s been hard for me coming from the sciences to use the career center. They don’t know what to do for me.
3) If you want an urban setting, this is not the place for you. The closest city is Greensboro, which is very small.
I love it, but there are things I would change for sure.
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Danieley in a flat of 8 people. There were four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a washer and dryer.
Sophomore: I lived in an apartment in the Danieley neighborhood with 3 other people. All of our appliances sucked and the place was generally pretty gross, so it was less of a fun time.
Junior and Senior: Off-campus apartment with two other girls. We all have our own bedroom. There’s lots of off campus housing in the immediate perimeter. They often require you to sign a two-year lease so a lot of people stay in the same place junior and senior year.
What has been your favorite living situation?
The off-campus apartment is my favorite. I love living off-campus. You get to see how it would work if you rent an apartment by yourself because you have to pay rent and utilities. I also love that I have my own room.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I would say that the way Elon the university and the way the students perceive how safe the campus differs. Students perceive it to be so safe that they do stupid stuff like they leave their cars and apartments unlocked all the time and you see girls walking home by themselves at night all the time. But, every semester we get an incident report about how somebody got mugged or a local resident broke into an apartment. It’s interesting because we’re so rural that people think there can’t possibly be any dangers to your safety, and I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. People are very careless about leaving stuff around and not being cognizant of their surroundings.
How walkable is the area around campus? Do you need a car to get regular necessities?
Most people don’t have a car freshman and sophomore year. The campus is designed to be completely walkable. I can walk from my apartment on the south side of campus all the way to the absolute north of campus in about 20 minutes. You can’t go to the grocery store without a ten-minute car drive. The campus itself is very insular in that it’s all very close together but to go off campus you need a car.
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
There is a strip of restaurants and bars in Downtown Elon that is directly next to campus. I go there a lot to the Root, which is basic American food that is sourced from local farmers. There is an emphasis on supporting local businesses when you’re at Elon.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
Greensboro is about 20 minutes away. It’s the closest city and I went there a good amount. The area used to be a textile industry area, so it’s basically a bunch of converted industrial buildings. When you put restaurants and bars in them they have a really cool vibe. There’s a really cool used book store I like to go to do my homework in. I like to do my homework in coffee shops, so sometimes I’ll go out to Greensboro and do my homework in a coffee shop all day. Raleigh is 45-minutes away so that’s too far away to go to regularly.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
We’ll have date parties and mixers on Tuesdays and Thursdays sometimes. Most people go out on Friday nights and there are lots of day parties on Saturdays. How much you go out is also a big function of whether you’re involved with Greek life. Now that I’m 21, I got to one of the three bars around campus. Maybe just because I got older, but I prefer to go to the bars. For the first two years, you definitely go to frat parties and do that thing. As you get older, there’s a shift to a more chill bar scene vibe.
Can you describe a typical night out freshman year?
I lived in a flat with seven other girls, not a dorm room, so that was my friend group freshman year. We’d hang out in my apartment until like 10:30-11 then go meet up with other people at somebody else’s house or maybe with our guy friends and then go to a frat party. None of the actual frat parties start until midnight.
What were your favorite days or nights at Elon?
I really liked the parties during the day on Saturdays. Since it’s in broad daylight, people are usually less grossly belligerent. It’s my preferred social situation. It’s more than just standing around listening to blaring music. I love that we have really good weather for a large chunk of the year, so sometimes there’s a slip and slide and games.
What is an alternative option to going to a party or bar?
There are several things that range from kind of involving alcohol to not at all. There’s the Student Union Board that puts on movies and have theme nights every Friday and Saturday. I’ve been to a movie night and it had a much bigger than I thought it would. The Oak House is a half coffee shop-half bar and the owner specializes in craft beers and wine. They have student nights on Fridays and Saturdays and those are fun to go and hang out with friends. You can get a flight of beer for pretty cheap. That’s almost an intellectual scene, a lot of professors will go there. We share a lot of social things with professors because many live so close to campus and there are limited social options.
Do freshman boys have trouble getting into parties?
Yeah, I hate that. I think it’s the stupidest thing ever when I see a bunch of guys not allowed to get in. The first few weeks of school it’s open gate policy because they’re trying to recruit new members. It’s the worst for freshman boys right after those weeks if you don’t get into a frat. The frats are way smaller and exclusive in terms of who they let in than the sororities. A pledge class will be around 18 guys. It’s way more common for guys to not be in a frat than girls to not be in a sorority because they’re so small. It’s a tough adjustment for some of the guys that don’t get in because they’re a little ostracized socially.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Elon? Is there anything you would change if you could?
It’s okay. It needs to be more open. I get that a lot of frats want to keep it closed but that can be frustrating. I felt that if I wasn’t in a sorority I wouldn’t meet that many people in Greek life.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
People I lived with freshman year. My other close friends I hang out with on a regular basis are people I met through my pledge class. They really encouraged us to do bonding activities. The first 6 weeks of the pledge period you spend all of your time with those people so that makes you develop deep friendships.
How would you describe the social scene?
Multidimensional, but that’s almost giving it too much credit [laughs]. There are many facets, and while Greek life may seem like the majority, there are ways to insert yourself like being on a club sports team is a huge thing. Also participating in intramurals and working a job. I’ll have my core group of friends from Greek life for sure, but that’s not the entirety of my social life.
Do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I would say that our current president is very much an advocate of diversity and inclusion. They have several initiatives on campus, but it’s difficult because I think that the lack of diversity we have is a hindrance on inclusion. It’s mostly a white campus. There is a strong Black identity and presence in that we have NPHC frats, which are historically African-American fraternities, that have a strong presence. But, the way the frats are set up and adding drugs and alcohol lends itself to incidents of racism that are actually pretty relevant. We had a few that had a lot of backlash and the campus was really tense for a while. We had a president of a frat call somebody the n-word and bar them from entering their house. There was another image of a white girl standing on the stones of an NPHC frat that memorialized Black leaders. As a community, we had open forums to discuss those issues.
To give Elon credit, there are ample opportunities to make your opinions heard. They hold speeches, debates, and open forums on all of these issues so we can move forward from those incidences because of the overwhelming disproportion of races lends itself to the majority speaking over the minority. We are trying to create a space for minority voices to be heard, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t incidences of racism and incidences of students lashing out over these issues. I appreciated it sometimes because there are people who vehemently disagree with each other. Because there are very opposing opinions, it’s challenged me to expand upon and develop my own views and learn to defend them if somebody were to challenge them, which people often do. [About 81% of the Class of 2022 is White.]
What is the impact of Greek Life on social life?
I think Greek life has a huge impact and it’s something they minimize on tours. I’d say close to 50% of students take part in Greek life. There’s not much else to do other than Greek life socially. The bar scene is not a thing, so it’s a huge part of social interactions. [About 43% of students are involved in Greek life.]
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
No, because most of my internships or jobs have involved working in a lab. But, I know lots of people who have heavily relied on the Elon alumni network.
Have you learned any skills or computer programs that have specifically helped you with a job?
I taught myself Java and HTML code two summers ago through my project that I was working on. So, I learned how to apply that to all the computer programs that I used in my internships. Elon gives you access to a lot of software products for free. I was able to download SPSS and MATLAB for free and I know people who have Photoshop on their computers. You get lots of software packages for graphic design programs. The access to computer programs is a super underrated and very cool thing that Elon students have. It saves you a lot of money.