I recently got accepted to Wake Forest University and am seriously considering attending. However, I’ve heard complaints of “Work” Forest and that it has a Southern vibe (I’m from Ohio). I attend a rigorous private school, so if “Work” Forest is just more work, I’m fine with that. The main thing I’d like to know about are its biological sciences programs. While I’m not 100% sure I’m going into pre-med, I’d also like to know about pre-med advising/scheduling. Thanks for any help.
definitely a Southern vibe, maybe because of the weather? I think a ton of kids at Wake are form the North East and California, but yeah, I definitely thought it felt Southern.
Also, if anyone can talk about the grade deflation, I’d appreciate it. If students know about the grade deflation, would the medical schools I apply to also know about it? Thanks.
I also understand there are already previous threads on this. Can someone point me to those? Thanks again.
S attends Wake (Freshmen). I can’t speak to biological sciences. Hopefully a current student will address that topic. I think the “southern vibe” is over played. NC is the top represented state but Wake draws tons of kids form the NE and Mid Atlantic, not just the south. FL is very well represented and it is not a :southern" state. Other states well represented are TX, IL, CA, (pretty much the whole east coast), TN. You can go on their site and get actual figures.
Regarding grade deflation, I also think that is a bit over blown. S attended a rigorous HS and was well prepared. We’ve discussed it before and he uses the word “manageable”. He made Dean’s List (many do) and worked pretty hard but didn’t kill himself. Still managed to actively participate in several clubs, social life, etc. Time management skills are pretty important (and he’s good at that). Someone at a Wake event told us to treat studies / classes like a job. Don’t just sit around but schedule your time. Lots of hours during the day to get things done. That way you can still hang out with friends in the dorm at night. He keeps an active day planner and blocks out time to study, work out, etc. Other than prior to finals when it appears everyone is in the library 24/7, he has several hours each day to just hang.
Kind of like others have said, the only southern thing about it is the location 
only 22% of students are actually from North Carolina. Most are from Florida and California from my experience. As someone else said, there is a dynamic map where you can see their reported figures for the year prior.
Grade deflation is a little wonky here, but it depends on the major and the professor. I have a psychology professor who said that he had gotten in trouble last semester for giving out too many As. You have to work hard to get As like any other college, but I consider Wake to be especially hard on it. Because of grade deflation, wake has its own ratemyprofs website called wakeratings. it becomes a good tool when it becomes scheduling time.
I do like what rickle said above me about time management but that boils down to the student. Are you getting a job? Are you going to be in a sport? A club sport? Devote your time to Greek life? Have a ton of clubs gotten your attention? Do you want to be in Student Government? These are all rhetorical questions of course, but things to consider when you talk about grade deflation. Less time = less attention to work = lower grades.
So Wake’s academic deflation situation is two-fold, more than just ‘is this school hard’.
Thanks for all the insight! I won’t be devoting time to Greek life, and I’m still undecided about club sports (I play tennis right now). If anyone else can talk about their science program, it would help a lot. I know Wake is highly regarded in business and some other humanities major, but I’d like to know about their pre-med/sciences. Thanks for the help.
@sparkykoolkat my son is a freshman at Wake and we are from CA, he feels it is southern in a good way. Everyone is so nice and friendly. There are really kids from all over so it is a mixture of kids in a southern setting. As far as work forest my sons hs was a rigorous private high school like yours and he is doing great at Wake. It’s really about time management as stated above. The sciences are good at Wake and they also have a Med School. You should call the biology department and speak with someone maybe to get your questions answered? Are you able to go to one of the admitted students days? When we went my son met with someone in his department interest and that helped him decide. My son also plays club tennis and is really loving it!! Good luck with your decision
Thanks for the help @lbf ! I’m attempting to work out a day to visit Wake Forest, unfortunately they only give two days to visit, and it’s quite a ways away. Any other insight? Thanks!
If able to visit, just on a different day, you could piece a useful day together, albeit it will be lacking the excitement of the admitted students. What we did when we were visiting prior to application was did the general info session / tour AND set up a one on one with S at the business school. He spent an hour or so with a Director of Student Services. She walked him through pre and post business school acceptance (have to apply Sophomore yr - she told him what he needed to do to get accepted, reviewed prereqs, went through different majors once in the program, talked about support for internship opportunities, study abroad, etc. He loved it. She spent over an hour with him one on one. It was during the summer so profs and classes were limited. He did get a tour of the facilities.
I would recommend speaking to the Dean of your interest area and scheduling time with the appropriate person(s) to get a look under the hood. We did a similar thing at several colleges and S just felt the service level at Wake was outstanding. Combined with the quality of program, overall education, helpful professors, beautiful campus and location he was sold.
My daughter also did something very similar. She had a very long conversation by phone with the Department Head about her intended major and post-graduation plans. They were very accommodating in finding a time that worked with her schedule and bent over backwards to make sure she had the information she needed.
You can call the Admissions Office and ask them to help coordinate the process, or call the Department directly and coordinate yourself.
Thanks! Any other insight about the sciences? I’m currently debating between Wake Forest and University of Rochester, so any help would be nice. I’d like to major in biology and possibly minor (or double major) in psychology.
I don’t know specifics about biology per se, but I do know Wake has good placement in top med schools. If you go on the main website and look at “Personal and Career Services” you can look into the First Destination Report which shows the outcome for each student within all majors. You’ll see what med schools they are attending per student (or other outcome in industry). Last yr they had a 92% knowledge base so the reporting is on 92% of the class of 2016. You can see other yrs as well. Although this doesn’t get in to the weeds of the biology program, it shows you what kids are doing with it.
I’m going to reopen this discussion since I’ll be choosing very soon. Any insight will help! For reference, I’m deciding between Ohio State Honors, Wake Forest University, and the University of Rochester. Thanks!
I would attend an admitted students day (I think they have another one coming up). They have open houses within several departments so that would be a great opportunity to speak with professors to get a feel for the program at Wake. A yr ago, we were able to sit in on a presentation from the business school, the econ department, career services, study abroad, etc. You could always arrange to meet with a department head one -on -one while on campus.
Admitted Students day is tomorrow so I’m not sure you will make it unless you have already scheduled. But you can go any day and they will accommodate you. However since you haven’t had luck with anyone having specific Biology information on this thread it is on you to call the school and talk to someone in the department to get your questions answered. Take the time to call admissions and ask who you should call in the biology dept and just make the call. I think that is the only thing that will help clarify things for you. All of us clearly love Wake on this forum but your specific questions haven’t been answered. I know it is a scary and hard decision. What are other factors for you, cost, size, location?? Wishing you good luck in your decision!!
I wouldn’t get scared about the work forest mentality. My daughter feels that it is more of the same from High School and that if you have good time management skills you can do well. She was afraid it would be over her head as her school was not a college prep. school but a small private school. She made the deans list and is doing very well. She got an A in Chemistry. She had to work very hard to get there, but where there is a will there’s a way. Grade deflation is real and frustrating. Make sure you do your homework on which professors to take because there are some crazy ones.
Also wanted to say that she has a lot of NY, NJ and MD friends and there are kids from all over. Most of the kids are very nice. Teachers are for the most part very nice and top notch. Division I sports and greek life also make for a very fun school. She loves it there.
Grade deflation is real, and I am not sure that Wake has a big enough national reputation to make up for the hit to your GPA that may occur if you choose Wake. I review grad school applications, and honestly, we are so swamped with applicants that we don’t have time to parse out whether someone’s 3.7 GPA is from a school with grade deflation versus someone else’s 3.9. Another word of caution: many of the science classes are pre-med and pre-health “weedout” courses and are designed to be as difficult as possible rather than support any real learning or exploration of the material. (This is also true of the pre-business courses) On a final note, our student’s pre-health adviser was surprisingly weak, considering the cost of tuition. That being said, it is true that Wake has a med school, and I assume Wake graduates have an edge on admission there, so if you are confident you will be able to excel academically, are good enough strategic thinker that you can figure out how to get into the right classes, and don’t need particularly in-depth academic advising, Wake might be a great school for you!.