Sarah E.
Yelp
I didn't fully appreciate how good Emory was until after I had graduated and decided to go back to school to work on a second undergrad degree. Since I had already accrued a hefty student loan debt, I could only afford a state school. Here are some things I failed to appreciate about Emory until I compared it with GSU.
The student-to-teacher ratio is excellent. I didn't fully grasp the implications of this until I went to a public school where there were as many people in my junior- or senior- level class as there were in my entire Psych 101 class at Emory.
The teachers cared about their subjects. At Emory, I had classes taught by full professors, grad students, and everything in between. In my entire 4 years, I never encountered any instructor who seemed obviously apathetic about what he or she was teaching. I did have one TERRIBLE teacher (a grad student) who just repeated the material word-for-one from our textbook. But I remember this because it was the exception rather than the rule. Almost every instructor I had seemed passionate and knowledgeable about his or her subject.
My teachers took the time to get to know their subjects and their students. And I had some seriously good classes taught by grad students, which leads me to believe that the mentoring and overall quality of the graduate programs was good as well.
At Emory, if you failed to put forth the effort required to learn the material, you failed the class. I always sort of assumed this would be a given in college. However, when I became a student at GSU, I found out that this was (sadly) not the case.
Other good things about Emory include the WOODPEC (the school's recreation center) and the fact that the dorm I stayed in on the far side of the campus (Woodruff) actually had its own small cafe so that its residents didn't have to walk 15-20 minutes to get to the DUC or Cox (the two main dining halls). I also have very fond memories of hanging out in the student-lounge portions of the DUC with my friends.
The campus really tried to provide variety for its students. During my freshman year, they opened "Cappuccino Joe's," a coffeehouse by the railroad tracks. It was pricey, but it took the Emory Card and had coffee, desserts, and sometimes live music. I think it's called something else now.
The overall beauty of the campus is another thing that I often failed to appreciate when I was a student there. Compare the quad, surrounded by its stately buildings, to Woodruff "Park" at GSU. Emory also has the beautiful and tranquil Lullwater Park (though I wouldn't recommend going there alone after dark).
A feature of Emory with which I had a love-hate relationship is its status as a "pedestrian campus." Even when I was in college there (over 10 years ago), they were trying to put this into effect. There were very few places to park near the buildings where classes were held. This seemed highly inconvenient in the years after I moved to an off-campus apartment. I believe that this has somewhat improved as there is an off-campus lot that didn't exist when I was there, along with a shuttle that runs between this lot and the campus.
Also, after attending GSU, I found out that the harsh reality was that parking wasn't always convenient there, either. And the added bonus there was that you could STILL get run over by bad drivers on your way to class! At least at Emory, that risk was minimal.
Probably the biggest *negative* point about Emory is what Jessica H. touched on in her review. I, too, was a Southern scholarship kid. I did find friends who I dearly loved at Emory, but I had to spend a lot of time wandering lost in a sea of REALLY privileged kids to find them. Not that it's bad to be well-off - I was just really out of my element.
The second biggest negative is the inconvenience of getting to and from Emory. The main roads that take you to the campus only have a single lane of traffic in either direction. This means that a drive which SHOULD take 5 or 10 minutes in terms of distance actually ends up taking 20 or 30 minutes instead.
The third thing I really didn't love about Emory was the Emory Card. This may have changed since I was a student there, but ALL freshmen had to put a minimum of $900 on their Emory cards. These funds did not carry over to the next year. To use up the excess Emory card money, we all bought ridiculous things in the bookstore (I got a lava lamp there). Fortunately, the local Domino's pizza did accept the Emory Card as payment.
With all its quirks, I have very fond memories of Emory. Which is good, because I may be dead before I finish paying off the student loans which I incurred in order to bridge the gap between my scholarship, my college savings, and the actual cost of tuition. That's okay, because I have realized that in the world of universities, you really do get what you pay for.