Emory or Tulane

AnneStep
Today at 10:20 am in Tulane University
My son has been accepted at both schools and is having a very hard time choosing which to attend. He received the Presidential Scholarship (32k) from Tulane and only a small amount of financial aid from Emory. We are in Ga so so he won’t have travel costs to and from Emory, but they are still the more expensive option. He wants to major in biology and perhaps public health. He has done research during high school and is pretty set that he wants to go to grad school, get a doctorate, and have a career in research.

We attended Tulane’s Top Scholars weekend and were very impressed. Emory’s open house was not as useful. He feels that we would get good mentoring at Tulane, but that maybe there are more research opportunities at Emory with the med school and Yerkes being right on campus. Also Emory seems to have a bigger name, but we don’t know how important that is to getting into grad school and is it worth the price. Also Emory seems to be intensely pre-med and maybe Tulane a little more relaxed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thx!

@AnnStep: The “pre-medness” of a school does not matter if you are pre-grad because often pre-grad students are more adventurous with academics and other things than pre-meds simply because the entrance requirements in terms of grades are not as strict for doctoral programs. They are more into intellectual and personal development, specifically through scholarly projects (research). Given that, one may notice that most pre-grad students will take a significant amount of courses in the natural sciences that pre-meds won’t go near. Most pre-grad science majors at Emory kind of function in a whole different world due to the flexibility they have in course selection and the fact that, again, they can choose to take more rigorous courses/instructors and thus also get introduced to great mentorship (like, if I am pre-grad biology, I am more inclined to take classes like: advanced molecular genetics, physical biology, cell biology with Eisen, and more than 1 graduate course…needless to say students on these tracks get a different experience from others). Either way, regardless, I think your child should go to Tulane. It really makes no sense to spend a ridiculous amount of money of another selective school when he is about to receive special treatment at another. But I just wanted to throw out there that the type of environmental factor you cite, even if it was at Tulane more than you saw, is really not relevant. Any remotely selective school will take good care of a pre-grad doing what they are supposed to because they aren’t but so common, especially at many selective privates (where, in sciences, most are biased toward engineering or pre-health). Emory is likely stronger in the areas he wants to go to, but not like 30k stronger (what school is? Think about that…). I honestly just think that he can play his cards like many pre-grad science students do at Emory, but at Tulane instead. As long as they make taking advanced and upperlevel courses easy, along with obtaining research opps (which I am sure they do), then Tulane will be an excellent option for a budding scientist.

Thanks for your insight! Had thought that he would be in all the same classes as the premed. Thanks for pointing out that that is not true. Appreciate the advice!