<p>We went to an info session on Emory but have not visited the campus (es). </p>
<p>Did not get a really clear picture of what makes Emory special and unique. What kind of students are attracted to Emory? What's the energy like on the campus? Besides research opportunities, what else does Emory offer? </p>
<p>Feel like we have a very vague picture and it would be helpful to get more info...thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I really feel like you need to visit if you have a good feel. It’s very difficult to describe. I would describe as some cross between a school like Chicago and other elites which are heavily per-professionally oriented. I would say that Emory is as pre-prof. heavy as many of the top Ivies (for example, pre-med will have like 300+ apply/cycle), but unlike places like ND and schools with lots of UG professional entities, it preserves an interest and large following in the humanities (and this can be easily felt and seen), social sciences (renowned scholars such as poet Natasha Tretheway are accessible to freshmen for example: she actually teaches a freshman seminar. This isn’t common. Usually, at all schools, such people are preserved for majors in advanced or intermediate courses. Another difference with Emory as opposed to “near peer” schools is that many more incoming students are aware of and care about such opps. It’s not always, “I’m at top 20 college, and it should be awesome and fun!”. For example, one freshman in the Emory Report state that he was excited to try to sign up for Tretheway’s. A high level of excitement as a prospective biology major at that.) . </p>
<p>Also, the school has had quite the reinvigoration of the arts scene which makes it more interesting than many places (compared to at least 2 of our southern peers, one can probably say that the energy not directed to big D-1 sports is redirected to larger cultural and arts scene). I’ll just say this; among the elite 4 southern privates, we are the odd one out in many senses (no D-1, no engineering school, we have a large BBA program, we have Oxford, which adds an interesting dynamic in and of itself). It’s like this weird liberal artsy type pre-professional school (as opposed to being quite wildly pre-professional like the other 3. I would argue that if it wasn’t for the BBA program, Emory would feel and be significantly less pre-prof. oriented. It would basically be Chicago w/o a strength in physical and computational sciences). And again, the lack of D-1 sports gives it a more “academic” and cultural feel than many others. This place will not feel and look like many of the college stereotypes you see in the media or seem as “well-rounded” as our peers w/a huge D-1 sports fervor (but then again, you have more people actually participating in sports, whether intra or intermural. It means less traditional school spirit, but perhaps a more active student body, at least in terms of athletics). However, the lack of this has also manifested itself into interesting traditions that you will not expect at Research-1 U’s (like the idea of Dooley seems like a classic liberal arts nerdy/quirky tradition) whose traditions often involve the sports scene. Emory is an…interesting place. However, it is not interesting if you only consider “state school like atmosphere, but with smaller class sizes and great faculty” as interesting. Just a warning. If that’s the case, do not consider this school.</p>
<p>Thanks, Bernie. Very helpful. Unfortunately it’s unlikely we’ll get to visit (other side of the continent) unless she’s accepted. So would you say that the Emory student is more in line with a traditional LAC-type student? How “Southern” does Emory feel? Conservative or Liberal? </p>
<p>Go2girl is pretty liberal, wants a passionate student body, loves smaller classes but also would like some palpable school spirit.</p>
<p>Emory is liberal (in fact very). No southern elite is particularly southern (Emory, Duke, and Rice are definitely not. Vanderbilt may have a little, but not much at all). Like I said, the student body is quite the mixture. You have the hardcore pre-professionals, yet you have the very liberal arts oriented part of the student body as social sciences and even humanities are solidly supported. Many students do research in these areas. There are also numerous UG fellowships that are geared toward folks majoring in and doing research in humanities and social science areas. Also the lib. arts majors are often the ones to get lots of attention as they are often the Fulbright winners, Bobby-Jones Scholars, and typically win things like the McMullen and Britain award which Emory awards to seniors who have had heavy community involvement). Emory is more LACish than a lot of its peers for the reasons I said (primarily, less UG professional entities. Only 2, with nursing having a very small imprint on the UG student population. Business may remove like 1/5 of a graduating class, but everyone else is at Oxford or Emory College of Arts and Sciences). I suppose the amount of pre-healths also make it feel dominantly pre-prof. in atmosphere, but I realized that this wasn’t really the case when I started taking tons of courses outside of science. When you take intermediate and special topics courses in say, history and political science, it’s almost like a whole different world (I’m sure there are plenty of pre-law students, but in general, they are much more intellectual and you can’t generally tell that they are pre-law unless you asked. These classes will feel like those at a liberal arts college.) And like I said, we have the quirky/nerdy forms of school spirit. </p>
<p>As for small classes, other than intro. (if your child is interested in social science or humanities outside of say econ.), they won’t get but so large. Even many science courses are much smaller than they are at research-1 peers. Even as a freshman, you can get into small classes in your area of interest as many social science and humanities special topics and intermediate courses have no per-requisites.</p>
<p>But not for Computer Science major, right, bernie12?</p>
<p>Here’s another why: Emory is a good place to come if you plan to double major in English & Physics. :)</p>
<p>The intellectual thing? Yeah, I’d imagine it’s better there and in chemistry, math and physics than in NBB and biology (appears there is a correlation w/the rigor or quantitative nature of the major when it comes to the atmosphere in the sciences).</p>