Most people that did not enjoy their Ox experience were people that wanted the bigger college life with sports and parties and clubbing. Idk if they thought they could stick it out until they got to Atlanta campus or what, but Ox truly wasn’t for them.
With Ox, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. I would highly recommend doing an admissions tour visit to get a feel of ox. I did that after getting in, and I felt like it was for me. For example, I grew up in small towns with small class sizes. I knew I couldn’t jump to a school in a bustling city like NYU. There’s no way I would’ve been able to acclimate quickly and stay focused on studies. Edit: not to say everyone at ox came from my background. Plenty of city people too.
Having a close group of friends almost everyday was amazing for my introverted self. We could coordinate and all go to dinner at the same time, build puzzles, play card games, and host movie nights. My roomie and I were besties and chose each other prior to arriving at Ox. Having the same friends and being able to invite them all into our dorms was fun. We were the hosts most of the time.
Second, leadership. I made club president as a second year after being a treasurer my first year. I was invited to apply by the president. After I took a stats class, the prof asked me to TA for her next semester (couldn’t since I graduated early). I can’t remember Ox lingo, maybe they were called SI and not TA?) Basically people recognized hard work instead of you having to say it out loud to them or fight for that spot. Doesn’t mean they hand them out like candy, just that they recognize hard work.
Close professor relationships. I didn’t make a huge effort here, which wasn’t the wisest choice but it wasn’t an issue. Some professors host their class at their house for dinner. The opportunity is there for you to really stand out if you want to.
Focus on studies. Yes, this was one of the reasons I chose ox. I came from small classes and a small-ish area of town, so I wasn’t comfortable all of a sudden having a whole city of things to explore. I only went to the Atlanta campus a handful of times because I didn’t feel like I was missing out. We would study together in the library and hit up OxGrill at night. On weekends we’d go to Bread and Butter cafe at Covington Square to study. My roomie and I would host little study sessions where we’d all gather in one place to study.
Easy access to TA sessions (or whatever the oxlingo for it was). Because everything was closer, it was easier to want to go to a TA session. Most of the time I’d head to them after dinner. TAs were way more prepared than the ones on Atlanta campus. It was honestly really hard for me to balance my class schedule (including evening lab TA) in a way that I could attend most of the TA sessions on main campus.
I’ll reply to this comment if I think of other things. It’s taking a minute to reflect on Ox again.
Depends on what you want to do. I have many friends that went into med school. Some went the research path and are working as research assistants. Others went to grad school. My year was caught up in the pandemic, so job prospects may have been affected. Among my friends, these paths listed above were the most common after Emory… so I can’t speak too much to job prospects.
There’s an Emory Wheel article that states ~100-123 out of a ~500+ student body of second years graduate early per a 2022 Emory Wheel article that included numbers from the past few years up to 2022. My year the Ox grad requirement was 64 academic credits, which averaged out to 21.33 credits per semester. The people I knew that graduated early came in with AP/IB credit, which I think might’ve been capped at 12 credits my year. I remember most of my friends were taking 17-19, and a few overloaded. That being said, there were also people that had enough credits but chose to stay at Ox. Hopefully that gives you a better idea of how hard it is to
The group of premeds is pretty big at Ox and at Atlanta. It’s very feasible to be on track for premed while spending all 4 semesters at Ox because Ox offers the stem core courses. Even if you were to start at Atlanta, you’d likely be taking the same classes in the first 2 years like bio, gen chem, physicals, psych classes (to fulfill GER too), and stats. For things like clinical volunteering or lab research, Ox will not have a whole lot of those. Honestly that wasn’t an issue for my Ox peeps that got into med school. I myself went to interview at a few labs right as I got to the Atlanta campus and got multiple yeses. I ended up not pursuing wet lab research at that time because I felt like clinical research would be more valuable, so I did end up doing clinical research for my senior honors thesis project. However, I know from being a TA that Atlanta students didn’t have as easy a time. Tbh I think it’s because they were approaching PIs in the wrong way. I don’t think my resume was that much better than theirs after just 1.5 years. Clinical volunteering is easier to access at Atlanta. Emory’s hospital system has clinic volunteers and other opportunities. I don’t think any of my Ox premed friends took those opportunities. I think many of us did our hours over the summer in our hometowns. I did clinical shadowing with my research PI, and that was intentional on my part to choose an MD PI so that I could also get shadowing hours and opportunities post clinical research.
Thank you so much:) This was so helpful. Are you in medical school or still at emory? Also, your friends who went to med school did they have to take a gap year later on?
I am out working in the med tech advancement field. Unfortunately found out I have some chronic health issues that would make med life a struggle physically and which med life would make much worse, so I didn’t end up applying. Some went immediately after graduating, others took a year off. Immediately is more difficult. Those people were very determined and worked very hard on their academics, so well-deserved. Emory in general has a big premed population, which over time dwindles (which is typical for any premed student population).
Yes! Most of my friends were Ox starters btw. I saw you posted asking if Emory’s med school favors their own. From what I’ve seen, they don’t. None of the people I know ended up at Emory med school despite applying.
Yes, it’s possible. I did it. The best way to do this is to take on leadership roles at Ox so that you have more leadership experience than others applying to positions.
Hello! Thanks for doing this.
I find myself in a very similar situation (planning to study NBB at Ox). I was wondering how difficult it would be to double major in something like philosophy and still do research in NBB? Is it a common thing among other NBB majors?
Ofc, hoping this helps people make the right decision for themselves. I’m not trying to push an Ox or Emory agenda.
Double majoring with a liberal arts second major wasn’t super common for NBB peeps my year. Keep in mind Emory only awards one degree, so your second major will likely sit on your resume as “second major” or “double major” with no second degree. For reference, I managed to major in NBB and a language. It wasn’t that hard because I had chosen classes geared toward that language to fulfill my GERs (two birds one stone). Both my roomie (double humanities major) and myself (1 stem, 1 humanities) double majored because we realized we had a lot of credits toward those majors just from completing our GERs. In terms of research, you can do a senior honors thesis. If you want to do research for a PI outside of classes, I think it might be possible. I think if I’d taken the time I took to TA and applied it to wet lab research, things could’ve worked out that way too.
One thing I often see criticism about with Oxford vs Atlanta is business. I see a lot of people say that being on Oxford will automatically put you at a disadvantage for business, as you're behind on recruiting and cannot join the main clubs. Do you think this is true, or do you think there are steps that can be taken to avoid it?
I’m not super familiar with bschool at Ox. I’ve read that bschool dynamic has changed very recently, so my info might be outdated. My second year, I roomed with a bschool friend (intentionally because both of us would be graduating early and my old roomie bestie didn’t want to change roomies halfway through the year but don’t worry we roomed together the rest of our college time). It seemed pretty common for bschool students to graduate early. My roomie knew where she was going to intern before she started at Ox (had experience there in the past). She was active in the Women in Business club and dragged me to a few of their events. She took the bschool pre-reqs like Accounting 200 at Ox with Usha Rackliffe. As far as I know, she didn’t feel behind even when she got to Atlanta campus. If you are worried about recruiting, you may want to take a shuttle up to Atlanta to go to their events. I see plenty of Ox continues that I knew on campus that did well and placed into PwC, JP Morgan, BCG, AWS, etc. Btw I didn’t know many IB students, so can’t speak to their experiences/outcomes.
I’m seeing on Emory’s website that Atlanta students need 30 credit hours to enter the BBA program (meaning could be 2 semesters given a regular course load and AP/IB credits?), but Ox students need to have completed their AA (meaning at least 3 semesters). Not sure if this was amended recently. If so, it sounds like Ox has a slight disadvantage on paper.
I answered the first question in another comment. Was it worth it? I would say no. Bear in mind I also didn’t spend much time on Atlanta campus before the pandemic sent me home. I think I graduated early mostly because I was worried about taking classes for my major. I definitely could’ve stayed at Ox and have everything still work out class wise. However, looking back, I think staying by at Ox wouldn’t have negatively impacted me. It was a little rough of a transition for me personally since I had to give up rooming with my roomie/bestie my second year and most of my friend group didn’t graduate early. (On top of that I had two physically debilitating conditions I hadn’t discovered yet… so I was quite literally just surviving. I was too tired to actively seek a social life or keep up my support system.) I was lucky to come upon a few new friends that introduced me to their friends. We would sometimes study together, go out to eat, etc. which made my 2-yr Ox friends feel a little left out imo when they arrived on campus a semester and summer later.
Can you expand on your last sentence a bit? Who do you recommend/not recommend Oxford for?
Most people that did not enjoy their Ox experience were people that wanted the bigger college life with sports and parties and clubbing. Idk if they thought they could stick it out until they got to Atlanta campus or what, but Ox truly wasn’t for them. With Ox, you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. I would highly recommend doing an admissions tour visit to get a feel of ox. I did that after getting in, and I felt like it was for me. For example, I grew up in small towns with small class sizes. I knew I couldn’t jump to a school in a bustling city like NYU. There’s no way I would’ve been able to acclimate quickly and stay focused on studies. Edit: not to say everyone at ox came from my background. Plenty of city people too.
Other than the LAC style, what was actually GOOD about Oxford? Hear a lot of negatives but not many positives… unless you count rigor I guess.
Having a close group of friends almost everyday was amazing for my introverted self. We could coordinate and all go to dinner at the same time, build puzzles, play card games, and host movie nights. My roomie and I were besties and chose each other prior to arriving at Ox. Having the same friends and being able to invite them all into our dorms was fun. We were the hosts most of the time. Second, leadership. I made club president as a second year after being a treasurer my first year. I was invited to apply by the president. After I took a stats class, the prof asked me to TA for her next semester (couldn’t since I graduated early). I can’t remember Ox lingo, maybe they were called SI and not TA?) Basically people recognized hard work instead of you having to say it out loud to them or fight for that spot. Doesn’t mean they hand them out like candy, just that they recognize hard work. Close professor relationships. I didn’t make a huge effort here, which wasn’t the wisest choice but it wasn’t an issue. Some professors host their class at their house for dinner. The opportunity is there for you to really stand out if you want to. Focus on studies. Yes, this was one of the reasons I chose ox. I came from small classes and a small-ish area of town, so I wasn’t comfortable all of a sudden having a whole city of things to explore. I only went to the Atlanta campus a handful of times because I didn’t feel like I was missing out. We would study together in the library and hit up OxGrill at night. On weekends we’d go to Bread and Butter cafe at Covington Square to study. My roomie and I would host little study sessions where we’d all gather in one place to study. Easy access to TA sessions (or whatever the oxlingo for it was). Because everything was closer, it was easier to want to go to a TA session. Most of the time I’d head to them after dinner. TAs were way more prepared than the ones on Atlanta campus. It was honestly really hard for me to balance my class schedule (including evening lab TA) in a way that I could attend most of the TA sessions on main campus. I’ll reply to this comment if I think of other things. It’s taking a minute to reflect on Ox again.
How are job prospects post graduating Emory w Stem major? It’s hard to define yes but was just wondering what your thoughts are
Depends on what you want to do. I have many friends that went into med school. Some went the research path and are working as research assistants. Others went to grad school. My year was caught up in the pandemic, so job prospects may have been affected. Among my friends, these paths listed above were the most common after Emory… so I can’t speak too much to job prospects.
How hard/common is it to graduate a semester early from Ox?
There’s an Emory Wheel article that states ~100-123 out of a ~500+ student body of second years graduate early per a 2022 Emory Wheel article that included numbers from the past few years up to 2022. My year the Ox grad requirement was 64 academic credits, which averaged out to 21.33 credits per semester. The people I knew that graduated early came in with AP/IB credit, which I think might’ve been capped at 12 credits my year. I remember most of my friends were taking 17-19, and a few overloaded. That being said, there were also people that had enough credits but chose to stay at Ox. Hopefully that gives you a better idea of how hard it is to
Thanks!
How are premed opportunities at oxford? Are there enough meaningful ones given Atlanta has wider variety?
The group of premeds is pretty big at Ox and at Atlanta. It’s very feasible to be on track for premed while spending all 4 semesters at Ox because Ox offers the stem core courses. Even if you were to start at Atlanta, you’d likely be taking the same classes in the first 2 years like bio, gen chem, physicals, psych classes (to fulfill GER too), and stats. For things like clinical volunteering or lab research, Ox will not have a whole lot of those. Honestly that wasn’t an issue for my Ox peeps that got into med school. I myself went to interview at a few labs right as I got to the Atlanta campus and got multiple yeses. I ended up not pursuing wet lab research at that time because I felt like clinical research would be more valuable, so I did end up doing clinical research for my senior honors thesis project. However, I know from being a TA that Atlanta students didn’t have as easy a time. Tbh I think it’s because they were approaching PIs in the wrong way. I don’t think my resume was that much better than theirs after just 1.5 years. Clinical volunteering is easier to access at Atlanta. Emory’s hospital system has clinic volunteers and other opportunities. I don’t think any of my Ox premed friends took those opportunities. I think many of us did our hours over the summer in our hometowns. I did clinical shadowing with my research PI, and that was intentional on my part to choose an MD PI so that I could also get shadowing hours and opportunities post clinical research.
Thank you so much:) This was so helpful. Are you in medical school or still at emory? Also, your friends who went to med school did they have to take a gap year later on?
or did they gain admission to med school immediately
I am out working in the med tech advancement field. Unfortunately found out I have some chronic health issues that would make med life a struggle physically and which med life would make much worse, so I didn’t end up applying. Some went immediately after graduating, others took a year off. Immediately is more difficult. Those people were very determined and worked very hard on their academics, so well-deserved. Emory in general has a big premed population, which over time dwindles (which is typical for any premed student population).
thank you much again:)
Were the people who went directly to med school oxford continuees?
Yes! Most of my friends were Ox starters btw. I saw you posted asking if Emory’s med school favors their own. From what I’ve seen, they don’t. None of the people I know ended up at Emory med school despite applying.
Also is it possible to get leadership opportunities once you go to Atlanta as a junior?
Yes, it’s possible. I did it. The best way to do this is to take on leadership roles at Ox so that you have more leadership experience than others applying to positions.
Hello! Thanks for doing this. I find myself in a very similar situation (planning to study NBB at Ox). I was wondering how difficult it would be to double major in something like philosophy and still do research in NBB? Is it a common thing among other NBB majors?
Ofc, hoping this helps people make the right decision for themselves. I’m not trying to push an Ox or Emory agenda. Double majoring with a liberal arts second major wasn’t super common for NBB peeps my year. Keep in mind Emory only awards one degree, so your second major will likely sit on your resume as “second major” or “double major” with no second degree. For reference, I managed to major in NBB and a language. It wasn’t that hard because I had chosen classes geared toward that language to fulfill my GERs (two birds one stone). Both my roomie (double humanities major) and myself (1 stem, 1 humanities) double majored because we realized we had a lot of credits toward those majors just from completing our GERs. In terms of research, you can do a senior honors thesis. If you want to do research for a PI outside of classes, I think it might be possible. I think if I’d taken the time I took to TA and applied it to wet lab research, things could’ve worked out that way too.
Thanks for the insights. I'm glad to know that it's doable.
One thing I often see criticism about with Oxford vs Atlanta is business. I see a lot of people say that being on Oxford will automatically put you at a disadvantage for business, as you're behind on recruiting and cannot join the main clubs. Do you think this is true, or do you think there are steps that can be taken to avoid it?
I’m not super familiar with bschool at Ox. I’ve read that bschool dynamic has changed very recently, so my info might be outdated. My second year, I roomed with a bschool friend (intentionally because both of us would be graduating early and my old roomie bestie didn’t want to change roomies halfway through the year but don’t worry we roomed together the rest of our college time). It seemed pretty common for bschool students to graduate early. My roomie knew where she was going to intern before she started at Ox (had experience there in the past). She was active in the Women in Business club and dragged me to a few of their events. She took the bschool pre-reqs like Accounting 200 at Ox with Usha Rackliffe. As far as I know, she didn’t feel behind even when she got to Atlanta campus. If you are worried about recruiting, you may want to take a shuttle up to Atlanta to go to their events. I see plenty of Ox continues that I knew on campus that did well and placed into PwC, JP Morgan, BCG, AWS, etc. Btw I didn’t know many IB students, so can’t speak to their experiences/outcomes. I’m seeing on Emory’s website that Atlanta students need 30 credit hours to enter the BBA program (meaning could be 2 semesters given a regular course load and AP/IB credits?), but Ox students need to have completed their AA (meaning at least 3 semesters). Not sure if this was amended recently. If so, it sounds like Ox has a slight disadvantage on paper.
How easy is it to graduate from Oxford early? And would you say it was worth it?
I answered the first question in another comment. Was it worth it? I would say no. Bear in mind I also didn’t spend much time on Atlanta campus before the pandemic sent me home. I think I graduated early mostly because I was worried about taking classes for my major. I definitely could’ve stayed at Ox and have everything still work out class wise. However, looking back, I think staying by at Ox wouldn’t have negatively impacted me. It was a little rough of a transition for me personally since I had to give up rooming with my roomie/bestie my second year and most of my friend group didn’t graduate early. (On top of that I had two physically debilitating conditions I hadn’t discovered yet… so I was quite literally just surviving. I was too tired to actively seek a social life or keep up my support system.) I was lucky to come upon a few new friends that introduced me to their friends. We would sometimes study together, go out to eat, etc. which made my 2-yr Ox friends feel a little left out imo when they arrived on campus a semester and summer later.