<p>I am having a tough time deciding between these three schools. I have been to both William & Mary and Tulane and loved both, but I have not been to Emory. William & Mary was very majestic, but I'm afraid it might get a little old after a while. Tulane was beautiful, and the weather is awesome. I live in NJ, however, and it would be nice to be able to drive back home. </p>
<p>William & Mary and Emory would be full cost, but I received $24k from Tulane and was accepted into the honors program, which I have a feeling is kind of a joke. I intend to study economics/ business, but I'm definitely not 100% sure. I feel like I'd have a great experience at all of these schools, but at Tulane, it seemed like there was a slight lack of importance placed upon academics. It seems as if Emory does the best for job placement out of these three, but I'd be graduating with a total of $20k in debt if I decided to go to there. If I went to either of the other two, I'd be free of debt. </p>
<p>I do like to party, but I think going out two nights a week is enough for me. Tulane would definitely satisfy my social wants, but I am afraid that William & Mary might not provide a great social scene along with the added time spent on work compared to Tulane.</p>
<p>I will probably get a job right out of undergrad, so job placement is important to me. I know I would have a great time at any of these schools, but I need to pick one. Any thoughts? </p>
<p>You have three wonderful options. Congrats.</p>
<p>You haven’t visited Emory, and it would leave you at least $20K in debt (you really can’t be sure about tutition increases going forward, but you know there won’t be any tuition de-creases.) I would suggest that you go with one of your other choices.</p>
<p>Tulane and Wm. & Mary are great schools. Go do some homework on them. Check out the common data sets to see if you can find out how many students graduate from these schools with degrees in majors that are of interest to you. Look into transportation to/from New Orleans and NJ and Wmsburgh and NJ. </p>
<p>If you still are interested in Emory, do they know that?
Did you appeal your FA award to Emory? Did you tell them that another $5K might make the difference for you? </p>
<p>And finally, please go visit any school you plan to attend. Four years is a long time.</p>
<p>You know, I never knew anyone who didn’t smile when they said, “I went to Tulane.”</p>
<p>I’ve been to all three campuses and you’ll love Emory’s as well as TU and W&M. First off all, I went to Tulane for undergrad to study finance (probably the schools best program by far) and came back after working to get a Masters in Finance. Tulane is not a party school…for everyone. A fair number of kids come to New Orleans (for undergrad) for the first time (75% of the school is from more than 500 miles away) and go out way too much. They typically fail out or wreck their gpas. The party rep travels back to all those kids’ communities as the reason the kid failed out. I frankly think that is where the party rep comes from. If you think they don’t drink more and party more at Rutgers then you’re crazy. Tulane and Loyola New Orleans (the small catholic college next door) always make that party school list just because they’re in New Orleans. It’s a joke list. I wouldn’t put any stock in it. I just don’t want you thinking that the majority of kids there are partying too much and that the kids are not academics-driven. Those kids don’t make it. </p>
<p>W&M and Emory are typically better regarded academically but not by much. W&M, which is beautiful, may be a little lacking on things to do after a while but it’s still a college and thus there will always be something to do. Emory and Tulane are in much better cities for festivals and concerts ect. </p>
<p>Tulane and Emory both do well with job placement, especially in the Northeast where you’re from. Emory might do slightly better but it depends on what you want to study and they are essentially even on this point. I don’t see, given that you really like the three about the same, how you could ignore that much cost difference. Tulane is the winner there. Please visit Emory and bring up your FA situation both with Emory and W&M.</p>
<p>Also, if you’re a football fan, Tulane does have a team while Emory does not. W&M has one at a lower division (whose games can still be fun to attend). However, Tulane has played Texas, Alabama, Auburn, ECU, LSU in the past few years which is a much more lively environment. This year they play LSU, Rice, Army, Southern Miss, BYU, Tulsa, SMU, Marshall and a couple others. The games are played in the Superdome or an outdoor stadium in city park.</p>
<p>Emory will have NFL games in town though, as will Tulane.</p>
<p>As for the W&M econ department (full disclosure, Im a freshman at W&M), the intro to macroecon professor I have is the same one who taught Christina Romer, the chair of the council of economic advisers for Obama. She was supposed to come speak a week ago friday, but her meeting with Obama went over… and then when they rescheduled I had class…</p>
<p>The Mason school of business is also just finishing up the construction of a new humongous building - its due to open officially in August.</p>
<p>And there is plenty to do at W&M on the weekends (or during the week too), be it go to the estuarine beaches, break the record for the most people dancing to the Thriller (which happened today), go to the Primary debate for the Democrats running for Governor (also today), kayak on one of the oldest man-made lakes in the western hemisphere, or go to a Prof’s house for BBQ. As for nightlife, you can find a drinking or dance party Thursday through Sunday night. And there are always the Delis, the Williamsburg version of bars, for those over 21.</p>
<p>For the record, W&M has Division 1 sports teams and the oldest football rivalry in the South (with U of R). Old seems to be a trend here…</p>
<p>And yes, Tulane and Emory have more city lives (as they’re in large cities). For W&M you’d have to go an hour east or west (Norfolk / VA Beach region or Richmond respectively) for huge things like that.</p>
<p>Transportation wise, I know a lot of students all the way from northern Virginia to NJ to NYC to Boston take the train down. The Wburg stop is just a couple blocks off campus.</p>
<p>I think the OP’s perception of each school is correct. If your travel costs to William and Mary are minimal, part of the savings of the Tulane scholarship will be off-set by higher travel costs.</p>
<p>Full disclosure, I am an Emory mom, if you are comfortable with the debt, I would go to Emory, otherwise I would go th W&M.</p>
<p>W&M is division 1, but not FBS (formerly Div 1-A). It is instead in what was Div 1-AA. That was my original point, sorry for any confusion. W&M is more likely to play smaller schools like VMI, Delaware, and James Madison while Tulane is more likely to play Rice, Alabama, Army, Navy, Texas, BYU, and LSU. It’s not a major point but if you’re a football fan it could matter some. Also, as a Tulane Alum, I can assure you that we don’t win all those games but it’s still fun to go to see them in the superdome. </p>
<p>Tulane’s Finance program was ranked 10th best in the world by Financial Times (british equivalent to Wall Str. Journal) in 2008. Their econ program is strong as well, but no where near the league of their finance program. For econ though, I might choose W&M personally. I imagine they have more of a LAC focus which will favor disciplines like economics. </p>
<p>For business, I think Emory and then Tulane (unless you want to do finance). All of this is considering the cost is equalized across the board. If you end up with Emory/W&M costing $25k or so more than Tulane, I would pick TU. I disagree with ThatMom about the travel costs eating up the savings. They should absolutely be factored in, but $24-25k a year would mean an enormous amount of travel. A one way ticket to Australia will typically only run you 3 grand. </p>
<p>I like TU’s new business school building a lot (especially the new trading room), but I think Emory’s was equally as pretty. I’m a fan of all three schools. All have pretty campuses and pretty surrounding areas. The best thing that you can do is visit Emory since you have the others. Also, don’t exclude or pick a school based solely on a major. Most kids change majors at least once in their tenure. Also, kids think they like something until they truly understand it. For example, economics is a completely different discipline from finance despite what you hear on TV and read in the paper. I certainly didn’t understand that until I began coursework in both. Best of luck!</p>
but it’s still fun to go to see them in the superdome. </p>