Minorities at Wake Forest

<p>Is Wake Forest a very homogenous school with only white students. I am a minority that was accepted recently from NY and wanted to know if i would have a hard time "fitting in" becuase here in NY we have LOTS of diversity.</p>

<p>Yes, you are right. I am from Atlanta which is very diverse. If I would have known how homogenous it was here I would have reevaluated my decision to come here. Also, another thing I have notice is the amount of people here from small towns-which here is a lot of sheltered small minded people. If you want to talk further you can IM me at Caramelabrown114.</p>

<p>I suspect there might be slight trouble fitting in if you're a minority. But here's the rule of thumb: if you're a minority and you have friends of every color and stripe in high school, chances are you'll have them at Wake too. People at Wake are pretty intelligent and I've never heard any REALLY racially-insensitive comments.</p>

<p>ParmaDog,</p>

<p>My daughter is interested in Wake Forest - - warm weather (she attends boarding school in MA) and Div I sports. Why did you apply? Did you visit? To what other schools did you apply and what's your first choise?</p>

<p>And EMSIBDN,
Why would a minority student with all types of friends in hs you have any - - even "slight" - - trouble fitting in at Wake Forest?</p>

<p>I've heard that too, more so that at some other colleges.</p>

<p>'People at Wake are pretty intelligent and I've never heard any REALLY racially-insensitive comments.'</p>

<p>Well, some people may be intelligent but they can also be ignorant, I as well as some of my friends here have been subject to racially-insensitive comments. I question your use of REALLY in your comment, as to say that some racially-insenstive comments are okay, as long as they are not too extreme. If this is not what you meant, I am sorry, maybe you didn't mean to sound like that; yet that seems to be a problem with some people-be careful how you say and write things and how they can be interpreted-communication is key. I would say that the problem is not whether people are intelligent or not, it is just what they are exposed to. I have met plenty of people here that say Wake is a lot more diverse that they have ever been exposed to, which in turn brings me back to my comment about some sheltered people. </p>

<p>P.S. Just because you haven't heard it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist so your comment was a little presumptuous-I mean of course unless you are omniscient and omnipresent...but as far I as believe, there is only one God.</p>

<p>Haha, your comment has merit, BB. The REALLY means that I've heard a low degree of RICs. I was thinking comparatively, say high school versus Wake, people in public versus Wake. You'll hear this type of garbage anywhere, but at Wake it doesn't seem that prevalent. Of course, this may be due to the fact that minorities are scant at Wake, although efforts by students are being made to increase the number.</p>

<p>I also heard some borderline RICs but nothing that was malicious or really heart-felt, as far as I could tell. Oh, well, you all can make up your own mind.</p>

<p>Also, I am not omnipresent, but I am omniscient. I know you're thinking I'm not, but guess what. That's right, you got it. HAHAHA</p>

<p>Also, NYC, maybe you misunderstood my comment, but like I said, if you have friends of every stripe in high school or elsewhere, chances are good it will be the same case at Wake. Of course, this isn't a sure thing, depends on who you are and who the other person at Wake is. Compatibility.</p>

<p>Minority ndbisme signing out, for now.</p>

<p>emisbdn</p>

<p>I appreciate your honesty - - but I am troubled by your apparent complacency regarding "borderline" RICs which you, although not the target, characterize as "not malicious or heartfelt." Isn't this precisely the point BB was making?</p>

<p>And as for compatability, the likelihood that one's classmates will make or dismiss RICs is certainly a factor to be considered in determining whether the campus, in general, is hospitable and whether individual classmates are open to out-of-race friendships.</p>

<p>Somebody asked a similar question on the tour this Saturday. My tour guide admitted that Wake definitely has a relatively low minority enrollment, and URMs tend to self-segregate. However, she also said that minorities generally don't have a hard time fitting in. She mentioned that a black student was recently elected the president of the student government (or some similar organization, I don't really remember), and there are numerous minority representatives in the student government. I didn't see a lot of minorities at Wake, but the ones I did see seemed to fit in well. A large group of them (meaning all sorts of people) were playing frisbee near Scales- the stereotypical college scene, IMO. :)</p>

<p>VERY GOOD WARBLER!!! Yes, Reggi Mathis, an AA, is now the President of the Student Government. Also, Lena Benson (I'm guessing half AA, half Asian) was elected Speaker of the House and gets to assign duties to all the SG legislators. Then again, Lena ran unopposed.</p>

<p>Seriously, this is a bad subject in that any thing one says can be misconstrued or torn assunder/poke holes through it. So here's my last bit on minorities at Wake:</p>

<p>1) Relative to the state of NC, and probably the USA, the percentage of minorities at Wake does not compare with the percentage of minorities in NC or the USA. Same can be said for foreigners at Wake.</p>

<p>2) The treatment of minorities, however, I find to be average. I would think it better than what you'd find in the public outside of WFU. You'll hear uneducated people make these sorts of RICs outside of Wake, but you don't hear much of them at Wake. Then again, this may be due to the lack of color diversity.</p>

<p>But oh well, typing about this doesn't do much good. So I recommend that when you visit, you chase down minorities and ask them about their experience. You might be surprised with the response.</p>

<p>I don't think you will. So what if there are hardly any other minorities, doesn't mean that they're all jerks.</p>

<p><a href="http://ogb.wfu.edu/?id=2313_0_9_0_M%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ogb.wfu.edu/?id=2313_0_9_0_M&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you are really concerned about it, why don't you contact Wake's Office of Multicultural Affairs...or email Reggie Mathis...or any one of a number of minority students on Wake's campus. They probably can give you the most accurate description of an "involved" minority student on campus. You may get a more "realistic" perspective of minority life on campus...more realistic, perhaps, than some comments from someone who posts anonomously on this board.</p>

<p>emsibdn - I saw the WFU article citing a 35% increase in black applicants. There was, however, no indication of ANY increase (much less a concomitant one) in black enrollment. </p>

<p>wfugirl - - If WFU stays on the list, we'll definitely visit and our observations will either confirm or deny what we've heard/read here and elsewhere. I don't feel the need to speak to anyone in the administration (Multicultural Affairs) or a student leader (Mathis) at this juncture b/c I'm not seeking the "official" response - - which I'll probably get from my tour guide or the view book. I'm much more interested in what her potential peer group (ahtletes - - and I'll seek them out when we visit) has to say than a hand-picked student rep, regardless of color.</p>

<p>As for relying on anon posts, the anonyminity is a good thing - - it encourages writers to offer honest opinions, which I can give as much weight as I see fit. I find it facinating, for example, that emsibdn, who is clearly trying to present the school in a positive light and allay my fears, makes such unenlightened comments (treatment of minorities is at WFU is "average. . . better than in the public outside WFU;" yikes!!). When I visit, I'll want to see the extent to which other students share these sentiments.</p>

<p>The school obviously won't know about the increase in minority students until May 1, the day when all students must send in their deposits.</p>

<p>I agree with you in some sense about the anonymity. In many cases, it is positive. Unfortunately, the anonymity does allow some posters to make uninformed/inaccurate comments and present them as the "gospel truth". These situations are disheartening, because generally these posters are the loudest/most frequent visitors to these sites.</p>

<p>In either way, I think it is unfortunate that any student would base his/her opinions of a school on one person. emsibdn may be a WF student, but he certainly does not/cannot represent EVERY Wake Forest student. There is discrimination on every college campus. You can go to the most diverse campus in America and surround yourself with people who are 100% like you and get the most homogenous college experience. </p>

<p>Is Wake Forest the most diverse campus? No. Does it offer diversity? Absolutely.
group of people, and my experience has been all the richer because of it.
I have chosen to surround myself with the most interesting, diverse</p>

<p>I think it's too easy to dismiss posts with which you disagree as "uninformed or inaccurate." In every forum (including campus visits), comments are based on the speakers limited, individual experience (not to mention whatever other baggage s/he brings to the table). You get a sampling and you make a decision.</p>

<p>As for diversity; I find it sad that almost every discussion ends with "there is discrimination on every college campus." This may be true, but it's worse in some places. More importantly, the students and administration at diff colleges respond differently to such incidents - - and I'm looking for a school where students are less likely to make insensitive comments, or worse still, tell my D she too sensetive and shouldn't take offense. </p>

<p>And, if discrim is unaoidable (it's on every campus), black students should what? Just accept it? And why are satisfied with discriminating not more than anyone else? Why aren't you offended by the fact that there's any discrim on your campus? (But thank you b/c that complacency is precisely the sort ot thing I'm hoping to uncover.)</p>

<p>Think of it like robbery (or sexual assault). You could be robbed (assaulted) on any college campus, even one with an excellent safety record. But regardless of the safety record, you don't want to be on a campus where other students and the admin tell you it was your fault for wearing the gold necklace (or short skirt). Bad stuff happens everywhere - - it's the response that counts.</p>

<p>As for the admissions numbers. I appreciate that the school won't know the enrollment number for another week, but it already knows how many acceptance letters it mailed and to whom. Also, I assume that the point of posting the web-link was to show WFU making strides in diversity, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating - - and the eating is admits (which was not reported), not applications. (This is not unlike colleges that used to boost their yeild by encouraging applications from students they knew to be unlikely candidates for admissions.)</p>

<p>well if it makes a difference, im from pakistan and will be going to WFU, so theres some diversity for you.</p>

<p>I was going to type a long diatribe it's not worth it :).</p>

<p>I personally am not very familiar with Wake Forest, but my D's best friend, who is black, is planning to attend next year. We live in Pennsylvania, but she has relatives in N.C. and looked at several schools there. For what it's worth, the HS that both my D and the friend who is going to Wake Forest attend has a very small percentage of URM students.</p>