<p>It’s even worse when you say I got accepted into Oxford College of Emory Universty. People are like…“The British Oxford?”</p>
<p>Hahaha, I only applied to Oxford because I like the idea of 2 years liberal arts and then having a strong chance of getting into Goizuetta.</p>
<p>Unless it’s an Ivy you rarely see uniform name recognition countrywide for most schools. Heck, someone just asked me today if U of Chicago was a state school. They had no clue whatsoever. Similarly, I do run into people all the time that have no frame of reference for Emory. </p>
<p>What do those schools have in common? No big time sports programs to garner national recognition among the masses.</p>
<p>RE to the person who said that Emory would be higher up in the rankings if they didn’t have Oxford</p>
<p>Really? So why is Vanderbilt ranked at number 17 as well? They don’t have something like Oxford and they have the same SAT average as Emory.</p>
<p>I think they only pay attention to the main Emory when doing those overrated rankings…</p>
<p>That point doesn’t make any sense. If US News were combining Oxford students with Emory students–which they obviously DON’T because Oxford is a DIFFERENT SCHOOL–then Emory’s SAT average would be brought down by Oxford’s lower SAT average. Thus EXCLUDING Oxford would RAISE the SAT average and IMPROVE Emory’s ranking to be ABOVE Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I’m confused, you are responding to missy411 right? I guess you were agreeing with her. She’s essentially saying the same thing. I just think I got confused when you said excluding Oxford (which is already excluded in the SAT stats. and in the USNW ranking as even cited) would increase our rank “above” Vanderbilt’s. Clearly that’s not true as we are tied. And I also don’t think getting a slightly higher SAT middle-range will give us an edge over them. Vandy has higher SAT scores (The bottom of the range is significantly higher in the case of the new freshmen class) than us, yet we still have the same rank as they do. I think the SAT range is only a small factor. Obviously Emory’s undergrad. program has some strengths that compensate for the fact that the scores are at least slightly lower than peer institutions. I think you just screwed up in your last sentence.
If you take the opposite case, however and include Oxford. Add 350 Oxford students to a random class (this number comes from the fact that it normally has 700 or so students enrolled). The SAT range “may” probably decrease enough to drop Emory a couple of spots, or not. For another example of what I was talking about w/regards to scores, look at places like Tech, Tulane, and Tufts. Tech, for example has an SAT range (about 1310-1470) essentially identical to ours and is number 35. Schools whose lower number is 12____ rank higher than these. I don’t know, maybe it hurts to be a “private” school with the lower part of the range being 12_____ .</p>
<p>Anyway, I think the discussion about Oxford is pointless. I think it’s a good program/idea. Even if it was included in stats., I don’t think I care enough about the rankings to warrant getting rid of it.</p>
<p>I, too, believe that Emory will drop (increase in number) rankings soon. This year’s USNWR rankings are for the admissions for the Class of 2012 college classes. For the Class of 2013, the gap between Vanderbilt and Emory scares has widened.</p>
<p>By the way, keep in mind that perhaps about 40% of the 350 Oxford students will have at least a 1300 (which falls around Emory’s 25% mark of 1300-1330 depending on the year). That’s like 140 students who will keep it the same. Those with scores below 1300 in such a scenario would total 210 of a freshmen class of about 1650-1670. They may not shift the range as much as we expect. In this case, the increase in class-size may be a buffer preventing a shift caused by adding those 210 to the bottom of the “pre-Oxford” range. Also, keep in mind, you may have those few (say like 20 or so) who scored at or above the Atlanta campus’s 75th percentile.</p>
<p>Be careful about that assumption fuzzleshnops. Vanderbilt has always had at least slightly higher scores. Also, take into account how little the scores matter. Georgia Tech’s range (1310-1470) is basically identical to hours and they are number 35. Schools whose low number is a high 1200 have higher ranks. Clearly it’s more than Emory’s selectivity keeping its undergrad program on par with Vandy’s; or you may indeed be correct if “private” schools are punished for lower ranges. Aside from these things, there are great new things happening at Emory. We should just value the school for what it is and where it’s going, not how Vandy will increase 1 rank above us because of its new SAT scores. Come on, Vandy’s new SAT scores surpasses that of Duke’s and many ivies. Do you think they are going to jump the rankings like a flying king on a checkerboard because of that? To be honest, that may be their sole motivation in suddenly increasing their selectivity. Notice how the year before wasn’t even close to the current one in terms of scores or admission rate. Seems sketch. Historically, Emory doesn’t seem to have ever suddenly crashed its admission rate. And I think its ranges have been somewhat like a yo-yo on a short string. They go up and down, but the rank remains nearly identical. I wouldn’t worry about class of 2013. Its range is only like 10 points lower. Emory had a bad year as a lot of the Ga. students defected to state schools which were cheaper. I look forward to seeing whether or not there will be more applicants for Fall 2010 than this past fall. That should be interesting.</p>
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<p>Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about the arbitrary nature of the colloquial perception of top schools. Contrary to what many people believe, not all people know what universities are contained within the Ivy league. From what I’ve experience, people are usually only familiar with Princeton, Yale, Harvard and Columbia. Some people think that Penn is a public state school and some have no clue about Cornell and Brown. Hell, one of my roommates didn’t even know how to properly pronounce Dartmouth. Moreover, I don’t think most people know what the ivy league is.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry at all if any of your peers have never heard of Emory, since they’re probably not going to be the ones who hire you for a job in a couple of years.</p>
<p>Since Missy was arguing that Oxford doesn’t hurt Emory in the rankings, I assumed she thought the Emory stats included Oxford students. And that those numbers do not hurt Emory because we have the same SAT scores as Vanderbilt, which doesn’t have a juco associate, and are still tied with it. That didn’t make sense to me because: 1. Oxford is not included and 2. if it were included, then Oxford would bring that average down and it WOULD be hurting Emory.</p>
<p>Anyway it doesn’t matter because the premise was wrong. Oxford students don’t count in the Emory rank so there’s no way for them to hurt Emory. And even if they did, you have to look at the USNews rankings in perspective and realize they aren’t the final say in how strong the school is. First, there’s other rankings. Like the most widely accepted international rankings have Emory barely cracking the top 100 at, you guessed it, 100. Forget about Vanderbilt; that puts us behind such prominent schools as Rutgers, Texas A&M, and UC-San Francisco. Second, your major department has its own reputation. For instance, Emory’s math department, my department, is not in the top 2 tiers. So even though Emory is “ranked” higher than say, Minnesota, I personally would have a better degree if it were from there because it has a top 20 math department. Moral of the story is don’t fixate on the USNews rankings. They’re a very shallow snapshot of what a school has to offer both during and after college. Remember the original topic of this forum? It’s not just kids you get blank stares from, but also employers. You’d think all of the important people know about Emory, but you’d be surprised how many blank stares you’ll get from them.</p>
<p>I concur and I imagine you are talking about QES world. One interesting thing about Emory which gives away the fact that its prestige is new, is that there are no Nobel laureates( fail at spelling) which weighs heavily in those rankings. And let’s not talk about Emory math and physics. Doesn’t seem like those are teaching depts., seems like they are focused more upon research. That needs to be fixed. However, as I’ve said before, Emory needs to do a better job getting its name out of there regarding its strengths. Reputation is also important in these rankings. Emory faculty and students should try to get more recognition or representation in national media outlets (other than CNN) and the like. Either way, despite its flaws, I love the place.</p>