<p>sherbear,
I’m not certain if your question was posed to me or some other poster, but I’ll respond just in case it was to me. </p>
<p>IMO, Wash U has the strongest statistical student profile among Wash U, Emory and Vanderbilt. I would consider Vanderbilt and Emory nearly interchangeable on student quality. Emory and Vanderbilt are often lumped together because they are both physically located in the South, but this knee-jerk association may be off the mark. Visit both colleges and you will see that the campuses of each are different flavors and often will appeal to different types of students. </p>
<p>As for the rationale behind the groupings above, take a look further back through the thread; the group of Duke/Northwestern/Rice/Vanderbilt/Notre Dame was chosen because of their Division I athletic life. Clearly Wash U and Emory are academically competitive with these colleges, but their athletic programs are Division III. Many folks (perhaps including you) don’t care about this aspect, but many do. I contend that the athletic life at a college has a signficant influence on campus social life and creates a positive buzz that impacts undergraduate life. If you don’t think so, then I encourage you to speak to any Duke student about their basketball game experience and how this infuses a certain spirit into the rest of the campus. Similar energy is produced by the athletic programs at the other schools (Rice would be weakest, but its baseball is superb).</p>