<p>Congratulations to all those accepted to Emory College or Oxford College as part of the class of 2018! I am a current Emory Student in the College of Arts and Sciences, and am here to answer any questions you might have about Emory. Feel free to ask me anything (yes stealing that from Reddit) that's on your mind to help you make your college decision. If I can't answer I will reach out to a fellow student to find you an answer! I really do encourage all of you to visit campus if possible (it is the absolute best way to see if Emory is right for you). Again congratulations on your achievement thus far!</p>
<p>How hard is it too get into the undergraduate BBA program? I am really strongly considering Emory mainly to join that but I don’t want to risk going if the acceptance rate is on the low side. </p>
<p>@NUadmit123 the BBA program at Emory, as you might know, is really a phenomenal program (having been ranked as high as #3 in the country). If you work diligently during your two years in the College you should have very little trouble being admitted. The set standard on their website is that they look for students with B+ GPA in Business Administrative courses at Emory. You should read up more on the program, but I have truly not met a student who worked hard and faced rejection from the B-School when he/she applied. Here is a link to their admission page for more information. Just to say this: I would try not to let doubt over if you will be accepted into the B-School really sway your decision to heavily. (<a href=“BBA Program Matriculation Process | Emory University Goizueta Business School”>http://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/admissions/application_process.html</a>).</p>
<p>How difficult are the premed courses and are there any grade deflations? How big are the intro classes?</p>
<p>In terms of the rooms, how nice are the suites? Would a suite be preferable to a double? </p>
<p>For me the most important aspect of my college experience will be the people. How friendly, accepting, and nice are the students at Emory?</p>
<p>@Bouncer in response to your question, classes at Emory are not easy A’s. We are ranked top 20 for a reason, and part of that is that the college provides an academic challenge for its students. That being said there is no “weed out” culture here. If 100 students enter Emory Pre-Med and they all work hard in their classes, all those students can get A’s (and presumably by the end of their careers at Emory head to Med School). A lot of time when students complain about grade deflation they messed up sometime during the semester (forgot to study for a test, ect.) and they are blaming the class for their poor grade. My roommate is Pre-Med and he is doing great academically. I think Emory is a very balanced school in the sense that students are just as involved outside of academics as they are involved in their classes. Even the most involved students (clubs, sports and jobs) can manage to get good grades in their classes as long as they do their schoolwork. </p>
<p>The intro classes can range honestly, we do not want to prevent someone from perusing pre-med by “running out of spaces” in a intro pre-med class (like chem), so they do tend to be a little larger just for fairness sake. Some are as small as 40-50 and large as 100+. Even in a large class there typically are office hours with the professors, the TA’s, and even discussion sections of the class where you just discuss the content depending on the subject. My current classes are 12 students, 25 students, 30 students, and 22 students and I am a first year student. The average class size is 25, so most classes do tend to be smaller! I hope I was able to answer everything. </p>
<p>@college444life I think more then anything that is a personal preference, but I think the housing is fantastic! Every single freshman dorm has been built or renovated since 2008. I thought I would absolutely hate communal housing in a double room, but I have ended up loving it (so much so I had the choice to get a single/suite for next year and choose a double!) I suggest you come tour Emory to take a look at a real dorm room, or just go to the housing website and look at pictures of the rooms to find a style that seems best for you. There are so many different housing choices, and I can assure you next year there are no bad options. Our newest freshman dorm will be opening next Fall for the Class of 2018. Let me know if you have any other questions about Residence Life or Emory in general!</p>
<p>I’ve got a problem and many doubts. I was recently wait listed at emory and accepted at oxford with an international scholarship of USD15,000 renewable each year. The problem is the following:</p>
<p>Im an international student with a lot of financial need and hence, I would be needing at leat 90% of the tuiton covered or I wont be able to attend.
Does oxford college and emory have the same type of need based aid? I mean, if I get for example 30,000 usd of need based aid at emory I get it at oxford? I know that emory does have need based aid but Im not sure if oxford does.</p>
<p>The other problem is that the waitlisted decisions, apparently, come out AFTER march 1st and I would have to enroll to oxford BEFORE march 1st. What should I do?</p>
<p>Please, any help would be much appreciated</p>
<p>@tothefullest I have not met a single person at Emory who hasn’t been pleasant to talk to! I remember during orientation week last year I could talk to nearly any other student without feeling intimidated. On my first day of class I didn’t know where one of my classes was, and in my lost panic at least five or six students offered to point me in the right direction. The student body here is incredibly friendly, and even between upperclassman and underclassman there doesn’t seem to be any separation. Some of my best friends in the College are juniors and seniors. You should come visit sometime and see for yourself how genuinely nice the student body is here. Because students at Emory come from around the globe, I feel that we are all very accepting and very excited to learn about new culture/ points of view. I have never seen or heard of a student who was not accepting of others. This diversity is a point of excitement in the residence halls (both academic and ethnic diversity). </p>
<p>@render142 I sadly cannot answer your question about financial aid. You would be best off to call the office of financial aid if you have any questions about those issues. I do know that Emory does its best to help students afford a education (particularly with the Emory Advantage Program). I think you might mean May 1st instead of March 1st, but that becomes a judgment call. I wish I could give you better advice, but I think you should learn more about Oxford before you skip it over in hopes to be admitted to Emory College. I do not have any insight into the wait list, but I would direct you to call the admission office if you have any questions, they would be more then happy to answer! Personally, I think Oxford is a amazing school and very unique among colleges! If you have any questions about oxford I would be glad to answer them to the best of my ability. Best wishes!</p>
<p>If anyone has questions about Campus Life, Specific Majors or really anything else feel free to ask! </p>
<p>Is it really a big achievement to be accepted into Emory and Oxford?</p>
<p>No. It may be a validation of your hard work, but simply getting into Emory is not an achievement. </p>
<p>I would kind of guess so given all these waitlist and denies. However, I suppose it simply depends on how much you value what you’re getting. If you think you can get a great education, it’s a big achievement. If you merely care about how exclusive the club is, maybe not so much. However, as has been shown, plenty of high stats. applicants did not make both just like the schools with <20% and single digit admit rates (don’t let admit rates fool you. Emory’s students are as good as Berkeley’s and slightly better than UCLA’s. Both have lower admit rates).</p>
<p>@whenhen and @bernie12 – I just love those responses!!</p>
<p>We were thrilled yesterday when my son was admitted to Emory. But here’s our question (to all):</p>
<p>My son’s high school is a small private very competitive school, with no grade inflation. He is really bright (near perfect SAT’s), sort of inconsistent in his work habits (type of kid who’ll get a C on a regular test during the semester, and then get one of the highest scores on the final), so despite the fact that he works plenty hard his performance grade-wise (in this select cohort) puts him sort of in the middle and feeling inadequate. Although he knows the flaws in his logic, in many ways he’d like to go to a college where he can stand out. More importantly he’d like to avoid a repeat of high school where he is in a sea of competitive worker bees, and constantly feels pressured.</p>
<p>That said, he’s certainly OK not being at the top as long as he’s at a place that doesn’t feel rat-racy and competitive on a day to day basis. Lots of reviews of Emory give us the sense that it may have that competitive feel. In addition, he’s toying with either being a non-premed Bio major or possibly going for the BBA (?sports management ultimately) – both competitive areas. </p>
<p>Am I making any sense? Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>@WButter I would say it is an achievement in some sense. There are no free passes into any top twenty school such as Emory, so it is a noteworthy accomplishment to be admitted (at least that is how I felt upon recieving my letter last year). I would say most of all, you admission is a validation of the hard work you put into high school, and it now gives you a chance to further your achievements at what I consider one of the best schools in the nation. </p>
<p>Yes we do not have a single digit admin rates, but there are a lot of factors which influence that beyond how “selective” the club is. Emory is such a unique place for students to continue their academic career. The Dean of Emory College has put it (paraphrasing of course) that the goal of an Emory Education is not to make students memorize a bunch of facts, but instead its the idea of a liberal education (not liberal vs conservative) but liberal in the sense that it opens your mind to new ideas and causes you to reconsider things might might have taken for granted. That notion really resonated with me when I was trying to choose between colleges. If you have any questions about Emory feel free to ask! </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel first and foremost congratulations to your son for being admitted! From my own experience at Emory I have never felt any sort of pressure to compete with my fellow students. I had similar fears entering college, I thought that the students will all only look out for themselves, but what I have found couldn’t have been further from that. The most popular form of studying I have found is group study session which I think is very telling. Students here are very academically engaged without being overwhelmed/blinded. By that I mean most students do other things outside of academics:clubs, activities, volunteering, ect. I had to miss a few classes for a competition last semester and I asked a group of students who I had never spoken to for copies of their notes if they were willing to share, and when I checked my email later that day 3 copies of the class notes were waiting for me. </p>
<p>Students who comes to Emory should expect to be challenged (hence why its a top 20 school), but there is no “weed out” culture or anything of the sort. I do not feel like for me to succeed others have to fail, or the inverse either. Most classes are not taught on a curse, which further highlights this. Now to talk about your sons interests. Yes the business school is slightly more competitive then the college, but that is the nature of most business schools sadly. I know that the BBA Program at Emory fosters this sense of community within their class starting with a class-wide retreat to go skiing at the begging of their career in the business school. I do not think the level of competitiveness rises to any level where people isolate themselves from their classmates. The B-school is a great example of how (very slight amount of) competitiveness can actually lead to forming community within the class. There is more of a sense in both Business and Bio that it is the students banding together to “fight” the classes rather then the students fighting against each other for a grade, and I really love that sense of community. </p>
<p>So my final thoughts, Emory is academically challenging but typically does not overwork students (I do know know many student who studies on Friday or Saturday, they are typically at work on a club, activity or other event). I love the sense of community and how willing all the students are to, first and foremost meet new people, and help random students. Come visit and meet some real Emory Students so you can judge that for yourself, that is honestly the best way to tell. If you have any other questions let me know</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel: Your son should think about coming to Emory if he is a non-premed biology major. It’s actually much more awesome than I give it credit for (I think it’s better than even some of our “near peer” institutions simply because of the abundance of instructors with certain teaching philosophies and just the fact that they care how courses are being taught. They now make some hiring decisions based on how someone can maybe innovate a traditional course like human physiology or biochemistry). Why do I say this? For one, it actually isn’t that competitive (at least not overtly). In sciences, just as other selective schools work, more challenging courses are curved upwards and not fit to an artificial curve (like B-school courses which may be too “easy” and thus get curved downward vs. the normal scale). Your son, by not being pre-med has more freedom to learn and be challenged by great instructors (he doesn’t have to settle for instructors who don’t teach that well but make for an easy grade. He can risk taking the great instructor that pushes him farther). Here is what I’m beginning to see is different about Emory’s best biology instructors (I won’t comment on the business school because I don’t really know and I’m not necessarily a proponent of the academics there, though there is more rigor than normal for a BBA program). We seem to have many instructors who specialize in teaching. What does this mean? These teachers are not the ones that simply focus on shoving content down your throat and then writing multiple choice, true/false, and canned short answer questions on exams. Their courses are really geared toward developing your analytical abilities. </p>
<p>For example, it is not common to find many private institutions (even selective ones) where much of the general biology teachers do far more than just lecture at your for 50-75 minutes. They have actually incorporated more diverse teaching techniques to captivate the student. For example, in past years we have had several instructors employ the case method heavily in their courses and even some of the more “seasoned” (older ones more resistant to change) instructors have bought into using that technique along with several others. The classrooms for introductory biology are much smaller than peers (range from 50 to 95 students per section instead of 150-300 per section) and are thus more interactive (also labs are inquiry based. You don’t simply follow directions from a lab manual all semester, you design your own experiment, write it up, and make several presentations throughout the semester). As in, activities may happen in the classroom. It’s not just sitting and taking notes (you’re interacting with the instructor and perhaps the other classmates). </p>
<p>There is a whole suite of intermediate courses that employ problem based learning. These courses are the evolution and organismal biology sort of courses (there are 3, and one can be taken as a freshman if you have AP credit or take 141 first!). Basically every instructor (except 1, but I don’t know he’ll teach that course anymore) employs the pbl model for these courses. Their goals are to get you to see the concepts in experimental contexts. The tests are thus all short answer and mostly focus on students analyzing data sets depicting certain scenarios (that the student has not seen before but can do because class time was used for both content delivery and problem solving) that you have to break down and understand in terms of what you learned. For example in evolutionary biology, they aren’t testing you about minutiae facts on Darwin and evolutionary phenomenon, they are asking you to look at data and tell what phenomenon are happening and then gandering a guess as to why and how based upon the information provided (questions may have like 5 figures/panels to analyze for example. The ecology class and organismal form and function work this way as well. They are the other 2 courses in this suite I allude to). </p>
<p>Many upper level science courses also now incorporate discussion (as in, not the “recitations” seen at other schools where they basically just have grad. students lecture again) sections that get students familiar with classic and contemporary primary literature in the field of interest (I believe this is an important skill for pre-meds and non who enjoy science).</p>
<p>We also have several chemistry instructors/courses that supplement the biology instruction very well (general chemistry instructors like Mulford and Morkin, organic instructors like Soria and Weinschenk, and biochemistry with folks like Dr. Lutz and Weinert). </p>
<p>Basically, instruction at Emory is good enough to make your son very good at science (and not just good at regurgitating scientific facts) so that he can use it in whatever capacity (Hell, he can go and start a biotech company. We’ve had 2 guys do that. The company is worth over a billion dollars). It will be a challenging curriculum if he chooses his route, but the instructors and courses I allude are good and inspiring enough to make you want to do the work, perform well, and learn how to think. It isn’t a competition with these folks. You’ll find that the “easier” (or even medium) courses (this is where the ratrace academics really happen) and instructors tend to have slightly more stressful environments for odd reasons because everyone is just expecting an A, and students start freaking out when they slip on an exam. The more challenging courses are not about perfection so much as “progress” and “improvement”. I would not worry about these things. With carefully selected instructors and courses, your son can develop his mind and do well. Many Emory classes are just challenging in a “good” way. I’ve seen courses from some of our “near peers” that were considered challenging and it was mainly because of the amount of content (minutiae at that) they had to memorize and regurgitate in some form or another and much less about understanding and being able to use the knowledge for novel situations. When courses or instructors at Emory is considered challenging, it’s not because it’s merely high school on steroids, it’s because it/they are forcing you to think at high levels (even creatively at times. Eisen, Soria, and Beck for example write some questions that can have multiple approaches or interpretations, and it is intentional. They usually accept those alternative approaches as well. This seems to not happen at all for science courses at our “near peers”). </p>
<p>With these instructors, “standing out” is not all about grades so much as passion, how interested you are and how hard you work at it. Most of these are the types that will write amazing rec. letters for you even if you don’t make an A grade (they know that every person that has high potential and interest is not great at testing). One biology and some chemistry instructors has been known to over-ride the SI (supplemental instruction-you lead problem solving sessions for courses and mentor students) system that asks students to have an A- or higher each semester in a sequence to instead place students who indeed are passionate about the subject area who may have gotten a B or B+. I know it’s hard to believe, but some reason, some B students retain the material better after the course than the A students (Quite a few A students are just “in the moment” learners that get it together before the test and already test really well. Many cannot convey material that effectively to those new to material. It’s kind of like how you get a professor very bad at teaching undergrads. in their field of interest)</p>
<p>Thanks for your response Bernie and theatregreek. I see it as an achievement and I do consider myself lucky to have been admitted to both schools given the amount of rejections, even for pretty good students in my grade. I will most definitely be accepting the offer from Emory College 
</p>