Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia · Founded 1836
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Get your matchTesting policy
Test-optional
The SAT and ACT are optional at Emory, and it says plainly that students 'will not be disadvantaged in the review process' for leaving scores out. But do not read optional as unimportant: in its own Common Data Set Emory rates standardized test scores as VERY IMPORTANT - a heavier weight than most test-optional schools give them - so a strong score is worth sending. About half the enrolled class submitted one. You may self-report scores. The same policy covers first-year and transfer applicants, both Emory College and Oxford College, and every decision plan. Source: apply.emory.edu (verified September 2026).
About
Emory is a research university with a liberal arts core, and it sits inside one of the densest concentrations of public health and medicine in the country - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society are both next door, and Emory Healthcare is Georgia's largest health system. There is no engineering school; students who want engineering use the dual-degree partnership with Georgia Tech instead.
History
Emory was founded in 1836 in the village of Oxford, Georgia, and named for a Methodist bishop. It moved to Atlanta in 1915 after Asa G. Candler, the founder of The Coca-Cola Company, gave the land and the money to build there. The original Oxford campus never closed: it is now Oxford College, where about a thousand students spend their first two years before finishing the same Emory degree in Atlanta.
What stands out
- Two entry points - Emory College in Atlanta and Oxford College, which leads to the same degree
- More than 140 majors across Emory College, Goizueta Business School and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
- A dual-degree engineering program with Georgia Tech, since Emory has no engineering school of its own
- Neighbors include the CDC and the American Cancer Society
- Division III athletics - Emory competes without athletic scholarships
Popular majors
Campus life
Nearly every first-year student lives on campus, and about 58 percent of undergraduates do overall. Roughly a fifth of students join fraternities or sororities. Emory plays Division III athletics, so sport is something students do rather than something the campus organizes itself around, and Atlanta is a ten-minute drive away.