Emory or Tulane? Torn.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
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<p>I basically have to decide between ED for Emory, or EA and SCEA for Tulane. I am a track athlete and currently met with both the Tulane and Emory coaches. Tulane really wants me to compete for them, and Emory is excited as well but not crazy. The Tulane coach and I are very close and I've visited both schools. But, Emory generally has better academics. But…Tulane will offer more flexibility with my schedule and class choices, with a slightly more balanced work/play life. These are both my top two schools. </p>

<p>Rising senior, GPA honestly is not that good, I slacked off my sophomore year, and I had an extremely debilitating back injury my junior year that sapped out all of my time and sleep. (for those of you wondering, I had a herniated disc at L5/S1 with accompanying sciatica). I've always had pretty rigorous schedules but the grades themselves don't look that spectacular because they're mostly B's and B+'s. </p>

<p>So, basic stats are currently as follows:</p>

<p>Intended Major: Biology+Exercise science/Premed (minor in business, this is where Tulane has flexibility). I used to want to major in architecture but realized my passion was truly in the medical field.
Weighted GPA: 3.8
Unweighted (school doesn't calculate): 3.3-3.4ish
Bio SAT II from Freshman year: 720
PSAT: 207
First SAT in June (horrible test conditions): 2020, aiming for 2150+ in october
ACT: Not taken, first diagnostic test was a 32 with no prep though.</p>

<p>EC's:
Sports:
Track and Field (Varsity 2 years): 9,11,12
Winter Track: 9
Cross country, wrestling: 10</p>

<p>Clubs/Activities:
GSA: 9,10,11,12
Japan Club: 9,10
Art Club: 9
Mobile Apps Development: 10, 11, 12 (President 11 and 12)
All School Musical: 10, 11, 12 (House manger next year)
Student Senate (Delegate): 12
Future Doctors of America (Founder): 12</p>

<p>Also got awarded 2nd Place at the NJIT Dean's Design Competition in 2012. I got a free ipad and a full scholarship to NJIT's summer architecture program.</p>

<p>Out of school stuff: not much volunteering or work, I really don't have time. I take care of my 8 year old brother after school a lot, I currently manage a fitness forum and I'm in the middle of developing a few iphone apps. I also have a youtube channel where I document my training recovery in hopes of educating people of my type of injury and helping others in similar situations. A lot of my time is dedicated to family stuff, medical research, my training, nutrition, surgery recovery, etc. There's only so much time in the day to do everything and still try to get some decent sleep to let your nervous system recover (if you're an athlete, lol) especially in the middle of the school year. </p>

<p>Freshman schedule:
Honors Biology 1: A-
Honors World Civilizations: B
Honors English 1: B
Plane Geometry: B
Japanese 1: A-
Tech/Arch Design 1: A</p>

<p>Sophomore schedule:
Chemistry 1: B+
Honors US History 1: B-
Honors English 2: B-
Algebra 2: B+
Honors Japanese 2: B
Tech/Arch Design 2: A</p>

<p>Junior Schedule:
Honors Physics: B-
AP US History: B+
English 3: B+
Trigonometry/Advanced Math: B
Honors Japanese 3: B+
Tech/Arch Design 3: A-</p>

<p>As you can see, even my elective (tech/arch design) grade dropped as a result of my lack of time during last year. </p>

<p>Senior Schedule + Expected grades:
AP Studio Art: A
AP Bio: A- (I'm very good with bio)
AP Statistics: A- - A
Calculus: A
Humanities: A
Personal financial literacy: A</p>

<p>I recently just got surgery on my back so I will have a bunch more time to focus on my grades as opposed to the last year. I really wanted to make a comeback after my sophomore year, and while my grades did improve, they didn't improve as much as I wanted them to because of my time constraints, obviously. And considering I didn't get my operation done in the school year so I could still compete in the spring, most of my time was centered around just being able to sleep and walk without a considerable amount of pain. If I didn't compete this spring I wouldn't be able to compete in college, so I kind of had to sacrifice a lot of my life just for that. </p>

<p>I am really torn. Keep in mind I don't even know if I'll be able to get in cause my grades are so bad…but if I get the grades I need senior year, and any of you guys think I can, what should I do?</p>

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<p>If Emory doesn’t take you, it will be because of the grades. A 2150 could help, but still (if it reflects some circumstances, you can maybe include your obstacles in a clever fashion in an essay. I saw something on another thread here where ucbalumnus posted a California HS’s admissions results, and Emory, like the other privates rejected folks with a 14-1600/1600 if they had a low GPA or no ECs)…By the way, there must be a lot of weighting if those grades went to a 3.8. Also, don’t assume you’re interested just in medicine because of your interest in biology. For all you know, you could end up finding something else to with the interest when combined with your interest in business, especially at Emory which has these folks:<br>
<a href=“For Solazyme, a Side Trip on the Way to Clean Fuel - The New York Times”>For Solazyme, a Side Trip on the Way to Clean Fuel - The New York Times;

<p>The place has a surprising amount of starts up in IT/Tech and maybe like social networking for a school with no engineering school. </p>

<p>In addition, if you take the right classes and also get in a lab, you could end up liking research or something. Just don’t be so presumptuous about how how your ability biology can be used to help people. There are many options. There are also many other forms of healthcare that may actually have/be gaining more clout in their ability to do so. Public Health is included and Emory is amazing at it and has awesome opps. for those who get involved with that sort of thing. The global health case competitions have been a hit for example.</p>

<p>By the way, if you are willing to work hard, you can easily pull off a BA in bio w/a BBA in business. Med. schools don’t care if you major or get a B.S. in science. Most pre-health students take enough biology courses to technically get a BA. This should definitely become true for those cohorts who will take the new MCAT for which more coursework will be beneficial). </p>

<p>Whether you choose flexibility over perceived quality is your choice. We can’t make this choice for you. You may just want to research the opportunities and happenings associated with your interests at each and determine which environment fits you best. If you do this, and determine you want to go to Emory, you’ll need to apply one of the ED options. The regular decision can be very risky for you. Emory gets less apps. than Tulane, but I believe (I’ll check) the students admitted are probably of higher caliber, especially during RD.</p>

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<p>You can ED to Emory and EA (not SCEA) to Tulane at the same time.</p>

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<p>Yes, I just checked. Emory is slightly better than them when it comes to enrolled students (add maybe only 30-50 points on the 25% and 75% end), but the admits at Emory have a 70-90 point difference on each end. I don’t think it should change for the class coming in this weekend, but I would wait to see if there is a change up or down (they may release the admit scores and the enrollee demographics for fall 2013 this or next week). Look out for them because if they go up, that could suck because of your GPA (especially if the 25% creeps up past your current score. Right now you are comfortable in the middle of Tulanes admit cohort, but at the 25% of Emory’s. A 2150 will get you to the middle of Emory and near the 75% of Tulanes. And middle of Emory is dangerous if you do RD).</p>

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<p>Well, it’s weighted in that a B in an honors or AP counts as an A. I have taken almost all honors classes so that’s why it adds up to a 3.8. My school also takes phys ed. into our GPA calculation, so that’s about .05 on my GPA from all three years. </p>

<p>I also have Emory’s track coach basically telling the admissions office about my injury, and I visited the campus. Do those two things help? I won’t be doing RD. It’s either ED or nothing for Emory, basically.</p>

<p>I definitely think I could raise past a 2150, but I’m also quite better at the ACT as I just discovered and I think I could pull off a 34+ with prep.</p>

<p>Were you taking the sports into account when you made the assessment if I could get in or not? It was a long post so I’m not sure if you saw.</p>

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<p>Holy cow that’s a boost. At my school, an AP B may go to a B+ (if it was like 83), but only very high Bs could end up being a solid A.</p>

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<p>I was, I don’t know if that will push you over the edge. For ED, maybe . I just don’t know how ED stats. compare to RD other than them likely being lower. I mean, maybe they’ll look more like the stats. at Tulane (overall), so you’ll be okay if you want to apply.</p>

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<p>Have you thought about the difference in the athletic departments? Tulane is a Division I school and Emory is a Division III school. I don’t have any inside knowledge on either athletic department, but in general being a Division I programs will require a huge time commitment from their athletes.</p>

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<p>@thirdelement, yeah, I have. At Tulane I will obviously be more serious with the athletic time commitment (something I really, really enjoy) but I will be pretty serious at Emory as well. Emory also has a club olympic weightlifting team that I would probably participate in the fall so that’s a plus.</p>

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<p>You should be aware that Emory doesn’t have an exercise science major, nor a minor in business.</p>

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<p>It sounds like Tulane fits better with you while Emory just has the better academics. Tulane is also more interested in you as an athlete. So considering that, I definitely wouldn’t do ED at Emory. And you would probably really enjoy having more flexibility at Tulane too.</p>

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<p>What in the world would a minor in business look like? I’m just curious. Couldn’t you just simply take some business or business related econ. courses that suited a particular interest? But yeah, perhaps Tulane is fitting better. Depends on how hard you want to go on academics, but if not that hard, Tulane I guess. As for exercise science. I think that Human Health major/minor is perhaps similar or a solid option for someone who would otherwise do ESci.</p>

1 Like
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<p>I could possibly be doing a double major in business and biology, not quite sure yet. All I know is that my two biggest interests are bio and bus, so…</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks a bunch everyone. If I find myself leaning towards a more laid back academic environment, I’ll probably be choosing tulane. Both are great schools in the first place, correct? I guess I can’t really go wrong with either.</p>

<p>Unless I completely throw all of this away and just go to umiami for the **** of it, hahaha</p>

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<p>That would be the most laid back option lol.</p>

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<p>lol yeah, but it’s not a realistic consideration for me.</p>

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<p>Here are a couple more thought based on my limited experience:
–My S. applied ED to Emory and EA to Tulane. Tulane has a rolling admission. You might even get accepted before Emory’s ED deadline. The reason that is important is because Tulane gives out great academic scholarships. My S. did not apply for any scholarships, and he receive $25000 a year from Tulane. I about fell over when he received his acceptance letter. I had no idea he would receive this unsolicited scholarship. He was accepted ED by Emory without any money. Apply as early as you can to Tulane and see what happens.
–My nephew attends Tulane. He had to go one summer to get a business minor. And a business minor does open many more job opportunities after graduation. Employers know you have had some accounting, economics, and management courses. A minor is a great idea if you have the interest.
–If you want to go to the B school at Emory you have to apply and get accepted typically at the end of your second year. At Tulane, I believe you just declare you major and you are accepted.</p>

<p>Determine your priorities and see how the schools stack up. Good luck!</p>

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<p>The time you get admitted to the b-school clearly doesn’t matter (despite the program only being 2 years, it’s doing as well and better than most 4 year programs). And basically everyone gets in that has solid grades in pre-reqs and GREs. Admit rate is 80%. You can spend your ECAS years developing a background in something useful like a math/cs background a in addition to the biology courses that they are interested in.</p>

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<p>Emory has higher numbers.</p>

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<p>To me, this note sums up what has gone crazy about colleges today. i read the OP’s original note and I think, “there’s not a college in the U.S. that wouldn’t benefit by having this kid in their class” only to read the replies to see that most people don’t even think he’ll get in. It’s nuts. The emphasis on grades (who cares if somebody has a 3.7 vs. a 3.9 or a 2020 vs a 2180) and stats…its truly crazy. </p>

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<p>I was on Emory’s campus one time, and was not impressed. A friend’s DD and SIL are taking out big student loans for Emory MBA’s. Will see if that works out well. I would be leaning to Tulane based on prior knowledge and all the comments. The $$ difference due to scholarships might be a big factor. Good luck.</p>