I am a high school student planning to go into a psychology field and considering UGA, Emory, and Tech for my top picks. What are some pros/cons for the schools, and which would you recommend? Thanks in advance 
@rosesavv
What grade are you in? Stats background, etc?
Does Georgia Tech offer a psychology major ?
Are you instate for G Tech and UGA? Unless Emory gave you a very nice scholarship, it would not be worth the price. You will need to go to Grad School after you finish your undergraduate. If it comes down to G Tech or UGA, you are basically choosing two different vibe schools. A psychology degree from either one would be fine. Depends on the type of school you are looking at and where you want to live. Atlanta vs College town Athens. Cost as well.
Emory is the best academically all-around, but it’s also the most expensive.
Tech is the best overall in STEM, but it is limited in the humanities and social sciences.
Scholarships at UGA have made the school more selective, but i’m not sure the academic quality is there yet. Not saying it’s a bad school, but academically (by rep anyway), it trails Emory and GA Tech.
For Psych, if they’re similarly priced, I’d choose Emory. It offers the typical S/F ratio and class size advantages of a private U and has a very strong academic reputation.
If you were going into Engineering or some other STEM major where GA Tech is stronger than the other two, the choice would be Tech.
If you received a huge scholarship from UGA and the cost ended up being a lot less than Emory or Tech, you could save money for grad school and choose UGA.
For internships and cultural opportunities, Atlanta > Athens – that would be another advantage for Emory and Tech.
So there are reasons to pick any of the three. It’ll depend mainly on cost and academic fit. if they’re still tied, look at other fit variables.
@rosesavv
Emory would be the best school all around, and I disagree with @prezbucky Emory has a better Biology and Chemistry departments than Gtech in my opinion.
However cost is most important. and all of these schools are relatively difficult to get into.
According to many people, a Psychology degree is pretty worthless unless you get a Masters degree. Even if if the cost is equal, these three schools are so different. Go visit and see what you like about them. Emory has zero school spirit. Maybe that is something that is important to you. Many people around here would rather go to UGA over Emory and GTECH for that sole reason alone. They know they are going to get a great education at highly competitive Flagship If you were going for Engineering, that would be another matter.
Among the three, Georgia Tech grads are the most sought after. But I doubt that Tech has a Psychology major.
Today at 4:29 pm
Among the three, Georgia Tech grads are the most sought after. But I doubt that Tech has a Psychology major.
Georgia Tech’s numbers relate to engineer salaries, but not for business students, medical schools, or law schools,.
@collegeisago
I’m not going to invest in this one, but I do wonder where did you hear that Emory doesn’t have school spirit, because it’s obvious you don’t go to Emory. And we don’t know what OP’s stats are so they might only be able to get into UGA.
@ljberkow Thankyou for clarifing that for @Publisher, he has it in for Emory for some odd reason. Unemployment rates for psychology majors are high, however Emory is probably the only school in GA with enough pull to get a good job in the field. Also Emory’s Psychology department leans heavily neuroscience
@VANDEMORY1342 , I meant STEM overall – not every major within it.
It makes sense that Emory would be strong in popular pre-med majors like Chem and Bio.
@VANDEMORY1342 , you will never win an argument with those who define “spirit” as rooting on sports teams. People who go to Emory seem to love it, quirks and all. It’s not rah rah spirit, but different. There is also a strong national alumni base. As such, it’s more of a national university than the other two.
@rosesavv If you can afford it/get a scholarship/good fin. aid, Emory is probably the strongest for psychology and excellent overall. It has a more “STEM” like bent than most psychology majors elsewhere so is fairly rigorous and does not meet the stereotype of being a particular easy major. For example, it has a 2 semester intro. sequence (one is like AP psyche and the other is basically an intro. neuroscience course and both of the instructors for the latter are known to be quite rigorous). In addition, it is a fairly safe bet as if you do want more behavioral biology or a clinical lean, Emory is just an excellent place to be (experiential learning classes: 2 well known courses are an upper division courses on Imaging where you work in an MRI lab for example (Why, the actual psychology department has its own MRI), as well as one on Autism where you apparently go to the Marcus Autism Center: Imaging: http://atlas.college.emory.edu/schedules/index.php?select=PSYC&view=cse&t=5181&sc=PSYC&cn=424&sn=1. Autism: http://atlas.college.emory.edu/schedules/index.php?select=PSYC&view=cse&t=5181&sc=PSYC&cn=473&sn=1 ) You can also entertain the NBB major if you are interested in that, so you have 2 options that are taken extremely seriously at Emory by students and faculty. They both have strong teaching, huge course offerings (in fact it appears that psychology alone may offer more courses over a year’s period than Tech which is a bit larger), and a large undergraduate research community (think about it…single departments have a large UNDERGRADUATE research community. NBB is actually able to host its own symposium, much like biology and chemistry for example).
If you care more about rah rah than the strength of the academics and the overall SCENE in your areas of interest (I personally think this is important if you seriously plan to pursue that area whether it be through going to graduate or medical school), then Emory may not be the place. If you can afford it somehow, don’t mind a quirkier, more cerebral/academic scene, then it should definitely be high on your list. I would just say prepare to work hard to get something decent out of the psychology program. If you are expecting a psychology major to live up to certain stereotypes about a lower work load, memorization, etc, buckle up. Again, both NBB and psychology courses at Emory, even at the undergraduate level are focused upon the research in the field and a very scientific approach to much of the material.
Point is: If Emory has the resources to power up some of the courses that way, imagine all of the opportunities outside of the class either on campus or very close to campus. There is much more to a major than just the major itself and the course work. The fact is, in this case, among the 3, Emory has immediate access to the most resources to truly empower a student pursuing a psychology or neuroscience major. It makes it easy.
Of course I am biased, but I usually wouldn’t be so decisive unless I really felt what I was saying is true.
UGA appears to barely upkeep their psychology website:
http://psychology.uga.edu/undergraduate-resources
That always concerns me…I need not talk about that surprisingly disappointing array of course offerings (even if for only a single semester, it would not be that impressive).
Emory has zero rah rah spirit
If you want to be able to tailgate and yell something like “how 'bout them dawgs” on a Saturday in October, then Emory is not for you.
GTech does offer a BS in Psychology. Not that I am saying it’s the best school for you but a few people above had questioned if it was an option.
@ljberkow: No one is referring to medical schools or law schools until you randomly brought it up in this thread.
@Publisher I was referring to undergrads studying to get into med schools and law schools and Emory undergrads do very well in placement at graduate level schools.
Yes, I understand. I did a good bit of graduate work at Emory. Thank you for your response !
@123Mom456 : It is a whole school. If I was more academic leaning/wanted the opportunities, I would choose Tech or Emory for that major. Clearly their programs are more put together (looks like Tech has a bigger offering of undergrad. courses than UGA which I did not expect). In fact Tech is actually likely better in a lot of the so called “liberal artsy” majors (I say so called because idiots forget that the sciences are a part of the liberal arts) that they share. However, generally I find that people who claim to care about programmatic quality, really only care about overall reputation of the school and whether or not the school simply offers their major. Usually they don’t know or care enough to actually gauge how good the major is and how well the undergrads are treated within the major.