Guess it depends on location and people’s knowledge or lack thereof of colleges. There was a great thread previously about colleges with names that confuse people-- like West Chester ( (in PA, not NY) Cornell College, Miami (of Ohio) California U of Pa, etc (and read this) www.11points.com/Travel/11_Colleges_With_Geographically_Confused_Names
There was a thread many years ago about a kid who thought he’d applied to Colby and in fact he’d applied to Colgate (or the other way around, I forget). Sad but true!
@miranda02206 What is “aiming higher”? Aiming higher in the rankings? How much higher. Most of the schools between say 12-25 are similar in caliber of undergraduate academics but have differences between programatic offerings and strength. When you aim “high” or “higher” it is that which should come to mind. Unless it is some of the top 10 schools, to do so based upon the ranks and selectivity metrics you see and then correlate it to academic quality is fairly faulty. USNWR more so ranks prestige and desireability where differences could be for a variety of reasons not related to academic quality. For example, D1 sports helps schools out as students, even high scoring ones in the US care for the social atmosphere and party scene facilitated by big money sports. If a big money sports team is successful, even more impact on selectiviry and prestige. Emory does not have engineering and is not exceptional for econ, math, CS, or physical sciences. Engineering has become so popular among top performers considering these schools that you don’t have to have a program ranked among the best to benefit. Simply having one gives an advantage. You can compensate by having superlatively strong programs in the latter. Emory excels in life sciences, business, and some key humanities, and social sciences areas so may be less desireable among the highest scoring students (though is still highly desireable among high scoring/academically elite students obviously)
When you are looking at these top ranked schools and are more into academics and not too familiar with the influence of sports or the social scene preferences of US students, DO NOT do your personal rankings based upon USNWR ranking. Actually see if they a) have the programs you are looking for and then b) hit up the schools’ websites to guage the strength of those programs. You also do want to attempt to evaluate a social fit too.
Just be careful because USNWR and many ranking agencies’ numbers may provide such a course grained view and may not highlight what should be the most important differences. I often see students choose by rank and then get to a school realizing it lacks their programs of interest or is really weak in those areas. Or they had strong social preferences and chose a place that did not fit. All this post-matriculation. I advise people to look beyond the rankings…
@bernie12 Thank you for such useful information!! I appreciate it. Specifying “higher”, I want a more competitive economic program. I admit that I didn’t do sufficient college research and was in a bit of rush. Now I realize there are so many factors that I’ve actually overlooked because I was too focused on the ranking. I think at this point I’ll try to make the most of my Emory education. It’s a lesson learned.
@miranda02206
I’m sure you can back out of the agreement if you truly don’t like Emory. Even though Emory business is one of the best in the country, I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to be there is you truly don’t want to be…or see yourself elsewhere (as this seems to be the case). It would be awful if you transfer out after your first year or so because your’re unhappy. However, I’m confused as to why you think you could aim “higher” when you said in the UMich forum that you were deffer-ed EA. You’re a great applicant but everyone is more or less lucky to get into a top school.
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@miranda02206. To be honest, most econ programs at the top 20 or so are nothing special. Duke, Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Chicago are the true standouts for undergraduate education and feeder success there. Those places are ultra selective and someone applying in the 75% is still a reach. Every else is just “okay” and you have to self strengthen the track by adding more quantitative training (so at Emory math or QTM with econ. would enhance marketability). Most of the top econ. programs are known for more quantitative rigor than others (so major and honors track may require more math even at the lower division level than at similar caliber schools overall).
Also, note that at any of these schools (any top school), you can do what you want with your education. While the average Emory econ. course at Emory may not be like a Chicago course, you can use your AP/IB/A levels to hit the ground running and advance to more advanced or intermediate classes earlier on or you can use any math background to break into the best math courses. There is also professor selection. More rigorous instructors usually not only train better, but are better mentors, write better rec. letters, and likely help you find and gain access to professional opps (most easier instructors really do not care about you, your education, and certainly not your professional advancement and development. Remember this…they were easier because they don’t have time nore do they believe in you).
You can customize and optimize to give yourself a great education in a certain area and make yourself perhaps more competitive than a student who did more average things at one of the schools I mentioned. If your interest in econ. is serious and you aren’t just doing it to pass the 4 years and get a semi “useful” degree, you should feel empowered to “power up” your econ. major and training. If it is the latter, honestly a business school setting may be better as you will get serious academics, a community,great networking, and practical training. Emory’s b-school is highly successful even for those who pursue pursue a more or less basic academic pathway through it. If you pursue something like econ. anywhere, you’ll want to do well AND stand out with EC and academic training. Most work places and grad. programs are not looking for hum drum students who simply completed their econ. major with a strong GPA, especially if coming from a school known for overachieving students.
@VANDEMORY1342
Nooo, sorry I didn’t try to sound that negative.That was not my intention. I think Emory is a high match for me and I don’t think I would transfer out of it. What I meant was that maybe I could’ve challenged myself a bit more two months ago. But it doesn’t matter anymore now. Since I already made my decision, I would still be proud of this school I am going to and make the most out of it and be brave to take any potential challenge at Emory. I would certainly be more careful with my words next time. Thank you!
@bernie12 Thank you! I am going to take a note of this and start exploring Emory in a greater depth!
Thank you, everyone for giving me useful advice! I had a bit of confusion and struggle with my college choices, but you guys have truly helped me see a bright prospect! Now I’ve decided to be proud of my choice of committing to Emory and I would not waste my future four years there!
@VANDEMORY1342 @bernie12 I would definitely work hard and apply to Emory’s business school! I didn’t do thorough research before and I also overlooked a lot of Emory’s strength. My original intention was not to say anything negative. As you know, I am an international student, so I don’t know enough about American universities yet! All I wanted was just to learn more about the choices I’ve made. If I said anything possibly offensive or ignorant, I take full responsibility and hope people could understand! In conclusion, Emory is a great school which I definitely know a lot more about now and I am excited to go there.
@miranda02206. Instead of hitting us up. Hit Emory’s websites and departmental webpages to see some of the oppurtunities for yourself. That is the best way to.have something to look forward to and work towards and is a lot more informative than our currently vague descriptions of quality. Seriously, go do it. This was the way to do it before applying, but you can now do so afterwards since you have been admitted. Do so so that you can envision programs you wanna join, clases or professors you wanna take, etc…time to go learn specifics.
@VANDEMORY1342 about UMich, I accept the fact that I was deferred. Consider that, I guess I am very lucky to get accepted by Emory. I am still digesting everything that’s happened in my university application process.
@bernie12 Yes! For sure! Thank you!!!
Given your interests, departmental websites that might interest you include economics, the business school, math, computer science, QSS (or QTM).
Find out about research fellowships (e.g. QTM offers a paid research fellowship to undergrads), student run clubs (QTM has a student run data science consultation service, for example), honors research, coursework, competitions (the math department hosts Emory students who want to compete in the Putnam competition, for example), 4+1 BS/MS programs (econ is working on one). There’re a ton of ways that you can customize your undergraduate experience at Emory to fit your interests and needs.
I think Princeton belongs on your list of standout undergrad econ programs.
@BiffBrown : Yep, I forgot. Still follows the trend of the others. Comparatively random and inaccessible admissions even among qualified applicants.