<p>I am planning to transfer to Emory or University of Georgia, and I am majoring in biology, hoping to get in to any medical schools. I got an acceptance letter from both schools.</p>
<p>Since I am an international student, my tuition is almost same for both schools. I heard that medical schools don't mind a lot about schools, but they look more GPAs. So I was wondering, is UGA extremely hard that even if you try, it's impossible to get good GPAs? what is the level of difficulty compared to other schools around this region, for example, GaTech, Emory, Kennesaw, and others?</p>
<p>I'm not smart, I had okay GPAs so far. So please give me an advice on which school to choose, or a plus or minus factor for both schools. Thank you very much.</p>
easier than Emory (though not a walk in the park, especially for a science major)
probably more fun
great science undergrad research program (Emory might be good too, but I know from personal experience that it’s really good here and we have some top notch facilities)
great premed office (Emory might have a good one too, I would assume)
beautiful campus (even though the science people get the less-beautiful part, but south campus (home of science majors) still has some perks)
good atmosphere
decent town</p>
<p>Cons for UGA
not as big as a name brand school as Emory (though still ranked pretty highly)
no med school attached to it (although there will be a UGA campus of MCG starting next fall)
bigger</p>
<p>Because you said that you had okay grades, I would choose UGA. Since your planning on going to med school, it probably won’t make THAT much of a difference for where your undergrad degree came from (at least UGA vs Emory) way way in the future. UGA’s easier and will probably give you a better GPA, which is much much MUCH more important than what school you came from. If you work hard, and get a good GPA/MCAT, you could shoot for Emory med school. UGA isn’t a walk in the park, but I have a 3.87 and my friend has over a 3.9, so it’s doable. </p>
<p>As for level of difficulty, here’s what I would rank it (though I base this solely on my own impression and not numbers):</p>
<ol>
<li> Emory</li>
<li> UGA/GT </li>
<li> Ga State/GCSU</li>
<li> Valdosta, Southern, schools like that
If you got into UGA and Emory, the other schools should be FAR from your mind.</li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck and let us know your decision! If you come to UGA, I’m sure you’ll love it!! Where are you transferring from and where are you from originally?</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s difficulty in maintaining a high GPA though. Doesn’t tell much about course rigor. Just tells that a) our grades are inflated or b) We simply make better grades than students at UGA for various reasons such as learning resources (remember that we are much smaller than both Tech and UGA), high school background and etc . I would argue the former honestly, because private schools have inflation. I think the inflation is heavy in humanities/social sciences here though. The GPA in sciences is like a B-(2.7). I am pretty sure that our courses are harder than UGA (I’ve talked to friends there and I also went and they showed me some of their science tests. Much easier) and more comparable to Tech’s. At least the exams. The thing that sets us apart is that we have no workload compared to Tech. We don’t have mandatory problem sets and stuff. Often the exams more than make up for this though. Also, does Tech have the +/- system. I thought Tech students just got 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0. So an 87 there is a 3.0, as opposed to a 3.3. Hopefully that GPA cited was normalized for purposes of comparison if y’all aren’t on +/-.</p>
<p>By the way, I love Emory. I highly recommend it depending on what you want. The science courses get pretty tough (we even make psychology really hard), but overall, you get a very well-rounded education. The science and non-science (despite you being pre-med, you should check out the humanities at whichever school you choose, even if you have AP credit) course offerings are awesome, and there is less hand-holding at Emory than at most state schools. If you are not majoring in a certain humanity/social science, you can basically choose a course of any level (number preceding the course title often means little here) as long as it is not specifically reserved for majors. Like, my first ever history class here, Arab-Israeli Conflict (amazing by the way) was listed as HIS/POLISCI 383. I most science depts w/exception of chemistry (even then you are allowed to choose the order), after intro. course, you can almost choose whatever you like. There is also heavy emphasis on interdisciplinary cooperation that makes for interesting courses and research opportunities (which is heavily encouraged at the undergrad. level). </p>
<p>To sum up: Small, tough courses (but everything is here to set you up to do well, including the curves which are only upward from the normal scale), solid liberal arts program, amazing professors, no sports team (thus little school spirit, so don’t come here if you want that), awesome opps. because of the somewhat large health science center.</p>
<p>Jen Marie: I’m surprised that you didn’t say Emory was beautiful lol. Despite the “confused” architecture (which turns a few people off), the trees (especially in Fall and Spring) make up for it quite well. Emory, I guess, is a different kind of beautiful, since we don’t do the whole classical, red-brick, or Gothic thing. You can’t argue that the facilities aren’t really solid though. Our endowment ensured that much. :)</p>
<p>Normalize to what? The assumption made was that at an aggregate level, the +'s and -'s should balance, allowing for adequate comparison. </p>
<p>To add somewhat, I’ve actually had the opportunity to take multiple classes at all three schools. Here is my interpretation:</p>
<p>All three schools are very different. UGA is by far the easiest of the three. The classes are not nearly as difficult, and the other students (and thus the curve) are noticeably a step below other two schools.</p>
<p>Tech and Emory have similar student bodies and classes, but the teaching styles are very different (driven in small part due to class sizes, but in larger part due to tenure requirements). At Tech, the professors challenge you in a “sink or swim” mentality. They present incredibly complex material and leave the onus on you to figure out the material and keep up with the class. If you put in the time and have the ability, this is an incredibly effective way to learn (and not just understand) a topic. On the other hand, if you lack the capability or the motivation, you can fail horribly. </p>
<p>At Emory, you are also presented with complex topics and material, but the professors take a different approach. Rather than putting the entire burden on your shoulders, the professors work with you, will come up with multiple ways to present material, and will spend time outside of class with you to ensure that you learn the material They do everything possibly to make students successful.</p>
<p>Can I somewhat assume that you were in the sciences too? If so, out of curiosity, do you know how large were chemistry classes there past the introductory level? Wanted to see if they had any summer offerings.<br>
Yeah, I can believe you on your analysis, the “sink or swim” mentality seems to have been what caused many of my Tech friends to seriously struggle. They would be extremely busy, with no return. With that said, many of them were transfer students from schools that were much less rigorous (not even UGA). I’m glad I didn’t follow them. They entered a local college first, to knock out the hardest intro. credits at Tech, and transferred the following year. I’m glad I did no such thing for Emory. Despite all of the learning support, one can still really struggle in the sciences. But what you said is one reason I like Emory. Student-teacher relationship is really solid, even in “larger” classes (60+). Only thing close to “sink or swim” was orgo.,where to get help, you have to propose solutions of your own. It didn’t suffice to show up to office hours utterly clueless on a topic. He’d just send you away lol.</p>
<p>Another thing here, that I imagine should be present at Tech: Since we have lots of learning support, the tests can get very creative in many sciences. Kind of like, “since you were given every resource to master the material in the context in which it is presented, we expect you to take it a step farther.”
This is a primary reason that a struggling Emory student will consider a teacher bad. They’ll easily claim that they didn’t teach the material on the test. Amazing how some fellow people in my grad. class still have this mentality. They still expect exams to be a straightforward representation of the exact same things that were covered in class and get mad when a problem type from the problem/SI set isn’t on the test (instead something harder). They don’t understand that the point of problems is to increase problem-solving skills as a whole, and thus improve exam performance. Oh well, just my 2 cents (or 1 buck since this long lol) as a sophomore here.</p>
<p>Also, can you speak perhaps on the different tenure requirements you mention? Just curious to see if they may be what I think they are (lets say that my idea may explain away some of the inflation )</p>
<p>This is the single greatest reason I’ve noticed for students failing out of top schools. Students think they’re being cleaver by avoiding a low grade from Tech while spending less time in class, but the truth is that Georgia Perimeter Calculus is not the same as Tech calculus. Despite the fact that Tech basically has to accept the credit, you will not learn as much material as the class covers less. This becomes a problem when you transfer back to Tech and take a class where Calculus is a prereq - the professor assumes you know everything that was taught in Tech Calculus (and 90% of the class will). You’re starting behind and not many students do well when they get behind. </p>
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<p>Tech is similar and gets similar responses. To me, it’s like a cook and a chef. A cook is given a recipe, follows it, and produces a result. A chef understands flavor profiles and can combine foods and cooking styles based on taste, texture, aroma, acidity, etc to make a pleasing dish. If you give a cook 10 ingredients and and ask him to combine them, he’s helpless without a recipe. If you give a chef 10 ingredients and ask her to combine them, she’s fine. Many students seemingly want a degree that certifies them as a chef, while training as a cook. </p>
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<p>At Tech, the summer classes usually run 20-50 students, with labs (if applicable) of 10 or so. You’ll see a larger number (50-100) in a the o-chem courses for obvious reasons (though I think Emory does offer the lower level courses, including o-chem, in the summer). UGA usually just offers lower level courses in the summer, but they can get much bigger (200+).</p>
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<p>Let’s just say that it varies from college to college, but in general, the culture at one school results in weighting research much, much more heavily (to the point that teaching scores barely count) than the other school. Also, I’ll just throw out there that recent research has empirically shown causality between student grades and higher teaching scores.</p>
<p>But you also have to consider that teaching in a private school generally requires more time and effort to be spent on students. Private schools cost more, and students perceive the cost difference to be due to extra time with the teach and extra amenities (nicer buildings, better food, etc). Basically, students expect to see where the extra money goes. On the other hand, public school students do not have that expectation. When classes are very large and they get insufficient office hours, they just shrug it off and say “well, if I wanted smaller classes, I should have paid more for a private school”.</p>
<p>I’m currently making the same decision between Emory, UGA, and Tech. A major point for me is the financial strain Emory may pose as opposed to UGA. I expect to work extremely hard no matter where I end up. I’m a firm believer in the fact that it’s the individual not the school that limits/expands the chance for success.</p>
<p>I wonder why Tech is always a choice for people. I know it’s awesome, but it’s a completely different school from the other two. It’s almost pure Tech/Science/Engineering based. In my opinion, if one truly wants to dabble, choose Emory or UGA; Both awesome institutions, with one perhaps being more rigorous than the other, but the offered curriculum is at least somewhat similar. If you want to dabble around in a lot of non-sciences and you are worried about that price, then I highly recommend UGA. If you are interested in the Tech curriculum, then take that route. I would eliminate Emory if you aren’t at the point where you “really” want to go despite the price. As I said before, Emory=similar rigor to Tech (but inflation and different teaching style), similar curriculum to UGA . As far as I’m concerned, on the surface, there is no serious advantage (probably none at all) to Emory over UGA other than perhaps the namebrand, size difference (if one cares). One must do further research to find a preference. I think one should have a strong idea of whether they want to go to Tech or not though.</p>
<p>That’s very true. If you’re going to apply to Tech, you need to be very interested in one of the fields that Tech offers. If you’re not, Tech has a limited number of programs to which you can transfer. A school like UGA or Emory is much more accommodating for the “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” students. </p>
<p>GT is the overall best public school in Georgia, and that’s why it’s the first choice for in-state students. But, it’s only really the best school if it has your intended major. Too many students go to Tech because it’s the “best” school in the state, don’t know what they want to do, and they end up in Management as the “catchall” for undecided. Then they’re unhappy because they don’t like their major and they complain on internet message boards about how terrible the school is. </p>
<p>As a private school, Emory is a very different situation and doesn’t attract the same students as the public schools.</p>
<p>Back in my day, everyone used to delay health until the very last semester in the hope that the Drownproofing requirement would be eliminated. It actually wasn’t that bad - everyone over hyped it. “They tie you up and throw you in the pool until you start to drown. Then after you’ve passed out, they pull you out and give you CPR.” Nope.</p>
<p>I would like to clarify a few things, as the parent of an Emory student that was also accepted at UGA honors and also know many students at UGA and Tech. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>G. P. Burdell is right,with the HOPE scholarship if you are instate, Tech is the best academic bargain in the country. I have talked to many parent whose kids went to Tech because of this and then left or transferred to management, because the sciences were not for them. I have questioned them when they applied and they feel like they can major in anything at Tech.</p></li>
<li><p>Unless things have changed in the last three years, Emory is more diverse than UGA. UGA has historically had a problem with diversity.</p></li>
<li><p>You can not graduate from Emory with honors, unless you are in the honors program. You qualify for the honors program in your junior year and have to do a senior project and a senior thesis. You defend your paper and the panel awards high, higher and highest honors. </p></li>
<li><p>At Emory, it appears to be easy to find opportunities for research, etc. My impression for students that we know at Tech is that it is not difficult to find research or employment. I have never heard similar stories from UGA students.</p></li>
</ol>
I’ve never been there, so I wouldn’t know.</p>
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