Emory v. Northwestern

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

<p>Help! I was accepted to both = D but I haven't visited either one. I will definitely go in April, but I was hoping some current students could share their experiences. It would also be helpful if anyone knew how the programs differ. </p>

<p>(I will major in Psychology) </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Emory RD came out?</p>

<p>edit: woops didn’t read the other acceptance thread. In terms of Emory v Northwestern I really can’t help you - I know next to nothing about NU.</p>

3

<p>I am a parent of an Emory Junior (also on Emory Faculty) and a parent of a Northwestern Grad (2008). I am originally from the Chicago area but lived in Atlanta for 20+ years. I have a sense of both universities. Both are terrific schools so you are not going to make a bad decision. I agree with you visiting both schools. Try hard to visit each school during the school year and not just on a weekend. Go to classes and, if possible, stay in the dorms at each school. That said, I will outline a few differences that I have noted between the two universities.

  1. NU may have a slight edge on prestige but only slight. Since I cannot comment on Psychology as a major at either schools, I remind you that many undergraduates change their major so consider any other areas of interest at each place. Emory may have the edge in undergraduate business; NU has the top journalism school, communications/drama. But for liberal arts/sciences, the two schools are pretty close.
  2. Dorms: Serious difference here. NU dorms are OK to awful. I was amazed at what NU got away with. They clearly do not see dorms as a prioity. Emory will have new dorms for virtually all its freshmen next year and all are on campus. Overall, housing at or around Emory is much nicer and cheaper than NU
  3. Div I sports - Despite never making the NCAA basketball tourney, NU has a school spirit that does not dominate but is clearly evident, especially during football season. Emory is a Div III school. The only sports school spirit that is evident is if you are on one of the Emory teams but a lot of students are.
  4. Administration - Students seem to complain about this everywhere but I did not find much to distinguish the schools. From my viewpoint, both were actually pretty responsive to students.
  5. Greek system. Both are schools where 30% or so of undergrads belong. My daughter said that people who were in the Greek system at NU went to an entirely different university than people who were not in it. I don’t know if it is true but sense this is less true at Emory, as the Greek system seems somewhat more inclusive of nonGreek students at Emory but just my view.
  6. Weather. Do I really need to discuss this? Suffice it to say that Northwestern has a special shuttle for students when it gets below zero called the Frostbite Shuttle (couldn’t they have come up with a different name?). At Emory you miss the worst Atlanta weather: the summer (unless you stay for summer school).
  7. Travel: Unless you live in Kentucky, it is doubtful that you will live within driving distance of both schools. With airfares going up, keep in mind the benefits of driving to your university from home. Not a big consideration but driving is much easier. </p>

<p>All in all, it will probably come down to the visit and where you feel most comfortable unless, for some reason, cost differs for you at one of these schools compared to the other. If cost does differ, by all means go where it is cheaper.</p>

<p>Congrats on admission to two top 20 schools!</p>

4

<p>Psyche major at Emory=awesome and abnormally tough. The psyche dept. is large and has many awesome profs. and research opportunities. It’s very big on this, in your intro. level courses, you actually have to participate in studies done w/in the dept. and the 110/111 series is already way tougher than one would anticipate for a psyche course, Edwards (hard, but highly recommend) or not. However, Emory doesn’t offer a BS in Psyche, so you’ll have to do NBB w/psyche conc. if you want a BS, but regardless, the psyche dept. is extremely strong (and very serious. No one looks at psyche majors and scoff at them b/c they took the easy way out). I don’t know about NU’s, you should find out. If people at NU feel the same about the psyche dept. their, then you should definitely check it out. Also, see how serious the school is about its psyche dept. Like Emory found it necessary to get them a completely new building (really nice teaching/research space, very large compared to the old) next to the other science oriented buildings so as to foster interdisciplinary contacts (indicating that Emory thought that its research was relevant enough to be closely linked to natural/hard sciences). Also, Emory certainly kicks a** in primate research as you may know. Not only that, but many of the researchers that have made major discoveries in "primatology " or psychology actually teach undergrads. (and are surprisingly good as teachers) like Frans de waal. Yeah, if you are doing psyche, Emory is a pretty exciting place to be. </p>

<p>Congrats on your admission to both and good luck choosing. I can only tell you what I know about Emory. I can’t tell you for certain to go to NU unless you were majoring in Chemistry (I think Emory is trying to get this to where it needs to be. It’s primarily upperlevel courses that suffer. The teaching/rigor is great up to orgo. now. Apparently it used to be better back in the day), Engineering/Physics/Math/CS(We don’t have engineering, and that may be why Math and Physics aren’t that good. No incentive to recruit a powerhouse faculty like that seen at Georgia Tech), Journalism, or anything in the arts (Getting better here, perhaps surprisingly good, but no NU). These are the only programs I know of that I would definitely recommend NU for. I don’t have knowledge about other areas, but I imagine they’re solid in those also, but so are we for the most part.</p>

5

<p>WhoKnows123 -</p>

<p>Check out this website for weather stats including annual hours of sunshine, average temperatures, etc. </p>

<p>[HowStuffWorks</a> “Maps of United States Annual Sunshine”](<a href=“http://maps.howstuffworks.com/united-states-annual-sunshine-map.htm]HowStuffWorks”>http://maps.howstuffworks.com/united-states-annual-sunshine-map.htm) </p>

<p>You can evaluate the data about school year weather for yourself. Weather drives a lot of activities. Think about what you like and do and which weather fits better for you. </p>

<p>I am an Emory parent and can tell you that my midwestern son is loving the Atlanta weather and loving Emory. He can hardly believe that we are still shoveling snow and won’t see a leaf on a tree until late April. Flag football, frisbee, shorts and t-shirts, weekends in Florida, freshman orientation trip on a sailboat in the ocean have been an added bonus for him. You have lots of good information about the important stuff - academics, etc. I wanted to add a bit about the extras…quality of life does matter…!!</p>

6

<p>Thanks! You have all been very helpful :slight_smile: </p>

<p>@rpg1: How are the dorms at Northwestern awful? </p>

<p>@Bernie12: What is the difference between a BS and an NBB in psyche? </p>

<p>Thanks again =]</p>

7

<p>No, I’m saying that psyche at Emory only offers BA despite it being hard and all (and the fact that many will be pre-med and thus meet the requirements for what would be a BS at another school). I’m saying the closest thing to an equivalent to a psyche BS at Emory is getting a BS in neuroscience and behavioral biology (NBB) perhaps w/a psyche concentration. Most of the NBB major is composed of elective credits, and a great deal of the electives offered are in and/or crosslisted with the psyche department.</p>

8

<p>I found the NU Dorms to be small rooms, often in disrepair, somewhat outdated, dark, and with dirty common areas. Some are a bit better than others but the larger ones generally seemed to be that way. My daughter lived in two; one on North campus and one on South Campus. Neither was very nice. I have seen three others on NU campus. Emory’s Dorms win, hands down.</p>

9

<p>not to take away from whoknows123, i was just wondering if anyone could weigh in from a Theater major’s perspective? i’m looking to possibly double major as well, but i’m not sure in what yet. however, i am facing the same dilemna as whoknows123 and really appreciate all your insight!</p>

10

<p>NU is awesome for theater, but my understanding is that it’s not something that most people would double major with (and it depends on the major a lot) because NU takes that really seriously. Emory’s is good enough and more accommodating if you want to add what would be considered a tougher/more time consuming major. However, if you’re really into theater and are very serious about it, go NU.</p>