Chance Me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

Hello everyone, I am currently a senior in HS in Florida whose top choice is Emory
Unfortunately I will not be applying ED because the tuition is too much and I’m not sure how much financial aid I’d get (Household Income ~$90k…) but I will be applying RD.

I am also a National Merit Semifinalist and a Posse scholarship semifinalist (will hear the results of that around late oct. not sure if i should put posse semifinalist though)

Intended Major: Human Health (I would like to later go to grad school at Emory, major in Public Health)
Weighted GPA: 5.01 (Regular classes= 4.0, Honors = 5.0, AP/Dual = 6.0, it’s pretty weird)
Unweighted GPA: 3.9608
Demographics: Asian female
Rank: 29/581 at a competitive public school. It’s very competitive around the top 50, and nearly everyone in the top 10 is aiming for schools such as MIT, Duke, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, etc
Hook: Adopted at the age of 9 months old and had issues with my self-identity. Essay will be relating to how I managed to overcome it by taking a Heritage Tour around China this past summer and getting to learn more about my place of origin while recognizing how lucky I was to have been adopted and meeting other people with the same family circumstances as me and etc
SAT: 1470
ACT: 33 Composite
APs: 10. Human Geography (4), World History (5), US History (5), Psychology (5), English Language (5), Environmental Science (4). Currently taking Macroeconomics, English Literature, US Gov, and Calculus AB
Senior Schedule: AP Calculus AB, AP Macroeconomics, AP English Literature, AP US Gov, Anatomy + Physiology Honors, Spanish 4 Honors, and 3 dual enrollment classes- Personal Finance, Intro to Management, and College Algebra
Course Rigor: I will have taken 9 dual enrollment classes by the time I graduate, and they are weighted the same as AP classes for me. They were all elective classes
Classes Taken: I did my school’s 3 year architecture program but decided that it was not my calling. I did get certified in AutoCAD, however.
ECs: Psychology Club (President and founder, 2 years), Drafting (Architecture) Club (Vice President, 2 years), Science Club (2 years), National English Honor Society (2 years), National Honor Society (1 year, this year), Math Honor Society (2 years), Technology Club (first 2 years of highschool) STAND (tutoring elementary schoolers, first 2 years of HS), Key Club (first 2 years of HS)
Outside of school: I have played the piano since I was 4 years old and attend a Chinese brushpainting class every Friday as means of connecting to my culture and maintaining a passion in art
Volunteer Work: 300+ hours logged. ~250/300 come from volunteering at my hospital’s information desk for the past 2 years. I have also started participating in this program where I do an activity with patients at the cancer ward to get their minds off things
Awards: District Literary Fair Winner, 1st place, Fable Category. District World Languages Competition- 2nd place in Spanish 3 Declamation and Impromptu Speaking. AP Scholar, Honor Roll since the second semester of my sophomore year
Other schools I am applying to: UCF (accepted), FSU, UF, Boston U, Northeastern, USC, Fordham, Northwestern (high reach, only applying there because my mom wants me to but I know I won’t get in), UNC, Umiami, Tulane. Not sure if that mattered to include it but I did anyhow.

Also, I was going to apply to Oxford College as well. Are my chances better there?
Thanks for the help in advance!

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@kuustarr : If you are looking at a PhD, not just a masters. A) It is usually not good to complete it at the institution you did undergrad. and B) Maybe considering double majoring in human health with something like Environmental Science which, perhaps to your surprise has many more DIRECT links to programs in the Rollins School of Public Health including two Masters programs (I think 5 year or 4 year so not terminal) that may provide better preparation for a PhD at another school awesome in the area if that is what you are thinking.

You could get into NU (don’t say you won’t get in. That is ridiculous. You certainly have a shot. Believe it or not, as selective as NU is, it isn’t Harvard. You don’t need to be perfect to gain admission unless you are maybe pre-engineering or something. You just need to be really good which it appears you are), but for UG access to non-premed health related curricula, I think Emory is better :stuck_out_tongue: . Though I am sure many are just more into NU’s higher USNWR rank.

Your chances are better at Oxford primarily because you have a super strong GPA (Oxford accepts a wider range of GPAs than main, while scores of admitted and enrolled students are virtually identical), but your SAT for Emory vs. Oxford is a wash essentially. Also, I hope you get into main because it is a better place to start if, again, you are non-premed but into healthcare (specifically public health). You get instant access to such courses whereas Oxford doesn’t really have equivalent Human Health courses nor courses in their Environmental Sciences (or is it Geology) that can easily be related to sustainability and health like Emory main. Oxford seems to excel more so at traditional environmental science and geosciences.

Either way, I think you may be a match, but keep in mind, it is RD, so application volume is heavy and there will be a lot of randomness. It could possibly end up that Emory denies or waitlists and that you make the cut for NU. You really never know. When in doubt, assume you are reaching a little for any top research university even when your stats or profile say that you are a match.

Also, those dual enrollment credits. Can you list some of the courses? I just want to see if there is any direction in them that could be sold as I don’t know what an “elective” is. “Elective” college courses for a high school student? Are these like a smattering of random intro. courses (basically you taking a bunch to enhance your course rigor index) or did you select them seriously based on key interests?

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@bernie12

I was thinking of going for a Master’s Degree at minimum. If I get rejected from Emory, I’ll be sad, but since I have Florida Prepaid, I recognize the financial advantages of simply staying in-state and won’t be completely torn up over it, and simply work towards attending graduate school there.

I definitely prefer Emory because they are right across the street from the CDC which would be awesome to just get an internship there whilst studying at the university and then getting to stay there and network around the area. I really love the area as well, its smaller size, and just the general vibe of the campus. Northwestern (haha at first I wrote this comment under the assumption you were referring to Northeastern) is a high reach for me, but, there’s no harm in trying! I think they’re generally known for their Communications majors, moreso than they are their health majors.

In regards to the dual enrollment classes, I took quite a few when I was still ambivalent about what I wanted to major in, so they are:
Introduction to Business, Introduction to Marketing, Computer and Internet Literacy, College Algebra, Introduction to Management, and Personal Finance. Next semester I’ll be taking Statistics, Principles of Economics II (microeconomics), and Principles of Sociology (which I may either switch to Professional and Technical Writing, Developmental Psych, or Personal and Community Health. If I can, it’s all about availability). I used to think about going into the business field but now I realize that I wanted to give back more and I thought Public Health gave me that option. I was looking into the Epidemiology field mainly, but also Public Health Policy or Health Services Management, but I figured I’d be able to make that decision once I got into grad school. Hopefully they didn’t screw me, but yeah, since over the summer I usually went away, I was unable to take the harder classes like Bio or whatever because those required physical presence. I really wanted to do something psych or health related but all those classes were usually full…

Thank you very much for the insight! I suppose time will tell, but it’s always useful to know outsiders’ opinions.

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@kuustarr

Is Emory one of the schools where you can apply a Posse Scholarship (assuming you get one)? I seem to recall that the Posse can be used only at certain universities and colleges.

Take advantage of Emory’s Score Choice to declare either the ACT or the SAT (whichever is higher). I believe your ACT score will translate to higher but you should check on that.

You should check with Emory to see whether and under what conditions you can rescind a ED decision if the financial aid doesn’t pan out.

If you’re premed, you should consider research opportunities wherever you go.

Note that Emory’s hospital system, cancer institute, public health school (Rollins), and medical school are all on the same Atlanta campus as Emory College. Further, the Center for Disease Control (“CDC”), which is a federally run, funded and operated agency involved in public health research and infectious disease research, is also located on the same Atlanta campus as Emory College.

Northwestern’s medical school is located in downtown Chicago while the undergrad is based in a different city (Evanston) - about 40-50 minutes away - assuming you have a car. That commute can be a hassle if you have to make 3-5 round trips a day to check on your ongoing lab project.

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@kuustarr You should try to meet the deadline for Emory/Woodruff full pay scholarships at Emory and Oxford. It’s even earlier than the ED1 deadline.

http://college.emory.edu/scholars/scholarships/index.html

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@kuustarr
Emory RD- Low Reach, your scores are avg for Emory college but your GPA is great.
Yea NU is High Reach, unless you retake, which you still have time.
The Human Health program at Emory has a business analyst concentration, you should look into that.

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@kuustarr
@VANDEMORY1342

@kuustarr’s ACT is at the 75% for Emory enrolled freshmen and at the median for Northwestern

www.collegedata.com

Emory enrolled freshman stats:

Average GPA 3.72
SAT Math 711 average
660-770 range of middle 50%

SAT Critical Reading 679 average
630-730 range of middle 50%

SAT Writing 695 average
650-740 range of middle 50%

ACT Composite 31 average
30-33 range of middle 50%

Northwestern enrolled freshman stats:
SAT Math 710-800 range of middle 50%

SAT Critical Reading 690-760 range of middle 50%

ACT Composite 32-34 range of middle 50%

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@BiffBrown
Old stats, almost three years old. For admitted students, OP’s scores are avg and that’s what should be focused on admit stats.

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@kuustarr :Statistics, Principles of Economics II (microeconomics), and Principles of Sociology. These classes will be taken seriously by selective privates (as in most have course equivalencies) and not so much the others. I would stick with these. Also, NU…maybe a reach, but I would not say a super duper high reach. I think people are really over-estimating it. I honestly don’t know how much your chances would increase by scoring a 34 or 1500…I am betting it isn’t that much. You are technically already in striking distance for NU, but it is just hard to get into and has high volume. Not much you or anyone can do. The effect of getting a higher score may be over-stated. NU has high stats because of rank whereas Northeastern has it because it wants a higher rank. If you get a higher score, it is more likely to effect your chances a lot for Northeastern because they are a lot more stats sensitive (moving away from “striking distance” or getting well above the median for there may actually matter because they want to admit as many very high scorers as possible).

@BiffBrown : My guess is that they are in somewhat below the median (30-40% which is fine. You really just want to be in the IQR. If they can hit 75% which requires perfection, that could increase their chances, but I have this feeling anything below is a waste unless applying to very stats sensitive schools like Northeastern where it may help) for an admit at NU, but are more like 50-60% for an Emory admit.

Also they aren’t pre-med and are aiming for graduate school. Research for them is actually substantially more important than it is for a pre-med, for whom it is often over-rated unless you plan to plan to apply to research intensive medical schools. Having the experience is nice if pre-med, but becoming a super star or doing tons of it is primarily good for those interested in it. It should be done for personal reasons in such a case and not merely as an attempt to enhance the application (it really isn’t for everyone). Basically, I would only do it if you think you would like it or really enjoy science as science is done (not all pre-meds do, some merely like the application). If not, there are schools that focus less on that and are accessible to those with good grades, ECs, and lots of shadowing and relevant volunteer experience. It is not a requirement so I wish that myth would go away. No pre-med should feel pressured into wet-lab or clinical research merely because everyone does it and it needs to be checked off. If not interested, probably better to pursue a less cliche or more unique/personal interest or opportunity that could have impact. I can attest to the fact that the University of Miami Miller med. school, a damned good med. school that seems to have an affinity for Emory students, takes excellent students without the stereotypical profile of having research.

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@BiffBrown yeah Posse can only be applied to certain schools so I didn’t think it’d translate over as well and renowned as something like Questbridge would, I was just confirming. I know one of Posse’s chapters partners with Northwestern though, just not the chapter I’m part of. My ACT score translates to a 1500 on the SAT so I was planning on submitting ACT. In terms of ED, it’s hard because on the outs it looks like my mom could afford it since she has a fair amount of assets and savings, however, she has to support 4 other people (my grandmother, my two sisters, and I) and my sister will be a freshman in college at the same time I am a junior in college, so it’d be very financially difficult if I was attending Emory, having my mom pay ~$30-40k a year when considering costs of living, on top of having my sister attend college. I am fully aware that other students cannot afford to even attend college without financial aid, which is why I have no hard feelings about it, but yeah, I guess we’re not overwhelmingly wealthy, but most definitely financially stable, which is why I doubt that I’d get much, if any, financial aid. And, my mom I believe would technically be able to afford for me to go but, as stated earlier, it’d be extremely hard on the rest of my family and i wouldn’t want that to happen; I heard that ED is a very lengthy and technical process to get out of, so I can’t afford to run that risk. I’m not “pre-med” as I’m not intending on becoming a doctor, vet, or anything of that sort in the future. I can technically major undergraduate in anything and still pursue a Public Health master’s degree, but I think it’s great that I can do it undergraduate for all the more opportunities. Thank you so much for the insight about Northwestern! It’s definitely not in my top 3 list of colleges but it would be amazing if I went and my mom is pushing me to at least try to apply as anywhere else out of state, we have no family. Thanks so much for all the comments regarding Emory too, I will definitely look into the scholarship.

@VANDEMORY1342 Thank you for mentioning the concentration! I had no idea and it sounds like something that i’d be really interested in, kind of like the best of both worlds. Thanks again!