<p>Is it at least a some what interesting college town? I visited during the summer and it was pretty empty to say the least, but I'm really hoping that's just because all of the students were not there during the summer. This is basically the only negative about WFU for me :(</p>
<p>O.k. - I am not a student, my D is, but here it goes.. Winston Salem is a typical small city. There is the older downtown section which is being renovated, and has some good restaurants frequented by students. It is about 10 minutes from campus, by car. The rest looks very suburban, with lots of chain and non-chain restaurants, movie theaters, and a mall.</p>
<p>However, Wake is in the process of rebuilding an area of town that they own between the university and the football/basketball stadiums. The idea is to build a college town section there. Go on their site for more info, there was an article in the Windows on Wake on-line mag awhile ago.</p>
<p>When I have been on campus with D, there are always tons of kids around and a lot happening on campus during the evening - plays, concerts, lectures, sports. We are from So Cal, and D always comments on how many friendly and nice people she meets, and she really likes the small classes. Fresh and Soph live on campus, so it is always busy. In fact, when we were looking at colleges we got in to Wake the night before the tour and it was a little early for dinner (time change from West Coast) so we drove onto campus about 7pm on a Thursday night. There was a soccer game going on, students were jogging, there was a pick-up bastketball game going on by the dorms, and students were just out and about. I think my D made up her mind right then!</p>
<p>Elizabeth90505 has it right. Wake Forest realizes that Winston-Salem is not the ideal college town, and is working on revitalizing the Winston-Salem area that is near Wake Forest. Winston-Salem is not Boston, New York, or even a college town like Chapel-Hill or Charlottesville. It certainly isn't has bad as people make it out to be, as long as you temper your expectations. Personally, I'm a small town guy, I don't like NYC (even though I live less than 50 miles from it) and my town is a few thousand people. However, there is a ton of stuff to do on campus. 75% of students live on campus in fact. I just think if you don't have things to do, it is your own fault. However, if you are looking for a "big city" experience, look at schools like NYU, BU, Northeastern, etc. because you will not find that in Winston-Salem, what you will find is a nice little town on the rise.</p>