Thank you for submitting your designs. We like the emblem concept that you created, but our only feeling is that it looks too "generic" - too commonplace - and not customized enough for our logo.
We like both the owl and the graduation cap image, but the owl has a hole in its belly whick looks weird to us.
We expect a majority of the users of our web site to be on mobile devices, phones. A larger logo will take up a lot of vertical real estate on a small screen. For that reason, and emblem-style logo will have to be truly awesome for us to choose it as the winner. If none emerge like that, then we'll likely choose a horizontally oriented logo.
Thanks again, and hope to see more ideas from you!