<p>These are my top two choices, and I was wondering if any of y'all could help me out. First of all a few things about me that will affect my choice are that I'm a planning on being pre-med, and majoring in either math, biology, or both. In addition to that I'm gay and would like a college with a good gay scene. IMO the academic scene are very similar so there's no point in arguing over that. The two things I am wondering about are:
1. Why Rice has such a higher pre-med acceptance rate
2. How the social scenes compare, especially for gays? Emory is bigger, and has frats, but Rice has the residential system. I'm not sure how this affects partying and social life.</p>
<p>Anyone? I asked that same thing on the Rice forum and am getting a lot more pro Rice replies…</p>
<p>Hey,
So a ton of my friends are pre-med here at Emory, and all take extremely vigorous courses. Pre-law and pre-business are the two most popular paths Ive seen thus far at Emory, but everyone seems to know what they want and are therefore super committed to getting their work done.
Socially, Emory has a significant LGBT scene. For example, this upcoming weekend there is a Drag Show and at homecoming last month they had their own parade float! You really should visit each one and talk to students on campus, it will completely change any stereotypes you may have had.</p>
<p>Emory is an outstanding premed school with an excellent acceptance rate. They are one of the few schools that actually posts their med school acceptance numbers while most schools simply state an acceptance rate which truly has no meaning. Examine Cornell’s medical school acceptance graph and Emory’s graph. You will notice equality in the number of students accepted with similar GPA and MCAT scores. The difference is Emory has many more students apply with sub par GPA’s and sub par MCAT scores. As an example, for the 2009 year, 165 Emory applicants scored 30 or higher on the MCAT while 182 Cornell applicants scored 30 or higher. If you score 30 or higher on the MCAT and have a GPA of 3.5 or higher Emory’s acceptance rate over the past 2 years is 80%-85% while Cornell’s acceptance rate is 85%-86%. This begs the question why is Cornell’s overall acceptance rate 71% while Emory’s acceptance rate is 46%-48%. One explanation is Cornell’s data only includes students applying for the first time while Emory’s includes all Emory College applicants. Emory also has a high percentage of international students who tend to have difficulty gaining acceptance to an allopathic (MD) school. Moreover, many schools include acceptance to a DO school or a foreign medical school when calculating the medical acceptance rate. I could only find published data on Emory, Cornell, and Wash U. and find he other schools reluctance to provide such data highly suspicious when quoting such lofty medical acceptance numbers. As with all statistics, the devil is in the details. Emory is an outstanding premed school with great opportunities for meaningful undergraduate research, hospital volunteering, shadowing opportunities, and teaching opportunities as a supplemental instructor for the intro sciences. On a side note I also believe Cornell is an excellent premed school and this post is in no way an attempt to denigrate their program. Don’t take what schools tell you at face value. Statistics can be manipulated to support nearly anything someone or something is trying to sell you. Dig deeper and you will find the truth.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Why Rice has such a higher pre-med acceptance rate
I dunno why Rice has a higher pre-med acceptance rate, but I can tell you that a 3.6+GPA and 31+ MCAT here at Emory WILL get you into a med school just fine. </p></li>
<li><p>How the social scenes compare, especially for gays? Emory is bigger, and has frats, but Rice has the residential system. I’m not sure how this affects partying and social life.
Emory’s social scene is mostly revolved around frats. I was a fraternity brother myself. With that being said, the frat scene in general is not that acceptable towards gays. However, I do have gay friends who aren’t part of the greek system, yet still have a very enjoyable sociable life. So, it is really hard for anyone to generalize anything about a school…there are exceptions to everything.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Emory has has a lot of aging leadership retire recently. A year or two ago Emory hired a new Dean of Arts and Sciences, Robin Forman. He came from RICE. He is currently chair of the search committee to hire the new Dean of (Student Life). Also, in December, a new Dean of Admissions is starting, John Lassing. He is coming from John Hopkins where he greatly increased applications. Also, Emory has record research funding this year. I think all these signs bode well for Emory’s future plus its relationship with Ga Tech and Univ of Peking.</p>