I’ll try to answer some of your questions.
- INQ classes are meant to be inquiry based (hence the INQ). In practice, this means more writing, independent research, group-based research, field work, and presentations (to the class or in some cases to assembled faculty from the department). This is true for both humanities and science courses. You will also be expected to participate in class; your grade includes class participation.
- There is generally less grade curving at Oxford. Oxford courses - especially INQ courses - have a lot of graded assignments - homework, short papers, quizzes, lab reports, presentations, class room participation. These help make up for lower exam grades for students who don't do well on high stakes exams. The tough Atlanta campus courses will typically not involve graded homework and only a few tough exams, which because of their difficulty are heavily curved (think orgo).
- It is much harder to skate by in an Oxford course, which almost always has 25 or fewer students, has multiple graded assignments and requires classroom participation. Oxford INQ humanities courses are definitely more rigorous than their Atlanta counterparts. Oxford intro biology courses, which are also INQ, are also on average more rigorous than their Atlanta counterpart and much, much more rigorous than AP Biology.
- Socially, Oxford has a cozier feel than Atlanta according to those who've attended both campuses. Atlanta has more opportunities for frat-like parties both at Emory and at Georgia Tech. You will make some good, close friends at Oxford. Oxford has a lot of opportunities to socialize with fellow students - typically with a service based club like Volunteer Oxford or outdoors/leadership activities like Pierce. Oxford is an alcohol free zone because of the age of its students. On the weekends, a lot of students take the shuttle to the Atlanta or Georgia Tech campuses if they want a frat like experience.
- Oxford's a great place to assume leadership roles in your field of choice because of its small size.
- Oxford is farther from Atlanta than the Atlanta campus. There is a free shuttle that runs quite frequently on the weekends between the two campuses but it is a commute - about an hour long.
- The smaller campus and smaller class sizes mean you're more likely to form connections through faculty and to have opportunities at being a TA or doing research. The Atlanta campus has a much larger faculty and is close to the medical school, the school of public health, CDC, Yerkes, Emory's medical center and so has many more opportunities to do research.
- Oxford students do well when seeking outside opportunities. Last year, Oxford students wrote down what they'd be doing over the summer of 2017 on a whiteboard in the new Science building. Many were able to get offers from highly competitive summer research programs, which are very hard to get if you're not from the home institution or from a disadvantaged background. MIT's Broad Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Mayo Clinic, NIH were all places that Oxford students were able to get research positions, as well as many others.
- There is a huge difference between Oxford and NYU. NYU has much larger class sizes and is situated in the middle of New York City without a well defined physical campus.