<p>My son is very interested in Emory. Though I know things can change, right now he thinks he would like to double-major in Biology and Anthropology-Human Biology.</p>
<p>We have read that many Emory students are pre-professional. My son is, apparently, that rare aspiring bio major who does not want to go to med school. He genuinely loves biology and has done well in it (5 on the AP test and 800 on the SAT II as a sophomore), and already talks about grad school, but not for medicine. </p>
<p>We're wondering whether the atmosphere amongst biology majors is super-competitive and primarily pre-med driven. If so, Emory might not be a great fit for him. It sounds corny, but he really loves to learn and I doubt he'd enjoy a cut-throat, uber-tense academic environment. He also likes getting to know his teachers.</p>
<p>Thanks for any insights, esp. from those of you who are/were science majors.</p>
<p>The students here are mostly pre-professional, but are not cut-throat when it comes to academics. Emory seems to be different from many peers in that aspect of science majpr life. They tend to take over campus organizations. The academic environment is rather collaborative. Normally only healthy competition between friends will occur b/c the grading curve is really easy in most cases, and tends to help all when compared to a normal Biology has so many courses that you can essentially avoid pre-med atmosphere (pre-meds here promote watering down of courses and easy grading so tend to take less interesting courses that get them a high grade). I’m in physical biology for example, and most of the pre-meds dropped it within the first week or two b/c the workload was too high. As a non-premed bio/chem major, I can tell you that this is one of the hardest classes (it’s new and normally taught to grads) and those of us left over complain sometimes, but it’s nothing like when a class is mostly pre-meds. There are so many bio, neuroscience, psyche, and anthro. courses (I figure your son would have an interest) that you can essentially follow your interests. Also, pre-meds tend to take classes that “sound” more related to medicine, so they typically avoid more humanities/social science based courses in these areas. Point is, it is easy to avoid the pre-meds. And many of them I suppose aren’t that bad. If he comes, he chose upperlevel courses wisely basically. The more special topics courses tend to get the more intellectual students, and there are plenty of them. Your child should be fine after intro. courses.</p>
<p>Thanks, Bernie. I was reading other posts on this board yesterday, and it’s interesting to me that so many students at Emory are pre-med, though (according to what you and others were saying) the med school acceptance rate is low. Why do med school aspirants keep flocking to Emory if the outcomes are poor?</p>
<p>I am a little discouraged by what I read here about the low rigor of a number of the bio classes as well. Please forgive the personal question (and of course ignore it if you don’t want to respond) – but as a biology student yourself, are you looking at grad school and if so, do you know how the outcomes are for (non-med) bio majors applying to grad programs?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>I have no idea because I’m kind of bio/chem.(haven’t officially declared chem, but will take most of the courses and probably a graduate level course) major. I ideally would like matriculate into some sort of molecular pharmacology program like the one offered here, but I’m not sure. So many of the biology/NBB students here are pre-med that I can’t tell you. I only know the chemistry side very well because I am closer to several faculty members there. Significantly less pre-meds are chem. majors, and many do pursue graduate programs sucessfully. That I am sure of. But outside of public health, I haven’t heard much about the biology majors. But I must admit that while I enjoy many of the biology classes better, I like biology from the perspective of a chemist so my former organic professor has opened some doors for in me in that area of research. In fact, I am beginning a somewhat independent project on a novel synthesis of a the core structure HIV protease inhibitor, hopefully to be published (sciencefinder I think) and presented at ACS symposium/convention in spring. This prof. also is the one who recommended me try and take someone’s graduate course on enzyme reactivity provided that biochem goes well. Point is, I am clearly more in tuned to the chemistry dept. b/c it’s less saturated with majors and much easier to establish a close relationship w/an advisor(not to say that the actual advising is that great) or professor because of it. This is much harder in bio and NBB because of the saturation by pre-meds. However, many professors/advisors in bio tend to like students not in pre-med (take Dr. Spell for example), so are willing to give them more personal attention.<br>
I’ll say it like this, the biology program here is high quality, but perhaps saturated with the wrong type of students, so quality of some courses suffer. I’d recommend that your son not only take courses in biology, but take some in areas related to it like psyche, anthro. and maybe special topic NBB courses. These classes add to your sons background, are interesting, and normally full of genuinely interested students who may indeed want an easy grade, but nonetheless decided to take that particular course b/c of interests so they still want to learn. For an easy course in bio, it’s never due to interest, it’s due to grading for the most part or a belief that certain courses prepare for med school better. </p>
<p>Your son should perhaps look into Georgia Tech where the biology and biomedical related programs are solid (biology itself is perhaps not as good as ours, but solid nonetheless) and students are indeed kind of “nerds”(lol) if you will. Most are probably not pre-med and are genuinely interested. If you want to sacrifice a little bit of “intrinsic” quality for a better learning/academic atmosphere in the sciences, Tech is great option. And the 48-56% is a direct result of the flocking to Emory. Too many think they can do it, but they can’t, very simple. We have everything they need. Also, I would recommend other top 20s, but other than perhaps UChicago, you may probably get the same atmosphere. If y’all considered Tech, the only issue is the lack of a really solid humanities/liberal arts curriculum, which is why I am at Emory. We seem to be one of the non-Ivy Top 20 institutions trying to “rescue” or continue to put considerable effort into it. This has been to my enjoyment. This is why I keep mentioning those other departments (actually psyche here is pretty tough, and is more science-based as opposed to evenly split social science/science hybrid). They put your liberal arts/humanities training in context of your area(s) of interest. Kind of bridges the gap if you will. Without these depts., students at this school would be so narrow-minded and there would be a larger degree of polarization between the sciences and humanities. For a person who actually values learning, it makes the experience more worthwhile. One anecdote is seeing one of the Tibetan Scholars (yes, there are some on campus now) taking chem. and physics through Emory’s Tibetan Science Initiative I believe. This program is one result of the strengthening of interdisciplinary departments here. I just guess I would look at what the school is trying to do as a whole than just look at the biology department itself and judging based upon it. Given that, your son can very well have an amazing experience. It’s just less likely if he only plans to spend time with the bio. dept.</p>
<p>The liberal arts-like curriculum is one of the big reasons he is interested in Emory. Sciences are his primary interest but he is also very much interested in many humanities areas. Tech was not on his list. We are northerners but Emory has a number of things that appeal. We’ll be making a trip down south soon, I think. Thanks for the input.</p>