<p>Hi, I'm a current Emory freshman! After (ALMOST!) finishing my first semester here, I wanted to make a thread to truthfully answer any questions you guys have about the school, since it's that time of either finding out if you're in or really deciding on whether or not to apply.
I'm talking like any dirty details, about dorms/professors/atmosphere/class signups/frats/drinking/drugs/food/people, whatever you've been wondering and can't find an answer to!</p>
<p>Ok, tell me everything above that you have experienced.</p>
<p>In all honesty, how are the girls at Emory?
and how many people actually do drugs at Emory? Is it as high as it would be at large State schools?</p>
<p>I know this shouldn’t be a huge deciding factor in where I attend college, but how bad are the dorms at Emory? If you happen to know anything about the Oxford dorms, I’d appreciate that, too!</p>
<p>Sorry it took a bit to respond, finals are coming up. I’ve only been in a couple of dorms at Main, so I’ll let NewGeorgiaPeach answer that question.</p>
<p>At Oxford we have four residence buildings: Haygood, East Village, JRC, and Beast. East Village has the largest dorms, followed by Haygood, then JRC, then Beast. All of the dorms are ok, except for Beast, which is pretty bad. From what I’ve heard though, they’re planning on tearing down Beast and putting in more modern dorms, but you won’t be there to see it. </p>
<p>The most important thing to know about the dorms at Oxford is that sophomores and freshmen live together. I like this method because it allows me to ask sophomores for advice, see how they handle college, and easily make friends with them.</p>
<p>At Oxford, different dorms have different reputations. I live in Haygood which has the reputation as being either very quiet or just not existing, since it’s on the far end of campus. JRC (Jolley Residential Center) is the “maze” because it’s extremely difficult to navigate for people that don’t live there. I know plenty of sophomores that still get lost walking around the JRC. Beast (Branham and East) is relatively worn down, and always has weird smells. I do have friends that like it though, so YMMV. East Village is separated into two buildings; Alpha and Beta. They could not be more different. Alpha is relatively quiet and I love studying there. Beta, particularly the third floor, is known as the party building. On any given Thursday through Saturday night, it reeks of weed, alcohol, and probably vomit. After the last Tavern Party (a once a month campus wide party at Oxford), a girl in my hall wrote: “Dear East Village, your red headed step child third beta has some attention issues. Please control your ****. Love, Haygood.” That basically sums it up.</p>
<p>Remember, because Oxford is a two year school, building reputations can easily change. A few years ago, my building, Haygood, was known for partying, but now has the reputation of being the most studious dorm.</p>
<p>One good thing about the Oxford dorms is that anyone with an Emory card can get into them, as opposed to Main campus’ dorms which require that a person actually live there to be able to enter. It’s a small thing, but one that I appreciate.</p>
<p>Thanks for covering Oxford!</p>
<p>Everything I’ve experienced… haha well. When you get accepted, join the facebook page and then DO ■■■■■■■■. This will apply regardless of where you go. I met people off the facebook page and did ■■■■■■■■, which is like an online roommate application that matches you to people who had the most similar answers in what they want in roommate. For most people, it worked fabulously, including me! My roommate is my best friend. Also, I went on one of the Outdoor Emory programs (if you’re going to Emory, LOOK IT UP AND DO IT), and that’s where I met pretty much my whole friend group, so friends were easy to find. </p>
<p>Class sign up is WAR. It’s actually the most horrible system. You get two randomly-assigned times and then in 15 minute intervals, everyone attacks every class you need. If you are pre-med, you will have 8:30s. Expect your general chemistry and biology classes to be WEED OUT COURSES. They mean this seriously. While a lot of the time you won’t have much of a choice, go to ratemyprofessor before you sign up for a class. While class sign ups are horrible, horrible things, they do offer something called Add Swap Drop. For a couple weeks after sign ups, you can switch your classes with people who are dropping them. The whole first week of classes, people are changing their minds and changing their classes. I had basically a whole new schedule by the end of ASD. If you can’t get the classes you need first time around, ASD actually works wonders, you just have to be constantly stalking it and refreshing, waiting to see an open slot. It’s stressful.</p>
<p>Housing, oh god. So basically all but two of the freshmen dorms are really awesome. As in, built/renovated since 2008 kind of awesome. Naturally, I am in one of the other two. When you are signing up for housing, you pick whether you want to live in an “Living and Learning Community” or not. No essay anymore, just yes or no and list your top three. JUST DO THIS. Me and my roommate had been told, oh the ones that aren’t LLCs (the two terrible dorms) have the best community, no one in the good dorms knows their neighbors, it’s totally worth it to just be in the less-nice dorms and have all these friends the other dorms won’t have. This is a lie. Do not believe this lie. Almost all of the dorms have a good community. My friends (since I made them on the pre-orientation trip) all live in different dorms, and every dorm has a good community solely based on if you want to talk to your neighbors. Here’s a list, basically:
-Harris: Widely regarded as the worst one (my dorm). The biggest one. Farthest away (while this is relative and you can still get everywhere in 5-10 minutes, when everyone else’s dorms are all in the same area and everyone is super close to each other except you, expect to be the one walking to their dorms every time). It’s being renovated… in two years. So next year it will still be the same bad bathrooms, ghetto sinks, etc. It’s been a ****show this year, by far the most drinking and drug use (mainly just weed, but your hallways will smell and thats mildly annoying). The only solace is that the rooms are quite large, and you’re right next to the library. To be fair, my state school friends from home were still pretty impressed with Harris.
-Dobbs: Used to be considered the worst dorm, until it was renovated this summer. Now it’s the one I wish I was in. The rooms are very small and you have to have lofted beds, but they have by far the most tight group of people and the coolest RAs/SAs(sophomore advisors, practice RAs basically) ever.
-McTyeire: See Harris haha. This is the other crappy dorm. Its rooms are large, as well, and its location is directly next to the cafeteria/all other freshman dorms/etc. By far the worst bathrooms, though. There’s been talks that it’s coming down (they tore down its counterpart dorm - which Emory has a lot of - this past summer), so I dunno.
-Hamilton Holmes: The newest. Smallest number of kids living there, I think. Rooms are super super nice of course but I’d say it has the worst community. No one really talks to anyone else there.
-Turman: Very similar to HH. Super new, super nice, but a better community. Direct access to the cafeteria from the back, which is handy.
-Long Street Means: The Ritz-Carlton of dorms. Remember this. It’s really large, the biggest rooms I think (especially since girls get suites which are giiiiant). Everyone is really tight there. My boyfriend is in this dorm, so I’m there a lot, and it makes me really sad that I’m paying the same amount to live in Harris. Their parlor has a gas fireplace, like come on.
-Fevans: Few/Evans, another counterpart dorm. I’ve only been in there once and don’t have any close friends there, but I’d say it’s similar to Turman. Right next to frat row, though, like you’re next door to Sig Chi. so if partying is your thing, great spot. If it’s not, it’ll be loud on weekends.
BASICALLY, you have a very very high chance of living in a ridiculously nice dorm if you just put that you want to live in one, as only 2 dorms aren’t super nice.</p>
<p>I’m a girl, but upperclassmen have told us repeatedly that our class is by far the most attractive to come through in a long time. There’s definitely a lot of attractive girls, and frankly I don’t know if I’ve met a guy who hasn’t gotten lucky. As a girl, I can say I was very pleasantly surprised at the guys here, and I heard guys say the same about the girls.</p>
<p>Drugs and alcohol: Lots of booze. It’s not a far cry from saying everyone has a fake ID (I don’t, but as a girl I don’t really pay for my own booze when frat row is more than willing to give it to me and I don’t have any interest in going to the bars). I know people whose RAs buy them liquor. CVS in Emory village sells beer/wines, which is convenient. Drugs? Lots of weed. Super easy to find. Cocaine is the most noted hard drug, and several of the fraternities are known for being cocaine frats. Molly (ecstasy) is also not super hard to find. I’ve only met one person who uses Adderall, though, which has honestly surprised me. If you aren’t into any drugs, you won’t have any trouble finding people who don’t either. While it’s all seen and people do them, it’s definitely not the majority. If you do, it’s honestly probably easier to find here than at a state school simply because it’s smaller and frat row is more accessible here.</p>
<p>Frats: If you don’t count the international students who all basically stick to themselves, nearly half of Emory is Greek. This is huge. Frat row is the main attraction on weekends, this I promise. I don’t know of many people who haven’t been there at least a few times. I never expected to be so into the frat scene when I first came to Emory, but both of my leaders of my pre-orientation trip were frat brothers that we all became really good friends with, and therefore in the beginning of the year we were down there basically all the time (orientation week, we were down there Wed-Sun lol). you’re told as a freshman that you can’t go to frat row until after the middle of September, but this is false as long as you’re not an idiot and need to go to the hospital (you’d be surprised how many people have to do this, especially in the first couple of weeks). You’ll learn quickly which ones are considered the best and worst, but most frats are really cool and I enjoy myself at almost all of them. Also, you don’t rush til second semester, which is awesome because you get to meet people and network first. Because it’s a smaller school and it’s a lot more laid back, I am definitely going to rush a sorority in the spring. I would have never done this at a state school.</p>
<p>Food: The food is surprisingly good. They have a million options; pizza/pasta, Asian, grill, “classic” or main line, vegan, sandwich, salad bar, gluten free, bagels/waffles, etc… Everything. You have unlimited swipes first year, so this is available to you literally whenever you want it. The most annoying part is that you can’t leave with food. They get really mad if you try to like put stuff in tupperware to eat later, that’s a no go. You also have minimum 150 bucks to spend at the other eating place that costs money, which has Chickfila, Asian, Mexican, Boar’s Head sandwiches, smoothies, frozen yogurt, etc. Name brand kind of stuff. There’s also Emory Village a 10 minute walk right off campus with Chipotle, frozen yogurt, really good Asian restaurants, Starbucks, pizza places, pasta places, Panera, etc. Food I’m definitely happy with.</p>
<p>Anything else I forgot?</p>
<p>Finally, I just want to say this. I did really well in high school. I didn’t have to study for anything, it all just kind of came naturally/I was really good at BSing at the last minute. Because I never learned to study, Emory classes are kicking my butt. Don’t pick the best school you get into to show up your friends or anything, REALLY think about whether or not you’ll do well at what really is a top tier university. While I love Emory and I have made awesome friends, I definitely can’t help but to think what my GPA would be at the state school back home (a lot higher, that’s all I know). If you aren’t okay with making some bad grades and really being humbled by not being the smartest one in your classes like you probably are in high school, please think long and hard about your school choice. Going to a state school and staying one of the smartest ones is cool, too, and sometimes a better choice if you aren’t a really hard worker. Not to deter anyone, it’s just something I wish someone had really told me!</p>
<p>Thanks NGP! You covered a lot of areas I’m sure people want to know about. Your take on class sign up sounds like my D’s (who’s a sophomore at Emory). She is not an enamored of the food choices.</p>
<p>Besides the very good tips on housing, anything else you would advise new students (something you would have done differently)?</p>
<p>Does Emory have a foreign language requirement???</p>
<p>Matisyahu, yes it does. You’re required to take two semesters of the same language [Humanities</a>, Arts, Language (HAL) Courses for GER requirement - Area VII | Emory College | Atlanta, GA](<a href=“Welcome to Emory College.”>Welcome to Emory College.) I’m not sure if this policy applies to transfer students as well. </p>
<p>Oh and for the record, Oxford’s requirements are slightly different than Emory’s. Here’s Emory’s graduation requirements: [General</a> Education Requirements Overview | Emory College | Atlanta, GA](<a href=“Welcome to Emory College.”>Welcome to Emory College.) and here’s Oxford’s (note that you’ll still need to take classes in the five non freshmen specific areas before graduation from Emory Main): [Oxford</a> College - Graduation Requirements](<a href=“http://www.oxford.emory.edu/audiences/current_students/Academic/graduation-requirements.dot]Oxford”>Education Requirements | Emory University | Atlanta GA)</p>
<p>Haha well if nothing else, the village is good. The lines in the cafeteria (the DUC) are awful, though, and the workers take forever a lot of the time. That’s the worst part. </p>
<p>-Like I said, definitely do a pre-orientation trip. That’s been the biggest factor for me. I have no idea who my friends would be had I not done one!
-Also, if you’re pre-med, USE YOUR BIO AND CHEM AP CREDITS IF YOU HAVE THEM. Oh my god those classes are the biggest weed-out courses ever and huge GPA killers. There are certain professors I’d for sure recommend, like Gilson for bio and Weaver for chem, but that’s not too important for kids applying to just get into the school right now lol.
-I’d have brought more winter-y clothes. Southern weather (I’m from TN so I should have known this!) is so bipolar. It was so so cold in October, while the first two weeks of December were over 60 degrees. People underestimated it, for sure.
-This is for anyone at any college: If you’re new to drinking and stuff, don’t overdo it during orientation week. It was silly how many kids had to call Emory EMS to go to the hospital over drinking because they didn’t know their limits. </p>
<p>I’ll keep thinking of stuff!</p>
<p>Also, apparently you can’t reply to PMs until you have 15 posts? so to jlee98 (hoping you see this), the answers to your questions are yes to the first one, and no to the second one as long as you’re not an idiot!</p>
<p>very good information!
and thanks
i’m also from TN :)</p>
<p>Most of what NewGeorgiaPeach says is true, with a couple of exceptions.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are a LOT of people who use Adderrall. Trust me. Just because you haven’t met them yet, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They just tend not to talk about that kind of thing because it could screw them over hard. </p></li>
<li><p>Don’t feel like you have to join a fraternity or sorority just because your friends seem into it. It’s really not as necessary as some people make it out to be. Most of the people at Greek parties are straight-up freshmen, which means everyone else is out doing other stuff. Even if you exclude the foreign students, half of the school is definitely NOT in greek life. There aren’t close to enough greek organizations to make that true.</p></li>
<li><p>If you want a REAL social life, sneak a car onto campus. They tell you you’re not allowed, but that’s a bluff. If you get an upper-classman to buy you a parking pass, or just find a place to park off-campus, you’re absolutely golden. Your car will easily make you the most popular kid in your dorm and give you access to the real Atlanta. Trust me, you WANT to do this. There are kids who spend 4 years at Emory without ever really getting to know the city. It’s tragic. </p></li>
<li><p>Upperclassmen will always tell you that your class is the most attractive to come through in a long time. It’s called flirting. Just sayin’.</p></li>
<li><p>Class sign-up is only bad for freshmen, because they all need the same classes and they all register at the same time. Once you get deeper into your major, the class sizes shrink and there’ll be no one to take your spot, especially in smaller departments. After you get done with most of your pre-reqs, class registration won’t scare you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>are the dorms generally quiet??
would i have to go to the library to get some studying done?</p>
<p>How is Atlanta as a place to live?
How are professors in general?</p>
<p>@tropicalslushies</p>
<p>Let’s get something cleared up – Emory isn’t really in Atlanta. It’s in Decatur, which some consider a borough of Atlanta and others consider a different city. Emory is allowed to use an Atlanta area code via a deal with the city, to attract recruits. You won’t be downtown like GA Tech or Georgia State. You’ll be in the druid hills area, which is suburby.</p>
<p>Professors are generally very good, though that may not be the case for big GER classes. Same as any quality school.</p>
<p>He’s right, though it’s not too far from downtown… A quick skip through Virginia Highland and you’re in midtown. </p>
<p>Anyway, Atlanta is nice as a whole, in my opinion.</p>
<p>If this is too much of a personal question, you don’t have to answer, but what were your stats getting into Emory? GPA? AP classes? SAT/ACT? Thank you!</p>
<p>GPA: 3.67 (out of 4.0)
SAT: 2190 (superscored)
I just got accepted ED</p>
<p>GPA: 3.94 unweighted, 4.3 weighted maybe? I took 7 APs and was like 25th in my class of 530.
ACT: 32 twice
not a whole lot of ECs but I did do Duke TIP twice and interned at the university hospital.
I did ED2 through Questbridge.</p>
<p>Congrats Starburst!!!</p>
<p>Students don’t really get to know Atlanta? Really? I’d have thought that with all the MARTA line expansions, Emory students wouldn’t have a tough time getting downtown.</p>
<p>Then again, what do I know? I haven’t lived in Atlanta since I was 9 and was at Emory for just one day a few weeks ago.</p>