Does anyone know how heavily Emory weights freshman grades? Mine were not great to say the least and my gpa would be a good bit higher without them…also, will they know what classes/APs were Availible for you to take and which were not?
They don’t look at your freshman grades
@Impp I dont know how you got to such a confident conclusion because Emory definitely looks and considers your freshmen grades like all top privates. They probably don’t weight them as much and they definitely don’t conpletely disregard them.
@lmpp @jons12 No, I think she’s right - they don’t look at freshman year grades. The Emory admissions officer for my region said that he doesn’t pay attention to them and made a joke that if someone looked at his freshman year grades, they’d think he’s going nowhere in life, lol. So they obviously receive them but don’t take them into consideration.
One more day everyone!!! Let’s hope we all get in :((
What essay prompts did you guys choose and what did you write about?
I got my confident conclusion when I met with the dean of admissions where I was told they don’t look at freshman grades
@jons12 ^^
Chance me – ED 1
GPA : 3.73 (Junior year 2nd semester my mother was faced with severe illness and I had to take care of her)
ACT: 31
APs:
APUSH
AP Gov
AP Seminar
AP Lang
Senior year AP:
AP Photo (double AP credit)
AP Research
AP Lit
E/C:
Nationally ranked debater (in contact with the Emory debate team)
Founder of an organization aimed at helping low-income debaters
T.A. at the Muslim Community Center
Internship at a college startup helping poor minority kids with college apps.
Head of organization to help Pakistani children with school organizations after the 2014 school massacre
Chicago Students Ambassador, helped organize events during Chicago Public School budget cuts
Muslim Student Association officer and leading prayers
Essays:
Common app 9/10 (I wrote about giving up a Finals debate round to discuss the inequities of debate)
Favorite fiction/non-fiction work: 10/10 (I wrote about A Raisin in the Sun and how it resonates with my life on a very intimate level.)
What motivates you to learn: 9/10 (I wrote about how my friend in my neighborhood got shot and how it pushes me to learn in order to provide for my community.)
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major : Undeclared
Domestic or International (state or country in parenthesis): US (IL)
Income Bracket: super duper poor
Race and/or Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Hooks (URM, first generation college, Recruited Athlete, Famous, High Donar): First generation, super poor, nationally ranked debater
@madison417 : You do know that many more than one officer reviews the competitive apps right? There can be disagreements among them. This process isn’t as simple as you think. In such a case, you would be banking on your app. only being discussed by that one officer or adcom. What would probably happen is that if there are other committee members for whom the freshman grades raise some eyebrows, some who de-emphasize it would argue against them. However, you cannot be so certain how that would go.
I don’t even trust the Dean of Admissions. These are elite schools. Much of their goal is to encourage more folks to submit applications because they know fools tie application volume (which can be maintained and manipulated in many ways) to a school’s reputation. I hate to be so cynical, but that is what they want, especially if they admit roughly the same amount each year.
@UptownChi : I would expect that you could be admitted based upon character (as demonstrated through ECs and essay topics), your debate record, and maybe your stats versus income bracket. However, they would be slightly concerned about the rigor of your courses. They may have expected more of the “serious” APs, but it really just depends on what was offered at your school and how you did. If you have any AP scores for the junior year courses and they were 4 or higher, I would recommend sending them to clearly demonstrate that you can do well in the more academic APs you have taken already.
@nitsuac : You only plan to major in business after taking an SAT2 in physics and math and doing solidly? Any reason you are not considering a double major to develop that math and/or physics background even more (maybe applied math which wouldn’t be too strenuous and would allow for a diverse set of coursework or even something simpler like the new business QTM joint major coming up: http://quantitative.emory.edu/for-undergraduate/index.html . I think they should have the details by time you would arrive)? Business looks like a dull route to take as a single route for a person talented/has lots of potential in those areas. Just saying. I would at least dabble in some math classes or the calculus based series in physics before going to the business school. Couldn’t really hurt you (hint: The b-school is not stupid. They know how to take into account course rigor in their admissions), and you may stand out.
I like seeing Emory students reach their full potential of learning which is why I bring it up. Also, who knows, STEM and business can overlap in some interesting ways (If you are admitted, you are going to a town that is seeing tremendous growth in tech and start-up culture and is also home to Georgia Tech, a place that holds competitions to get funding for students who invent something. Emory funds sustainability initiatives, including undergraduate groups and science can easily be tied to that).
Her common app essay is one in a million. I daresay that no other applicant (EVER) took the approach she did. She is an exceptional writer. Thanks for the input 
Anyone else’s portal not working?
@Intelligent08 mine is working
@dreamcatcher3
Well fabulous, She really seems to like Emory and wish her the best of luck for JHU and Emory. She might even have some good fortune with Atlanta’s film industry, its really taken off these last few years. There filming ANTMAN, Stranger Things, and I think Pretty little Liars at Emory right now.
@Intelligent08
There probably updating portals systematically, throughout the week. I wouldn’t worry.
@UptownChi The debate skills might really help you. Emory won nationals last year,(or maybe two years ago, my memory alludes me). I will say your stats are a bit low for you particular demographic so I’m still will guess a Low Reach/Reach. Good Luck
T- MINUS 27 HOURS and 45 min…
Can someone chance me??
GPA: 3.6 (huge upward trend: freshman - 2.6, sophomore - 4.09, junior - 3.95). … school also only reports weighted, but they do not weight very much (0.33 for aps). UW based on my own calculations is 3.5 ish
ACT: 33
6 AP’s but not submitting (ap world, apush, ap stats, ap chem, ap lit, ap calc ab)
Took summer pre calc to take AP calc
extracurriculars:
main one is cross country / track
summer volunteering
Math team
Peer tutor / peer leader
Student athlete council
Conducting research (independent study) on creating an artificial pancreas
pretty solid recs, i would think.