<p>I am considering ED2 to either Emory or U of Rochester. What are some pros/cons of each school? Obviously posting this in the Emory forum is bound to bring in some biased responses, but please try to be as objective as possible. Thanks!</p>
<p>Bbuuummmpp</p>
<p>If you’re not decided about either school, why would you apply ED? Tour both schools and then decide which one you’d like to apply to early decision. What do you want to major in? If it’s a physical science, or engineering go with URochester. For biological sciences, social sciences, and many humanities programs Emory will probably be stronger. </p>
<p>They’re both good schools, but they’re quite different.</p>
<p>Responses will undoubtedly be biased, being you’ve posted in an Emory forum…=P MY personal response would be</p>
<p>Emory pros: Awesome.
URochester’s pros: Easier to get into.</p>
<p>If I liked both equally, I’d personally apply to URochester, as it’s easier to get into.</p>
<p>After the whole flap with the test scores at Emory, I fail to see how Rochester is “easier to get into” than Emory. Ill say that they are about the same. Emory’s TRUE test scores and students in top ten percent showed that its selectivity is essentially the same as Rochester’s.</p>
<p>Also for the social sciences, Rochester has an advantage over Emory in more areas than vice versa.</p>
<p>Rochester isn’t a whole lot easier to get into than Emory, but the different isn’t negligible. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Using the U.S. News graduate rankings, Emory has superior English, History, Psychology, and Sociology programs; the difference in political science departments is marginal; though the University of Rochester has a far better economics program, not even considering the recent econ cuts at Emory. Emory is also ranked higher in health areas and physical sciences (except for physics and planetary sciences). </p>
<p>However, the usefulness of these rankings depends entirely on your goals.</p>
<p>While we are using the USNEWS ranking then:</p>
<p>First Rochester does not have Sociology program.</p>
<p>Then if the difference in Political Science is “marginal” then the difference in English, History and Psychology should equally be marginal considering that the Peer assessment score for Political Science is 3.9 vs 3.2 for Rochester, compared to English (3.7 vs 3.1) for Emory, History (3.6 vs 2.9) for Emory and Psychology (3.8 vs 3.5) for Emory.</p>
<p>Just like you said the usefulness of all of this depends on your goals. Especially considering that the NRC and other rankings tell different stories too.</p>
<p>And yes the difference in test scores and selectivity is negligible. Emory’s two test scores is 1310 compared to Rochester’s 1330 and range of 1270 to 1460 for Emory and 1260 to 1440 for Rochester. Emory has 75% of incoming Freshmen in top ten percent and Rochester has 74% of Incoming freshmen in top ten percent.</p>
<p>And all of this is not even including the Oxford kids who will eventually graduate from Emory.</p>
<p>Also note the differences in environments. Emory is in a Southern city, while URochester is way up north. Atlanta is, in many respects, the “capitol” of the Southeast. The same cannot be said for Rochester in respect to the northeast. </p>
<p>Then there’s the cluster concept versus the fairly standard gen eds for Emory. I know nothing about the pros and cons of the cluster model, but I know that, at least at Oxford, much of your first two years will be spent taking mostly gen ed classes.</p>
<p>If you’re into greek life, Emory is about a third greek versus a quarter at University of Rochester. The percentages are still small enough that the greek system doesn’t dominate, but it is worth noting. </p>
<p>I’ve read that URochester students are fairly intellectual, while that intellectual culture is not as dominant as at Emory. I can’t comment on whether or not that’s true because I go to Oxford, not the main campus.</p>