My daughter had almost identical stats to your son. 1440 SAT. Full IB. 98 unweighted average. We also visited. Started her own clothing company and made over $14,000 in profits last year. She has a ton of extracurriculars and she is a National Hispanic Scholar. Also waitlisted. So it might not have just been the “white male” factor. In addition, my oldest is a senior at UNC and has a 3.8 GPA. She was rejected by UNC. This test optional situation is resulting in the number or applicants skyrocketing at every good school. And acceptance rates collapsing. It sucks. But for every qualified kid not getting in there is an equally qualified kid who does. It is what is it. She has gotten in other terrific schools. But we really did love Wake.
Appreciate your candor. Hate the rejection 
. I’m also learning to love the places that have admitted my kid and recognized his hard work.
Waitlisted. 
I hope we will see some numbers of how many accepted/rejected/waitlisted. Waitlisted here, too.
D23 Accepted - 4.0 UW, 35 ACT
National Hispanic Scholar
Cum Laude
2 sport varsity athlete- captain, all state, school record holder
Accepted at UVA today too - and still strongly considering UF so we will see where she ends up
Kids seemed to have applied to more schools each this year, so who knows what can happen with waitlist. I would accept a place if Wake is high on your kids list.
D23 admitted, 1500 SAT, approximate gpa of 3.8 uw from private with grade deflation, most rigorous schedule, good ecs. Very excited.
DD
Accepted
4.0 uw
4.59 w
11 AP’s
Rank 4/350ish
2 varsity sports
Year around swim club (6 days week)
30 ACT submitted (not superscored but perfect reading scores)
Lots of interesting long term commitment volunteer hours (unaffiliated with school related club hours)
ETA WL at UVA today after deferral and rejected from Richmond after deferral. Accepted to UNC early action.
Daughter waitlisted.
4.0 uw/35 ACT
School doesn’t rank, but Cum Laude (top 10%)
2 varsity sports (6 year letter winner)/captain/state champion/state scholar athlete
Class VP
9 APs (more than what school allows) and all 5s thus far
400+ volunteer hours
Accepted EA to UVA, UGA and Clemson/RD to W&M (Monroe Scholar) and Richmond (Presidential Scholarship)
Deferred SCEA to Yale
Rejected EA to UNC
Waitlisted RD to AU
9 more decisions outstanding because we knew this process would be crazy…and it is!!!
Daughter was accepted. 4.0 unweighted, 5.2 weighted. Full IB diploma candidate. Test optional (did not submit scores). One varsity sport. 5+ EC’s, 100+ volunteer hours. Congratulations to her and all who were accepted!
Son got accepted.
No ma’am, it’s just an unpopular time for anyone to apply to college. I haven’t my hooks with competitive stats and was still rejected and waitlisted from many schools.
Accepted from NY
1530 SAT
4.5W
1 Varsity Sport
Many EC’s and Community Service hours
4 years of band
Developed annual fundraising event
Now just hoping for some aid!
Son waitlisted. Seems like a lot of kids were? He’s disappointed, but is in two other places EA that really seem to want him. (Wasn’t my top choice for several reasons).
You said what I wanted to say and better.
Son accepted NY 780M/700V SAT. 100+ weighted GPA; high 90s unweighted. Very strong athletic ECs; academic work in statistics and sports analytics. Who knows about essays and recs? I find it hard to know what is good/what schools want on that front. The school is not like others that he was drawn to (larger publics), but he just had such a great visit at Wake. It all does seem very random.
My son was waitlisted at Wake Forest on Friday night. However, he also found out Friday night that he was awarded the Johnson scholarship at Washington & Lee!!, so he has already released his spot on the waitlist at WF 
He is exceptional and W&L took the time to get to know him and WF did not/could not. I think opportunities to show your face to admissions means a great deal. “Everyone” looks good on paper these days.
Congrats to your son on winning a Johnson scholarship! That is very impressive.
How does Wake Forest notify us if there is any merit aid, if we weren’t part of the earlier scholarship awards, and there was no mention in our acceptance letter should we assume no merit? When will we receive the COA for 2023-2024 or is it already published somewhere?