Emory v. University of Florida

<p>What are people's feelings on these two schools? Which one is considered a better university? Specifically in the area of pre-medicine, but any other thoughts about the campus or student body as a whole are appreciated. I just am curious if there are significant differences in the degree of rigor/education between the two? Thank you!</p>

<p>I think there is. If it anything like the difference between us and UGA, there is quite a difference. Also, since classes are smaller here, many pre-med classes are less likely to give purely multiple choice exams, like at very large universities. Basically, profs. here can increase the rigor of the material quite a bit without worrying about a majority of the class failing.<br>
Also, take this as circumstantial/anecdotal evidence, but my sophomore year roommate (transferred from Northwestern) has a girlfriend that attends UF and notes all of the additional time on her hands and how significantly easier it is. What’s weird enough is that they are both social science/humanities majors, areas where you don’t expect to see a difference. If there is a difference there, then there will likely be a difference in the sciences. Top 25s will generally be harder (at least rigor wise, I won’t comment on grading because that’s a different story) in terms of the rigor of the science cirriculum. Emory is no exception.<br>
Are you shooting for more or less rigor? I will straight up tell you that you’ll probably have more fun at UF b/c it’s kind of easier and b/c of the huge sports scene. You’ll probably have to work hard and play hard here (and we don’t have the D-1 sports outlet for the play category).<br>
However, I won’t lie and claim that UF is “easy” for pre-med. Hardly no place is. I am just conjecturing that it’s “easier”. And again, it has to do w/class sizes. The smaller the classes, the more likely you will run into tougher exams or heavier workloads simply because assignments and exams become easier to grade/evaluate. However, in return for more rigor, you’ll probably get better teaching here. I would say there are many really talented science profs. here. This is hardly the norm at many universities. Normally the science courses have really bad profs. We have a few, but they are not in the majority because Emory really cares about the quality of teaching and even science education even though it’s a research university (Even the other top schools find this hard to manage). You’ll also find it to be more supportive to pre-med/pre-health b/c of it’s smaller size. </p>

<p>Campus/Student Body: Much smaller here (as in both campus and student body). Perhaps more socioeconomically uniform here (though there is evidence and research that many state flagships have a surprising degree of those in upper echelons socioeconomically. Don’t know about UF, but they found it to be the case for UGA) . We’re very diverse.</p>