<p>I'm thinking of applying to Wake Forest, but I'm curious to hear what others think of it. Any opinions?</p>
<p>It’s one of relatively few small, LAC-like, selective private universities. Similar in scale to Rice, Brandeis, or Wesleyan but a little less selective and more conservative. If you want a school of this type in a warm weather state with an active Greek and sports scene, it’s a good choice.</p>
<p>among the general public, it’s probably a little more well known than the other three mentioned above</p>
<p>Highly underrated. A beautiful campus with nice brick architecture and magnolias, small classes and very up-to-date facilities, very spirited student body (they roll their own quad after a game!), a friendlier student body than I have come across at the dozen or so top schools with which I’m familiar (including both I attended, sadly), and a decent location. Wake has produced 11 Rhodes scholars in the last two decades, precisely the same amount as Brown and Columbia and more than Dartmouth. Wake has the resources of a university – it has its own anthropology museum, archaeology labs, and offers Akkadian and Egyptian – while maintaining the intimacy of a LAC.</p>
<p>As a plus, it’s test-optional and is fairly generous with merit scholarships.</p>
<p>great school – academics and social life – but poor need-based financial aid in that they really don’t meet 100% of need, even when the claim they do. (The “meet” full need with more outside private loans but are trying to address it, however.)</p>
<p>The campus is like a country club, but downtown Winston-Salem is not much to look at.</p>
<p>^IB, what merit scholarships are you referring to? jw btw. i’ve heard their need based aid is terrible though</p>
<p>According to their Common Data Set numbers, for 2008-09 WF awarded 78 merit scholarships averaging $14,742. That is a rather high average compared, for example, to some of the Midwestern LACs that award merit grants. Grinnell is rather well known for its generosity, but its average merit grant was only $10,137 that year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info everyone, WFU seems like my kind of place!</p>
<p>A few questions:
- Is there a lot to do on campus?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How is the party scene? I want to have fun, but I don’t want to feel pressured to party every night I don’t have class.</p></li>
<li><p>Is WFU’s economics program/professors decent?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi - my son is a freshman at Wake Forest and just loves it. It was not his first choice school, but it really worked out for the best. There seems to be plenty to do - he attends a lot of sports events and also goes to some frat parties, although that is not his “thing”. He has a great group of friends where a few have cars - they often go off campus to a movie/out to dinner/to a concert/to another NC college campus for a basketball game. There also seem to be many activities on campus as well. Absolutely no complaints re social life. He is planning to go through rush in the spring for the experience - does not anticipate joining a frat.</p>
<p>He is planning to apply to the business school next year - took Introductory Economics this semester and seemed pleased with the class. I had heard that was a hard class to get as a freshman - due to limited availability - but he was able to get it with no problem.</p>
<p>I also have to comment that we were pretty please with the need based FA he received - I guess part of it has to do with your expectations, but it was pretty well in line with our EFC and I have no complaints. </p>
<p>Overall - would highly recommend Wake Forest.</p>
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<p>I’ve seen far worse towns. I wouldn’t say that there are any major negatives to W-S beyond the absence of any great attractions.</p>
<p>^
Old Salem is pretty cool, though admittedly a bit touristy.</p>
<p>Winston-Salem is actually one of the nicer NC towns, I think. It’s certainly a great deal nicer than Greensboro.</p>
<p>^^rockville, why is ur son applying to biz school next year? Are students not admitted into the program directly? or is he transferring?</p>
<p>As a senior in high school who has lived in Winston-Salem all her life, I’d like to take a moment to defend my little town.</p>
<p>Are we Charlotte, or even Raleigh? Absolutely not. However, are the out in the sticks? Absolutely not as well. Really, Winston-Salem is a wonderfully sized city with a growing and blossoming downtown. There’s some great shopping (I could write a book about that!) great places to eat, and great things to do. It’s a very artsy city, so if you have any interest in the arts it’s an especially great city to be in.</p>
<p>Now, on to Wake Forest. Really great school with really great people. It does lean very conservative, which would be a problem for me, but obviously not for some people. My friends that are there tend to be the “play hard, work harder type.” They are all very intellectual, but know how to have a good time as well. Football and basketball games are a blast also.</p>
<p>This was all a bit general, but if you have any other specific questions about the city or the school, I would love to help!</p>
<p>The best thing about Wake Forest is that it’s 5 minutes from Hanes Mall, which is the largest mall in the state of North Carolina…</p>
<p>abcderinkay, I am glad you took a moment to express pride in your hometown! I think Winston-Salem is a great little city- and you are right about comparisons. When talking about other cities, everyone in my area says “it is no New York.” To me, that says nothing about a person except that they are small minded; New York is great, but so are alot of things!
p.s. Personally, I actually prefer Winston-Salem!</p>
<p>collegebound - I have a friend at Wake so I know this from him. You have to apply to Calloway (their b-school) either during or after sophomore year, not sure which.</p>
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<p>But we should clarify, for anyone wishing to avoid (or seek) a certain let-down-your-hair experience, this is <em>not</em> a place where the mall is named after underwear in a town named after cigarettes. There were people with those names (Winston, Hanes) before there were products or a mall. “Salem” is a latinized version of the Hebrew word “shalom” (“peace”).</p>
<p>Thanks, tk21769, I always wondered if there was an underwear connection!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, everyone. It looks like I will apply as an economics major in their college of arts and sciences!</p>
<p>Clarification on business school - students apply to the Calloway School of Business at the end of their sophomore year. There are certain courses they must take as freshman and sophomores to be eligible and they must meet a certain minimum GPA. So, if you are interested in majoring in business at Wake, it is important that you look at the courses you need to take in order to apply and fit them into your schedule. I’m sure it changes periodically, but right now it is calculus, Intro Economics, an introductory accounting course and one other from 3 or 4 choices.</p>