Hi, I am a senior in Westchester County, NY and I submitted me ED1 application for Emory. I attended Pre-College, had a great interview, and I have interacted with my admissions representative. I’ve made sure to demonstrate a lot of interest because despite me having a great personal essay, supplementals, and ECs I am a on the lower end for scores and GPA. I also have family members who have attended Emory and I have recommendations from an Emory professor from Pre-College and a camp counselor of mine who went to Emory. I have a 3.61 gpa UW, class rank is not done at my school, and I have a 1300 SAT. I’ve struggled a lot on standardized tests, but I got 5s on the two APs I took last year. I really love Emory and I hope I am there a year from now!
My* ED 1 application
Emory does not consider demonstrated interest as a factor. Odds do improve in the ED rounds, but all in the round are deemed to show the same high level of motivation to be Emory students. With respect to family members who have attended Emory, if that enabled you to check the legacy box in your common application, that would help. For those who might chance you, you may want to reply to indicate whether you are a legacy.
I have cousins that have gone and go there, but not parents or grandparents.
@sb0824 As someone from Westchester County, I’ll be frank with you: the competition is fierce. Especially coming from a wealthy part of a wealthy state, expectations for you would probably be higher as admissions officers know you had access to resources of privilege growing up. While your chances are not 0%, your SAT and GPA are below the 25th percentile of the 2022 class so I would put it as a reach.
Yes, that’s totally fair.
I know that Emory looks at your numbers last in the admissions process, so I’m just wondering how they will approach it. If everything else is good, will I be an exception to balance out the SAT range? Or will I just be easily eliminated for my numbers. I guess I don’t know because either are possible.
`@sb0824
Cousins don’t count as legacy, unfortunately.
@sb0824 hard to say. Historically, Emory had lower selectivity metrics compared to its peers (Vandy, Gtown, WashU, Rice) but in the past few years, Emory seems to be increasing its stats.
From Emory admissions website:
https://apply.emory.edu/apply/faq.php
How does legacy admission work?
We value the legacy connections of applicants and encourage students to detail their university ties accurately on their application. In the admission process, legacy status is for applicants whose immediate relatives have graduated or are currently enrolled in an academic division of Emory University. This includes grandparents, parents, and siblings. Additional family connections (such as uncles, aunts, or cousins) will be tracked but do not constitute legacy status. The Admission staff works closely with the Emory Alumni Association (EAA) to document legacy applicants through the admission process. A legacy connection is considered as part of a student’s application, but it is in no way a guarantee of admission in the highly selective pool of applicants.
@TheTennisNinja Both the quality and quantity of applicants has gone up and it has pushed the stats up. I don’t believe that Emory is focused any more on stats than it used to be. The application process is still holistic, but more competitive in every respect. I believe they could drive the stats higher if they wanted, but they still aren’t as stat focused as similar schools. I’m not sure if that makes sense. For what it’s worth, if they truly were not interested in a candidate, they wouldn’t interview them.
@ljberkow do you know this about the interviews as a fact? Just wondering because I do know from other alumni that they are totally random. Do you think they do a read through of applicants first? My son was selected and had a great interview and so was everyone else from his school. I would say they are all competitive applicants, though.
The admissions committee selects whom is to be interviewed.
I think it’s explained well online.
@ljberkow I have read that before but I don’t see anywhere that says that the admissions committee selects whom ist to be interviewed. Everything I’ve heard through alumni that conduct interviews is that they are random.
@ljberkow @collegemom9
Alumni interviews are more for the purpose of keeping alumni engaged, rather than for prospective students.
@emorynavy, you are grossly misinformed.
@ljberkow are you an alumni? Not arguing with you in the least just trying to determine how important the interview can be since my son did get one and thought that it went extremely well. I would love to think that interview carries some weight and that interviews wouldn’t be conducted with kids who don’t stand a chance. Like I said everyone my son knows was offered one but they are all pretty high stats kids (some RD and some ED).
@collegemom9 I am stealing a link from a prior year post by Biff Brown which mentions Emory and interviews among the alumni interview process. The interviews matter, but maybe more to clearing up close calls among candidates.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/12/the-futility-of-college-interviews/549359/
I like this one better in the AJC. It’s written by a Penn alumni, but I think it’s similar.
Yes, I am an alumni (an old alumni, but still an alumni) and somewhat involved in EAA events in my area. Emory’s application process is holistic and everything counts.
@emorynavy Interviews are both informational and evaluative so they do matter for prospective students:
https://apply.emory.edu/apply/interviews.php
Whether informational, evaluative or both, interviews take up valuable resources in the Office of Admissions and by drawing on alumni time. Thus, I suspect that applicants with no chance of admission aren’t offered interviews by Emory.
That being said, I’ve heard that some schools like Princeton strive to interview all applicants.
The data released in the ongoing Harvard admissions litigation shows that alumni interview reports are given weight at least by Harvard.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/3-Takeaways-From-Harvard-s/244853