Northwestern v. Emory v. Wash U in St. Louis

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>Hey guys, I've been lurking the forums for a few weeks now (mostly to figure out when decisions were out --- excellent list you guys had going on there).</p>

<p>Anyway, I got accepted to Emory and placed on the Northwestern wait-list and the infamous Wash U wait-list. I also got into UC Berkeley and UCLA, but seeing as how I'm from California and I want to go to school in a different area, I'm probably going to choose one of the other 3.</p>

<p>I want to study something in the sciences, exactly what, I'm not sure. Probably Bio, Chem, BioChem, something of that sort. I do know that I want to do pre-med and if possible, do some research/internships at medical institutes (CDC would be an example for Emory).</p>

<p>But I also want the whole college life / awesome college town experience. I'm planning on visiting Atlanta this weekend (April 7-9), flying over to Chicago on Tuesday (10th), and going to St. Louis on the 11th, to visit each and every campus (I've already been to all of them, but I just want to make sure since it's obviously a very important decision).</p>

<p>Also, I want to know if there's anything I can do to possibly get myself off those wait-lists. I'm interested in each of those schools and I really want it so that I can choose one of them instead of being forced into going.</p>

<p>Any advice? Anything and everything would be appreciated! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>not to burst your bubble but the odds of you getting off both are slim IMO. gl though, write the best "i love your school" :letter to both and make sure you send them to the correct adresses :)</p>

3

<p>Yea but I'd really like some choices.</p>

4

<p>Coincidentally, I was put into the same position as you when I was a senior last year, except I was into WashU, Emory, and Northwestern. But for me, my choice was simple. Emory to me was not as good of a school as WashU or Northwestern, nor did it offer the same things for me financially as the other two did. WashU was out of the question because I realized that I just needed to be away from home. I'm from St. Louis and I needed that change of scenery. Northwestern was the perfect distance away for me (6 hour drive) and it offered everything and more that the other two schools couldn't. I'm so glad that I made this choice, I couldn't have made a better one. I'm in my spring quarter here at Northwestern and it's great. </p>

<p>To echo ridewitbd, I think getting off of WashU's waitlist will be extremely hard, just because they overuse the waitlist. You could potentially express lots and lots of interest to influence that, but I wouldn't bank on that. So based on that, to me (I know I'm biased because I go to Northwestern) the obvious choice in Northwestern.</p>

<p>I'm not sure about Emory obviously, but for Northwestern. Our Chemistry department is ridiculous, for the Chem major, they don't even accept Harvard organic chemistry. In terms of pre-med options, I know this for a fact that we have about an 80% acceptance rate into med school, the national average is 50%. We have plenty of outlets for research and volunteering, it's Chicago! </p>

<p>That's just my insight on this, I was really excited because you are totally in my situation college-wise. When you get to the nitty-gritty, the little things matter the most because everyone has the big things. Since you are from California,realize that Emory is on the total opposite end of the United States, that's a big deal. But also, look into other things like the fact that Northwestern has the quarter system, which is pretty different for most people. </p>

<p>Good luck on your decision, but definitely get an Emory student's perspective too.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
That's just my insight on this, I was really excited because you are totally in my situation college-wise. When you get to the nitty-gritty, the little things matter the most because everyone has the big things. Since you are from California,realize that Emory is on the total opposite end of the United States, that's a big deal.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I feel compelled to play devil's adovcate here for just a second: Emory mayb e far away, but is'll be much more like home climate wise.</p>

<p>I too had to choose between Emory and NU (this year) and though it seemed like a tough choice at first, the more I thought about it the more NU seemed the obvious choice; I'm incredibly excited now. </p>

<p>As far as WUSTL, NUraider is right, they heavily abuse the Waitlist. My sister is graduating there this year and was very happy, but felt that many of the people weren't very nice, though she certainly found some awesome people.</p>

6

<p>What specific opportunities are there for pre-meds in Chicago? I know Atlanta has a few hospitals and the CDC, but I'm not too familiar with Chicago.</p>

<p>Also, I've heard that the quarter system really pressures kids because it goes so fast (I'm from CA and most of the UCs here are on that quarter system).</p>

<p>It seems to me that all schools are great when it comes to science and pre-med. NURaider, you mentioned the 80% acceptance rate; Emory's rate is very similar (I think they have something close to 90%).</p>

<p>What I'm going to have to do is probably visit the campuses, which will require a lot of planning in a short amount of time.</p>

7

<p>If I also wanted to take business/management classes, which school would be the best (if I would like to minor in one while still majoring in a life science with a pre-med focus)?</p>

8

<p>daemon14,</p>

<p><a href="http://www.career.emory.edu/images/PDF%20Forms/Med_Stats_2006_2007.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.career.emory.edu/images/PDF%20Forms/Med_Stats_2006_2007.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I found this link about Emory's admit rate. It's shockingly low. But it looks like the right link. Very strange....</p>

9

<p>If you want to do business/management, NU is the best, particularly for minor. There's BIP minor and finance certificate (admission not guaranteed too) program offered throuogh the Kellogg School of Management (one of the best in the world) and maybe couple others. There are also couple marketing courses available to undergrads in the school of Medill (I believe they are available to non-Medill students). There are some interesting business-related courses (more like organizational changes) at the school of education/social policy. Of course, you can always minor or add a second major in econ, which is highly ranked.</p>

10

<p>Sam Lee, </p>

<p>are there similar tables for NU and Wash U?</p>

11

<p>I think I saw that WashU's placement % is in the low 80s. </p>

<p>I can't find table for NU but I have estimated it to be about 80% based on other data:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=3877447#post3877447%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=3877447#post3877447&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Couple current students on CC had verified it as the right number! ;)</p>

12

<p>Also, I think for someone interested in ambitious schedule (internships, double majors, minor...), it's easier to work it out under quarter system as it's easier to take larger number of classes.</p>

13

<p>Well in Chicago, there are plenty of places to volunteer, including clinics, nursing homes, etc. Also, with the Feinberg Medical school in chicago, there are plenty of labs needing people to help them with research, it might take awhile to find one, but they're out there. Even on campus, there are tons of labs here that need undergrads to help them out, it's just a matter of finding your niche. </p>

<p>In terms of wanting to do business endeavors, it's pretty obvious, Kellogg is a top-notch school, and it's a resource for Northwestern students. They recently developed a new program for undergrads to get certificates from the Kellogg school. The Econ department here is huge, the reason why it's one of the most popular majors.</p>

<p>In terms of pre-med stuff, emory's acceptance rate is surprisingly low. </p>

<p>Quarter system is a double edged sword: you start later than everyone else, that month kills, breaks are sometimes not in sync with most schools as well. I like it though because like Sam Lee said, I can double major and minor and do pre med. I definitely couldn't do this under the semester system. The quarter system is fast, but that's fine because either you love the subject and it's real easy, or you hate it, and you only have to deal with it for a couple of weeks. either way, it works out pretty well. It takes a little getting used to, but I really dont' find anything horrible about it. Also, if you have one bad quarter gpa wise, you have 11 other quarters to make up for that. </p>

<p>In terms of majors, at NU, it's not uncommon to find that life science (pre-med) slash econ major, with a minor in something like business institutions, it's all very doable here. Essentially, I'm doing that--science major (pre-med included into that major), economics major, and spanish minor.</p>

<p>It's a lot to think about, and I know I'm coming off biased, but i'm just that convinced.</p>

14

<p>I'm not convinced that Northwestern or Notre Dame has a better pre-med program than Emory. It is certainly not a claim that can be made in passing, which would be easy to do simply because Northwestern is ranked higher in U.S. News.</p>

<p>Emory's pre-med program is really strong. The Center for Disease Control borders our campus. Emory's hospital is nationally ranked in many different fields. The acceptance rate for students with 3.5+ and 30+ on MCAT is 95%.</p>

15

<p>Blaze991,</p>

<p>Then how do you explain the following?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.career.emory.edu/images/PDF%20Forms/Med_Stats_2006_2007.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.career.emory.edu/images/PDF%20Forms/Med_Stats_2006_2007.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>2006 53.6%
2005 49.88%
2004 49.51%
2003 55.49%
2002 48.28%</p>

<p>If what you said is true, I guess there were a lot of applicants from Emory that had GPA < 3.5 or MCAT < 30.</p>

16

<p>wow, those are some atrocious numbers for Emory... I never thought they had that low of a rate
NU is way better with a 76% acceptance rate to med schools</p>

17

<p>First, no where have I found a link in this thread which gives the acceptance rate to medical schools for Northwestern students. So far, only guesses have been proposed in this thread(76%?), which is not very comforting.</p>

<p>Second, acceptance rates to medical schools aren't necessarily sufficient for evaluating the strength of the undergraduate pre-med program. It could simply mean that that college weeds out the weaker pre-med students, so that the college has a higher acceptance rate to med-schools. In this way, perhaps seeing the number of students admitted to med-school is also important to know.</p>

18

<p>Out of the schools the OP is choosing between, I'm fairly certain Northwestern has a better premed program.
I would eliminate Emory because a 54% acceptance rate is not a nice percentage.
WashU and Northwestern would probably come down to a personal choice because it is pretty hard to get a good GPA at both schools because the classes are very hard.
Blaze, I got that percentage from one of the brochures I got from Northwestern. 76% is actually not that bad considering that it matches Stanford's percentage. Although I am not a 100% sure, I doubt NU weeds out weaker premed applicants. Hopefully a Northwestern premed student can chip in on this thread.</p>

19

<p>I must confess to this, that intro classes for pre-med at NU are ridiculous, and yeah theyr'e weed out classes, but so are many of Northwestern's intro courses, like Econ. It's just a Northwestern thing...</p>

20

<p>Blaze991,</p>

<p>The 76% is back-calculated (see the link I put above) as the lowest number it can get. The actual number is gonna be higher (though likely not much higher). I actually spoke with the premed advising about two years ago as I, like you said, couldn't find the info on the website. The premed advisor told me in the past 3 years, the % has been between high 70s to low 80s. So it's consistent with my calculation. I don't understand why you said it's "not comforting" when it's already much higher than Emory's 50%. I think you've been misinformed about the difficulty of med school admission. It's much harder than you think. For your reference, the placement rate for schools like Cornell and MIT is around 75% or so. 50% isn't horrible and 80% is pretty darn good!</p>