Hello, I am a conflicted incoming sophomore transfer student (leaving Emory University) trying to decide between UVA and UNC. I want to major in either biology or neuroscience, with a minor in either cognitive science or linguistics. I am in-state for UVA, but I have gotten back the financial aid forms and UVA will be $5K cheaper than UNC. My heart has been set on UNC for the southern-feel, laid back campus vibe, and focus on science, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the extra money. Would love some additional input by other members! I also plan on joining club field hockey, model UN, and maybe some hellenic-heritage club.
$5k difference between UVA & UNC are completely negligible. If your heart is set on UNC, go there. Both are amazing schools with a ton of opportunities and stellar collegiate experiences.
Interesting if you could list any info on what about Emory wasn’t a great experience for you?
UNC if you like it better is a great choice.
@privatebanker Emory is filled with kids that were “bred” to attend private institutions like Emory, and thus are often rich, spoiled, have never worked a day in their life, etc. Of course it’s not the whole population, but the gap between those kids & students on financial aid is so huge, it’s hard to fit in. We also have no school spirit, Atlanta is an expensive area, and I’m far from home.
But what about the fact that the 5k amounts to 1/4 of the money I’d spend on college each year? My heart is set on UNC but I don’t want to put a financial burden on myself when I know I also want to attend graduate school. Both UVA and UNC are already more expensive than Emory, because Emory gave me a ton of aid. @fancypants2019
^^^^Stay at Emory!
Follow your heart.
It sounds as if @grkcapo7 is miserable at Emory. I believe that there are more from public high schools there than private, but these situations are more micro than macro. It can be about a dorm, floor, or other social factors. It can be even tougher finding your “fit” at a large state university, entering as a sophomore. However, emotionally, this student has already checked out.
Emory also attracts ultra conservative students, compared to other schools in Atlanta. Scholarship students who are very conservative Christians do fit into Emory OK. Colorado students sometimes get the Oxford College Emory scholarship, and conservative ones stay put. But students we know who tried grad school in Emory after undergrad at Berkeley, it was a no go for them. GaTech is very different, and only 3 miles away from Emory. Schools have cultures that can exclude, unfortunately. Vanderbilt is fighting this exact sort of mold of rich southern belle too by giving a lot of scholarships to Asian Americans and Jewish American students.
$15,000 is not that much more to pay for Chapel Hill, you can pay off a loan of that size quickly.
I think you have the wrong Emory. I have never seen a more off base description of Emory. Ultra conservative students are few and far between and many even feel marginalized. It’s easily the most liberal college in Atlanta. Emory was also voted the most Jewish friendly school in the US recently (although the university’s reaction to the SJP might hurt that reputation). In any case, you are dead wrong about Emory being conservative and until this year, college Republicans were dormant.
@Coloradomama and @ljberkow : Yeah, that (coloradomama description) is just wrong. The data doesn’t support it. Emory’s median family income is actually 1k higher than Tech. In addition, most Emory students are from California, and Northeastern/MidAtlantic, and New England States (southern and midwestern states are a minority) and bring liberal politics with them. Emory also has a very high % of international students. Vanderbilt’s median family income is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than either. Also, note that among elite schools, Emory is number 4 in enrolling Pell Grant recipients. I don’t see how Emory could be so LGBT friendly and Jewish friendly and generally demographically diverse if it maintains a conservative reputation. I have no clue where you are getting your information from and whoever it is needs to learn how to Google and do research and you should not take their opinions face value. Yeah, not going to let outsiders put forth an odd non-evidence based narrative. It doesn’t make any sense.
You can start here on the income data. It will provide a link such that you can go type in the schools you are interested in investigating:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html
The USNews rankings are based upon more recent data:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity
And anyone interested can search the web for other things. It will paint a completely different picture from that “conservative and rich” (students are generally wealthy, but definitely on the low end among elite privates or publics) description. I really don’t like the proliferation of this fact free world I am seeing. This type of information is readily accessible and we don’t need to go off of hearsay to figure this stuff out. Various venues have studied it.
No need to mis-characterize any school like this.
Is that Emory’s current (and recently appointed) provost? Guess he came all the way down to Atlanta to save Emory from its increasing conservatism and southern belle reputation.
http://lgbt.emory.edu/resources/campus/who.html
These must be some conservative LGBT members and allies:
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2015/08/er_lgbt_recognition/campus.html
More conservative than others in the state? Because you know, the most LGBT friendly school in the state would also be one of the more conservative universities and attract more conservative students than normal.
A very conservative school cares this much about sustainability initiatives for such a long time:
https://sustainability.emory.edu/
It cares so much that one school mentioned is modelling efforts off of EMORY (their equivalent started only 7 years ago):
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainability/resources/academics-curriculum/
https://sustainability.emory.edu/programs/the-piedmont-project/
Appears the super conservative school called Duke University is also following Emory in this area:
https://today.duke.edu/2019/03/new-waterhub-coming-duke
How silly of anyone to compare ANY school to Berkeley (it sounds like that story was made up and even if it wasn’t, it is irrelevant) in the first place. Let us do research before we just say stuff. Seriously
It appears the OP was looking for a “state school” “rah rah” vibe. However, my understanding is that UVA has that but also has the “rich kid” vibe too:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/university-of-virginia
Chapel Hill isn’t much better than Emory:
Yeah sorry. They’ll get more school spirit, but they are lying to themselves or have some misconceptions if they think the student body will be less “spoiled”. I imagine it is bigger, so it may be easier to avoid those kids. Kind of a damned shame that current students at Emory have these false ideas that displays of “wealth” and “spoiled kids” are less than Emory. It just isn’t true. I imagine, you “feel” these things because private schools are just smaller. But on the whole, Emory isn’t especially bad in these areas. The fairest criticisms would be size and lack of “rah rah” spirit
There are way too many generalities about Emory in this thread that represent misinformation. I’d venture to guess that more students than not get some financial aid at Emory and more attended public schools than private schools. All of these private elites and even many of the state elites have their share of kids with money.
If you don’t like Emory, don’t blame your fellow students for being children of privilege. Maybe Emory isn’t for you and you move on.
I’ve visited both UNC & UVa, & UVa gave off a much wealthier & snootier vibe than UNC. If that’s what you don’t like about Emory, UVa might not be much better.
What all the charts & graphs about income don’t show is the “attitude” part that the OP mentioned. Emory & UVa, are more likely than UNC to have wealthy, showoffy prestige-seekers from the northeast money belt (especially if you consider the D.C. suburbs in VA as northeast).
The one thing that UNC definitely does not have…is a student body with an attitude of prestige and wealth. While I am sure that some of this exists ( it exists everywhere), it is not the norm…at all.
to all the previous posters, I have decided to attend UNC. It has a better program for my field of study, and it’s the school that felt the most welcoming to me.
About Emory, the facts and figures may be right in estimating that there are more public school students & pell grant recipients than I had previously thought, however emory is NOT a conservative institution. I am a conservative, and I get dirty looks for even mentioning it on campus. The one conservative club on campus gets shamed and has such a small voice that many of its members dropped it, and refuse to show their political leanings. Emory’s vibe is not of a southern school, but of a school in the northeast with a lot of elite connotations. Most of the international students are filthy rich, and walk around with parkas and mini-skirts to attend 8 am classes. I wanted a school where I could roll out of bed in sweatpants and t-shirts and not feel out of place. Also, the population feels very small, there is no school spirit, and it just isn’t for me. Academics & professors are great though, 10/10 in that aspect.
UNC is definitely not conservative. That being said, the campus is very welcoming to all.
Good choice. Good luck.
@grkcapo7 you made the best move for you and great luck at Chapel Hill. Emory has been making an effort to draw students from western states and admitted more from California than any other state, including Georgia. I don’t think Emory puts itself off as a “southern university” at all. It’s a national university that happens to be in the south. I do know that prominent conservatives come to speak at Emory and don’t get shouted down as they do at many liberal schools. Emory isn’t for everyone, but for some, it’s just not a great fit.