<p>Hello! </p>
<p>I am a rising senior who will be applying to Wake Forest this fall, possibly ED. I was wondering how diverse the school is..I have heard that the school is mainly whites. But I wanted to know if anybody knew for sure how it is over there. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Last year WF enrolled 66 Hispanic & 83 Black or African American freshman , with total enrollment of 230 Hispanic (4.8%) and 363 Black or African American (7.6%) among a student body of 4,768. The minority enrollment may seem low , but these numbers represent a modest improvement from even a few years ago.In the totals of Hispanic & Black or African American will be some international students. Do not expect to see many folks from the hood.</p>
<p>This is not a unique situation to Wake Forest.</p>
<p>WF is 78% white student body. As a comparison the white student body of the following schools are: BC 68% ,Georgetown 65%, Notre Dame 72%,Delaware 77%,Penn State 75%,Loyola Md. 79% ,TCNJ 66%, Lehigh 72%,Bucknell 77%,Villanova 77%, Providence 76% .</p>
<p>Wake Forest is a fantastic school , don’t be afraid of the white people.
<a href=“Home - Office of Institutional Research”>Home - Office of Institutional Research;
<p>Yikes! BU are you a wake forest student? Do kids there generally refer to hispanic and african american students as coming from the “hood” and do you all feel that they need to be reasurred to not “be afraid of white people”? </p>
<p>We visited Wake and have similar concerns voiced by the OP. We were there for most of the day and spent a lot of time wandering about independent of the tour. We saw several groups of black students but they were eating/studying/walking together without any white students. We didn’t hear any kids speaking spanish but that didn’t really surprise us although it is different for us coming from a school with 30% hispanic students. We know it was just a one day visit and the overall impression of the school was excellent. However, the apparent segregation of students did stand out. It is something that you are sensitive to if you are a minority or go to a majority minority school where interactions are totally fluid. My D also knows that greek life at Wake is big and wonders if, again, there is a tendency toward social segregation with black kids joining black greek organizations exclusively…What about hispanic kids? As a minority student, that matters…especially if you are only going to find perhaps 4 to 6% of the students at the university sharing a similar background or culture. It is one thing to sometimes seek out down time with friends with similar background/language…we all need to do this to recharge ourselves as we spend most of our time interacting with people from different backgrounds…but it would be very alienating to go to a school where you felt your only social opportunities were limited to the other minority students and organizations. So…Brave Ulysees…answer the question more thoughtfully in terms of what you have observed in terms of interactions inside and outside the classroom at Wake. Numbers can only tell you so much.</p>
<p>“We saw several groups of black students but they were eating/studying/walking together without any white students.”</p>
<p>That’s common nearly everywhere you will go, like it or not. </p>
<p>“My D also knows that greek life at Wake is big and wonders if, again, there is a tendency toward social segregation with black kids joining black greek organizations exclusively”</p>
<p>At most colleges, African-Americans definitely tend to join black Greek organizations, often causing the above issue you cited.</p>
<p>Honestly, many of the black students at Wake are athletes. Thus, they tend to hang out together because they are on the same team. Additionally, many of the black students are involved in similar organizations like Office of Multicultural Affairs, Gospel Choir, etc.</p>
<p>The Greek scene is honestly mostly white, but by no means completely. I went to what was called the “most racially mixed” school in the country and many of the same trends appeared there as at Wake Forest. Yes, WFU has a low minority population, and yes, often they tend to “socially segregate”. You’d be hard-pressed to find students speaking spanish to each other in general, but you’ll definitely hear Chinese.</p>
<p>In my son’s fraternity, there are several A-A brothers. A couple Asians. Not sure about Hispanics. </p>
<p>I believe that people who see segregation at Wake are looking for it. Likewise, you can see plenty integration at Wake if you look for it. </p>
<p>My son has been there for 2 years and he has never mentioned any racial or ethnic barriers. To him, the most apparent diversity is socio-economic. There’s no tension between income brackets. But, you certainly know who comes from money and who doesn’t. </p>
<p>It’s 2012. The Wake student body comes from all over the country. Liberals from the west coast and northeast make friends with conservatives from the south. All races and ethnicities live, study, and get along everyday. Isn’t that we’ve been teaching our kids for decades? It’s working. </p>
<p>Really, based on everything I’ve seen, Wake is very inclusive.</p>
<p>Overall, I’d agree with what DougBetsy said.</p>
<p>My sorority is pretty diverse. I think I’ve said my peace in other threads regarding the alleged segregation at Wake.</p>
<p>Most things depend more upon personality than on race and socioeconomic background. In my opinion, most of the “Wake is segregated” talk comes from outsiders rather than the student body itself. But that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks PCC. I did look up your older posts and I found your observations helpful about many aspects of WF. The problem with visiting schools is that you get an impression based on a very short time span. WF is definitely in my D’s short list and I think I would ask her to go down again in the fall for an overnight, if possible, before applying.</p>
<p>Wake Forest works towards diversity in terms of SES, race, region, etc. However, I would bet that Wake Forest is one of the most diverse schools in terms of “thought”–I made so many different friends with so many different beliefs and values. Many selective colleges are extremely liberal–this results in a sort-of “group think” on campus where everything outside of those liberal beliefs are “wrong”. I remember visiting campuses where conservative students said they felt uncomfortable expressing their views on campus. This is really unfortunate. At Wake, I made friends with conservatives, liberals, and libertarians across the spectrum. </p>
<p>As a high school student in a conservative community, I had thought that conservatives/Republicans were unintelligent and backwards (sad, but true). Meeting students with different beliefs is so important. </p>
<p>To further highlight this, the array of speakers I heard on campus was extremely diverse: Ron Paul, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Thomas Friedman, Sandra Day O’Connor, John Edwards, and Kenneth Starr (just off the top of my head).</p>
<p>Yes, Wake has some work to do regarding diversity, but diversity can mean many different things.</p>
<p>Thank you for these posts! I am having a hard time deciding between Duke and WFU for ED, and diversity at WFU is one thing that seemed to be holding me back from applying ED coming from a 99.9999999999999999% white high school with most kids being conservative, Republican Christians. It isn’t really an “ethnic” campus I’m looking for as much as a diversity in thought. I feel much more confident now. Phew.</p>
<p>That’s one thing I really like–the diversity of thought and political views.</p>
<p>I think more than any other school, Wake has a balance of conservative, libertarian, liberal, etc. It also has a really good balance of southern, northeast, midwest, florida (in my opinion). Additionally, the school is beginning to add religious diversity with the addition of an Imam and Rabbi (both of whom are really great people).
Lastly, they’ve added the LGBTQ center on campus to further expand diversity–no its not Brown yet, but it’s trying at least.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! This really helped, sorry I am replying late. I haven’t had my computer for a while, I was getting it repaired. 
Anyway everyone’s responses have made me more confident about applying early decision to Wake Forest. By the way, does anybody know when the Common App, and Wake Forest Apps will be released?</p>
<p>WFU app is released on July 2. And the Common App is released on Aug 1. I am also applying to WFU ED! Go Deacs! Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>@sebastianivory, that’s cool! Good luck! So before these dates for when the new applications are released we can’t fill out the application? I’m still a little bit confused on how the common app site works. Because I called WFU admissions office and they said that you can submitt applications any time after June 1st, but how can you submitt it if you the applications aren’t relased yet?</p>
<p>@nygirl02 Definitely odd… I’ve heard that as well. Maybe you can use last year’s application. From my looking, the applications haven’t changed much over the years, so if you wanted to get started on the application from last year, I doubt it could hurt… But on the other side the “official” application doesn’t get released before July 2, so I have no idea how you could submit before then… Good luck to you too! Maybe we’ll end up at WFU together:)</p>
<p>Actually, correction. If you go to <a href=“http://admissions.wfu.edu/apply/apply.php[/url]”>I'm Ready to Apply | Undergraduate Admissions | Wake Forest University, you can go to the application and start it today for the fall of 2013! I just went to check and it is there, so I just started to fill it out! Hopefully it is the right one!</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>@fineartsmajormom - I apologize for not getting back to you earlier. I agree that an overnight is a great experience. I wish I had done one before picking a school, although I probably would have ended up picking Wake anyway. If you or your daughter have any specific questions about Wake, feel free to PM me. </p>
<p>Also, I understand what you mean about only getting a singular impression from a school since you are only there for a short time. I visited exactly 20 schools before making my decision, and I can say that unfortunately weather and tour guide choice had a lot to do with my liking of the school. Sometimes you just get a bad day … or too good of a day!</p>