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@college450 and @tennismc Emory is actually a lot more generous with financial aid (and even throws scholarships around). And I would argue that much of its natural sciences are at least a little better for undergraduates along with many other things an undergraduate would want to do outside of STEM. If one wanted to do chemistry (especially not materials but more biomolecular, theoretical, or organic), biology, neuroscience, and pre-health related majors, it is probably the better place to be if only because of its smaller student body and access to resources. Tech is super duper excellent if you want to do engineering, but Emory does really well in the life sciences. And since tennismc is interested in business, if they get a decent chunk of financial aid, then Emory does have a better program in that area. Not just more prestigious, but better in many ways. One thing it has going for it is the career center which is obviously exceptionally strong (think about this, Emory is a bit less selective in terms of SAT scores than its peer private b-schools yet the salary coming out of that program is essentially identical and even better than many. In addition, the elite MBA feeding capabilities also over-perform and put it nicely among the top ranked schools, at least in the top 10). In addition to that, the co-curricular (and extra-curricular) offerings at GBS seem quite a bit more robust and even “well-connected”. GBS is the place that the big Hack-a-thon (yes, the one that Tech students come, if not flat out flock to) takes places. In addition, the business program gets a lot more respect on campus (probably because it is one of the top programs and hosts lots of activities, academic and non). Also, if the person is out of state, then prices will no doubt become much more comparable. Also, as far as I know, it is much more easy to say double major (I see many doing math or CS as a double major).
Also, I don’t know if this person has been admitted to either. For Emory they would have to go through RD, which despite, similar admit rates, is much less predictable than Georgia Tech (especially for in-state students). Emory does not do EA, but does ED1 and ED2 and those are binding, so I doubt they are actually now “choosing” between these two. Maybe they expect to be admitted to both, but I wouldn’t be so arrogant. And even if so, they need to visit because it isn’t about what one school “has over” the other, you are ultimately comparing an apple and an orange. One is a mostly STEM school with a business school. Another is a standard much more rounded school that claims to be centered on the liberal arts and has much more gen. ed requirements. One has an all 4-year business program, one has a two year program. Completely different environments. The only way I see people doing a direct comparison of the two is if they are trying to be pre-health at one vs. the other as a life sciences major. The two matriculating and applying pools do not have much overlap at all. Emory is pre-dominantly out of state and overseas and Geogia Tech has a closer distribution of in-state to out of state applicants and then the matriculates end up being mostly in-state. They draw different students with much different interests on the whole.