My chances / general questions about Wake

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wake Forest University
1

<p>Hey I'm trying to decide if I want to apply ED or just regular to Wake and I was wondering how I stack up. My other top choice is Vandy.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.65 (Unweighted) / 3.88 (Weighted)
- Would be higher, but I go to a pretty well respected public school, and an A is 92 - 100 which drops my GPA since I usually end up with one 90 or 91 B.
ACT: 34 Math, 34 English, 31 Reading, 36 Science, 34 Composite
SAT: Don't remember exactly but its worse than my ACT. Somewhere around 1440 CR+M
SAT II: 780 Chemistry, 720 Math II
APs (Score if test has been taken): AP Chem (5), AP US History (4), AP English Language (4), AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics B, AP English Literature
Academic Honors: National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), Spanish Honor Society
School Involvement: Sports Editor of School Newspaper, Croquet Club (co-founder / officer), Spanish Club, member of The Grill - a group that tailgates before home football games, Relay4Life Team Captain
Service: Close to 200+ hours of community service, member of the Birmingham Youth Action Council - a group that organizes monthly service workdays through YouthServe Birmingham, personally raised $2500 for YouthServe Birmingham
Other: Rec League Basketball Coach, played guitar with lessons in electric and acoustic for the past two years, attended the PAVE pre-college program at Vanderbilt this past summer (6 weeks)</p>

<p>There might be some other stuff that I'm forgetting, but that's pretty much it. Anyway, as of right now, I'm leaning towards applying ED to Wake over Vandy, but if I'm not completely sure, what are my chances if I just apply regular?</p>

<p>Also, when I visited Wake, I had many people tell me how much work it is, and one guy told me that if I ended up being a chem or bio major on a pre-med track that I might as well throw away any dreams of a social life. I know that pre-med will be hard anywhere, but is it really that unmanageable at Wake or was this guy just really exaggerating?</p>

2

<p>I would think you’d get in regular. You definitely have a great chance of RD.</p>

<p>But if you like Wake over Vandy (or vice versa) you can just apply ED to one or the other to get the process over with, assuming finances are not of a concern.</p>

<p>AS for the “Work Forest” and pre-med…I have plenty of friends who are pre-med and bio, chem or physics majors. Sure it’s hard work but you definitely have a social life. It’s all about scheduling. I wouldn’t say being premed and a science major is THAT much harder than every other major.</p>

3

<p>GPA is borderline low for unweighted, really low weighted (weighted should at least be above a 4.0 because the APs should raise it up). They’re putting a lot of emphasis on GPA because SAT is optional now. But everything else looks excellent and should offset whatever is deficient in your GPA, so I’d say you have a pretty good shot. </p>

<p>As for “work forest,” yes, it is really really hard. No, you don’t completely lack a social life (you can most likely go out some friday nights, but you’ll be back in the library at 8 am the next morning). And yes, my GPA for my other classes are well above 3.0…my GPA for sciences, hah. So, yeah science majors definitely have it harder, unless you talk to non science majors, who will argue otherwise…</p>

<p>If you’re premed, think twice! SERIOUSLY! I’m a med student now, and I’m telling you that getting into medical school after Wake Forest is a gamble! I have many friends who had to take a year off, and a lot of them just gave up because they can’t get into medical school. Not because they’re dumb, but because Wake has 0 grade inflation. Getting a high GPA is twice at least twice as hard than it is in other schools, especially in the sciences! It will screw you over, and I am NOT kidding!!! Most of our brightest premeds ends up with 3.4 GPA’s at the most, and if you’re competing application wise with most premed students in the country with their 3.8’s…you’re already at a disadvantage. So, seriously, THINK TWICE!</p>

4

<p>^^ Have you seriously commented on like every post in the past week trying to scare kids away from Wake if they’re premed? Wake has a great premed program and LOTS of people get into medical schools, as aforementioned. We wouldn’t have so many premed kids if they DIDN’T have the chance to get into med schools.</p>

5

<p>Ok seriously, are you premed? I went through that entire program surrounded with everyone in my class who were. I’m trying to tell the truth, something I wished someone had told me and all my premed friends before we applied. So, if you are not in the premed program, have not graduated, have not applied, or have not gotten into medical school from Wake, then you are really not in any position to criticize what I’m saying. As for your last statement that we’ve had MANY “premed kids”, every year we have many premed kids, do you know how many of them get weeded out of being premed by sophomore year, how many premed transfers to UNC Chapel Hill, and how many actually graduates “pre-med”? As for the “LOTS” that have gotten into medical school, you might want to check in with Dr. Hugo Lane again about your info. Some of them have take years off, get a masters degree, or do post-baccalaureate to be added to get into medical school and to be one of those “wake forest graduates in medical school”, and even then it’s not that many. For young bright students who were smart enough to get into Wake to begin with, unless they fail miserably, there’s no reason why a student wanting to go to med school shouldn’t get in right away. That’s what I want to tell these kid. I’m not trying to scare them off. As an alumni, why would I try to scare kids off from my alma mater? I’m trying to do them a favor and tell them that, from a point of view of someone who’s gone through all they’re about to go through at that school later get into medical school, they’ll be doing themselves a great favor by building up their GPA’s elsewhere.</p>

6

<p>Alright then…lol…anyways, I wanted to get my 2 cents in. I’m an alumni, and a current medical student. I am doing really really well in school, so @pinkcupcake is right in a way that Wake really did prepare me. But you have to understand that before you can show how well Wake prepared you, you have to GET IN to med school first…and for that, I do agree with @liteblue (colorful Wake bunch, aren’t we? lol). FYI, stats wise, not many do get into medical school right after they graduate from Wake. </p>

<p>I was a Chemistry major and had graduated with a 3.2 GPA. My humanities GPA were all great, it’s my sciences that dragged it down. So, I had to take a year off and do a post-baccalaureate program (pre-med graduate program) after I graduated…then, I reapplied to medical school and got in. What bites about it is that most of the people in my year at my medical school are from state schools and got in the year after they graduated. Not to bash state schools, but we all know they’re not up to par with nationally top ranked universities like Wake. To make matters worse, there’s the health professions committee at Wake. A lot of school has them (it’s a committee that recommends you to medical school). Everyone gets a recommendation as long as you apply. HOWEVER, Wake has a ranking system as to what your recommendation will say…"The Health Professions Committee recommends ____ w/ (good confidence, confidence, little confidence, and no confidence). The application process is already as much a hassle as the med school application itself. I was recommended with “little confidence” because of my GPA…(thanks a lot, Wake!)…my friend with a 3.6 was recommended with “confidence”. That’s what irks me is that they can’t even give you support by writing you a good recommendation letter. Clearly, I made it to medical school and rocking GPA wise, so they’re WRONG! But, you get my point.</p>

<p>So, @liteblue is right, before I applied to Wake as a premed, I wish that someone had told me what we’re telling you now. If you are looking to get a degree and go straight to work after, then Wake is a wonderful school. You learn a lot and you come out prepared. If you’re very set on going to medical school afterwards, then it is a risk going to Wake. It makes you question whether or not you’re good enough or whether medicine is the right field…which is awful, from a personal point of view. </p>

<p>The main point is this…if medical school is THE goal. Then, know that coming from “Wake Forest University” doesn’t carry any value on that application process. As long as you’re coming from any 4 year university, all they care about is 1.) GPA 2.) MCAT 3.) Extracurriculars, in that order. With that said, personally, 1.) I did LOVE Wake 2.) Although, I do regret going to Wake as a premed 3.) I do wish someone had told me this from a premed point of view. I hope this helps, and good luck with your decision! :)</p>

7

<p>When I first posted this about a month ago I was really struggling about whether I should apply ED to Wake, Vandy, or do regular to both. That all changed in the past few weeks and I ended up applying ED to Wake a few days ago.</p>

<p>I really appreciate the advice, and it helps to know going in that Wake will challenge me as a pre-med student if that is indeed the direction I head (assuming I get accepted). I am optimistic that I can get off to a good start in college next year with this knowledge that every little grade counts and could be the difference between getting into med school right out of undergrad or having to take a year off.</p>

8

<p>Then, good luck! I hope you do get in since something obviously attracted you to wake to make it your firat choice! If you get in, I’m sure you’ll be fine! Make sure you utilize those rate your professor webpages, especially in registering for the science courses. I forgot which one we used when I was there, but I’m sure you can google it. Read all the peer reviews available on the professors. If most of the students are saying that a certain professor’s class is too hard or an A is impossible, then chances are that professor is not about to change his ways. It’s not a time to be stoic to “challenge yourself,” you’ll be challenged enough even w/ the teacher they consider is easiest on campus, trust me! Make sure your teachers know who you are!!! Not hard to do with small classes, but make sure you come up to them here and there outside/after class because 4 yrs down the road, you’re gonna need recommendation letters from the professors you took your basic sciences with back freshman year, and they need to remember who you are or they won’t even send you a reply. Keep your GPA up, and don’t forget extracurriculars! Good luck!</p>

9

<p>I mean you don’t have to be a science major to go premed (I know a few wake students who are in that boat–majored in religion or history, yet took the premed requirement)</p>

<p>So if you take the requirements (I believe it’s something like a total of 12 math/sci), it doesn’t mean your gpa will suffer that much.</p>

10

<p>Unless you take philosophy as a major, they actually would rather take a science major than humanities. A bunch of my friends did that and majored in psych to have gpas and didnt get in. I think Lane mentioned that too when I first got there.</p>