<p>@prezbucky: Don’t push the “students are equal but test scores are higher” button. It may be true, but people don’t like hearing it lol. I would say that students have similar attitudes and perform and behave similarly once at each school. That would be accurate (they didn’t necessarily come in equal. Although I think, in the past, Emory students used to come in with slightly higher GPA’s than Vandy students despite the much lower SAT’s. It suggests that Emory students are very grade centric and work better for a classroom than for a standardized exam. No surprise, lots of pre-profs). Academic peers is correct because I think the intensity levels are about the same, just a different departmental distribution. Student post-grad. accomplishments seem to be at a similar level as well. Lots of academic programs at the grad. level (not professional programs, but graduate division of arts and sciences mainly. Often this trickles down to the quality of UG courses and opps. in each dept with doctoral programs) rank similarly too. Research funding is similar. </p>
<p>Also, I assume you are talking about walking from Vandy. Otherwise you would have to claim that popular suburban districts like the Highlands, Little 5, and Decatur are like 10 minutes from Emory (they are in a vehicle). Yeah, but all the “urban” elements that love so much from Atlanta are like a 20-25 minute drive away. </p>