@collegestu816: Yes, now they need to find a way to spread the word about the concentrations. I recently talked to Dr. Eisen about posting the existence of the QSS major w/bio substantive area ON THE BIOLOGY WEBSITE (he agreed it was a good idea so we’ll see. Last time I pitched an idea to him, it came to fruition 
). Why? Because biology is much more prestigious at Emory than any new or traditionally small or weak dept. would be. A student considering Emory for anything remotely life sciences related is likely to go to the chem, biol, or NBB dept. website first. To optimize the level of interest in these new concentrations and make sure the classes associated with them don’t end up cancelled due to low enrollment, there has to be at least one prestigious or popular dept. that makes students aware of the options. As for physics being less employable. I think most decent schools including Emory and Tech have got around that by having a significant if not most upper level courses (especially those with integrated labs) focus on certain computational approaches and methods that end up being marketable skills. Also, that along with their mathematical abilities will make them more marketable than some science majors.
Also, Emory ain’t gettin’ the best science students in Ga except for maybe in biol and NBB. Tech brand is much stronger among non-prehealth STEM oriented students. It would help to change this (even for OOS) as Emory, to boost its prestige, needs to pull in more folks into STEM who are non-prehealth (we need to have alumni who impact academia or biotech and pharmaceuticals significantly). Are those who we draw OOS similar or better, probably. More “prize-winners” from OOS likely land at Emory. I’m hoping chemistry’s changes will help facilitate more balance and maybe attract more non-prehealths, but the reputation of Emory for it cast a huge shadow over other potential opps and perhaps turns off those interested in pure STEM and basic sciences.