<p>Uhmmmm…Part of the reason should include the caliber of the faculty members and what they have to offer. What do you want, “I want to come to Emory to take advantage of its great opps. for pre-med and to work and play hard” (sounds like any person applying to any of the top 30-40 non-engineering schools)? Don’t kid yourself. Caring about the different depts, faculty members, and academic opps at this place is important. I’m not saying to just look up random crap on google. I’m saying to use it to find specifics on how to serve their interests beyond merely attending classes and, in the case of pre-meds, joining clubs that every other pre-med does. I’m saying go deeper in terms of insight of what makes this place right. Almost every other top 20 (or any competitive school) is good at the pre-professions. </p>
<p>Part of recognizing what makes Emory unique is knowing who is here and what depts and faculty members (do you really think Emory adcoms will be turned off by the HS student that demonstrates a strong interest and ability for writing if they mention an interest in the MARBLE collections or Natasha Tretheway and then elaborating on why things interest them?) are really good at something that interests the applicant and being able to express how they look strong (as opposed to basically expressing how you’ve heard or “imagine” why they would be strong. Why not look at some course listings and see if you’re actually interested in the curriculum?). Do you really want more students coming here on their interest in a bunch of generic stuff that they can get anywhere else? </p>
<p>I really doubt admissions wants to continue to enroll such students. They want those who know what they are getting into, how Emory may be unique, and how they’ll capitalize on those unique opps. Simply wanting “a great pre-med program, hospitals, nice weather, and the CDC” should not be sufficient (it’s vague and now-a-days they are looking for more intellectual curiosity, so you would at least want to consider more specific academic interests and then learn how or if Emory can serve you specifically, you know, aside from merely being “good at it” because of its location). I encourage people to learn about the place so that they can maybe discover something that they don’t know about from hearsay (the stereotypical strengths associated with the school). What if a student stumbles upon someone or some program that looks great that they never would have known existed when just applying based on Emory’s reputation? The school has many hidden gems within it. Google and the Emory website is your friend in terms of finding them and really learning about this place. The “right” reasons?! Seriously, exactly what are those? If it’s what has been yielding a lot of the students we have gotten in the past (I need not elaborate on what types these are and no, I don’t mean pre-meds, those are fine in theory), they need to re-evaluate what the “right” reasons should be, or at least how to sniff out if an applicant is sincere.</p>