Choosing between NYU and Emory University for early decision

Here is NYUs Common Data Set which has the ED info:
https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/institutionalResearch/documents/CDS_2018-2019.pdf

@Early Decision - Merit aid is available at Emory, not at NYU except for the most sought after students. The cost of living in NYC is much higher than in Atlanta, which may make a difference in the affordability of your degree and your quality of life as an undergrad. Do you prefer a mid-size university or a really large, very diverse, student body with lots of internationals? Many first year students at NYU who have not lived in, or near, big cities have a very hard time adjusting to living in the middle of NYC. In addition, access to professors will be greater at Emory, and meaningful letters of rec accordingly easier to obtain (in case you do apply eventually to grad school). As @brantly pointed out above, these will be very different college experiences. Look at teacher:student ratios, class sizes in your prospective major, internship opportunities in your field of study, and availability of merit money. Talk to students when you visit each campus. That will help you get helpful and honest answers to the questions you are asking here. Best of luck!

Thanks Erin’s Dad. This is very helpful. It would have been nice if they also provided breakout by ED and RD. Per NYU communication, this year the acceptance rate went down significantly. This has a reporting date of October 15, so it may be a while before CDS for 2019-2020 comes out.

You can see ED stats in C21: 3,628 of 10,469 (34.7%) applicants accepted.

I don’t think they have released EDI/II results for class of 2023, but you could probably make some guesstimates, based on the pieces of data that have been released.

Thanks @worriestoomuch. All good points. That’s what I am trying to do. Get as much information as I can such that I can make an informed decision.

Thanks @Mwfan1921 . Yes, I see it.

To answer your questions, my S applied EDII. I don’t think EDII offers as much of a bump as EDI though. Full disclosure, my S was also a recruited athlete. His stats were in line with other accepted students; not all recruited athletes are accepted. Emory admissions is not as stats driven as other schools. They are very big on community service and leadership. It’s a much more holistic process than at other schools.

He did not apply for any internships this year but my understanding is that Emory students do very well. In addition there are a lot of research opportunities on campus which students are encouraged to pursue. Many students also choose study abroad for the summer.

I agree with the comments that NYU’s financial aid is known to be not very good, and that an ED there might not be a great choice unless you know you can pay the full cost out of pocket.

I will say, though, that from the outside the BBA/MSBA program at Emory doesn’t look especially heavy in the computer science necessary to be a data scientist. The sophomore year schedule has a lot of business classes, but only Managing Big Data (a database class? Unclear), and Machine Learning I. There are lots of ‘business analytics’ programs that teach students enough statistics and CS to understand and manage data scientists, but not enough to actually be one, ironically.

The data science major at NYU, by contrast, looks more like a course of study that would enable you to actually practice as a data scientist.

That said, though, you could achieve the same result at many schools by double-majoring in, or creating an independent major from the courses in, computer science, applied math/statistics, and perhaps one or two business classes.

Thanks @eastcoast101 and @juillet for your helpful insights.

To Juillet’s point: The students at Emory who want big data are not, by and large, in the business school. They are in the QTM program in Emory College. QTM stands for Quantitative Theories and Methods, which integrates liberal arts and data science. The idea is that you receive a robust quantitative education, paired with a liberal arts program, so that you gain knowledge in both quantitative methods and analysis, and another area (political science, economics, informatics, etc) were you learn to apply what you’ve learned to another area of interest. For example, you learn about big data, and then how to apply it to polling, if you are pairing it with political science. It also has a strong focus on communication skills, so that you learn not only how to analyze data, but how to communicate as well. Industry experts often say that quant people cannot write or present data to lay people; this type of program attempts to address those sorts of issues.

That said, there is a combined BBS+QSS (Quantitative Sciences) major. The BSS+QSS major is basically a QSS major paired with a business program. You do need to be admitted to Goizueta, but your data science classes are through the QTM program at Emory College. You can get more information on it on the QTM page on Emory’s website. I suggest you go to the website and read through the program carefully to see if it’s something you’re interested in, before jumping in and applying ED.

No, that’s not necessary if you are doing data analytics. It is more important to have some programming experience (Python, R) and database experience, especially big data technology. Almost all companies now have a data analytics team.

If you really think you want to do data analytics, you may want to look into Stevens Institute of Technology.

Thanks @eastcoast101. I had seen that option but thought that getting a MS degree might be more useful. Another reason was my preference to be more on the applied side of data analytics as opposed to be on the coding side (although I understand that some training in coding would be necessary). My thought is to do concentration in Information Systems and Operations Management in the BBA program and combine it with the dual degree in MSBA. I will take a closer look at the QSS option.