I’m considering Emory as my 2nd choice (Washu as my first), but I’m worried about fitting in. I hope to meet people and be accepted, but Emory is Methodist. I keep my religious affiliation very private and being questioned about it makes me uncomfortable. Will people hound me over this, and will I not fit in?
Why do you think that Emory would question you about religion?
I’ve heard that people discuss religion pretty often at Emory.
Emory’s religious affiliation is pretty remote at this point. It’s probably more closely affiliated with the church of Coca Cola.
ZERO problem being an atheist at Emory.
I can’t imagine the school has become more conservative over the last decade and based on my visit in 2005, the idea of an atheist having issues at Emory is laughable.
No one cares about your religious affiliation, or lack thereof, and as an aside, there is a large Jewish population at Emory. FWIW.
If hearing students discuss religion among themselves bothers you then that is your problem.
I went to Oxford College of Emory for a year. I was an atheist and had zero issues. There are a lot of atheists at the school.
Oh good grief. If anything, Emory is Jewish in terms of noticeable religion of students and faculty, as already mentioned above. The Methodist origins of the university are invisible. But there are plenty of people representing all religions and plenty of atheists as well. Emory is not a “religious” university indoctrinating students one way or another. All the Ivies have a Christian heritage as well, but I don’t see anyone worrying about that when they apply.
I think that the OP’s question is a valid one to ask. While the existence of a variety of differing beliefs on a campus enhances all students’ learning experiences, it would be less comfortable to be an atheist at a school where there were very many highly religious people all of the same religion and few atheists.
But Emory does not seem to be a school where one religion dominates. It does have a decent percentage of Jews (as per Hillel’s site), and many people of Jewish cultural and ethnic heritage are atheists or agnostics rather than observant.
You might visit, or reach out to an atheist/humanist group on campus with your questions.
Evangelical Christians are probably a smaller minority at Emory than atheists.
Emory isn’t Pepperdine. No worries.