<p>My entire life I've wanted to go to Wake Forest. It's always been my "Dream School". However, now that I'm a rising senior I'm seriously thinking that this dream is changing. The more I look into University of Miami the more I seem to like it. I'm just wondering what everyone thinks of my dilemma?
I want to major in either Journalism (which Wake doesn't have a major in) or Sociology.
I'm looking for a school that has a somewhat diverse, accepting student body.
I'd love to be close to a city.
UM appeals to me because I love the ocean.
My home state if California (I can't wait to get away from home)
I like that both are around 10,000 undergrads.
Which school do you prefer? I'm planning on applying ED to one or the other. I just need to make up my mind. I know many will say if you're not certain don't apply ED, but all my siblings have applied ED to their school of choice and gotten in and it's just sort of what my family does.</p>
<p>Is money an issue? Wake Forest is very expensive. I feel like 10000 undergrads is too high for Wake…are you sure that doesn’t include graduate programs? It is a great school. Also score optional if that’s an issue.</p>
<p>Sorry! I forgot the little “>”. I like that both schools are less than 10,000 undergrads. I know that both school are very expensive, but I have an outside source paying for my education fortunately (just recently discovered this). I know Wake is ranked higher than UM, but what about quality of life and what not?</p>
<p>As far as on-campus diversity Miami wins hands down as I suspect Miami the city does over Winston-Salem, NC.:</p>
<p>WakeF: 78% Caucasian, 8% Black, 5% Asian, 5% Latino
Miami: 43% Caucasian, 24% Latino, 12% Intl, 7% Black, 6% Asian</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise either of my kids to go to a college that doesn’t have the major they think they might be interested in. Even though your interests may change - and your major could change several times - I wouldn’t want them to start off somewhere that doesn’t have one of their primary interests. Of course you can transfer, and many students do.</p>
<p>What is it about Wake that made it your “dream school?”</p>
<p>What is it about Wake that made it your “dream school?”</p>
<p>I have always loved North Carolina. We used to visit every summer when I was a kid and I have just always felt a strong connection there. I like the small size. The prestige has always drawn me in. I’m a cheerleader, and I’m going to cheer in college. However I don’t want it to be my entire life. Wake has a strong school spirit for a small college. My mom was a Pi Beta Phi, I want to follow her legacy. Greek life is important on campus. The student to faculty ratio is fantastic.</p>
<p>To be honest, if you’re looking for a change in atmosphere from California, I would go with Wake Forest. I live in Miami right now (moving away in a month for college) and I really don’t like it all that much. Also, Coral Gables (where UM is actually located) is a nice, up-scale city but UM’s campus isn’t that beautiful in my opinion. When I’m on campus, all I see are plain, gray buildings. The ocean is nearby but not really walking distance. The population of UM’s surrounding area may be larger than Wake’s but Wake Forest isn’t in the middle of nowhere either. Another downside in Miami is that you never see the change in seasons (which may appeal to you if you like year-round summer temperatures). Ultimately you should choose what you feel more comfortable with. Both schools are reputable and offer great educations. Good Luck :)</p>
<p>please do not make the same mistake as I did and choose UM over WF. I can tell you about how the academics, diversity, sports, and location of UM are all a joke if you want.</p>
<p>Hollaaa!!! I live literally down the street from wake!!!
Wake is great! And the city of Winston-Salem is too!! We are not nearly as large as Miami, but we are just as fun. Downtown on the weekends is a fun as hell and I’m not even 21 hahah. And wake’s campus is right in the middle of town so you can get anywhere really easily. Sports are big at wake/in Winston and I think you’d definitely like it. Everyone gets really into it and stuff. Hahah I grew up watching wakes cheerleaders…this is really funny. Literally everyone at my school applies to wake and I’ve never met someone that didn’t like it. The professors I know are really nice and all that and all the students definitely love the school.
WAKE THE NATION BABY!!!</p>
<p>@Ima: Yes, please explain to us how the academics at the 38th best school in the country, housing the best marine science program in the country and nationally ranked programs throughout the school, are a joke. Please explain how having one of the most diverse student populations in the country is a joke. Please explain how a history of excellence and tradition in sports is a joke. And please explain how living in what’s essentially a resort with one of the greatest cities in the country at your doorstep is a joke. Your experience at UM may not have been the best, and I’m sorry if it wasn’t. But in my opinion, that’s not the school’s fault. So please don’t discourage someone from applying here based solely on your experience.</p>
<p>@Marinebio444 I can tell you’re affiliated somehow with the school because just like them, your first response is “we are 38th on USNEWS!” Ever notice how they dont crack the top 100 in any other rankings? Its in the 151-200 range on ARWU, 221 on Forbes, 172 on Times, and 157 on Washington Monthly. Having firsthand experience with their academics, I really hope they aren’t 38th in the nation, because I’ve had classes that were easier than high school. I had macro econ where the professor made us buy two books that we never used, and learned about a week or two’s material over the entire semester, and then were given the option of using a note card in which we could write what ever we wanted on it and use it as a cheat sheet for the final. Not to mention every class I had that gave online homework gave students unlimited chances to get the problems right, with either the answer given to us so we could type it in and get full credit or a formula given with different numbers that we just had to plug in on our own to get the correct answer. People don’t learn this way. Its in no way worth $60k a year.</p>
<p>While it is impressive that the school manages to attract students from all over the world, dont kid yourself in thinking you are going to have a perfect mix of biracial friends like their brochures. All the chinese people hang out together, and manage to do things like play basketball while still smoking cigarettes. Most of the black people hang out with each other exclusively and throw their own parties. All the arabs whose parents own oil wells all hang out with each other in south beach with their BMWs, talking about how terrible America is. The europeans and south americans are pretty much the only people who dont care about segregating as much, but then again they’re white. At the end of the day, its just like a high school cafeteria, how everyone self segregates. Please dont be superficial and think diversity is measured in how many different races are represented, instead of how many personalities there are, because about 75% of the students are all privileged and naive.</p>
<p>I guess the baseball program is alright, but the rest are pretty bad. The football team used to be the g.o.a.t. but now its just a joke that seems to have never ending scandals, and wont be good for awhile. Sports games here never get a full house, even though their events are free.</p>
<p>Having been to both campuses I can tell you Wake is much nicer. The architecture isn’t amazing but the buildings are nice and the facilities are clean and up-to-date, and the dorms are bigger with real communal rooms (unlike UM), and have furniture that doesn’t look like it was picked up at the dollar store. Whoever designed UM was an idiot, because they built it around a lake, so every day includes several long walks around the lake in the warm, humid weather. On top of that, they built a fountain in the middle of the lake that shoots up water that the breeze takes over the walkway, so enjoy the lake water getting in your face. After the first few times you walk around it, you will stop appreciating the beauty and start wondering who thought it was a good idea to make you walk around it everyday. To give Miami some credit, their wellness center is amazing, and its nice that you can use their outdoor courts year round.</p>
<p>I’m not saying people there dont have a good time and learn at least a little bit, but after a year many people realize its not “38th in the nation!”. For most people who dont have money to blow, its not a lively party school. The football team doesn’t live up to its reputation anymore. At the end of the day, you realize all they care about is your money. My advice is look more closely at freshmen retention rates, because the bottom line is that is what actual students think of the university. I would say, unless under special circumstances, aim for a school about 93% or higher.</p>
<p>And dont worry about majoring in journalism, because you dont need it to be a journalist, and if anything it limits your opportunities if you want to change your career. And dont worry about being in a city or having a beach like Miami, you will only be able to take advantage of it a few times anyway because you will be too busy on campus. People take advantage of those things during breaks, which very few people actually stay in Miami for (people dont even spend spring break there, they go to Daytona).</p>
<p>First of all, I’m not affiliated with the school, I’m an incoming freshman. Second of all, based on the fact that the US News rankings are the most reputable of the college rankings, I’d trust them more than I would others. Thirdly, so what if you had a couple easy classes? I guarantee you that even Harvard and MIT have their share of easy classes (as a side note about online homework, people make the conscious decision to cheat, that’s not the university’s fault). The cliques that you named off all sound like they’re based on the experience of someone who has formed their own clique. If you don’t like to hang out with others of different culture, that is, again, your choice. But it was pretty apparent both times that I visited that this self-segregation is completely untrue. Now, onto sports. Do you know why the sports games are never full? You make the assumption it’s because people think the teams all suck. What if it’s because there’s so much else to do on campus? What if they’re, I don’t know, studying? Regardless, Miami football has had it’s hardships for the past few years, this is known. But with the coming of Al Golden, there also comes a new era of Miami football, one that recruits the 8th best recruiting class in the country, one that will stand together in the face of looming NCAA sanctions and will come out from those sanctions stronger than we ever will.<br>
Again, I am sorry that your experience wasn’t a good one. But I know that I am damn proud to be a Hurricane, and I am confident that we will become one of the nation’s elite within the next few years. </p>
<p>P.S.: It’s funny that all they care about is your money, based on the fact that they were just ranked the top in GIVING merit-based aid… Just saying.</p>
<p>What about Wake made it your dream school? Is it the same thing about Miami that is now making it your dream school?</p>
<p>Miami clearly wins out on the diversity front, and the student body is very accepting.</p>
<p>I would also agree with above posters that if you’re trying to get away from California, you might want to be careful of Miami. I spent a semester at Stanford during high school and, looking back, the two locations are incredibly similar. What is it about Cali that you don’t like?</p>
<p>Obviously you can apply ED to your top choice, but I would personally avoid it. If you do, you won’t be able to consider different merit scholarships, which is a good option to have.</p>
<p>In your position, I would choose Miami, but that’s because North Carolina is not a place where I could see myself being happy. Could you see yourself happy there? Could you see yourself happy in Miami?</p>
<p>Academically, they’re supposedly pretty similar, but Wake Forest certainly has the edge. Both are very strong programs, though.</p>
<p>If you’d like, I have a friend who is a journalism student - I could put you two in touch.</p>
<p>You are affiliated with the school if you are an incoming freshman. I feel like MIT might have too much academic integrity to let students use cheat sheets on econ and calculus exams. For the homework I never said I had to cheat, on one online program it gave us unlimited guesses and after 3 it would give us the answers, then let us retry the question and type it in. In my calculus 2 class we used webassign with unlimited responses and each question gave us hints that included every step to take to find the answer, where we just had to fill in the variables. On my foreign language homework we had 6 responses for multiple choice questions with only 4 choices, so I could just guess each one and get a 100%. I didnt learn anything, but I still got A’s. In my english class we were even given 20% of our semester grade in extra credit.</p>
<p>And please dont act like a couple of visits from an outsiders perspective is just as good as someone who has actually been through it. Students there are friendly with others ethnicity or sexual orientation and will hang out with each other from time to time, but for the most part they would rather be with other people who are like them. I knew of a gay guy and a black guy who each quit their frats because they were the only gay or black guy in the frat. I knew an arab who gave up hanging out with non-arabs after one semester, and even left the dorms to live with them.</p>
<p>Everyone said the same thing about the football team last year, and look what happened.</p>
<p>UM is still a school where you will be most happy if you have your parents money to blow on south beach and arent too worried about getting a job in top of your field. Even though UM gives a lot of merit based aid, its only to about 25% of the students, and I know many students who are taking out huge loans just to major in communications or exercise physiology and the college doesnt care that they are going to be paying off those loans for the next 20 years.</p>
<p>UM is a good school and Im not trying to put down people who go there, Im just trying to give the OP an honest opinion of the school from someone who went there after having to decide between these two schools and had the same idea about wanting to be in a big city with a beach like UM, if she wanted someone to tell her about the rankings she could look on their website. I ended up choosing UM because even though I knew Wake operated at a level ahead of UM academically, I thought I would be better off being a smart kid having an easy time instead of being an average kid at Wake and having to deal with hard academics, which was a HUGE mistake. I also agree with rankinr that you shouldnt do ED because if you are on the borderline for scholarships they wont give you any and if you are borderline for getting in they wont accept or defer you. EA is better.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Um… yes you are. Seems like you have a bone to pick. I think there’s a better way to present information than what you have written here. It is ok to share your experience, but I think you are generalizing too much. And I have absolutely NO affiliation with UM (my DS will apply in the fall). Any college is what YOU make of it. Not sure what happened to you at UM, but it sounds like you are pointing fingers and not taking responsibility. If UM was not a good fit for you, where did you transfer to?</p>
<p>To the OP: I just want to offer a caution about one comment you made:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Do not pick a school based on this! It’s prefectly fine to want a college with Greek life, but do not focus on one sorority! A legacy opens doors but does not get an automatic bid. Believe me, I’ve gone through this with my DD. Wherever you go, when you go through rush, be open-minded about every sorority! Just wanting one house is a recipe for disaster. If you want more on this, PM me.</p>
<p>ima,</p>
<p>Basing your decision of how the football team did last year?</p>
<p>Do you actually believe that students at other schools don’t self-segregate?</p>
<p>The schools don’t care what you major in or if you get a job? What school does? It’s your life not theirs. Your the adult you make your own academic decisions.</p>
<p>Are you under the impression that everyone at Wake is poor and doesn’t take Spring Break in other locales?</p>
<p>You clearly have an axe to grind. I’m sorry your experience at UM wasn’t better, but the fact that you’re leaving friendless and unchallenged after one year doesn’t mean that’s everyone’s experience. You are part of the 9% who don’t return after freshman year, a resounding minority. Frankly every time you post your unfiltered bitterness only serves to undermine your positions. Good luck with your future I suspect you’ll need it.</p>
<p>This is going to be my last post here. I enjoyed my time at UM, and I didnt “leave friendless and unchallenged.” I dont care about these things that Im talking about, Im only pointing out the irony of what theyre selling. They consider themselves a top tier academic school and then the teachers seem to have no academic integrity. They call themselves diverse, but at the end of the day if you add up 48% caucasion, 24% cuban, and 12% international (im guessing on those) you still get ~75% white americans, and ~80% white, and also diversity shouldnt be judged based on ethnicity anyway. They say they really care about students being able to afford coming here but then they raise tuition by $20k/yr over the last 10 years, leaving a significant amount of people in debt while they give themselves huge salaries thanks to the US government. Its ironic how they risk so much on illegal recruiting for their football team and then are horrible.</p>
<p>I didnt come to UM expecting to be blown away academically, having a perfect multiracial blend of friends, winning a national title, and expecting them to baby me, I only came here as a place to have a good time while using it as a stepping stone to somewhere better, which I did, so I have no grudges.</p>
<p>My sister goes to Wake Forest… and she chose it over UM. We live in Florida, too… According to US News, Wake Forest is like 25? And according to what she has told me about Wake Forest, the people there don’t know about U Miami, and assume that UF is the superior school in Florida. Don’t go by what I’m saying, but it’s just what she has told me. Plus, Wake Forest has a beautiful campus. If I weren’t majoring in physics or comp sci, then I’d ditch UF and go there.</p>
<p>Some of the arguments on this thread are silly, indeed.</p>
<p>First of all- football. Since this seems to be important here let’s take a look at each school’s 2011 record. Wake- 6-7, Miami 6-6. Which program has a rich tradition of winning with 5 national championships? </p>
<p>I went to UMiami as an out of state student back in 1979 and people knew about UMiami back then (and yes, they had even heard of Florida). Today, with the advent of the internet I would assume that people have heard and read about all kinds of colleges.</p>
<p>As for the academics- I don’t remember professors giving out answer or allowing cheat sheets even 30 years ago. </p>
<p>Someone has a bone to pick and is trying to do it by posing really stupid arguments.</p>
<p>OP- both are fine schools. North Carolina is lovely. I hope to retire there one day. It might offer more of a change for you, especially if you live in Southern California. I believe that both schools have their strengths and hope you make an informed decision. Good luck!</p>
<p>go to wake forest, go with your heart</p>