<p>I'm trying to decide between these 2 schools. Visited both. They seem very similar. Anyone have any suggestions on how I make a decision in the next week?</p>
<p>Yes: pick the school at which you think you’d be the happiest.
It’s a no lose situation for you.
Two fine schools.
Personally, I like Wash U better (and I am unbiased), but that’s very subjective.</p>
<p>since from your screen name it looks like you are from NY, did you find out how easy it is to get jobs in NY from either school?</p>
<p>also, Wash U is much more flexible from what I remember in terms of majors/minors in coordination with Olin…plus since you are starting Olin freshman year (rather than Goizueta later on), you can always adjust and change…</p>
<p>Personally, I also like Wash U better (and I, too, am unbiased)…</p>
<p>I applied to WashU and not Emory so I would pick WashU. I’m not making the decision, and you posted this on a WashU board so almost everyone here will say WashU.</p>
<p>I chose Emory over Wash U.</p>
<p>I slept over at Wash U and visited Emory twice. They truly are very similar schools, and I absolutely adore both of them. For me, it came down to 3 deciding factors:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Location–Atlanta vs. St. Louis. I felt that Atlanta has many more job opportunities than St. Louis. It also just seemed like a nicer place to live in general. I really liked the southern hospitality, yet the city itself doesn’t feel “southern.” </p></li>
<li><p>**Business school reputation within the University **Students at Emory seem to admire the competitive spirit of its B-schoolers, and treat them as equals. Maybe I just talked with the wrong people, but when I slept over at Wash U, I heard that students generally belittle the Business school students and even claim some students only get accepted because they declared themselves Business students. I didn’t want to be the target of such ill-will.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>*Note, I came to this conclusion after a 2 day visit and by talking with a couple of friends who are current students. Of course someone at Olin will know more about this than I do. Still, it was a factor in my final decision.</p>
<ol>
<li>4 year vs. 2 year Business program– I disagree with Rodney when it comes to this. While I admit that the “walls” between colleges at Wash U seemed really low, and that you can easily switch colleges, I liked the idea of a 2 year liberal arts education immediately followed by 2 years of intense Business. Emory strongly encourages you to explore other fields of study before deciding on your major–business or otherwise. I know it’s similar at Wash U, but I wasn’t closed minded enough to label myself as a “business school student” without exploring my other interests.</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course I can’t claim to be “unbiased” – I decided Emory was better for me, and I never looked back. However, I’d like to think I came to my conclusion through unbiased, rational comparison.</p>
<p>In the end, they are both fantastic schools and I’m sure you’ll be happy at either. Good luck with your final decision!</p>
<p>Re ^ B-school classes are considered by most (especially by engineers) as many times easier, which is why the b-schoolers tend to get “looked down upon”. Which is not saying Olin isn’t a great business school, but the difficulty of classes between Olin and Engineering, and the workload between the two is like day and night.</p>
<p>I think MBsQuirky said a lot of helpful things. I bet the biggest factor will be if you want a more consolidated “2+2” experience at Emory, or if you want to be able to spread things out over 4 years at Wash U. While I’m not in the business school, I would personally advocate for a more flexible program that allows you to start taking business classes your freshman year and be able to spread out your classes in both liberal arts and business over the entire 4 years. I know that for business students here, approx 50% of classes must be taken in Art Sci, so you still end up having a really strong liberal arts background. </p>
<p>I don’t think city location should come into play too much regarding career options, because most people don’t end up interning or working in the city they attend college (unless you are in NYC, LA, or possibly Chicago). Of my friends in the b-school at Wash U, NY and Chicago are by far the most common destinations for internships. With that said, if you did want to stay in St Louis, we do have tons of large companies here. Both Emory and Wash U will have the same large companies from across the country recruiting on campus. </p>
<p>Location should probably only come into play regarding your immediate surroundings, and in that regard, I’d say Wash U has the upper hand. Yes, Atlanta is a bigger city, but you can hardly do anything within walking or biking distance of Emory’s campus (two friends from HS go there). In college, you end up doing things that are convenient to the campus itself, and with Wash U you can either walk to the loop or take a short metro (free) to the CWE or downtown in 10-15 minutes. St Louis has the same types of things that Atlanta has - performing arts, shopping, museums (free in STL), restaurants - that will generally be more accessible here.</p>
<p>yeah, i had sort of a similar decision between Olin and McIntire at UVA… McIntire being more similar to Goizueta, as it’s also a two-year business program. Honestly, that’s something I didn’t like so much, so I ending up deciding against UVA, even though I was named an Echols Scholar there and it’s in-state for me.
However, this decision ended up not even mattering as I’m most likely gonna be an engineer at Rice next year (possibly getting an MBA or something after that).
Anyway, I’d choose WashU’s four-year program, but you can’t go wrong with either. Congrats on getting into both of those great schools!</p>