<p>After touring several colleges, Emory, Atlanta is my D's current favorite. She loves the size (not too big, not too small), the activity, the type of students, the diversity, the cultural and academic events, even the architecture. Emory is a a big reach/lottery school for admission and finances though, so now we are looking for other schools that might feel similar, but not be quite the reach. I'd love for her to stay in the SE, but I am trying to be flexible on location. She is. lol<br>
She also likes the "arty' feel of other schools, but felt like 'frolicking about" when we were at Emory and Duke (Duke was deemed too overwhelming for undergrad....on the list for possible grad school later).</p>
<p>Bump. and clarifying…I think D has stats that make Emory a possibility, but I consider it an admissions reach no matter what the stats are, and for finances Emory would be an expensive option which may make it unavailable. D is currently thinking of majoring in Anthropology (probably cultural), but has also had strong interest in neuroscience, and loves the idea of learning more about languages.</p>
<p>Consider applying to Emory at Oxford first, for the first 2 years, which leads to admission to Emory College in her junior year</p>
<p>Some random ideas: U of Miami, UNC-Asheville, Mercer, Butler (not SE)</p>
<p>Oxford @ Emory is a good idea. A friend’s D was admitted to both Oxford and Emory and was awarded merit aid to Oxford. We honestly didn’t think we could afford to send our D to Emory until we received the financial aid package, which was a pleasant surprise. </p>
<p>What about Elon? It’s not as diverse as Emory (few private schools are) but has great study abroad options, community service, beautiful campus, some merit aid. One of my D’s good friends attends Elon and is very happy there (she was in the top 5% of my D’s class.) </p>
<p>What about Rhodes, Wake Forest, College of Charleston, and Goucher?</p>
<p>I am following up on the suggestions posted here so far. Thank you. </p>
<p>@Piccolomom1995, Thank you for that info about Oxford. We’d thought about it, but the costs would be the same…however, we hadn’t thought about the possibility that it could allow for merit aid that might be out of reach at Emory for those 1st couple years. We will definitely look into that further. You mentioned that your FA package was a pleasant surprise. Was if different than what you saw on the Net Price Calculator? Do you know what would have made it different? I think that’s where we are right now; we really couldn’t afford it without a very pleasant surprise. ;-)</p>
<p>Emory offered more than our EFC indicated they would (added an extra grant and more work study.) It was the 3rd best package of the 6 acceptances (waitlisted at 2 reaches.) The highest offers came from an OOS university and Rhodes, both merit-based. </p>
<p>We visited Rhodes and Emory last April after my D was admitted and found them to be extremely different from each other (small LAC vs. mid-size research university, for starters.) If you’re looking for a college with a similar feel to Emory, I can’t see Rhodes in that category.</p>
<p>Oxford’s main merit program is pretty competitive <a href=“http://oxford.emory.edu/financial-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/oxford-scholars-application-requirements/”>http://oxford.emory.edu/financial-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/oxford-scholars-application-requirements/</a> Remember that Oxford of Emory is very different than Emory’s main campus and it’s quite common for Oxford continuees to prefer one school over the other with the caveat that most end up enjoying both experiences. </p>
<p>I can easily see a student who likes Emory also liking Brandeis, Tulane, Wake Forest, and maybe the University of Denver. I think an Emory caliber applicant would get merit from Denver although I don’t know about Brandeis (if it does give merit aid) or Tulane. </p>
<p>Wake Forest is a bit less competitive/selective than Emory, so that might appeal to your daughter. I also agree with the suggestions of Elon and UMiami.</p>
<p>Berry College is another Southeastern college; it’s smaller than Emory but may have somewhat similar architecture and feel. Another is Oglethorpe University - again, very small, but the feel and location are very similar to Emory (it’s also in Atlanta). Another suggestion is Mercer University in Macon. She might also be interested in Furman University - again, smaller than Emory, but located in SC and otherwise relatively similar.</p>
<p>A couple of the other schools I thought of were public - chiefly Clemson in SC, but that’s not going to help with the financial aid much.</p>
<p>Outside of the SE, American U in DC might be a place she’s interested in. Also potentially Boston U, Villanova, perhaps Syracuse.</p>
<p>I definitely don’t think Oglethorpe or Berry are anything like Emory. Oglethorpe is going through some serious financial challenges right now, so even if it were much like Emory (it’s not at all other than the ATL location and private school status) I still wouldn’t recommend it. Berry is way too conservative, culturally homogeneous, and regional to be considered a solid backup to Emory. Even the architectural styles are different (fwiw, I’m not a fan of Emory Main’s architecture but found Berry’s to be stunningly beautiful). It could be a potential back up for a GA/ AL student who loves Oxford College but I don’t see it as a good match for someone whose top choice is Emory.</p>
<p>Clemson is puzzling. Emory is at its heart a diverse liberal arts institution with a preprofessional bent, something Clemson is decidedly not. Perhaps College of Charleston, Furman, and USC (both of them) are good South Carolina options, but not Clemson. </p>
<p>Syracuse and Villanova are good options although Villanova gives poor merit and financial aid, and it’s a mostly Catholic school, very different than the university nicknamed “Early Methodist Only Recently Yiddish”.</p>
<p>I am reading more about the colleges listed. Several we had already looked into. Wake Forest got crossed off the list when I ran their Net Price Calculator…it was iffy anyway because it seemed to have a lot of emphasis on sports and Greek (haven’t visited though). Clemson seems to be a bit remote, and perhaps not the same vibe as Emory, but I am keeping it on the list to go see during a planned summer tour of schools. Furman…also too expensive, but we have visited a couple times. D LOVED the campus, but the students seemed more preppy than what she feels she wants.
College of Charleston could be interesting. I wonder how southern it is. A southern feel is not something D is looking for.
SInce Emory is bigger than schools we thought she might like I have started to look more at State honors colleges. We are in Florida, so I;m looking at those schools, but most don’t have a true honors college within the university. UGA, and Univ of South Carolina look like they might offer some of what D saw in Emory, maybe.</p>
<p>I second Tulane as most similar to Emory but somewhat less selective. How about Univ. of Richmond? </p>
<p>If your D likes Emory’s location and would consider a women’s college, Agnes Scott is near Emory (located nearby in Decatur) and has a good reputation.</p>
<p>@quakerstate, Thank you. We toured Agnes Scott and really expected to love it, but it just didn’t have that dynamic feeling that she got from Emory. We saw U Richmond 2 summers ago, with no students there and liked it but didn’t come away with a strong impression one way or the other. In what way do you think it might be like Emory? Tulane looks interesting, but I hadn’t been able to get past the idea that it’s mostly a party school…probably based mostly on it’s location in New Orleans. I will look into it further.</p>
<p>Not really less of a reach but another similar school is Wash U. In a city that is easy to fly into. Similar undergraduate size. Lots of research tied to medical area with the excellent medical school. Lots of choices of majors and departments are strong across the board. As diverse as Emory. Lots of events on campus especially since most kids all live far away from St Louis. Smallish campus that is contained–ie not part of the city. Interesting funky neighborhood to the north. As far as ones that are less selective but still challenging, I also suggest Elon (in a very small town though not a city). Other mid-sized options to consider include Case-Western (lots of merit $$) and University of Rochester (also has lots of merit $$). Good luck. </p>
<p>Being in Florida, have you thought about New College? It’s much smaller, but it’s very much an honors college and it could be viewed as a financial safety (in-state public tuition + merit scholarships).</p>
<p>I suggested Richmond because I saw some similarities to Emory though you might view them as superficial similarities based on your visits to both schools. It is medium size (about 4,500 students), has an attractive campus in an upscale suburban area near a city (Richmond). It also has a geographically diverse student body and has preprofessional programs such as business. </p>
<p>I think Tulane is too strong academically to be viewed as just a party school (though there is plenty of that being in New Orleans). The student body seems to closely approximate that of Emory in many ways (though a little less selective). It also has a very nice campus in a good part of New Orleans (across from Audubon Park).</p>
<p>If you’re looking at Univ. S. Carolina, their honors college scholarships carry in-state tuition rates with extra scholarships, depending on the student’s SAT/GPA. If you go to <a href=“http://www.publicuniversityhonors.com”>www.publicuniversityhonors.com</a>, you can learn more about honors colleges in every state. The SC campus is beautiful, with a relatively new honors dorm and impressive class options. Their generous offer made it less $ than our flagship university. SC’s honors program accepts more OOS students than UNC and the honors freshman class was similar in size to Emory’s. However, we did not see a lot of diversity on campus; I’d imagine Florida is more diverse.</p>
<p>U Rochester felt similar to Emory in terms of student body, diversity, curriculum and campus size: it’s less selective than Emory but their acceptance rate is heading down each year. From what I’ve seen, Tulane awards more merit aid and the weather is nicer (Rochester gets a lot of snow being near Buffalo.) D was accepted Early Priority at Rochester but it was an unaffordable option for us. 4 students from D’s class, including a NMF and the valedictorian, were accepted at UR, but all 4 received better financial offers elsewhere and went to other schools. </p>
<p>If you are looking at Florida colleges, you may want to include Eckerd in St. Petersburg. They are generous with merit and financial aid and also Bright Futures and Florida Access Grants.</p>
<p>@piccolomom1995, Thank you for the info on Uni South Carolina and that LINK! Great information there, and a lot to explore. D was surprised that she liked a college as large as Emory (since we were looking at small LACs), but still doesn’t think she wants a really big school. Our thinking is that some honors colleges within the larger Unis might feel smaller.</p>
<p>@ecmotherx2, We have visited, and really liked Eckerd. The concern there is that they don’t seem to have the concentration of strongly academically minded students that colleges like Emory seem to have. When running the NPC for Eckerd, it seemed to come up with a good deal of merit for D’s stats, but no need aid, making it more expensive than many other schools for us. We do wonder though, if they might be come up with more if D does apply. She is interested in sitting in on a class to get to know the student body a bit more.</p>