Hello everyone, I’m highly considering these two schools, both for majoring in business most likely.
I currently go to high school in Southern California and I would probably prefer to work on the West coast after graduating, but who knows maybe that might change. 
Anyway, the unique situation is that I’m getting recruited on the track team as I’ve talked to the coaches from both schools, and I would like to choose where I apply Early Decision II to. The unfortunate thing is that I most likely won’t get to visit the schools although I would love to.
Because these schools are pretty similar, can someone please recommend the school in terms of opportunities after graduation and the prestige of the business program (assuming that is my major) or undergrad in general since both schools are well-known for business. Cost of attendance will most likely be the same from what I hear! Thank you guys and feel free to ask me any questions.
Also, is Emory more well-known than WashU? I am aware that WashU is higher in rankings though.
When deciding between similar schools (and these are that) you really should visit and go where you feel the best fit.
@ryandryu I may be biased as I am an Emory student but I think a part of the reason why WashU is ranked higher in US News is due to heavy marketing and no required essays–which drive down the admissions rate. I remember being flooded with WashU mail (like how Hogwarts invitations flooded the Dursley house in the first Harry Potter movie) during my college app process.
I see… Thanks for your insight. How has your experience been at Emory? I’d love to hear your pros and cons
I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting much coming in because like many of the people here, Emory wasn’t my first choice. However, I ended up loving Emory right off the bat. There’s so much to do in the area and everyone is really genuine. I find that Emory is a school for that has a place for everyone–if you like partying, there’s a scene as 30% of the student body is Greek (probably closer to 40-50% if international students are not included). If you don’t like partying, don’t fret as Greek life doesn’t dominate the social scene. If you are interested in going into medicine, the pre med classes are really well taught and prep you for the MCAT.
A major con for me is school spirit. There is not much school spirit here because we have D3 sports (though WashU also suffers from the same problem). I grew up playing and watching sports and it is a bit disappointing that the students don’t really have sports to rally around. Our women’s swim and dive team has won nationals for I think 10 years in a row yet sport turnout is still pretty dismal. However, this issue is sort of answered by Dooley–our unofficial mascot. Another con of Emory is that the dining hall food sucks. Maybe it is because the food gets repetitive after a while but I find that after a few days, I just have to eat somewhere else.
I’m a Wash. U student who has had a good experience so far. I agree with the poster above that you should definitely try and visit because they are similar schools so it really comes down to personal preference. But if you can’t visit, here’s what I think you should know about Wash U:
People here are really supportive and collaborative. There is essentially no competition between students.
The campus is gorgeous and the dorms, food, amenities are really high quality for a college.
There’s a lot of support. Students have multiple advisors through out their time at Wash. U. I’ve met with mine once a month. Additionally, there are a lot of opportunities for academic help.
Students really value extracurriculars. Everyone is really passionate about and invested in what they do outside the classroom.
There aren’t strict graduation requirements. This means that there is a lot of room to explore, which is something administrators at Wash U recognize the importance of.
It’s very easy to double major or pick up a minor.
There are some cons (like any school). One is the lack of economic diversity. However, my best friend is low-income and she says that Wash U is definitely taking steps in the right direction and supporting low-income students. Additionally, I dislike the fact that the intro STEM classes here are essentially weed-out classes.
Emory is a really great school though and you can’t go wrong here. Feel free to ask me if you have any questions
WashUStL business undergraduate business program is ranked #14 by US News, while Emory is at #15.
If I recall correctly, Poets & Quants had WashUStL ranked as the #1 undergraduate business program. But I think that internship opportunities are better at Emory.
Two great schools. In my opinion, Atlanta & Decatur are much nicer than St.Louis although WashUStL has a nice location.
@ryandryu
Emory would have great placement in the south(mainly ATL) and in the NE. If you really want to stay in Socal I would suggest UCLA or USC. WashU and Emory are ranked relatively the same( 19 and 21 respectively) so there isn’t a difference there. However, WashU’s program is a BSBA bachelor’s of science and business. So if traditional high finance (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc) is the goal Emory might be a better fit.
Is Emory a target school for Goldman or Morgan Stanley ?
I do not believe that either school is a target school for the top 10 Wall Street investment banks.
The Top 25 undergraduate schools for placement into the top 10 Wall Street investment banks are:
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NYU
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Harvard
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Cornell
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Penn-Wharton
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Columbia
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Texas-Austin
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UCal-Berkeley
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Chicago
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Michigan
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Virginia
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UNC
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UCLA
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Duke
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Boston College
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Yale
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Univ. of Cambridge
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Georgetown
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Princeton
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SMU
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London School of Economics
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BYU
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Northwestern University
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Rutgers
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Vanderbilt
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Brown
@Publisher I’d say Emory is a semi-target. From what I’ve seen, the top banks do offer OCR but a student has to work harder and network a lot more for interviews than, say, an Wharton kid. I know plenty of people from here who have broken into IB but it seems to mostly be middle market banks (Houlihan Lokey, Jefferies, Raymond James, etc.) and the Atlanta offices of big banks. Getting placed in New York is tougher due to poor geographic proximity but with networking and a high GPA, it certainly is attainable.
That is not my understanding of how NYC IB placement works.
Acceptance rate was always a very small part of the USNWR ranking (<2%) and has been removed completely in the most recent ranking. Emory intentionally sent inflated admissions stats to USNWR for over a decade, so it is certainly not in a position to critique another university.
Regardless, rankings are useless for deciding between comparable schools like Emory and Wash U.
@Publisher
Yes, we are. The list you suggest, is from survey data from WSO website, this wholly unreliable. GS and MS are top employers for Emory. The WSO site doesn’t have many Emory grads frequenting the forum, this not many input data. You can tell I’m right as a school that is top 15 for BBA on us news and poets and quants doesn’t hit top 59, or even registers at all on WSO’s SURVEY analysis.
@warblersrule
Yes Emory and Emory students can critique whom we want. WashU is known to stat wh*re. However is probably ranked a spot higher due to better graduation rates.
@emorynavy: The list is based on actual placements in the top 10 Wall Street investment banks.
Emory is not a target school for Wall Street.
@emorynavy As much as I love Emory, I’m not gonna put it on a pedestal. I agree with @Publisher that Emory is not a target but I don’t think anyone can make the argument that it is a non-target. Maybe we can reevaluate its “target status” in 10 years or so when we have more Wall Street alums but at the moment, it doesn’t strike me as a target school.
@Publisher @TheTennisNinja
Again the data is based on the users who use the WSO site. Emory has just as good placement as Vandy or similar schools for business. In fact, places more people in the northeast than in the south.
Both of you are misinformed and using third-party forum sites to get credible info instead of going to the source.
@ryandryu
https://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/career_management/placement_statistics/index.html
Neither school is a target. Emory (GBS) grads get IB jobs, but this is not being promoted by GBS. I suppose it’s a “semi” but GBS focuses more in other areas and won’t discuss IB in info sessions. They address questions and do say that many graduates get positions in that area, but it’s not the focus.
Undergraduate school attended is a very important factor for IB recruiting, while MC focuses in large part upon one’s MBA school.
To state the obvious, if seeking a career in Investment Banking (IB), it is best–almost essential–to attend a target school for one’s undergraduate degree.