Emory is a beautiful campus, with lots of modernized buildings. They have an extensive program, heavily funded by Coca-Cola and the families therebehind. In fact, non-Coke products cannot be sold on campus, and the quad is purportedly shaped like a Coke bottle. Their unofficial mascot is Dooley, the ghost of a man accidentially bottled in 1925.*
(* OK, I made that last part up. But Dooley is real.)
But for all their strengths, Emory is not on the favorites list, but it remains on the plausible list. It’s hard to put a finger on a single fact why. There are clues, however. First, when they discussed financial aid, they emphasized need-based first, not merit-based (in fact, they seemed to discourage thoughts of merit-based aid). They emphasized the Greek culture on campus, noting that 33% join fraternities and sororities (a much higher percentage than on many classes). In fact, they noted that the greek organizations throw events that others may attend. This gave my daughter the impression that Emory was a marble house: impressive facilities, but lacking warmth.
Emory has some differences in Core Curriculum (see in their catalog) when compared to Tulane’s core curriculum: they require multiple physical education classes, and have a strong emphasis on writing. What was more telling, to us, was what was missing in comparison to Tulane. There were no requirements for public service. There were no requirements for interdisciplinary studies.
Later in the day, we met with one of the history professors. This went over well, and gave us a positive image of the campus (which is what maintains it on the “potential” list). We still have two more universities to visit on this trip: Bellarmine and Wash U. August will bring visits to Lewis & Clark, Univ of Portland, and Reed. In Southern California, we still need to schedule visits to UCSB and Occidential (and perhaps Pomona).
