I’m a parent of a HS senior considering WFU. Our visit was impressive and most enjoyable, so much so that WFU rose to a top choice. After further research, we began to notice a strong undercurrent of “conservative” politics and background among students. As rather progressive New Yorkers, this undercurrent became concerning. With such a diversive mood among the populace these days (at times to the point of violence), I’m desperately curious as to the atmosphere on campus among the student body. How would one feel as a potential biracial freshman, growing up in a predominantly democratic, progressive and liberal minded environment at WFU these days? Is there reasonable acceptance among students for diverse backgrounds and thoughts without prejudice? Understand that I’m absolutely not judging here. I’m simply concerned with the potential student life of my child and whether the “conservative undertone” we’ve discovered might be problematic. Thanks for honest and frank comments in advance.
i, too, am very curious about this. if anyone has any information, it’s appreciated.
What kind of “conservative” did you notice? I.e. fiscal/economic (often libertarian), religious, or alt-right (racist)?
What seemed to be discussed was a strong politically conservative (Trump/Bannon esque) predominant lean among students.
DD is a freshman at WFU. We are fairly liberal Independent/Democrats from the South.
She told me last month that she was surprised how conservative much of the student body was in their political views. I attribute much of that to the parental economic level of a preponderence of the student body. However, the political climate has not been oppressive and she has had no problem finding like minded, diverse, and liberal friends there. Her professors have been apolitical or similar to her in their political views.
We have been on campus five times over the last three years, and have never detected much political bias one way or the other. DD’s second choice was Smith College, where politics were front and center, a little in your face, and fairly far to the left. The buttoned down, sober academic climate of Wake was a better fit for her in the end, although she didn’t make up her mind until the last day. She loves Wake Forest and has been happy there in every way.
Generally, the students we have met are polite, gentle, bright, considerate and academically focused. DD’s friends are nonreligious, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian; they are geographically and racially diverse as well.
I don’t think Wake is a hotbed of political activism on either side the spectrum. Given the academic workload, I don’t think they have the time for it.
QUOTE=SKGNYC predominant lean among students.
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If true (may not be, if those just happen to be the more vocal/visible students), that may be an issue for a student who appear non-white (you did not mention what mix of “biracial” the student is, or whether the student appears non-white).
A multiracial student who appears white may get to hear what some people really think but try not to say when non-white people are present: http://theundefeated.com/features/isaiah-hartenstein-nba-draft-2017/
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=wake+forest&s=all&id=199847#finaid says that 51% of WFU students do not get financial aid, and only 10% get Pell grants. Also, 71% white, 7% black, 7% Latino, 4% Asian, 3% multiracial, 9% international.
Part of the collegiate experience is being exposed to different perspectives and philosophy, conservatism included. I find it kind of strange that you are concerned about a university not being liberal enough considering colleges across the US are a progressive stronghold.
Additionally, if students at WFU hold racist and prejudice beliefs, they are not true conservatives but simply bigots. Prejudice and conservatism have no correlation.
My S is a freshmen at Wake. Funny, right after he told me there was little diversity (we are white), he mentioned his Bulgarian friend from Chicago, Latin friend from Miami, and a young lady from Cyprus. He would tell you there’s a combination of people not being outwardly political and, in general, most not judging others based on their views. For the most part, everyone seems to get along fine. Very close knit community. Living on campus for three years goes a long way in creating those bonds. They do have clubs representing many ideologies. He loves Wake. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else and we are a mixed family (wife is a liberal, Methodist, feminist from CA and I am a conservative Jew from New England so S has seen many different opinions and attitudes on many different topics!)
If you are looking for an echo chamber for your viewpoints then you may want to look elsewhere.
I have Jewish students who are looking for this kind of more balanced campus life, so this is helpful information, @rickle1.
The students I know at Wake have been very happy there. Balanced, pre-professional, a lot of school spirit, where students seem overall happy
my ideal college would be one with no political leanings…just disaffected youth who are focused on themselves and learning about new bands and having talks about the meaning of life until 1 a.m. and forgetting that there is anything else going on. Like i was in college. But it feels different now. In any case (and I don’t have a kid at WF), its rep is preppie and conservative. Doesn’t mean that you can’t find other types of people there. But i will say that 40% of the boys are in a fraternity and 60% of the girls and that’s one of the highest % in the country.
If outsiders see a conservative bent among Wake Forest students with the pre-professional desire to do well for themselves, look no further than WFU’s own president who sets the example. He was the highest-paid U.S. college president in 2015, with pay of $4,004,617. It’s nice to know where some of that tuition money is going.
Here’s the link to the article:
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=table_private_2015
We’ve found it to be more Greek and affluent in reality and tone than conservative. It has more conservative students than the average school, but overall a healthy diversity of poltical opinion. It’s definitely more of a country club conservatism than a racist, Bannon-esque conservatism. I could see the predominance of Greek culture and the overtness of the overall affluence potentially being a bigger issue for the student you describe than the general political orientation. Programs are excellent and Wake Downtown is a terrific facility. The leadership is very dynamic, and I think it is trying to move in a positive, progressive direction. We thought the Wake the Vote program to be a model program in bringing students of different opinions together.
Not that the previous comment had much to do with OP’s question, but I thought it deserved a response. The required vesting of a SERP that had begun in 2005 when Dr. Hatch was hired was the reason for the high salary reported that year. Here’s the salient portion of the press release from the school:
"On Dec. 10, The Chronicle of Higher Education published its annual database of executive compensation packages of private college presidents.
The Chronicle’s analysis showed that in 2015, President Nathan Hatch received just over $4 million and ranked first in total compensation. This analysis was conducted using the compensation of private college presidents who served during 2015.
The Board of Trustees’ original offer to Dr. Hatch in 2005 included a supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) – a form of deferred compensation commonly used in recruiting and retaining senior executives – that would be paid out upon completion of his 10th year as president in 2015. Each year an average of $255,000 was accrued in the SERP, and the proper amount for each year was reported on that year’s 990 return. More than $2.3 million of the vested $2.89 million SERP had been reported on the previous nine returns, but not paid. The vesting of Dr. Hatch’s deferred compensation prompted a one-year bump among peers because IRS reporting rules require that the entire vested benefit, which includes accruals reported in the tax filings from 2006-2014, plus the final accrual and any investment net earnings, be reported in the year of vesting.
Excluding the SERP-related amounts, Dr. Hatch’s compensation is comparable to the previous year. According to comparable tax data published in the analysis by The Chronicle – as well as regular benchmarks by a third-party consultant reporting to an independent committee of the Board – Dr. Hatch’s base salary of $839,944 is in line with peers at similar institutions.
The 2014 salary data published last year by The Chronicle ranked Dr. Hatch’s total compensation package 32nd among private college presidents (26th in 2013, 36th in 2012, 33rd in 2011)."
Oh, sorry. That DOES make all the difference! [-(
Thanks to everyone for the frank responses. I’m quite impressed with my initial visit to this forum as my experience with MANY other forums is far less … well … mature 
“Part of the collegiate experience is being exposed to different perspectives and philosophy, conservatism included. I find it kind of strange that you are concerned about a university not being liberal enough considering colleges across the US are a progressive stronghold.”
The previous response was particularly thought rousing for me. Adam makes an excellent point. Part of my baseline is that as a father I’m going to be cautious and (over) protective and I think that instinct would tend to influence my position in representing this topic of concern. I’m less concerned with finding a liberal student body than I am about how a student body “accepts” others that may not be from a similar background. No doubt some of my concerns are rather naive and somewhat driven by false stereotypes.
As I consider the question and the responses, I guess my “perfect campus” would be one where the student body is dominated by centrist sentiment. How the heck one makes such a determination is certainly beyond my understanding.
If a student body is radically conservative or liberal, radically being the keyword I would liken to “unaccepting”, I would suspect that such “exposure to different perspectives and philosophy” might not lead to a comfortable college experience. That’s more to what my question is about. Likely I didn’t make that particularly clear.
In some other “college forums” that I visited, there was clear and significant opinion regarding WF’s “strong lean” towards conservatism. Whether that was the voice of an inflamed and motivated few (as someone noted) or a true depiction of the student body at WF is why I posted here.
Thanks to everyone for the frank responses. I’m quite impressed with my initial visit to this forum as my experience with MANY other forums is far less … well … mature
“Part of the collegiate experience is being exposed to different perspectives and philosophy, conservatism included. I find it kind of strange that you are concerned about a university not being liberal enough considering colleges across the US are a progressive stronghold.”
The previous response was particularly thought rousing for me. Adam makes an excellent point; one with which I agree. I must admit that as a father, my tendency is to be cautious and (over) protective, so there’s little doubt that my research is tarnished by naivete and false stereotyping. My initial topic question was likely too broad in nature.
If I had it my way, I’d want a student body that was centrist in all aspects. How to find such a university (if there is such a university) and make that determination is an unreasonable expectation. My concerns are more to radical conservatism and liberalism. I equate any radical position to being “unaccepting” of alternative positions. On such a campus, I’d imagine that such “exposure to different perspectives and philosophy” would be quite uncomfortable. In several college forums, I found opinions at WF to be far more conservatively radical than I was ever expecting. Whether that was due to a few particularly disenfranchised students motivated by disappointment, emotion and anger (as someone else pointed out) is beyond my ability to determine, but it is the reason I’ve posted here.
I greatly appreciate the discussion!