2017 S intends to apply ED to Wake this summer, but is torn between humanities and business. Can anyone shed any light on admission process – and specifically, if S enrolls as a arts & sciences student, how difficult is it to transfer to a business major? Have heard what I’m hoping is urban legend about a notoriously difficult Accounting class that is used to weed out weaker business students. Any info welcome on admissions in general and possible change to a business major ??
You don’t apply to business school till mid-way through sophomore year, and no one university-wide declares a major till end of sophomore year, so it’s not a decision that needs to be made right now. During first few semesters he’ll take business pre-reqs ( currently econ, calculus and accounting, but heard they may be adding something else as well), so he’ll have plenty of time to take both those and plenty of other courses and make a decision. My daughter is a freshman who intends to apply to the business school next year, but I can’t comment on accounting yet because she’s taking that next fall.
He’ll need to take mth 111, ecn 150, and acc 151, the last of which requires a 2.85 GPA to enroll in. The business school takes something like 80% of people who apply and he can apply or declare a major once he accumulates 40 credits (including AP credits).
Our son is a freshman at Wake. When we went to the info session for the Business School I think the stats were something like 70% of applicants getting in, with the average GPA of those who were accepted being around 3.5. It was unclear whether there is a lot of self-selection involved in the process (i.e. someone gets a 2.5 GPA or a C in accounting so they don’t even bother applying). Our son had tested out of all of the prerequisites from his high school AP tests. For kids in his situation they strongly recommended taking Calculus anyway so the admissions committee would have a better feel for how they will do. Sounds like risk with no reward to me, but we went along with it.
Our son is a sophomore at Wake and applied and was admitted to the B school in February. I am not sure what the yield was but many of his friends were deferred until they improved their accounting grade. The first accounting class is definitely the weed out class…the kids will tell you that. He got an A in Accounting and has a 3.6 GPA if that gives you some perspective into the caliper of students applying. You also have to do well in Econ too. Our son got a 5 on Calc. BC in high school so he did not have to take Calculus at Wake. The business school is nationally ranked and very selective. However, most kids that are a Wake are extremely bright, work hard and are driven. I agree with @thegriswolds that there is a certain amount of self-selection because several of his friends opted not to apply after they received B- and C’s in Accounting.