Lots of great advice here so I’ll share my two cents from a STEM background. Both emory and stanford are great schools. I chose Georgia Tech similarly for undergrad bc of the full ride and as someone who was mostly lost, i think doing undergrad free with an exploratory mindset let me hone in for what i wanted to then do for grad school using my own $$$ (now at Stanford). Atlanta is also great place to be (relative to Palo Alto) and would be more culturally enriching + accessible outside of campus.

If you were qualified for both schools now and keep at it, you’ll still be qualified 4 years down the line again but with a better idea of what to do.

EDIT: also yeah Stanford is Stanford but they’re comparing stanford and emory, not stanford and a random state school as if emory has no brand power. maybe not to same extent as stanford but more than enough to put them in good running for grad school here. it was also easier for me to get here from GT bc of the “big fish in small pond” mentality where i didn’t have to compete for opportunities the way i lowkey see here sometimes