<p>MOrgel: my son is a freshman at Vandy winding up his year and he was also admitted to Emory among others…I have also lived in Nashville twice and in Atlanta four times, including employment on the Emory campus. </p>
<p>Monday is the first day of Maymester. You should email a professor and request permission to sit in on a class. There are a lot of cool courses for this month…but most Maymester courses are enrichment travel experiences. You can find the Maymester courses at this link. A simple email saying you are a recently admitted student will do the trick…just apologize for asking on the first day of class. I am sure you will get a “yes” to sit in but arrive early and introduce yourself to the teacher. </p>
<p>[Vanderbilt</a> University: Summer Sessions](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/summersessions/special.php]Vanderbilt”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/summersessions/special.php)</p>
<p>Emory has a very good premed track with good profs and comparable classroom sizes and very good facilities. I was really impressed with their science program and building…not that it is any better than at Vandy…certainly not. There is a hospital on grounds! The CDC is on the same street. There are lots of federal dollars floating around Atlanta for research and obviously Atlanta is a fun city for the young who have a car…Emory is in a suburb and there is very little you can access on foot. Emory has a positive relationship with Atlanta and the undergrads who work very hard are often welcomed into research with graduate programs. Emory is a very exciting school academically. What is missing is school spirit re sports compared to Vandy (this was not a priority for my Vandy son.) Also Emory has a much less fun location compared to Vanderbilt which is nestled very close to downtown and enjoys “walkabouts” off of West End and Hillsboro Village and Elliston Place that are fun communities for hangouts for the students. Vanderbilt’s campus is really one of the best in the country for an urban location…you get tree lined walks and access to graduate schools and hospital with ease. Emory has great arts programs…but no real conservatory like Nashville. You can see so much more in Nashville without even needing a car re performances…no stress…smaller city.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt also enjoys a superior relationship with its host city and region.<br>
The Commons is far superior to the Emory freshman experience or for that matter…to the freshman experiences almost anyplace. I really dislike the Emory housing plan which includes the Claremont campus by shuttle bus…just seems like a bunch of apartments without a strong connection to the campus–they do have RAs but still…Frat boys can in come cases move into their “houses” at Emory I think junior year which puts them back in the heart of things but many Emory upperclassmen move off campus. That is kind of weird because it is like junior frats nearby to freshmen housing in the heart of things on campus.<br>
This is not Emory’s fault…this is about the price of real estate in Atlanta…Emory would like to do Residential colleges but the money is staggering…just as Vandy would like to build more Residential Colleges for second years.</p>
<p>Even though there is plentiful housing in Nashville, Vandy requires the majority of students to stay on campus all four years which gives the place a tight feeling. </p>
<p>Your peer group at Vanderbilt in the class of 2014 is going to be amazing. Vanderbilt has become in the last five years markedly more difficult to enter than Emory. That said, the same amount of effort is required at either institution to succeed! Hard work.</p>
<p>Frat life is bigger at Vanderbilt in terms of the impact on campus in my opinion. My son is not a participant. </p>
<p>We just sat down with our son and he had a couple of piles of things to show us about his year as we didn’t visit him much…and I am amazed really at the gazillion events he attended that are cultural in nature. (Emory and Vandy have very full offerings 24/7…which is an advantage in a regionally important reseach college) Our son was admitted to three well known and wonderful liberal arts colleges and felt that was initially where he belonged. Now he looks back and sees that he got very very good instruction in his freshman courses…in some cases similar to liberal arts courses in smaller colleges…His freshman seminar for instance…tons of attention to the tedious jobs of essays evident…lots of faculty writing all over his papers…what I am saying is that we thought he “gave up” some personal instruction not going to his LACs but classroom intimacy with teachers has been quite good for a larger college. The size of Vandy makes it part Liberal Arts college, part research institution…and you will learn as much from your talented peers as you will from teachers in some cases.</p>
<p>I personally think that Emory is a great premed school should you have emotional ties to Atlanta or to Emory for some reason. </p>
<p>But I think Vanderbilt has the best campus, wonderful access to premed opps and the stronger peer group based on numbers only… coming to Nashville next year. Hard work can turn either college into something special for your education. Good luck with your lucky great choice of two wonderful places. Emory means a lot to Atlanta just as Vanderbilt is at the heart of its region.</p>
<p>You can “tour” Vanderbilt online at Vanderbilt.edu plus there are great you tube videos on the Vanderbilt campus and surroundings…check them out.</p>