Emory vs. Tulane: Where will I fit best/ be happiest?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Howdy! Long time lurker posting here!</p>

<p>I'll cut to the good stuff:</p>

<p>I've been accepted to both Emory and Tulane as a transfer student (LONG story), with Emory accepting me yesterday. I've basically got till the end of the week to make a decision.</p>

<p>I've visited both campuses this summer, for several hours during a 3 or 4 day vacation. It's really hard to get a feel for a campus environment when there are no students around.</p>

<p>About me:</p>

<p>I like going out and meeting people, and am a friendly, approachable, non-pretentious guy.
Drinking does not bother me; frankly, I enjoy it.</p>

<p>I intend to work my butt off and have a high GPA so that I can have a wide range of grad/business/law schools to choose from.</p>

<p>I'm fairly uncomfortable around anti-social types - it typically leads to a lot of silence and awkward moments.</p>

<p>Kids with money don't bother me - but the pretentious twits that go around with the whole "I am better than you" vibe really tick me off. Especially when the kids who actually are rich are also some of the most down to earth people I know.</p>

<p>I'll get blasted for this but: I find airheaded whiny Italian kids from long island who bathe in spraytan and hairgel to be the utmost in annoying/ disgusting. Guess which school I am transferring out of :p</p>

<p>I'm pretty liberal - not necessarily strictly in a political sense, but in the way I think and interact with people. I am the absolute opposite of a 'praise jesus', 'lets judge everyone and hate them for their differences' type of person. I tend to gravitate to those who are interesting and different than me.</p>

<p>Things I want/don't want in a school:</p>

<p>I don't want a school where people are seriously cliquey and self segregated by race. I read the "Granola bar or melting pot" thread in the Emory forum, and I really am not bothered that the Internationals choose to self segregate - i'm not Asian or international. As long as whites/blacks/everyone else interacts well, and can easily hang out with each other, i'm OK. In many ways, my current school is very race/class excluding in the way the kids interact.</p>

<p>I'm concerned about the conservative students that I see/hear about at Tulane and on their facebook profiles. I am just worried about walking into a hostile environment where people are critical of each other and don't accept/learn from their differences. I can't check out Emory students' facebook profiles since I don't have a emory e-mail address.</p>

<p>I'm not gay, but I find the following to be a good metric of how interesting/welcoming/accepting a student body is: How well is each campus' gay community accepted? The college I am coming from is downright hostile in this regard - it is fairly common to hear the 6-lettered 'f-bomb' getting dropped around campus. In several ways, my current school is socially like a throwback to middle school, with noone having grown up.</p>

<p>I do NOT want to go to a school with grade deflation - I simply want the grades that I earned, not the lowered ones some administrator thinks I should have. I'm quite cool with grade inflation, however. My current school has some bullcrap average / bell curve deflation that they force professors to adhere to.</p>

<p>I'm sorry about the long post, I just wanted to be really honest with everyone and myself so that I find the college that's right for me, and not get stuck in 2 years of hell again.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

2

<p>Are you for real? Why don't you check the current US News rankings to give you a general idea of which is better.</p>

3

<p>I'm aware of the whole ranked #17 versus #50 issue, but what I am asking is for current students, and parents too, to just clue me in as to which one would I be happiest at, or whether it's a toss up.</p>

<p>Is this difference in ranking so significant that it would actually be worth sacrificing a bit of happiness for more prestige?</p>

<p>I'm just a bit up in the air since i've been hearing mixed reviews regarding certain aspects of both schools' social scenes, depending on which magazine/college guide i've read. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

4

<p>I've heard that Emory can be a very stressful environment, and that a lot of people consider tranferring out. Granted, the same is true about a lot of schools.</p>

5

<p>I've heard that about their pre-med programs, but I don't know how stressful their more "non specialized" classes are.</p>

<p>I definitely am not interested in being pre-med :)</p>

6

<p>in my experience, emory has a subtle, yet very present, "i am better than you" vibe. as liberal as the student body calls itself, a label which i do not agree with, emory has its fair share of closed-mindedness when it comes to socializing, accepting other people, etc.</p>

<p>i think a lot of the emory students come from high schools where they, as people, were not necessarily held in the highest regard if you know what i mean. i gathered this from talking to people about their high school friends and they would normally either admit they hung out with the 'nerdy' crew and don't hang out with them anymore (cuz they think they've become better than their old friends) or that they had normal friends but don't hang out with them now because they don't feel a connection/don't have the same bond that they do with their college friends (aka they never had any real high school friends).</p>

<p>what ends up happening is these kids find friends at emory, cuz they're surrounded by other people just like them, and then they get this superiority-complex that i'm talking about. you say, "hello" to them and they act like they're doing you a favor by returning the courtesy. anyway, i found this attitude to be pretty unbearable and very immature, which is why i hope to transfer for junior year.</p>

7

<p>Perhaps el duque has had a problem making new friends or letting go from high school. I think everyone should be able to find their niche at Emory as it is very diverse. I would consider the "prestige" (more importantly quality) gap between Emory and Tulane to be very large. The rank spread is a fairly accurate picture of this.</p>

8

<p>While Emory is a school that many know about and think highly of (including me), Tulane is often seen in much less rosy colors, particularly by those who care a lot about prestige and rankings. IMO this is a miscalculation as the Tulane students are often terrific and generally have an excellent balance for work and pleasure in their student and postgraduate lives. </p>

<p>Tulane is a fun school and New Orleans is a fun city and those two things combine with a strong (and IMO underrated) academic program. But those in academia have never really liked Tulane (too southern? too much negative social history?) and that is even more the case today as some long-time professors got axed in the wake of Katrina and the administration's efforts to deal with that crisis. Academics nationally hit back in support of their disenfranchised brothers/sisters with a further cut in Tulane's historically low PA score to an absurdly low 3.3 (2nd lowest in the USNWR Top 50). If you care about PA scores and the views of academics, then don't go to Tulane as the academics, regardless of what actually takes place on the campus, are unlikely to forget and forgive any time soon. But don't let that determine your view of the academic quality of the school and the students and I'm sure that students on the ground there can give you a much more realistic appraisal of the nature and the quality of the academic experience. </p>

<p>Now the school seems to be back on its feet, but clearly New Orleans has a long way to go. The students that are now there have made a conscious choice to be in New Orleans and are committed to and passionate about the school and its recovery. Depending on the individual, Tulane could be an excellent choice for any student, but visiting the school and experiencing the current climate is essential.</p>

9

<p>oh i made friends in college. we were kinda like the emory misfits. we all came from pretty different cultural backgrounds and didn't really find a proper 'niche' within the school. for instance, i was raised in a middle-class, midwestern family. i found ONE other person in emory's 'very diverse' student body that came from a similar background. we became very good friends over the course of the year, but we both agreed we didn't quite fit in here. so yeah, that wasn't where my last post was coming from.</p>

10

<p>el duque is clearly a loner...jk. Where are you trying to transfer?</p>

11

<p>Emory is the cliquiest school I have ever been exposed to. Its known for rich, show off cliquey, pseudo friendly types. That said, its a significantly more prestigious school than Tulane.</p>

12

<p>umich is my top choice right now, but it's still very much in the air.</p>

13

<p>If you choose Tulane, make sure you're committed. While the school is in a wonderful part of the city, and is definitely regaining it's feet, lower (poorer) parts of the city are no where near that. Hearing the local news on a daily basis can be very depressing. Especially the corruption going on as well.
However, New Orleans is still such a great city, with things such as Voodoo and Jazzfest (along with many others). Those at Tulane now realize both the good and the bad of the city.</p>

14

<p>johnson181 makes an important observation about what you will encounter in New Orleans. The issue of corruption has literally been around for a century or more so this is really not anything new. But folks coming from outside of the Deep South may be surprised at the poverty that exists there and this may color their desire to be there. </p>

<p>My impression from a visit to New Orleans not that long after Katrina was that it was hard to see where the poverty ended and the hurricane damage began. Much of the populace is poor and poorly educated and their prospects for upward mobility are limited, particularly when you consider the level of local corruption and their investment in local secondary school education. The Democrats have controlled the city and the state forever and governmentally, it really could not be more of a mess. </p>

<p>Thankfully, Tulane is not located near the areas that suffered the major hurricane damage (about 4 miles away) and the university has plenty of wealth and is/will be fine. The French quarter is the main employer and much of that is back up and running full steam, but the wages there and the quality of the jobs and workforce is not particularly high. So, the question about Tulane should be less about the school (which I would contend is fine and will thrive again despite the views of non-local academics) and more about the New Orleans environment and if this upsets you. I suspect that the answer would be "no" for most people and some might even see it as a great opportunity to practice good works and community service (this is a strong view held by many at Tulane). But it is not going to be right for everyone and a visit is required to make this personal choice.</p>

15

<p>Aside from the fact that Emory is clearly a more academically prestigious university...</p>

<p>Emory is an amazing school to attend. The people are extremely social. Anyone who says Emory students were the weird kids in HS knows absolutely nothing about Emory, the exact opposite is true...maybe they were thinking of Carnegie Mellon or UofChi. The campus is absolutely beautiful. The social scene is great. </p>

<p>I will admit, the average Emory student has eaten from a silver spoon their entire lives, but I don't think everyone is too obnoxious about it. Yes, you will see kids driving around in Lamborghinis and more frequently, Porsches, but that's the exception. You're going to find a school almost completely filled with Pre-professionals (not unlike schools such as Penn, GW and Northwestern). Don't expect to find too many Russian History or Art History majors. Overall, I find everyone to be extremely happy with Emory.</p>

16

<p>I have spent a significant amount of time at Columbia, Dartmouth, UCLA, UNC, Brown, and Emory. The blatant showing off of wealth at Emory is well beyond any other school I have seen. At Dartmouth the kid driving a '98 jeep Cherokee might be the son of a teacher or the son of a hedge fund baron. You'd have no idea. At Emory its the opposite. Emory is a fun school with good parties and there are plenty of great people. But the significant population of obnoxious a-holes ruins it all.</p>

17

<p>@pugachev</p>

<p>Thanks, that's really helpful!</p>

<p>Is there a lot of race/class exclusion by the students (not including the</a> International student situation described in this thread ), at Emory? This is really one thing that I didn't like about the school I am leaving.</p>

<p>I would really hate it if my choices in friends were limited by race or money - I say hi and am willing to befriend anyone without regard to these two qualities.</p>

<p>Edit: It also seems that i can't quote posts on this forum</p>

18

<p>First of all not every student drives a lamborghini (maybe only 1) at Emory. You shouldn't find it difficult to interact with students from different demographic backgrounds, but I think with any school or social situation people tend to naturally gravitate towards other people like them. If that is the primary concern for you maybe you should apply to a state school?</p>

19

<p>

Aside from the self-segregating Koreans, there is little to no class/race exclusion by the students at Emory. Yes, some students can be show offish, but there is no exclusion. It's actually astounding how the Korean population separates themselves. I think the only time they leave their late night Halo/WWC gatherings is to go buy large quantities of Adderall from white students so they can stay up to play even more video games. </p>

<p>@non-transferable: There is definitely more than 1 student driving around in a Lambo.</p>

20

<p>For those saying Emory has a beautiful campus (which I don't deny), Tulane's campus is absolutely gorgeous, and had Audubon Park right across the street.</p>