@VANDEMORY1342 and @LushLillies : Does it really matter?!(“High interest?” Schools like Emory cost 250k+ now…if you were not in a need aid bracket or into a not so great need aid bracket, would you not just check a box and get it in early especially if you view as a relatively accessible elite school). It is too many applicants (gives the adcoms a lot more work and mess to deal with). Also “competitive” is vague in this context. Even under the nomination system the chances were poor for selection. The checkbox option can technically make things “more competitive” for people who on the old system may have been nominated perhaps simply because they looked the most like the ideal honors/fellowship candidate/finalist at competing public universities which is primarily based upon high stats for an entry way. Now, without that system that would have basically resulted in similar profiled applicants to compete, you get a lot more people vying who may not have been nominated normally, but may actually make for better candidates by other metrics than those that a guidance counselor or a few favorite HS teachers would select for (because if a school has tons of great applicants, biases that come from popularity contests/teacher’s pet relationships with HS faculty may lift some nominees over the top even if someone else is a better fit or has more unique ECs). It means the “mold” of a Scholar besides “intellectually carbonated” becomes less predictable so tons of people who look perfect on paper statistically and have as long laundry list of ECs (who would be nominated) are no longer much better than someone with less perfect stats who has super pointed or strong ECs (the person who may not have been nominated). Given this, it is technically more competitive as you must actually stand out among 10.5k applicants and not just “look perfect”.
I looked on the Oxford Scholars website for freshman scholarships and it said the Oxford Dean’s Scholars would be notified by February 1 if they are a candidate. Is this a typo on the website?
Agree that Emory should require an essay for scholarship consideration. USC (Southern Cal) automatically considers the student for scholarship if applying by Dec 1st. Last year about 30,000 got their applications in on time. This year, 38,000 students applied early, of which about 1200 were nominated for a scholarship.On another note, there were fewer early applicants to UGA this year because they required an essay this year!
@thesoutherngirl
Probably,… the release the same time.
@Nomorelurker : It certainly would help the admissions office. However this strategy can also be a tool to gauge and get a signal of how much people applying to Emory need aid. It could be informative from a university development point of view. Emory can use this information as interestingly, it basically has the least or or near the least wealthy student body among schools in the top 25 or 30 or national universities and was definitely near last among the top 20 (the median family income of an Emory student is roughly equivalent to UGA’s…go figure). So when Emory sees: “Hey like half or more of the applicants are desperate for a scholarship” it tells them how much effort they should put into expanding that form of aid.
@bernie12
I don’t think thats necessarily the case. Many mistakenly think Emory is a Match to High Match for them, so getting a scholarship is within he realm of possibility if it is indeed a Match. Also it’ easy to apply to so why not. I definitely think Emory and Wash U accept the same students, however Wash U is able to attract the wealthier contingent to enroll.
@thewait123
I imagine top quartile students So 3.85+ and 1500+. Unless some large hook is involved.
@VANDEMORY1342 : I am just saying how they can possibly use a “checkbox” system (you certainly would not go towards such a system if you wanted to make things easier on adcoms. It can be informative while also removing the biases and homogeneity that resulted from the nomination system). WUSTL is need aware I believe. It isn’t about “attracting” certain people more so than accepting them. The two pools may not overlap in admissions but so much in admissions because WUSTL clearly cares more about the revenue and has a focus on scores, meaning that many unhooked admits at Emory who cross-apply are probably not admitted if only because of the scores. I believe that WUSTL, while being need aware still has a much larger scholarship endowment and good fin. aid for the “middle” bracket, so can snatch those students away in a competition if there is a cross-admission (I’ve admitted met some WUSTL admits during my time at Emory). The wealthiest students are anyone’s guess. WUSTL may be more likely to take them especially if they are on the upper end of the score spectrum whereas Emory will have a “shrug shoulders” approach that makes that bracket less predictable than normal.
According to the data, Emory is #3 in the country among private national universities and private national liberal arts colleges in terms of percentage of Pell Grant recipients.
Only Columbia University (32%) and Amherst College (25%) rank higher than Emory (23%) in terms of percentage of Pell Grant recipients. So essentially 1/4 of Emory’s undergraduate student body receives Pell Grants. That’s quite significant.
If you throw in national public universities th3n Emory ranks #5 behind Berkeley (37%), UCLA (33%), Columbia U and Amherst.
@BiffBrown : Note that the Pell Grant % can be deceptive because I believe the cutoffs are higher than some think. Emory is definitely up there when you are talking the number of students far below the upper end of the cutoffs (so like if you looked at those maybe in the bottom 10% or 20-25% of US income…not the school). It may come out to the same rank, but some schools (not those that you mention) use that % in a weird way when they market themselves.
Correction: Emory ranks behind Vassar College (24%) as well.
What’s the source for the data that provides a more discriminating breakdown of student body family income at top universities and liberal arts colleges?
And to @VANDEMORY1342 's point, Wash U has a student that has only 9% Pell Grant recipients v. Emory’s 23%. Massive difference.
Vanderbilt U: 14%
Duke: 13%
U Chicago: 11%
Georgetown: 12%
Notre Dame: 10%
Johns Hopkins 12%
Rice: 15%
Stanford: 15%
None of these really comes close to Emory’s percentage. I wonder how test scores would look if they were normalized for family income. It is well known that SAT scores have a high positive correlation with family income - a not surprising result given the vastly superior educational opportunities made available to children of the wealthy.
@bernie12 I think a lot of Emory/Oxford Scholar applicants are more prestige-seeking than “poor.” They can afford paying a big part of the tuition but they want the prestige of the Emory/Oxford Scholar designation. I don’t think the number of Emory/Oxford Scholar applicants is an accurate proxy for students in need of need-based financial aid.
Emory and WashU both have huge endowments and need to use them to attract a diverse student body. I have read that WashU could do a better job of diversifying their student body socioeconomically. Schools with reputations for being generous with aid or merit, such as Tulane, get many applicants, maybe more than Emory? Tulane also does not charge for the application which attracts many applicants, but more students might be designating them as a safety school. Emory is ranked much higher than Tulane, yet New Orleans is perceived as more fun than Atlanta! That might be understandable on some levels but not sure I get the St. Louis attraction over Atlanta, nothing against St. Louis :-). Don’t get me wrong though. WashU seems like a great school too.
Is Emory Scholars need or merit based?
@thewait123 - merit based only. No need component to it at all.
Emory is a meets-need school, though in my kid’s experience it didn’t define our need as generously as some other colleges did.
If Tulane is viewed as a “safety” for all Emory applicants, those applicants might be in for a rude awakening. The standardized test scores of applicants are fairly close and Tulane often rejects those with very high scores who don’t demonstrate interest in applying there or who don’t demonstrate a commitment to community service in essays or understand what Tulane is all about. It’s somewhat unique in that it is highly ranked as both a party school and a school with strong academics. It’s not in the French Quarter or anywhere near Bourbon St/French Quarter, but there is enough to do in Uptown NOLA. Going through the process with my kid, I came away very impressed with Tulane and the choice was basically GBS > Freeman. It would be nice, though, if Emory provided merit aid like Tulane does. However, Tulane’s merit aid comes at the expense of need aid. As others say here, Scholars is limited in nature and nobody can count on it. I would hate to think kids choose one over the other solely based on prestige, but it’s a reality.
@ljberkow
Don’t be deceived , enrolled stats show a truer picture. Tulane’s stats fall rather dramatically from Admit to Enrolled, unlike Emory college. However Tulane shouldn’t be underestimated their enrolled stats are similar to Oxford. Many students think Emory C is a Match and are truly surprised in March.
I agree with @BiffBrown Most Emory scholar applicants are prestige obsessed and figure the Emory name is not good enough for them, which is ironic because many of them do not have stats that are particularly high for Emory scholars or the schools that are a step above (NW, Cornell etc.) .
@ljberkow Tulane doesn’t make the list of national universities with a decent percentage of Pell Grant recipients. Wash U with its 9% figure is the lowest ranked school on that list, which means Tulane’s percentage is even lower.
@VANDEMORY1342 , Tulane’s Class of 2021 has average SAT of 1490. Emory’s 25/75 range (on their website) was 1360/1490. I’m not suggesting that Tulane’s higher SAT scores among admits is an indication that Tulane is tougher to get into than Emory College. What I am suggesting is that it’s not a “safety” school for Emory applicants.
Tulane markets itself so well. They do a great job at finding a niche and that community service angle sells so well with kids these days. They come right out and tell you that they have strong academics, value community service, and know how to have fun. They get it.
I don’t like to engage here on Oxford. It’s not a concept that I’m comfortable with, but it works for many. To each his or her own. If choosing Oxford for 2 / Emory for 2 vs Tulane for 4, to me that’s a different equation than Emory College for four years and I don’t consider GBS separate from Emory College for any purpose other than graduation day (where you attend two ceremonies, getting a degree at one - do they still do that?).
@ljberkow
“Fitts’s faith in the new class is reflected in its test scores. The average SAT score of the 2021 class was 1449, a 14 point increase from the Class of 2020, with the 50th percentile ranging from 1410 to 1500. Likewise, the middle 50 percent of students who took the ACT scored between 31 and 34.”
Straight from their website.
https://tulanehullabaloo.com/27262/showcase/class-2021-academically-qualified-diverse-class/
I know what you were saying, I was just correcting the assumption that Admit and enroll data are the same. Although Emory and Tulane’s admit stats are statistically the same, Emory’s enroll stats are higher, so it could make since for Emory College students, especially the Emory Scholar students to use Tulane as a “fall back”, since there more likely to get into Tulane than Emory C.