<p>Agreed that some clarity on this would be good. I was thrilled to be admitted and I love the school, but these discussions on the board about quotes like these and about its inflated prestige have me worried…</p>
<p>Granted, I haven’t visited yet and I plan to ASAP, but until then…these things I see on here are worrying me considerably.</p>
<p>Notice how this is from the “Yale Daily News”. Seriously dude. This is an expensive school to attend, of course there are a lot of spoiled rich kids just like every other school. However, it is not like you will be looked down upon for not being as rich as many of the students. This isn’t highschool for the wealthy. You will not be bullied for not having a car or Prada bag. I’m from a lower income family and I am just fine. Half of my friends are very well off, but are down to earth, and don’t limit themselves to cliques based upon socioeconomic status. The only thing I hate here is the ivy/WashU reject spirit. That can be annoying for the first two weeks (people often sit around and b***h and moan about how they did not get into these schools, and find every reason to hate Emory because of it. It eventually dies down) because it makes you feel bad for actually wanting to attend Emory. It’s almost like saying, “how dare you have this as a first/top choice school” or “this school is not good enough because it’s not Harvard”.</p>
<p>I don’t think the prestige is inflated you guys. i actually believe Emory is an underrated up and coming school (Yes, that’s right, I say up and coming even though we are in the top 20). Our prestige is new and is not quite up to par compared to many peers. Keep in mind that “prestige” is based upon perception, and I don’t think Emory “markets” itself well enough. It’s still an awesome, ever changing/trying to improve (I actually like that it lacks complacency) academic institution. Also, don’t let things like, “we don’t have graduates who won Nobel Prizes” question our efficacy. Many(or even most) of the teachers here are amazing as teaching is all they do (some do not research). You don’t need a Nobel Prize to be an amazing teacher. For example, Watson (Watson and Crick) won one, and I heard him speak here last year. He was terrible. I wouldn’t want him as a teacher. What we base “prestige” on can often be superficial indicators of how good the school is from perspective of the student. We are here to learn, not be graced by the presence of those who won prizes, but cannot communicate to students well. And Emory probably doesn’t graduate winners because most undergrads here are pre-professional oriented and do not plan do research and pursue a pHD. It’s just a different culture.
Point is, don’t get prestige and quality mixed. I promise you that the quality here is worth it, and it should improve as you go through it (recession, no recession, Emory keeps moving forward it seems. It’s very impressive)</p>
<p>Mm, works for me. I’m fine with a school of Ivy-caliber “rejects” if it means that they’re academically motivated students who are going to contribute to a great learning environment. I’ll take it…plus, Emory ranks with my top-choice schools.</p>
<p>I’m planning to visit either the weekend of the 10th, or the weekend of the 24th.</p>
<p>To be fair, it would be wise to have a car in Atlanta - it’s just a driving city.</p>
<p>However, the contention that Emory is overrated lacks merit, in my opinion. I think many of Emory’s administrators would actually agree that Emory is neither overrated nor underrated - it’s solidly a top 20 school, albeit somewhere around the 17th best in the country. I’ve personally heard a couple people say this.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that Emory’s faculty is among the best in the county. I think many would agree. Of course, there are some subjects that Emory excels at particularly, but as a generality, you won’t find a much better faculty anywhere else. Given how approachable the professors are on a whole, I think most students find the academic atmosphere acceptable at the very least. In fact, in the annual survey that all graduating seniors in the college take, the quality of the academics continues to be one of the highest rated aspects of their college education.</p>
<p>There are many reasons why Emory alumni haven’t gone on to win Nobel prizes (young graduate programs, pre-professional slant of undergrads in the past, etc.), but the current faculty has and continues to win all of the prestigious fellowships and awards, including Guggenheim fellowships, election to the AAAS, multi-million dollar NIH and NEH grants, etc., etc. </p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t worry about Emory’s perceived prestige. Those in the know (graduate schools and recruiters) are well aware of Emory. Graduates get jobs at all major corporations and are accepted into prestigious graduate schools. If your biggest concern is name recognition among people you meet on the street, then go to any large state school with a good football or basketball program. Otherwise, Emory’s a great choice. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth - I actually had a lot (too much probably) fun there as well. It’s a nice balance of work hard, play hard</p>
<p>my sister is a member of the emory class of 2013.
what IS true is that its super challenging to do much of anything without a car. she had limited meal options (which isn’t a problem if you dont mind the food at the DUC or you can afford to buy overpriced stuff with your dooley dollars) and she couldn’t even get to publix without finding an upperclassman to give her a ride because its not within walking distance.
however, now that she has a car, she loves it.</p>
<p>as for the money thing, of course there will be people with money at emory. however, when i have visited, i have met a ton of people, and upwards of half of them were in the “middle class” range or below. i met some people who couldn’t even afford the plane tickets to visit home on their breaks. as with any prestigious school, there will be the kids who have a ton of money and shove it in people’s faces. however, when i have gone up to spend weekends with my sister, it really didn’t feel like that at all. </p>
<p>emory is a truly amazing school, but remember, college is really what you make of it, regardless of which one you end up attending.</p>
<p>Name recognition seems to be like a P[issing contest. While Emory does not have the name recognition of the Ivies and Notre Dame, if you ask most people who have some grasp on higher education they will acknowledge that Emory is a great school. The same goes for WUSTL, UChicago, etc. Who cares if everyone does not know about Emory? The world would be a terrible place if the intellectual elite spent all of their energy pleasing morons.</p>
<p>I want to point out that Emory, along with Rice, are the ONLY two top 20 universities that are included in the list of USNEWS’s “up and coming schools” or whatever it is called… That means that it is only getting better. Random street people may not know about Emory but that speaks to their ignorance and not to Emory’s quality. Notre Dame has a lot of public prestige because of sports… U Chicago which is a better academic school than Notre Dame has less public prestige because its not big on sports. You should not care what random people think. Academics know that Emory is an amazing university. </p>
<p>Bernie, the one thing that annoys me the post is not being proud of the school you attend, especially a highly ranked and respected school like Emory. So who cares if you did not get into Ivy League… that means nothing in my opinion. People at Rice, which is also tied with Emory in the rankings, are proud of their school and pride/school spirit is something Emory may need to work on. </p>
<p>All in all, Emory is an amazing top 20 school… out of 4000 universities/colleges in the country, being top 20 is beyond amazing…thats in the top 0.5% of all schools in the US. People need to stop having Ivy envy… honestly, if you are going to have Ivy envy and be sad about the fact that you are coming to Emory (which again is ranked 17th in the whole COUNTRY), then please don’t come. I don’t want to share a class of 2014 with people like that. There are plenty (and I mean plenty) of people who would love to come to Emory.</p>
<p>That’s a dumb statement; Emory is HUGE meaning there are so many different types of people and just because there are some rich students doesn’t mean we should generalize the whole place.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was saying that this how many students are. I wasn’t saying that was my opinion of Emory. I think I need to clarify. Perhaps I’m misinterpreting your post though. Maybe the idea I presented struck one of your nerves lol. That was just an observation I made within my first 3 weeks.</p>
<p>after reading this thread, i wanna come to emory
but im waitlisted…
what date should i give them to reply back to me about whether I’m in or not for sure?
im leaning towards UCSD rite now (rejected to Cal and UCLA)
and do you know how many ppl r in the waitlist?</p>
<p>i think thats a joke. of course its a private school and many come from wealthy background but other than a small few (long island bunch) most people walk around in emory sweatpants with no designer bags. this is not something to be concerned about.</p>
<p>As with any top tier private university, there will be students from wealthy families. Our son’s Emory experience (he is a Senior) has been wonderful and he has friends from various socio economic backgrounds.</p>
<p>When I visited, a saw a lot of people walking around in jeans and Emory sweatshirts, if that means anything to you.</p>
<p>Also, during my class visit, the students were talking about studying abroad (not with Emory, with some speaker that came into their class the week before). They were saying how expensive it was.</p>
<p>There probably are a few people at Emory, just like at every other college and university out there, who are wealthy. Then again, especially compared to some other schools I visited—these people are by no means a majority.</p>