@Sblumenfeld : By individualistic, do you mean education or social life? If education, Oxford…more personalized, so could be great if you are not particularly accelerated (or if you do not plan on using AP credits to accelerate) but truly value education. You can do the same in Atlanta the first two years, but you must be more deliberate to choose smaller classes and better instructors. Socially, ATL is bigger and more fragmented. Honestly, I feel like D-1 schools can be this way too, but you at least get some days or weeks where it feels unified at those plays. At Emory, clubs and orgs. dominate. Oxford is smaller so my understanding is that they can still have a strong community spirit even if dominated by clubs. Both do not give the rah rah feel advertised by schools like Duke, Georgetown, UVA, Vanderbilt, USC, UCLA, ND, and other elite publics with a strong D-1 big money sports program and influential Greek life scene. The scenes are wrapped around the clubs and academics at both and there is a large subscription to Greek life (like 30% at Emory), but if it doesn’t seem to dominate the social scene as much as some other schools, so you don’t get really even an inkling of a “party school” vibe that many want from time to time. They are more for cerebral (even nerdy types to some extent) types who like deeply engaging their academics, orgs/clubs, but who do like to “play hard” from time to time primarily by going out into the city or nearby areas, or to Clairmont, Greek row, or other nearby houses and apartments. Either way, if you value more “rah rah” and a consistently intense party scene and a less cerebral/academic leaning vibe and social scene, Emory may not be for you. In my opinion, it is not to be compared to the schools I mentioned above. Maybe more like JHU, WUSTL, a toned down Chicago, and some LACs even. I feel like Emory and Oxford are better for those who look for strength in particular programs and academic tracks + maybe some quirkiness and decent hints of intellectualism (despite all the pre-professionals) as opposed to those who are just looking for places known general academic excellence (as in they don’t care about programmatic strengths, they just want to be at the school.
They may not even know much about what programs are actually good at the school, they just go and hope for the best…and in fact, the process of academics are more so secondary beyond performance that is), great placement in some areas, and “fun” in the traditional senses (that depicted in media/college oriented films). It is like the difference between the student who says: “Wow, what a beautiful, highly reputed school that is also very spirited and will somehow get me where I want to go” versus “Wow, this school is beautiful, has nice facilities, and plus I know my intended major is done really well here”(note how this one indicates that the student has a particular major, not only pre-professional track, in mind, and they actually care how well that particular major and department is/its reputation. Instead of “I hear pre-med here is good” it is more like:“I want to be pre-med and I hear this specific STEM major that functions as a pipeline is done really well”). The applicant who thinks like the latter when selecting schools “may” be a better fit for Emory. You’ll notice a lot of well-fit Emory students coming in with pre-mature knowledge of the business program, NBB, biology, QTM, chemistry, and English/Creative Writing, political science, etc. So folks come in with specific things in mind and care about how they are done at the school…they are less likely to take academic excellence for granted or just assume that because it is ranked high overall, it is worth coming for anything.
Consider Emory if you think you can tolerate lack of D-1, rah rah social scene, and perhaps have done enough research to find that it does undergraduate education in an area of interest really well. If you don’t actually care about how well it is done so much as the major simply being offered (I see this a lot even among those aiming for elite private and publics), I honestly recommend elsewhere. Those who come thinking: “I just really want to be at some highly ranked school” seem to have the most problems because they envisioned it to have the same vibe as the schools I say it should not be compared to. If these are admitted to Emory, and not the others, but looking for the vibes of the others, I flat out recommend a better fitting school even if it is lower ranked, technically less prestigious, or even perceived as less “good”. It helps one’s own happiness as well as the vibe at Emory itself.