<p>It seems that according to the preview release of US News top 25 National Universities Wake Forest is no longer in the top 25. Rats.</p>
<p>WFU seems like the only non-repeater from last year.</p>
<p>Wake went up the rankings pretty fast so it was bound to take a fall</p>
<p>Wake Forest is still an amazing school though! I’m an ED applicant and I’m still thrilled at the prospect even though wake goes from T25 to 27. Only a slight drop. Wake has never been great for these rankings with the hybrid school type that wake is. Wake emphasizes the liberal arts way more than most of the other top schools. Wake also doesn’t have PhD programs which must hurt it in the rankings. Wake is still a top notch school and don’t let the rankings tell you otherwise! Go Deacs!</p>
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<p>This is entirely accurate. I am curious to see the full rankings, to see exactly where Wake declined. </p>
<p>Then again, as I have stated before, there isn’t too, too much of a difference between the top 50. Yeah, there are difference between individual schools, but these are the top 1% of schools in the nation and you get a ton of cross-applicants and tons of ranking changes each year.</p>
<p>:) I’m not concerned and I hope you guys aren’t, either.</p>
<p>I find these rankings mostly silly - but I think this adds some context:</p>
<p>"U.S. News and World Reports 2013 Best Colleges guide ranked Wake Forest University 13th among national universities with the best undergraduate teaching. The list highlights schools where the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.</p>
<p>The 2013 guide ranked Wake Forest 27th among national universities in its overall ranking and also recognized the school for its value and the quality of its undergraduate business programs. Wake Forest followed three schools tied for 24th University of California-Los Angeles, University of Southern California and the University of Virginia."</p>
<p>Call me pollyanna, but I thought Wake was in good company finishing on the heels of UVA, et al.</p>
<p>The data that the USNWR uses is always a year old. Additionally, a large chunk of it is based on the acceptance rate–the past few years WFU has increased enrollment so the acceptance rate has not gone down as much.</p>
<p>I also wonder if the SAT optional policy has done anything? It seems like the SATs have gone down from a few years ago–though I do not have the numbers in front of me. The SAT optional policy has helped make WFU more diverse–internationally, socioeconomically, and racially–if we have to lose a few “ranking” spots for this, it is well worth it.</p>
<p>I feel like Wake should value SAT more, and maybe initiate more research programs.</p>