<p>There are a few downsides to Oxford from a purely academic and grad school preparatory perspective. First, there is an extremely small selection of course offerings. You could make the argument that the first two years of college are for GERs, but in practice, freshmen and sophomores can and do take upper level classes on main campus. At Oxford, you don’t have the opportunity (without traveling to Atlanta 2-3 times a week) to take a class on main campus that interests you. If you’re like a large number of Emory students, you come in with AP credit, and you’ll want something more interesting then basic intro classes.</p>
<p>Second - and this goes hand-in-hand with my first point - you don’t have the exposure to most of those superstar faculty at Oxford. People like Deborah Lipstadt, Salman Rushdie, Jonathan Goldberg, Ken Stein, Ron Schuchard, Franz de Waal etc, etc aren’t on the Oxford faculty. Even if you never took an upper level class during your first two years, these people and their peers will teach freshmen seminars, guest lecture occasionally, and give optional talks and lectures for the greater Emory community, as well. You just don’t get that at Oxford.</p>
<p>Lastly, while I’m relatively less familiar with the sciences at Emory, it might be crucial to ask what research exposure is available at Oxford. I have friends who began work at Yerkes, in labs, at the CDC, and in Emory hospital as freshmen or sophomores and continued that through their senior year. Of course, this led to recommendations and experience that has helped with graduate and medical school admission. Along the same lines, if you happen to be a humanities person, your access to MARBL (my freshman seminar was taught there and used the collection extensively, for example) is hampered by being in Oxford, not Atlanta.</p>
<p>All that being said, Oxford will give you a great education, and many opportunities afforded to Emory students are also available to Oxford students. However, if you’re a person who is interested in grad school, research and exposure to those conducting that research is going to be crucial. I think spending 4 years on a research campus might make more sense then 2 years at a small liberal arts college and 2 years on a research campus. </p>
<p>Certainly, people who start at Oxford can and do attend medical or graduate school, and I don’t mean to dissuade you from attending Oxford. But hopefully this will give you more information to think about. I think that one of Oxford’s greatest strengths is the small, close-knit community. I’ve been there a couple of times and found it extremely friendly and welcoming. But it sounds like that’s less important to you then the academic aspects, so take that as you will.</p>