With dedicated students and a culturally rich locale, Emory University is a crossroads of academic and extracurricular opportunity. The school’s location in the Atlanta suburb of Druid Hills ensures that students enjoy a close-knit community with easy access to a large city. Students are required to live on campus during their freshman and sophomore years, though most choose to remain on campus until they graduate. Emory’s mission statement, “to create, preserve, teach, and apply knowledge in the service of humanity,” recalls the school’s Methodist roots. Emory is often considered a “New Ivy” for its academic rigor, selectivity, and excellence; Newsweek ranked the school’s undergraduate program at number 17 in 2010.
The student body at Emory is dynamic, running more than 220 clubs and organizations. Greek life is a significant factor on campus, as is philanthropic activity. In fact, approximately 25% of all Emory students participate in Volunteer Emory, an organization that oversees and plans community service activities. Emory students’ lighter side is illustrated in the school’s annual Dooley Week—a celebration of Emory’s unofficial mascot, a skeleton labeled Emory’s “Lord of Misrule.” The week includes an unidentified Dooley touring campus flanked by a select group of bodyguards, and culminates with Dooley’s Ball, an elaborate party taking place on central campus. Celebrations continue at the yearly Dooley Cup, a sporting event between the university administration and student government; to date, students remain undefeated.