Graduate programs have become a popular post-grad option for many undergraduate students facing the real world. While some choose to further their education at schools scattered across the nation known for medicinal research, communications, or psychology, some choose to stay a little closer to home — actually, they choose to stay at home.
Elon University is home to seven graduate programs — Business, Management, Interactive Media, Education, Physician Assistant Studies, Physical Therapy, and Law. Elon has over 700 graduate students enrolled across these programs, and while many of them are from schools across the nation, some did attend Elon as their undergraduate school as well.
Bethany Coats, a member of the Interactive Media class of 2016, chose to stay at Elon because of the specific program she was going to be involved with.
“I decided to participate in the iMedia program because of the condensed length of 10 months and the different skills that were taught throughout the course,” Coats said.
Coats found, through the program, that she can focus on her specific interests while also expanding her general knowledge on communications. She also enjoys the aspects of the program that make it unique to Elon.
“My favorite part of the program was the winter term fly-ins,” Coats said. “This experience is something that, to my knowledge, is unique to Elon’s program. I feel that the experience really played a role in shaping me as a student in the program and as a young professional.”
The 36 students that make up the iMedia Class of 2016 have varied interests ranging from journalism to marketing. They may all pursue different areas of study and employment after graduating from the masters program, but Coats knows one thing for sure, she’s “loved continuing as a Phoenix.”
But Coats isn’t the only Elon undergraduate that chose to continue her educational career at Elon University. Shannon Moree actually chose to come to Elon undergrad based on its graduate physical therapy program.
“I have kind of a unique story because I kind of specifically chose Elon undergrad for the PT school,” Moree said. “I’m one of the few people that knew I wanted to do PT, so I knew if I wanted to go to Elon for grad school, I should go to them for undergrad too.”
Moree graduated a semester early from Elon in order to begin her schooling in the physical therapy graduate program offered by Elon. The three-year program begins in January and runs the full year until December. Students are required to spend 48 weeks in clinical practicums where they can learn more about the profession and the specific environment they would like to be in.
“I’m interested in going into personally acute care, which means I’d be dealing with patients after going through major traumatic events,” Moree said. “A lot of my classmates don’t agree with that — most of them want to go into outpatient care, but this is what sparks my interests and I’m hoping to continue with it.”
Both Coats and Moree agree that things would be different if they went outside of Elon for their graduate programs, but they like the comfort of being in a familiar place.
“I felt like grad school is such a big change in general, [staying at Elon] I had the luxury of not having to adapt as much,” Moree said.
Some things remain the same from undergrad to graduate school, at least as far as Elon is concerned. Undergraduate students are told that the teacher to student relationship is very beneficial to student’s successes, and graduate students feel the same way.
“Elon doesn’t have a large graduate population like some schools do and because of that, I think there is a lot of care that goes into the programs,” Coats said.
“The professors really do care, which is consistent in undergrad as well,” Moree said. “They want you to do well — they’re wanting you to succeed.”
Undergraduate graduation can be an overwhelming time for students trying to decide what to do with their lives. Whether graduate school is in the cards for some students is unknown, but many undergraduate Elon students who have found their home at Elon can continue into grad school. Though some students do choose to continue their education at other schools, Elon will always be dedicated to providing its students, undergrad and grad, with a beneficial education supported by dedicated professors and state of the art equipment.