Wake Forest University, do I have a shot?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everybody, I really wanted to get some input as to whether or not I have a chance of being accepted into Wake. Bare with me a little bit, my profile is a bit different than most so I haven’t exactly received too much valuable information on my chances of acceptance.

I go to a competitive, private school. I have an unweighted GPA of 3.2/4.0. To put this into perspective, only six individuals in the last 30 years have received 4.0’s at my school.

I received a 33 on the ACT and a 12 on the writing section, both of which I submitted.

For AP’s, I took the AP US history, AP English language, and AP English literature exams, and I received a four, five, and five respectively.

During my junior year, I took AP European history and AP literature. Freshman year, I took AP US history. Senior year, I’m taking AP Chinese. I have also taken various advanced and honors courses throughout my time at school.

My recommendations are pretty good, so there are no worries in that department.

Here’s where things get different.

For my extra curricular activities, I participate in debate, fencing, tennis, volunteer for the Urban Debate League, and volunteer for a political campaign.

In debate, I have been quite successful and became nationally ranked. The Wake Forest coaches took notice and invited me down to Winston-Salem to tour the campus and show me around the debate team. While there, I took an interview which went quite well.

After the visit, the director of debate notified me that he would write a letter on my behalf to the admissions office.

I have also submitted an application for the presidential scholarship for debate (I’m not sure if this at all has an impact on my admission)

Unfortunately, due to harsh circumstances in my life due to the death of a family member, I received a suspension for using foul language at school. I believe my reflection on this in my application was decent, but I’m not sure how much even having a suspension has.

I know this is a lot to ask and hard to predict, but I’m wondering what peoples’ opinion is on my acceptance to Wake. Fairly poor grades combined with a suspension are obviously a negative. However, interest in debate, standardized test scores, strength of schedule, and various extra-curricular activities might counter-act this. Any help is much appreciated.

2

Bump

3

Your GPA is a little low , but everything else seems fine.

PLEASE CHANCE ME
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1821375-emory-barnard-northeastern-wellesley-nyu-wake-williams-uf-university-of-miami.html#latest

4

I agree with what weston 1234 said, but that debate thing is very interesting and you seem to be a good candidate overall. Good luck to you!

Please chance me, too.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18927414/#Comment_18927414

5

I too am interest in Wake Forest. Chance?
Act scores: best composite 29 Best English: 36 Best Reading: 32 Best Math: 29 Best Science: 26 Writing: 33
GPA: 4.420 weighted 3.96 unweighted
Class rank: 10th out of 340
AP scholar with distinction: Calc BC 3 (5 on AB sub score), Micro & Macro Econ 5, Ap USH 5, Ap Gov 3, Ap Language 3, Ap human geo 4
Speech & Debate four years 5th in state public forum for Tennessee
300+ hours community service
Track (11th 12th), scholars bowl (11th 12th), FBLA (11th 12th) Student body Historian (12th)

6

Wake is test-optional, so they place a great deal of emphasis on GPA…

7

@Moorefun it is a safety for you

8

Does anyone know why Wake Forest is not publishing their Wait List numbers for last year – 2015? I checked the Common Data Set report on their website and it says: “not published” It is also not on College Board’s Wake Forest listing-- What is the big secret? Last year they did go to their Wait List and I know several students who were contacted but why do they not make this information public?

9

Also is everyone aware that you need to send in your applications by December 1st to be considered for Merit Scholarships? January 1st is the official deadline, but if you look at their website you must submit your application by December 1st to qualify for any Merit Scholarships—honestly, who would not want their tuition discounted? Why don’t they just change it to January 1st?

Are they just trying to get a preview of the Regular Decision students before making their acceptance offers to the ED students? They accept 40% of their class Early Decision, leaving just 784 seats–my guess is their yield last year was terrible and that is why they won’t publish their Wait List numbers…

10

@Booksmart27 Obviously because they don’t want to give more aid. Schools try to “hide” these dates to a degree

11

I did notice that Wake Forest prefers to admit students who do not need financial aid–last year only 42% of their accepted class applied for aid and just 80% were judged to have need----sounds like they are becoming more like Tufts University–a school for the rich but don’t want to admit it publicly…

12

@booksmart27 Do you know any other schools that have deadlines for merit aid that are different than their official deadlines? Actually really helpful info…

13

Sorry, but I am not aware of any other schools that have a merit scholarship deadline that is a month before the Regular Decision deadline—hopefully other schools will not follow Wake Forest’s lead—but just to be sure, check all of the Admissions pages for each school you are applying to–that’s how I found out about Wake Forest…needless to say, it is off our list—so much for “southern values” Good Luck Cappex!

14

I think the December 1st thing makes sense. The process to be considered for scholarships takes a while - the time to decide to admit you, refer you to scholarship committee, look at specific scholarships that might fit you, evaluate you against other highly competitive candidates, et cetera. They need that extra month so that they have all of their finalists ready for the February scholarship interview weekend. The December 1st deadline coincides with the deadline for the Presidential (people applying for the Presidential have to have both their arts supplement and their regular application submitted by this date), so I can understand why they’d think it was easier to have all of those deadlines at the same time. It could also be a way to gauge interest. If I were a WFU adcom, I wouldn’t want to give someone merit aid who hadn’t done enough research to know when the deadline for consideration was. I think it’s kind of ridiculous to infer from a deadline that a school caters only to the wealthy.