<p>I'm a senior interested in applying ED to Wake. Wake seems to have everything I want in a university, however I'm hesitant for a few reasons. </p>
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<li><p>This might sound bad, but I do want a college that will look good on job applications in 5 years. Will going to Wake be impressive? I know it's not one of those "name brand" schools, but is Wake a prestigious school? I'm honestly not sure, so I'm very curious.</p></li>
<li><p>This might also sound bad, but yes I do want to party in college. I want to have the full college experience. I was just wondering if a current student or grad could explain the social situation with parties. Are freshmen usually not allowed in parties? Are boys turned away from parties often? Where do most parties take place, on camps, in the dorms, or off campus? Are there ever nights where you're just bored with nothing to do?</p></li>
<li><p>How conservative is Wake? I want a college that is fully accepting of all types of people, including the LGBTQ community, all races, etc. </p></li>
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<p>please let me know! I don't want any replies that are chiding me for wanting to party in college or for wanting to go to a prestigious college, so please keep your snide comments to yourself</p>
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<li><p>well that depends on several factors, like what field you want to go into after graduation, and what part of the country you want to work in. Wake Forest’s reputation is probably stronger in the southeast than it is in other parts of the country. Also, you didnt mention what degree you may want to pursue, because at wake, like most other schools, some departments are more respected than others. Also keep in mind the rampant grade deflation at wake forest, so you may or may not graduate with a gpa that you’re happy with.</p></li>
<li><p>If you like frat parties, dont worry you’ll be FiNE. Generally unless the frat is having a date function or a mixer or something like that, the parties are open to everyone. If the party is off campus and you’re a freshman guy, you may have to work a little harder to get a ride if you’re not with a group of girls or if you dont have friends in the frat.if you’re patient and/or opportunistic you can usually get a ride even if you have no connections to the frat. And once you get to the door you’ll almost certainly get in. Freshman usually start pregaming in the dorms, and then, for the first few weeks at least, you’ll probably hop from frat to frat on any given friday/saturday/wednesday. some will have parties in their on campus lounges while others will have them at off campus houses. I’m a guy and I was never turned away from a party, although there were times when me and some friends had to hop in the trunk when the car stopped for a group of girls. If you do get tired of the frat scene or choose not to pledge, then you can get bored very quickly if you haven’t found other organizations.</p></li>
<li><p>I would say that overall the students are fiscally very conservative and socially moderate. The school is not very diverse, but i never witnessed any outright incidents of intolerance. I dont think the LGBTQ community has much of a presence on campus. I think there are some organizations or support systems for these groups, but they are not very visible and i didnt know any open homosexuals when i was there.</p></li>
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<p>by the way, I went to wake forest for a year before transferring out. let me know if you have any other questions!</p>
<p>A couple reasons. I definitely was unhappy with the grade deflation, but I also didnt want my college experience to revolve around greek life, and Wake ended up feeling a little to small for me, and I wasnt a fan of winston-salem.</p>
<p>So the grade deflation is true? I was actually very interested in wake. I was working there about a month ago and feel in love the with the campus. I met some friends there and tried getting there opinion on the school, they weren’t big fans but I just figured it was because it was in Winston and Winston is pretty boring place. Do feel wake isn’t worth the money because i’m looking to apply to colleges and wake was my first choice, but I don’t have a loud of money so I don’t wanna waste my time if it isn’t really all that great. plus I hear a lot of people come from all over and end up transferring out.</p>
<p>yes the grade deflation is true, so its definitely something you need to be aware of if your considering wake forest. I cant really tell you if it would be worth the money or not, because wake forest does try to help with financial aid, and some of my friends got great financial aid packages (unfortunately i wasnt one of them), so its hard to say at this point how much it would actually cost you. I also fell in love with the campus when i first visited, theres no denying its a beautiful school. Im certainly not going to discourage you from applying, but i will say this- you mentioned that you dont have a lot of money. keep in mind that most of the kids there DO have a lot of money to burn (and a good amount goes towards their drinking habits!), so if you’re not used to being surrounded by wealthy people it could take some adjusting to. So if you ask me, there is a certain type of student who wake forest is absolutely perfect for. If you’re not this type of student, you may not enjoy it as much.</p>
<p>I’m going to preface this with the fact that I’m a current freshman at Wake, so I’ve been here only a little more than a month and am by no means an expert. These are just my impressions so far.</p>
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<li><p>It really depends on your major… for business fields, definitely. For theater/arts… debatable. Wake IS a top 25 school and it does have the reputation of Work Forest, so yes, it is a respectable and prestigious school, even if it’s not “name brand”. Work Forest is a good and bad thing though; I’ve heard that in the business field especially the Work Forest rep goes a long way with employers because they want someone who has a great work ethic/works hard, and a student with the Work Forest rep is more likely to have that than someone from a “name brand” school with an inflated GPA. Conversely, you WILL actually have to work hard, especially if you’re going to take the classes with grade deflation/heavy workloads. Personally, I’m a prospective biology major and I’m taking 14 hours this semester; I find the workload to be more than manageable, but I’m also taking classes that I find to be relatively easy and don’t have much grade deflation. On the other hand, I know a girl who’s taking 14 hours and many of her classes are sociology based, and she has tons of reading to do each night - it’s not hard, since they’re intro classes, but very time consuming and tedious.</p></li>
<li><p>Frat parties dominate here for freshmen, and sometimes the sports teams throw parties. On Fridays and Saturdays there will usually be 2-3 frats hosting on-campus parties, and 2-3 frats hosting off-campus. “Wake Wednesday” is also a thing here, although not as many frats throw parties on Wednesdays as on the weekends. On other days… I don’t think there’s usually anything Sunday/Monday/Tuesday, but I have heard of people going to bars on Thursdays. I am a girl so I don’t have trouble getting into parties, but as Ronaldinho said I have never seen a boy being turned away from a party. You just may have to be a little more patient with rides if you’re not with a group of girls and probably a little more patient getting served alcohol, too.</p></li>
<li><p>Honestly, it’s a crapshoot with this one. You will definitely meet people who are accepting of others. I myself don’t fit into the white, rich, preppy stereotype and I have found a group a friends that I’m happy with, and we all share similar viewpoints about accepting others. In the month that I’ve been here, I have met 3 openly L/G people. That being said, you will also meet people who aren’t so nice… just recently I met a bunch of boys that were racist, sexist, and homophobic and what they said made me pretty uncomfortable - they were intoxicated, but that’s not really an excuse. They were the worst people I’ve met so far, though. A good amount of the people I’ve met here are upper-class and private schooled (I literally never heard of Vineyard Vines before I came here, and now I see that whale like every day), but just because they fit into that category doesn’t mean that you won’t get along with them.</p></li>
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<p>I know you’re getting great feedback from students, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents. My son is also a freshman and we just returned from Family Weekend. We are middle-to middle-upper class (definitely not upper class) from Minnesota. When he tells people even in Minnesota that he’s going to Wake, they raise their eyebrows and are clearly impressed with Wake’s reputation, so I think it’s broader than just the southeast. I know their reputation in Business is excellent and they have a nationally-known Career Services Director at Wake. </p>
<p>My son is very social and outgoing and he does not lack for anything to do. (You already have tons of info on the frat party scene.) He knows two guys on his floor that are gay and out. He is close friends with one of the guys and he says he is really comfortable at Wake. There is a LGBTQ office on campus that offers good support and awareness programs. I’m sure there are other colleges with larger LGBTQ groups, but I think there’s a lot of acceptance at Wake.</p>
<p>About a week after our son was at Wake he went to the mall and bought some polo shirts, etc off the clearance rack. So did a number of his floormates, who also didn’t come to Wake with a closet full of Ralph Lauren. Although he has met a few VERY wealthy students, most seem to be just “regular” people just like him. He loves it there and is thrilled with his decision.</p>
<p>What do you mean “you didn’t want your college experience to revolve around greek life”? Is it true that you are an outcast if you don’t join a sorority at wake? I have had someone tell me that.</p>
<p>no im not saying that non-greeks are outcasts, but greek life definitely dominates the campus life, especially the night life. There are obviously other groups to join, but greek life dwarfs them all when it comes to the effect that they have on campus, and I would also say that greek life is a little more of a big deal for girls, though its still huge for guys as well. You should also keep in mind that the frats and sororities have very different personalities, just like they do at other schools. Some are more down to earth and accepting, while others definitely give off a pretentious and elitist vibe. some have more economic and ethnic diversity, and others are mainly full of children from old money southern families/ rich northerners who try to act southern (with varying success).</p>
<p>To the OP, i guess this is why its good to get multiple opinions. With over 4600 students im sure there had to be some lgbt students, i just never came across them to my knowledge. I wasnt trying to imply that wake forest is intolerant at all, but just based of my being there for a year, social issues are rarely discussed. Unless something major happens like the graffiti a couple of weeks ago, it seems like social issues are kind of swept under the rug. What I can definitely tell you is that the day after election day last year, there were a LOT of very unhappy people, which probably was not the case on most college campuses.</p>
<p>I also wasnt trying to say that Wake’s reputation is confined to the southeast, i think there’s a reason its back in the top 25 again this year. But there’s also no denying the fact that its reputation and prestige decreases as soon as you’re outside north carolina’s borders. Im from South Carolina and I transferred to the University of Virginia, and while ive come across lots of people who are impressed with Wake Forest, Ive also been surprised at the number of people from both states who not only dont know where wake is but have never even heard of it. Even if you were to ask a north carolinian what the best schools in the state were, they’d probably say duke, davidson, unc and wake, in roughly that order. My guess that its reputation among those in Academia is very solid, but if you’re saying that Wake Forest is equally respected by the general population across the country then you’re kidding yourself. </p>
<p>I’ll add one more thing, while its true that not every student is wealthy, a disproportionally large amount of the students are, and many of the students who aren’t rich will try to act rich. Northencindy alluded to this, but I also found it funny how many of the freshmen who would dress casually at the beginning of the year quickly crossed over to the super preppy category.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for sharing your experience and opinion! I just got accepted into Wake and I’m very excited to see how freshman year unfolds itself.</p>
<p>When did you get accepted and how was the application process… I started doing my application a couple of days ago but im trying to focus on taking my SAT subject test and Acts first.</p>