<p>I just wanna throw in that I would totally wish 4 years of miserable life for my worst enemy.</p>
<p>I think that this thread’s title can easily provoke people’s emotion and get angry at each other. Let me tell you what I know (by communicating with Emory students for quite a time- hell, two of my cousins are Emory alum), even if I have not attended Emory yet.</p>
<p>1.
In Emory, there’s a general atmosphere of people’s discontent that they did not get accepted to the ivy league schools. While not a lot of people see Emory as a safety school, certainly Emory isn’t a first choice to some people. But I personally think this is natural, since all students who get accepted to a college that is ranked 15~25 is also capable of getting accepted to an ivy-league school, and certainly a lot of them are cross-applicants with the ivies. However, a lot of others are EXTREMELY happy in Emory. </p>
<p>2.
The Korean community in Emory is does self-segregate. But what can we do about it? I saw a Korean who posted here that self-segregating Korean community is a against-factor to applying for Emory. It shouldn’t be. You have the CHOICE of being in both Korean community and that of others. There’s no obligation for you to hang out with Koreans all the time. I’m korean-american, and despite this problem I still enrolled in Emory. </p>
<p>This is my limitation of knowledge of Emory. It would be greatly appreciated if someone else can elaborate on these issues. Thanks.</p>
<p>@alam1
lol, you remind me of myself last year- I was so excited about Emory. I googled and tried to find out everything about Emory. Friended everyone on the Emory 2013 group (BAD IDEA!) thinking everyone is just as excited I am about going to Emory. Didn’t believe people’s negative comments about the school…and the list goes on. I just hope you’ll actually be happy with Emory when you come here.</p>
<p>@Sensation
It’s not just the Koreans, other cultures do the same. Also, you DON’T have the choice of being in the Korean community, unless you are Korean. I mean, unless you want to tag along and just stare at them while they talk amongst themselves in Korean. I’ve been there and it’s awkward (I’m not Korean). Regarding your post about ivy league schools, I think I’ll be happier at NYU, Georgetown, or even CMU even though they all are ranked lower than Emory (I’m not sure what I’m trying to say here, it’s late and we have to study for finals…)</p>
<p>Yeah, I already said I surrounded myself by nerds lol. Again, perhaps I am lucky. The pre-professional craze can somewhat put off the intellectuals. I also find a lot of people who admit that they are not that interested in their major and only do it because it is associated with pre-? or will get them job prospects. I’ve even come across people b***ing about how they are miserable and hate all of their pre-med classes, but still rave on about how they must be a doctor as if that’s the only thing they can offer to the world. However, I don’t let stuff like that ruin my experience or opinion of the school. I have lots of friends (literally lots) that are not as uptight and are very intellectual. Have you ever tried to engage students here in intellectual conversation. Sometimes I find it necessary to “probe” in such a manner; I am often pleasantly surprised to see that many of the students are not as shallow as expected. Sometimes you have to give people a chance. </p>
<p>Linnus, your statement is unfair. It makes me feel kind of bad for still feeling as though Emory is a school with a viable (though not huge) intellectual/social
scene that provides an excellent education. Telling Alam all of that is kind of like saying, anyone who doesn’t fall out of love with Emory has low standards according to your ideals. Clearly my experience has been different in context of the issues you mention, and some negative aspects simply don’t bother me that much because I am not really expecting perfection. I agree with the fit theory. This school did not fit you or your experiences were bad. No offense, but I really don’t care enough about “The Koreans” as a prime example of self-segregation. Them self-segregating, as awkward as it appears at times, does not take away from my experience. I have had quite a diverse pool of students to interact and make friends with, and I have been very successful. If one tries, it is possible to make friends/acquaintances with every ethnic group on the campus. Of course self-segregation is bound be more noticeable and prevalent in certain atmospheres, but only sometimes do I find any groups impenetrable (I.E. awkward to approach someone like a friend of different ethnicity sitting only amongst those of their own ethnicity).</p>
<p>Summary:
People can tell you how much they hate or love it here, but you won’t really know until you spend some time at Emory. Visiting might help.</p>
<p>@bernie
I’m not sure which of my statement implied “anyone who doesn’t fall out of love with Emory has low standards according to your ideals” because I certainly didn’t mean that. I agree, Emory is not a good fit for me. Lmao, half (made up statistics) of the pre-meds hate their chem/bio classes- doesn’t bother me though because that’s their business. The students here don’t SOUND shallow, but their action don’t reflect the things they say (aka hypocrites). </p>
<p>“If one tries, it is possible to make friends/acquaintances with every ethnic group on the campus.”</p>
<p>I have many friends here. Friend defined in it’s vaguest sense. But that’s not what I want. I would rather have a few friends who share the same interest and wouldn’t mind doing crazy stuff with me(sounds kinda wrong, but I don’t mean it that way). I guess it just comes down to the fact I can’t even find one or two people on campus who share the same interest as me- at the same time…I’m kinda crazy and spontaneous-, but that’s what make life interesting =D When it comes down to why I don’t like Emory, it is because it’s boring. </p>
<p>PS: I’m glad you are here to even out my pessimistic perspective of Emory</p>
<p>It’s late…I’m not sure if my post even makes sense.</p>
<p>damn son. yous a whiny *****.</p>
<p>lol CL. I was just trying to give them my opinion of Emory, that’s all. =)</p>
<p>@Linnus: Thanks, I hope I’m happy too… just curious, why is friending people ahead of time a bad idea. I have like 7 friends from Class of 2014 FB group.</p>
<p>Sensation, I agree with you. I have also heard that there is a tendency for students to use Emory as an Ivy backup and if they don’t get into an Ivy, they choose Emory. That honestly just makes me angry. Emory has to do a better job to make itself distinct and to attract a specific type of students. U Chicago and Caltech do this very well. They are not Ivy Leagues but they attract “nerdy” and “science-type” students and people, generally,. don’t use them as an Ivy-backup. I’ve also heard that the Ivy-envy causes some to look down on their time at Emory and have a negative impression of it. I just don’t want the Class of 2014 to be like that. I would prefer to be surrounded by students who are excited about the school they attend. I think school spirit is important but I believe (maybe I’m naive) that Emory has amazing potential in that department. It has most things other top schools have… When I go to campus, maybe I can figure out what’s lacking. Wow, I sound like a visionary.</p>
<p>Yeah, the Ivy envy thing is true to an extent. Some students still choose to believe Ivies are perfect in every manner, or at least that they do everything better than Emory. I experienced this initially. I found new friends who simply don’t care about such things because they are doing quite well here. Do I want to know what you define as crazy Linnus lol? One of the more silly, but fun things my friends came up with is walking from Lenox (can’t spell) to Emory one time lol. It was just so random because the shuttle was still running at that time. Like some people do now, we would often climb to the top of the Carlos Museum ziggurat. And no, we were not drunk (barely any of us drink actually. Only wine sometimes), slightly slap happy, but not drunk. We’ve also done other silly things. This is normally within my original clique of INSPIRE friends+ like 2 more. My other friends are quite strange/random too. Again, maybe I am just lucky, or far more outgoing now than I was in highschool. I am now able to convince more uptight friends to do random s***. It’s quite funny (and even manipulative in a manner lol).
Anyway, that is my type of fun. If I wanted the other type, I would have gone to UGA which has an excellent party scene, pretty darn good facilities (for any school, not just public), and perhaps decent/mediocre academics (depends on department. Some are top notch, like International politics/affairs). Runner up would have been Tech, but I just go over there whenever I want, so I always have access to their facilities (which are also quite amazing, and like us, only getting better). However, if I enrolled there, the academics would have been excellent for my interests. I am at Emory because I wanted a much larger humanities/liberal arts scene to complement my science interests because I love both.</p>
<p>@alam
Because some people will think you are creepy. Actually a lot of people will think that.</p>
<p>UChicago and Caltech are both better than some ivies. It’s more likely that they use some ivies as a backup if they don’t get into those schools.</p>
<p>What about the chinese american population? are they like the koreans - sticking together in their own group- ?</p>
<p>^yes 10char</p>
<p>My D just graduated and had a wonderful experience. I have posted before but her professors exceeded expectations we had and have surpassed what my other D at an Ivy has experienced. Emory D has great friends who have done amazing things and enhanced my D’s experience at Emory. She explored Atlanta, had great volunteer and internship opportunities, etc. I love Emory and will miss it. College is what you make it; fit is important. Emory is more pre-professional than other schools. That said, most of D’s friends were liberal arts majors doing very cool things.</p>
<p>Does Emory being more preprofessional have anything to do with producing fewer Nobel Prize winners?</p>
<p>yes, if brilliant students at emory are all preprofessional and few students are interested on the research side, then there would be few nobel prizers…</p>
<p>I would just like to say that I appreciate what you guys have posted here.
I’m going to be attending this fall as a freshman and also wanted to know what current & past students thought of the school.</p>
<p>I’ve been really excited about going to Emory, perhaps desperately so because I am making some big sacrifices to go to this school. I’m just worried that my wanting to love Emory isn’t going to blind me from reality.</p>
<p>Would current and past students mind posting from 1 (being the least happy) to 10 (being the most happy) how happy you are at Emory? maybe more people will reply that way…</p>
<p>I don’t get on CConfidential that much so this is really the first time I’ve seen this thread, but I am an alum from Emory and I would say that my experience was a 10 (being the best score).</p>
<p>A lot of people seem to try to characterize people and whether or not they will be happy here based on characteristics like race or religion or other colleges where you were/were not accepted. I don’t think that it is fair to categorize people based on those characteristics because people within that same label can have completely different experiences. However, my experience my entire time at Emory indicated that people who get involved at Emory (usually the more the better) tend to really love Emory. Those people who don’t do too much (whether it is clubs or sports or greek life or research or volunteering or internships or tutoring or… the list goes on for a while) tend to not be as happy. Usually, they have no idea what they’re missing out on. </p>
<p>All of these are generalizations and don’t apply to everyone, but among the people who I knew at Emory that were significantly involved, I am very hard pressed to think of someone who wasn’t particularly happy while they were here. All of the ones that come to mind really really loved it.</p>
<p>^Yeah but that’s correlation vs. causation. The type of people that get extremely involved are the type of people that would like Emory. If you’re an independent dilettante that loves going off and doing your own thing all the time then you’ll LOVE Emory. If you’re more of a chill person that would rather not spend 10 hours a day in class, meetings, work, practice, volunteering, etc. because that’s not what you want your college experience to be about, you’ll probably think Emory is just OK.</p>
<ol>
<li>Definitely.</li>
</ol>
<p>can any of you guys say anything about oxford college’s social scene? Like how cliquey is it, how outgoing do you have to be, etc.</p>
<p>also Alam, I’m class of 2014 too - but I’m assuming you’re going to main campus? C:</p>