LUSH Emory

Not only is Austin glad to be done with the last leg of the trip, so am I! Readers, my advice to you is that 10 days is too long of a college search trip. You want to maximize the most of your time while back here, but it becomes pretty grueling, both physically and mentally. I know, I know…enough of the advice and seriousness -- you don't care about us, you want to hear about Emory!

Emory is kind of the best of both worlds for Austin. It's a small enough campus, undergraduate-wise, where you don't feel like a number, but it's a big enough campus where not everybody knows your business. The Greek system here is strong, the fraternity houses are really nice (they have that same weird brothel law here in Georgia as well when it comes to the sororities) and the fraternities have MAID SERVICE! Can you imagine a maid going into the Sigma Chi house at USC? Despite the economy, she'd probably quit her job right there on the spot! The school is building all of these really nice, brand new freshman dorms for 2010, and quite frankly, all of the dorms are pretty lush for dorms. Apparently, during the Atlanta Summer Olympics, Emory housed a lot of the athletes so their rooms had to be up-to-snuff. All rooms are air-conditioned and even the older rooms are pretty sweet.

Want to work out? The student gym is state-of-the-art…but you know what readers? Nowadays, all schools have state-of-the-art gyms. I don't think the student gym is a selling point anymore (I remember when I first saw the gym at SMU I was floored, but now I know that the reality is they all have these to-die-for gyms.) If the school you're looking at DOESN'T have a state-of-the-art-gym, there's an issue. Even UCLA has a splendid gym (heh-heh…sorry, just had to put that in there…)

They have an unofficial mascot names Dooley, who is a skeleton (okay, LOVE that!) Dooley has bodyguards and stop class during "Dooley's Week," merely by walking into a classroom and squirting a professor with a squirt gun.

Oh, academics? Oh, yes, right…Emory is pretty well respected and up there. Not an Ivy, of course, but there are kids looking at Ivies who are also looking at Emory. Funny story -- we were put in the same tour group as Nancy Greene's sister's sister-in-law and her daughter from Harvard-Westlake. We started playing the who-do-you-know game and it turns out they know and are sort of related to my (most awesome) next-door-neighbors! And she was on her way to Duke, but had looked at Dartmouth, Amherst, etc. (btw she hated Amherst). So, I only bring that up because you can see there are many types of kids looking at Emory. Will Austin apply here? Absolutely. Is it his first choice? Can't say anymore. At this point, he doesn't have a first choice, which worries him, as he doesn't have an early decision choice because he likes SO many of them! And this, "I don't know what kind of students go there" syndrome seems to be a big issue with him. So what does that mean? More road trips in the fall! Scott, get your suitcase ready because you're going on a road-trip baby!