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IwJin ^LON, north CAROLINA | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010 | VOLUME 36, EDITION 25
www.elon.edu/pendulum
ELON'S TOP FIVE MAJORS
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College of Arts and Sciences attracts most students
Sam Parker
Senior Reporter
Curriculum updates, academic program
advancements and new developments for majors have
all contributed to the changing numbers of enrollment
within the 2010-2011 undergraduate top-10 majors.
Majors in business administration, strategic
communications, psychology, media arts and
entertainment, biology, international studies, political
science, exercise and sport science, accounting and
elementary education all lead in Elon’s undergraduate
studies, the majority of which are located in the
College of Arts and Sciences.
Connie Book, associate provost for Academic
Affairs, said more than half of all students major in
the College of Arts and Sciences, averaging around 54
percent, making it the largest school at Elon.
Business administration within the Love School
of Business holds the No. 1 spot on the list with 577
students, continuing its number one position for the
past three years even after the implementation of four
new majors within the LSB. Coming in second, strategic
communications has an enrollment significantly
smaller, totaling 366 students.
Although business administration continues to
hold the number one spot, majors such as biology and
exercise and sport science are shaping the direction
of the university through the development of their
departments and the addition of new programs,
according to Book.
“It’s not that we are recruiting any differently, it's
just that some assets, such as the doctor or physical
therapy program for biology majors, are attracting
more students," Book said.
Book explained that the increasing interest in
hard sciences, specifically biology and pre-med, may
be related to the availability of the anatomy lab for
students. She also said that Elon's commitment to
updating and advancing courses also plays a role in
enrollment increases.
“We are doing new things. We bought Danieley
East, and in that building, we are adding three
undergraduate labs, so those labs will be designed
to support undergraduate research in the sciences,”
Book said. “Our initiative relating to growing the DPT
program will be in Danieley East, too.”
This support for undergraduate research was
one of the aspects that brought sophomore Alyssa
Flashburg to campus. Flashburg, a sophomore biology
major, said the biology department's emphasis on
undergraduate success instilled passion in her for
biology.
“Because Elon’s science department is small in
comparison to other neighboring universities and
continues to maintain its focus on the undergraduate
level, all students have the opportunity to participate
See MAJORS I PAGE 4
More need-based financial aid to be available
Rachel Southmayd
Senior Reporter
As part of The Elon Commitment in
the next 10 years, Elon University plans
to increase the amount of need-based
aid available to students with the goal
of increasing diversity on campus.
Patrick Murphy, director of Financial
Planning, said this will be accomplished
through increased funding from Elon's
endowment, or donations given by
ourside donors and alumni, and the
restructuring of existing financial aid
programs.
“A lot of the Ever Elon campaign is for
scholarships,” he said.
The rest, he said, will come from
institutional funds, or money from
tuition. He said the university has an
extremely low “discount rate” or the
amount taken from tuition to fund
financial aid. This is what enables Elon's
tuition to be low, he said.
Murphy said there will not be an
increase in Elon’s discount rate or a
jump in tuition prices inconsistent with
normal annual increases.
For the 2010-2011 academic year,
the cost of attendance for an out-of-
state student is $35,475. In comparison,
Rollins College, a school in the same
category as Elon, costs $54,030 to attend
for the 2010-2011 year.
Murphy said the school would
not increase its “discount rate” to
fund additional aid, but rather the
institutional funds will be used in a
different way.
“1 would say part of the early
operation on increasing need-based aid
is to take some of the money that we're
using for merit-based aid and convert
that to need-based aid,” he said.
Merit-based aid includes scholarships
given to students based on their
academic record in high school. Some
of the merit scholarships awarded
include the Presidential and Fellows
scholarships. Murphy said he predicts
there will be fewer Presidential
scholarships given.
“Another goal is to increase diversity
and part of that is international
students,” Murphy said.
Currently, there are no specific
programs in place to help international
students with additional financial aid.
Murphy said.
He said a new program, temporarily
named the “Elon Commitment
scholarship” will be established, similar
in structure to the Watson Program
that exists now, which gives eight
North Carolina students a substantial
amount of aid based on their academic
achievement.
Preference is given to students who
will be the first in their families to
attend college and come from school
districts with low incomes, among other
criteria. This new program will include
10 students now and 20 students within
10 years.
“That would mean that we would,
at any given time, have 32 Watson
students, and we'd have 80 of the
‘Elon Commitment' students, so that
would be a pretty significant group of
students that have very high financial
need,” Murphy said.
The Odyssey program at Elon also
produces significant scholarships for
students. Murphy said several different
endowed scholarships exist under the
Odyssey umbrella, and these are usually
valued at a minimum of $12,000.
“As this Ever Elon campaign really
starts to pull in a lot of money, we’ll see
this Odyssey program expand quite a
bit,” he said.
Immanuel Bryant, a Class of 2014
Watson scholar, who said he wanted to
attend Elon for a long time. He said the
Watson scholarship was a key to being
able to actually attend once he was
admitted.
“It gave me an avenue to actually get
here," he said. “I doubt if I would have
come without it.”
He said without this scholarship he
would have had to take on very large
loans to fund his education.
“It relieves some of the pressure,” he
said.
Murphy said he expects an increase
in financial planning's budget for
additional grants as well, available for
students who qualify for need-based
aid.
He also said the overall goal of
increasing financial aid is diversity.
“To be able to create a truly global,
diverse campus you have to be able
to serve students from all kinds of
backgrounds,” he said.
FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON ELON NEWS, VISIT WWW.ELQN.EDU/PENDULUM