Emory Scholars Applicants

@FLStudent97 thank you! That was very helpful

I had heard they notify potential Emory Scholar candidates about submitting essays in late December. Is that the case and has anyone heard?

All I know is that on their website, they say by February 6 you would know if you were selected or not. Not sure if “by” could potential mean earlier than the 6th

@Brownhead meaning you would know you were accepted

I think Feb 6th is when, by saying they will notify us of our selection, is when they will ask us to write an essay in preparation for the interview scholar weekend. Hope that helps.

So on their admission blog for last year and the year before they released Scholars decisions in the last week of January. Was this the set time from the beginning or did they release early? Does anyone know?

I was chosen as an Emory Oxford Scholar last year. During interview weekend, I did indeed meet someone with a very low SAT score, but I assume that his extracurricular achievements were very impressive.

Emory is nearly in the top twenty in the US News ranking, and I think it’s appropriately reserved when it gives scholarship money. For Emory Oxford last year, out of 55 or so students, it gave 2 full rides, only a handful of full tuition scholarships, and the rest were partial tuition scholarships. In my experience, Emory and Emory Oxford is not very generous with need-based financial aid either. You may want to check with their financial aid calculator, which I found was very accurate. If you are looking for schools that are willing to give you very generous aid, Emory may not be one of them, whether you get chosen for the Emory Scholar program or not.

Even though decisions haven’t come out yet for this round, I’ll give all of you a quick run down of the program so you will know what to expect if you are chosen.

First of all, the program is VERY selective. Out of the group that chooses to apply to Emory, which already is a fairly competitive pool, a few thousand choose to nominate themselves for the Scholars program. For Emory Oxford, the percentage based on its released stats was around 5%, and this percentage of students is picked from an already selective pool of those who nominated themselves.

The program did pay for airfare to campus and shuttle rides from and to the airport, which was very nice.

You attend a number of sessions in which you talk to professors during meals. There were also group “ice breakers” that are as stressful as they are fun. Ice breakers give way to more formal interviews in which a professor from your selected major talks to you, and group interviews where you discuss topics with your fellow Scholar peers while faculty members lead the discussion.

A few weeks after the interview, you are sent a document online that shows your award sum.

Here are a few personal opinions about Emory Oxford in particular that lead me to not choose the school. These are things to consider if you do not get the chance to visit the campus. The campus is very tiny, which the school heavily markets as its charm. It is easier, they say, to join clubs and become leaders of them. Class sizes are smaller and you have more direct interactions with professors. In spite of these boons, my immediate feeling when I visited campus was that it was too small. Its “recreational room” is about the size of a classroom or two combined, and it became clear that you would be seeing the same faces over and over again during your undergraduate career. Some people like the small and close community, but I didn’t. You are also fairly far away from Atlanta, which makes it pretty hard to enjoy the diverse events that happen in the city. However, others may look at its location and like its quietness yet relative closeness to a big metro area.

This is why it’s so important to visit your schools before you choose to attend. We view the same data but process them in very different ways based on our preferences.

If you have any questions about the Scholars program, feel free to ask.

Emory’s financial aid is great, just not in comparison to most of its nearest competitors, especially in the middle-ranges (like when you hit greater than 50k, lets not talk about 100k). We have to be real about things like that. Outside of the top 25 or so schools, need-based aid is nowhere near as generous as ANY of these schools. However, Emory should try to do better versus its competitors.

If I didn’t have so much AP credit at the time and was not invited to a particular program on main, I would likely have regretted not considering Oxford simply because a lot of the baseline academics in the sciences seem better there (especially since I wasn’t pre-med…academics at Oxford are more LAC"ish" which benefits those considering graduate school). However, it took me like 2 years to come to that revelation. Initially when looking for colleges, I didn’t like one top LAC I visited because of the small size and semi-isolation (it was closer to the city center than is Oxford but still felt isolated). However, I will admit that if folks were able to teach me really well and get me to engage in that and the students on campus, I probably would have gotten over it and found some way to improvise if I wanted a change of scenery (would require more adventurism to get away from Oxford). On main campus, I just got lucky and was able to choose the best classes and instructors from the start such that I could feel like I’m getting more than just the typical research university classroom experiences. If I had to do things like take general chemistry, basic organic lab, and just average courses at the beginning of my Emory career, my opinion and experience would have been much different. If at Oxford w/o the same level of preparation (thus taking the courses I wanted to avoid), I may be initially annoyed by the social scene or size, but I know I’m probably getting better teaching and experiences in my freshman and sophomore year than those at even good research universities (who should kind of be ashamed of themselves because Oxford is small, but is also working within the constraints of much less resources. It doesn’t always require boat loads of money to employ best practices…more like will-power and a good plan). I think Oxford and certain pathways on main campus are more befitting to more nerdy folks like me than they are your normal high achieving student who may not appreciate the difference certain teaching could make or may actually even dislike it. Perhaps because it involves more time investment and passion to be successful than normal classes which have clear-cut pathways to success. I know a lot of students don’t like how tough many Oxford courses are for example-this sentiment would not be so common if it simply drew students who actually expected and welcome that experience (ie, a more LAC like experience).

This is coming from someone who just recently got an estimate for an award, so I’m new to the financial aid comparison since I’m going to Emory under ED1. However, I agree with the recommendation to use the net price calculator, it’s really effective.

On the other hand, I totally disagree that Emory is somehow lacking in providing need based financial aid. Before I received my financial aid package estimate, I was very stressed about getting accepted to my dream school because I didn’t think I would be able to afford it. I had those negative feelings because of people saying that emory is “for rich kids” and that they are not competitive with aid. When I received my package I was more than thrilled. It is by no means a full ride, however, it is exactly where my family can manage to send me to an amazing school. Education is the biggest investment of our lives at such an early stage in our adult lives and Emory, in my opinion, makes sure that it’s affordable, but not cheap. I’m definitely going to have to work hard and budget but it’s a package that makes sure I’m working and paying for my education while also making sure I don’t get buried under loans when I get out.

Also, any time I have contacted the office of fin. aid they have been more than happy to help me figure out how I will pay and when I have to pay. They even tell you how they calculate aid.

@ismitah That’s Great!!! If you don’t mind me asking, approx how much did they offer as a rounded estimate?

Y’all may be interested to see the small snippet about the scholars program in this article: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/01/er_spring_school_roundup/campus.html

They are being mighty stingy with invites and the amount of applications for it have increased again (for those hoping at a better shot RD, hopefully that doesn’t mean the overall app. pool grew by any).

Do you know if they also give out partial merit scholarships? Is this a real cut to the program? Do you think ED candidates still have a shot at getting any merit aid?

Yes,they always give additional merit aid outside of GBS scholars or Woodruff Scholars even if not invited. I think the invites are primarily for those to be considered for the full scholarships. Often some admits not invited are notified of pleasant surprises with regard to merit aid.

an email just went out about it-they said early feb

Just got this e-mail but I submitted my app maybe mid-December and don’t remember applying for it at all. Does anyone know if it’s just a glitch? I actually want to be an applicant for it now that I know what it is. LOL

just a question not sure if already answered. do they notify of “liberal arts scholarships” at the same time they notify for the finalist meaning could you get an email that says you are not a finalist but have been awarded X amt of money for the liberal arts scholarships in feb and know you are into emory. last yr posts seem to suggest this but the email that came out yesterday seem to suggest that only finalist would know by feb 6th

Did anyone get an email asking for additional materials?

@SnapApp what additional materials did they ask for?

@momof2eagles vocal/performance

@SnapApp that sounds positive! crossing fingers for you.