Emory vs WashU st Louis

What is the culture/ student body like at these two schools? Which has a friendlier environment?

I think they are very similar in feel (“Play hard, work harder” environments. Perhaps more intellectual than most D-1s outside of the Ivy despite having lots of pre-professionals). You may just want to ask about something more specific. Do you have a specific academic interest(s) and not just a pre-professional track? Maybe that could help a comparison. They have different offerings (WUSTL, other than business, has a much different set of UG units) but are both quite pre-professional (in terms of student body career interests). Without knowing your interests (whether EC, academic, hobbies), it is hard tto advise.

@lauren999
These two schools are the most similar of the top schools. I would say both have large intellectual and pre-professional student bodies. Emory is a bit more intellectual/Humanities leaning than Wustl. I would argue Emory has better business and humanities programs while WUSTL has a better pre- med program. Atlanta is much better than St. Louis, there’s no debate about that.

I’m choosing between these two schools for ED. I have decent extracurriculars but I’m concerned about my gpa which is 3.8 weighted, 1500 SAT. Can someone chance me? Or recommend another school?

@lauren999

At Emory, there is a distinction between the Atlanta campus (Emory College) and the Oxford campus (Oxford College).

Oxford College is much smaller with a class size of about 500 students for each of the freshman and sophomore classes. It is only for freshman and sophomores. After 2 years, students move on to Emory College, Emory’s undergraduate business school or Emory’s undergraduate nursing school depending on students’ preferences.

Oxford is about 45 minutes from Atlanta though connected to the Atlanta campus by a free shuttle.

Oxford has a small liberal arts college cozy feel with very small class sizes, emphasis on student leadership (with a smaller class size and only freshmen and sophomores, there are more opportunities for it), active engagement in classes taught in more of a seminar style - even in the sciences.

Emory College has a much larger enrollment with around 1500 students per class. Its much larger campus is shared with the medical school, a medical center, the business school and the Centers for Disease Control, among other institutions.

If you apply to Emory College, you can choose to apply to either campus or both campuses.

Echoing the sentiment of the above two sage answers, I see Wash U and Emory as academic peers and schools that own other similarities, like:

  • Low-key sports vibe on each campus
  • Each is part of its city but not downtown.
  • Fairly balanced student bodies
  • Balanced academic vibes
  • Not known for activism.
  • There are plenty of intellectuals (and intellectualism) at both schools, but I think overall they are known for an academic vibe tilted slightly in the "pre-professional" direction. Not quite Penn, but definitely not Reed either.

@lauren999 : I’m thinking you have a chance at both. Emory, by admit rate a higher chance technically. However, they seem to kind of evaluate applicants differently. Like your 1500 will get you further with WUSTL (may still not be high enough from them) since it is much more score centric, but is great for Emory (but it just happens to care less about scores). What will likely hurt for both, and especially for Emory is that GPA. However, without some sort of class rank or your AP/IB/A-level, and dual-enrollment profile, it is difficult to put that GPA in context. All I can say is that both schools value getting a decent threshold of students with deeper than normal subject specific interests than many schools in their tier (as in folks don’t just go to Emory and WUSTL and go: “here I am, glad I got into the top school, I’ll figure it out something from here because I just assume that this place is generally good” Instead you get a bigger threshold of students who are very familiar with the school’s academic strengths, their own academic strengths, and they show and say: “I am here because I heard this place is superlatively good at undergraduate environment and education in my specific programs”), so having a talent(s) in certain areas or displaying a deep passion in something via your academics, co-curriculars, and ECs can definitely make you attractive to adcoms at either.

Since Emory is less stats centric (and has lower stats than peer schools), it means to some extent they will overlook a mediocre statistic in one area to get the really talented student in an area that is valued on its campus (like Emory’s merit scholarship program offers specialty scholarships in music, debate, and one of the Woodruff Scholarships is specifically targeted towards those who were already heavily involved in research in HS). Emory is more likely to take the bright students (again, who often have a developing niche) who are not necessarily perfect in the statistical measures for which a ranking is partially based, so if you have something like that going on, you may want to tell us.

@lauren999

What are your extracurriculars?

What are your unweighted GPA and class rank?

Did your freshman year GPA bring down your GPA?

All of the above will be factors.

Wash U emphasizes stats more but Emory cares a lot about your high school academic record.