<p>Taken 8 APs up until Senior Year and will graduate with 13. Took 1 AP Fresh yr, 2 Soph, 5 Jr. All other classes taken at highest level offered
Over 800 hours of community service, at local soup kitchen (2 hours a week), volunteer at hospital (8 hours/week-november,2010 to present), and Research intern in Neuro research lab for past three summers. Official co-author of scientific paper. </p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Volleyball (school for 2 years and club for 1)
Violin (playing since age 5, active in orchestra)
Student Council (Secretary)
Key Club (officer position as a board member)
Nat'l Art Honor Society
Active in church group
Habitat for Humanity </p>
<p>I am absolutely in love with Wake and it would be a dream to go there. I know my GPA is a lot lower than what they are looking for but I have been challenging myself with a very difficult course load from the very beginning. Hopefully, applying ED, being Asian, and all of my other extracurriculars will improve my chances?? what do you guys think??</p>
<p>i’m also a senior from illinois applying early to wake
i’m from hinsdale central hbu?
i have similar-ish stats to you, so and my counselor says that I have a good shot, especially early</p>
<p>have you interviewed yet
i know thats an important part of wake’s process and if you don’t interview you are basically screwed</p>
<p>…is low? My goodness, it’s 5.07 on the weight. Doesn’t your school rank by weight? You’re commenting on your UNweighted as low, right? Yes, that’s low, but with the AP/Honors in there, you’re at 5.07. That’s an incredible GPA and I am certain that all schools are going to look at your weighted rank as it takes into account the rigor of your curriculum.</p>
<p>Regarding “Just be sure that you are not applying for financial aid if you want to apply ED - Wake does not want students to combine those 2 programs.”</p>
<p>Please clarify , are you saying that ED applicants will not be eligible for financial aid? I don’t think that is the case.</p>
<p>No - I’m not saying that ED applicants are not eligible for FA - I’m saying that Wake has a clearly stated policy of discouraging ED applicants whose attendance is dependent on FA or merit aid - as stated in the paragraph I quoted above from the website. I know someone who applied ED and applied for need-based FA and they rcvd a letter in the mail with some of the language I quoted above - basically requesting that they change their app from ED to RD. Reading between the lines - my guess is Wake has had problems in the past with students applying ED - being accepted - but the backing out when they did not get enough FA. To avoid this scenario - they are requesting that students with financial need not apply ED.</p>
<p>But could you not say that at many schools? ED works better for those who are full pay and are not dependent on receiving a certain amount of aid. There are always threads on CC in the winter from students who were accepted ED to their “dream” school and now realize they can’t afford it - and torture themselves until they finally admit it won’t work and back out of the ED agreement. At least Wake is up front about it.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for their input, I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Wow, thanks Rockvillemom for bringing up that point about ED and FA. One of my parents was recently laid-off so I would certainly be needing some FA. But I always assumed that it would be provided since the Wake stats for “average FA package” is around 30k or so. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if Wake reviews the app and the FA app separately as many other schools claim to do? </p>
<p>I am afraid that with my low UNweighted GPA, applying regular decision will essentially eliminate my chances for admission</p>
<p>Brave Ulysses,
About your comment regarding ED. Almost EVERY college is going to tell you that if you are depending on need-based financial aid to not apply ED. Sometimes a college will give you a preliminary fin aid package, but that is only an estimate. Wake is not just for the wealthy. See below. </p>
<p>Mango 1,
Glad to hear Wake is your top choice. Great school with generous financial aid packages. I know two students in the last two years with low EFCs that have received fully funded aid packages with a very small loan. The financial aid office is great to work with. Probably should apply regular decision though. Suggest that you get to know your local admissions representative to help your chances. They will read your application and can help in the admissions process. Good luck.</p>
<p>I would mention that our experience was that Wake was not particualrly generous when it came to merit based aid. Our daughter applied to a number of smaller liberal arts colleges and to Wake. She basically got no merit aid from Wake, and significant marit aid from the smaller schools. In the end, it came down to paying nearly the full retail price to go to Wake or a discounted price to go to one of the smaller schools. Including tution, and room/board, the difference was about $27,000 per year. I think Wake is a very fine school, but we could not justify a cost premium of $100K+ for 4 years of college to go to Wake.</p>
<p>We were very happy with our financial aid package from Wake- but it was need based, and my son could not have attended without. I can’t imagine that, as he loves Wake with a passion! He did help himself by working all four years at on-campus jobs (sometimes two), and was an RA for the last three years as well. Wake offers little true merit based aid, and that is reserved for the tippy top students. They are quite forthright about that, as their financial aid website states:</p>
<p>“Each year Wake Forest awards merit-based scholarships to less than 3% of its first year applicants; the recipients will benefit greatly from a Wake Forest education even as they contribute significantly to the intellectual and civic life of the campus.”</p>
<p>If you are capable of paying full price for Wake (a price which is pretty much on par with other national privates) but are reluctant to do so, than it is probably best not to apply. As stephenanddrew prove, there are plenty of other options.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback! I actually just sent in my Early Decision contract the other day and am hours away from wrapping up my application and submitting it. Interview is in a couple of days - I will let you guys know how things go!</p>
<p>I am hoping that I will qualify for some need-based aid. Otherwise, I will work my butt off during college with some on-campus gigs and what not. I truly believe Wake is the perfect fit for me. There’s just no other option that I’ve been attracted to nearly as much, so if not Wake, I will probably just go to the big, public, in-state university (just makes the most sense economically).</p>
<p>Good luck to anyone else who’s applying for Fall 2012!</p>