Carver student, Kelsey Ortiz, reports from Emory University on the College Tour

By Kelsey Ortiz

Emory University is a prestigious university that is known as the “Ivy League of the South.” This school is absolutely stunning and comes highly recommended by the men and women who are current students.  Strolling on the grounds of Emory and hearing from the staff and students, I can see what defines and distinguishes Emory's place among the nation's top universities. The campus grounds are skillfully gardened and beautiful.  

The campus is separated into different colleges. The two main colleges are Oxford, which is where the freshmen and sophomores attend classes, and Emory College, which is where the juniors and seniors attend. Emory College is located in Atlanta's historic Druid Hills suburb, which was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. 

With the title of "Ivy League of the South" we know there are stringent guidelines. The entering GPA should range from 3.7 to 3.9; the recommended SAT score should range from 2000 and 2230. These may seem high but those are just the averages, you can range below those number and still possibly make it into the magnificent university. The admission team will look at an individual student who may not meet the standard test criteria but are determine to bring value to the university through their community and school accomplishments.

Emory College of Arts and Sciences admitted 26.5% percent of 17,705 applicants for its Class of 2017. Emory welcomes more than 3,500 international students and scholars from more than 120 countries. Students learn from dedicated teachers who are also recognized for their distinctive research expertise. Some of the faculty includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama and CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Emory Alumni includes a U.S. vice president, a Supreme Court justice, U.S. senators and representatives, governors, university presidents, philanthropists, Pulitzer Prize winners, entrepreneurs, entertainers and an astronaut. To name a few: Kenneth Cole, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Kenneth Cole Productions; Yun Ch'i-Ho, author of the Korean National Anthem; Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives; and Robert W. Woodruff, CEO of The Coca Cola Company.

The campus at Oxford College is on the smaller side with only about 940 students. This means that the class sizes would be very small on average with about 25 students per class. The maximum number of students that could be in any given class is 35. This gives you a lot of time for your professor to get to know you and spend some one on one times with each of the students if they need help.

Emory University does not have sororities or fraternities but they do have an amazing array of clubs. They have over 70 clubs from photography to a BBQ club. If a student wants to create a club it is very simple -- all they need is a small group of people that are interested in the club.

Emory is recognized as one of the nation's leading research universities. Emory University is ranked fifth among universities with the highest licensing revenue per dollars spent on research ($155,806 per $1 million spent), based on an analysis of Association of University Technology Managers data. Bloomberg Business Week named Emory as the college with the best college libraries (2013-2014) and one of the most beautiful school campuses. This was a superb choice for the Carver’s STEM college tour. We were so inspired!