I certainly have no ax to grind with respect to WFU. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Grading was reasonable–although it was in the summer.
I am a bit surprised by the reactions of some posters.
I am a Wake grad, and my kid is applying this year. Wake’s main campus is separated from the area around it. There are only a few ways in and out. Hence, the fact that it can be closed off with a couple of gates. Wake itself is this little bubble. There is really no reason for thru traffic except to visit the main campus. I’ve visited UChi. That university is more integrated into Chicago and it would be hard to “close” campus to outsiders. I love Wake Forest. The truly stand out thing is the connection between students and professors. At Wake, professors have student groups over for dinner. They say “I know you . . .” when you come back for Homecoming. It hits that sweet spot of “just big enough” that you never meet everybody but “just small enough” that by your senior year, your student can say “I don’t know his name, but I’ve seen his face around campus. Yeah, he goes to Wake.” Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
@Skrunch right. But a lot of schools have professors who know the kids. Our S is at Bowdoin and talk about kids knowing their professors! His largest class as a freshman is 35 and that’s including a math class and a physics class. Lab is 16 kids. Of course, it’s a thing at all LACs. I’m not sure if anyone here has been to Denison. It could easily be gated off but it’s not. Like I said, we need to visit Wake and see it for ourselves. I didn’t understand that the campus is set off by itself and sometimes one just needs to see a school in person to get it.
I think my biggest current concern is that it is totally set off with no town to walk to. D21 liked that about Davidson the first time we visited even though the town is small. I think Richmond has the same issue as Wake as I hear that kids can’t walk anywhere. I’m not really interested in either of our kids needing a car to feel like they can get where they want to go. Hoping they could be somewhat content on campus or using Uber if needed. But taking Uber to parties on the weekend worries me a bit. I’d rather her be on a campus where she can get home by herself if needed from a party - meaning she could walk home.
@homerdog the campus is separate because the daughter of R. J. Reynolds donated to the college about 350 acres of fields and woods at “Reynolda”, their country estate.
There are over 6,000 undergraduates, and all my DD’s classes are are between 15-35 students. She already knows her professors after just 3 weeks of classes.
Students can walk on a paved path thru the woods to Reynolda Village https://www.reynoldavillage.com which has a few restaurants, shops, salons, etc
Besides parties my DD has not needed nor wanted to leave campus so far. On campus there is a Starbucks, Chick Filet, Subway, Moe’s and a few more. If she needs something she cannot get on campus she orders from Amazon. She loves that she can walk from her dorm to the dinning hall, library, campus center, gym and all her classes in under 10 minutes (no exaggeration!). The football and basketball stadiums are also across the road from the core campus area and students take a free shuttle or Uber to the games as well. The school also has free shuttles to downtown Winston-Salem campus. There are always going to be trades offs, she would rather be a 10 minute walk to essential places she goes to every day and 10 minute drive to parties a few times a week.
They always share Uber’s to and from parties and it’s not a big deal for them. No matter what school she attended, I would not want her leaving a party alone no matter the mode of transportation walking or otherwise, no matter the campus type- city, suburban, or rural.
I typed a way-too-long post about my thoughts on the subject. Fortunately, I reviewed it and condensed it to 1/10th of its original size.
I know a little about W-S and the overall Triad (a tri-city area which includes W-S, Greensboro, and High Point.) My brother attended Winston Salem State University. A cousin’s daughter is a WFU freshman, and numerous family and friends have attended universities in the Triad. A SiL is a regional bank manager who lives in W-S. I own property in the Triad. I have visited the city dozens of times and have researched the area for university and business reasons.
Like most cities in America, the majority of the crime takes place within the economically deprived sections of the city. Wake Forest University is located far from those areas, and IMO, after a college visit with my son last week, WFU feels about as safe as a kangaroo pouch. I wouldn’t let one isolated incident from two years ago carry the decision. Also, keep in mind that reputation and reality don’t always align – many cities that have a significant minority population carry a reputation of being “dangerous” that doesn’t match reality.
Winston Salem is not a small town. It is a city of approximately 250K citizens, and is in a MSA of 760+K. No, it’s not Chicago or LA, but it’s also not Mayberry. That said, many areas of the city do have a small-town feel to them. Also, like nearly every city in the southeast, and you don’t live & work in one of the cities that have “walkable” downtown districts, you need an automobile. Generally speaking, public transportation is at best “almost adequate” for the most needy of citizens, and more or less unacceptable for people who did not grow up poor. I don’t think college freshmen/sophomores need automobiles, but any working adult will.
Lastly, the Triad is home to Krispy Kreme, John Coltrane, and Wrangler jeans. Sweet treats, cool jazz, and a perfect fit. That works for me.
S is a junior at Wake (abroad this semester in Barcelona). To date, he has had a fantastic experience (non Greek, came from a public HS, upper middle class). I’ll address campus life and academics (as the location has been discussed in detail).
Academics: S is an excellent student( as most at Wake are) and has found it quite challenging. He works hard and does well. Is there grade deflation? I don’t call it that, but rather a lack of grade inflation. You can get A’s but you have to bust your butt in just about any subject. Professors go out of their way to help engaged students. They do want to get to know you. Someone mentioned Pre professionals looking down on liberal arts students. Wake is essentially a liberal arts school with the addition of an outstanding business school. Many kids, including B school students, minor or double major in a liberal arts concentration (S is a Finance Major and PoliSci Minor). That’s the beauty of their divisional reqs. He didn’t go in thinking anything about PoliSci, but some of his best friends major in it, he took a class and became quite interested. He has friends within many disciplines.
Campus activities: Suffice to say there is a ton available. Many of his friends (and him) are involved in two or three formal clubs (He is in leadership of the co-ed business fraternity and plays on the Club baseball team. I think He just joined the Finance club. He plays on several intramural sports teams and goes to the gym regularly. He also works 10 hours per week in the Controller’s Office.) That type of schedule is not unusual. He regularly attends Sorority “Date Nights” as do many of his non Greek friends.
In addition to the many social and / or academic clubs, Wake has a number of community service events and other traditions that bring the whole campus together (including Profs, administration and staff). These events, together with ACC sports, and a residential/ UG focus (3 yr on campus living requirement) go a long way in creating tremendous school spirit and pride.
It’s a great place. Is it perfect? No, but nothing is.
I googled “Wake Forest University Crime Statistics” this morning.
Of the 2,795 colleges and universities that reported crime & safety data, 2,683 reported fewer incidents. (Approximately 96% of the reported crime occurred on campus with about 4% occurring in the surrounding neighborhood.)
With just 112 of 2,795 colleges & universities reporting more crime than WFU, I googled “Wake Forest University”.
This search yielded several pieces about an on campus rape & a few about the threatening emails received by a dozen or so WFU profs.
P.S. Another source showed a dramatic rise in car thefts on campus. A chart at the bottom of the page concerning crime stats revealed that almost all arrests involved “serious crimes”–and this category did not include on campus rapes which had its own section of the pie chart.
I just looked up Bowdoin on that site @Publisher used to find the Wake crime numbers and their numbers look just about the same. Bowdoin seems extremely safe to me and to our son. We’ve visited four total times now and, at drop off, actually spoke to the head of security at a luncheon. He was very serious about the rules around drinking etc, but said other crimes are practically non-existent yet that website I looked at had a decent percentage of crime. So…I’m not sure that website has the best info or at least it’s not presented in context.
Aaaaaand Davidson the same. That was an interesting little experiment…
These are figures reported to the federal government. Drinking incidents are a very tiny portion of the overall reported crime & safety stats.
All one really needs to know is that among 2,795 colleges & universities which reported crime & safety data, WFU is among the top (4%) four percent for most (worst) crime reported. Almost all is on campus (96%) & almost all is serious crime.
P.S. @homerdog : How would you know which websites I used ?
P.P.S. Just checked another site "American School Search dot com safety. Shocked at the stats for Bowdoin (among worst 8.55%), Bates & Colby. Almost all falls under forcible sex offenses.
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@Publisher not 100% sure but I googled Wake Forest University crime statistics and looked at the first site which matches your numbers. And, weirdly, Bowdoin and Davidson have very similar numbers and fall into roughly the same percentages.
This is getting off topic. They are not “my numbers”, they are WFU’s numbers as reported to the federal government (Dept. of Education).
@publisher it’s the first site that pops up when you google “Wake Forest University Crime Statistics”. The actual crime statistic report from the Wake Forest Police paints a different picture. The collegefactual site claims nearly 1/3 of the schools didn’t report crime or reported zero incidents. Doesn’t pass the smell test.
Again, many on here have current and very relevant experience with the University and city, but let’s rely on a random website and decades old recollections to make our decisions.
Again, these are stats reported to the US Federal Government Dept. of Education by Wake Forest University for the year 2018.
WFU is among the top 5% most dangerous campuses among 2,795 colleges & universities reporting statistics.
P.S. The Davidson College stats involve about 89% “disciplinary incidents”. Davidson College is quite safe. Probably lots of underage drinking citations at Davidson.
Not so for WFU, Bates, Bowdoin & Colby. Best to read the entire report for each college or university of interest. The Maine colleges are all overwhelmingly sexual assaults & rapes, for example. WFU is mainly vehicle thefts & sexual assaults on campus. Most recent at WFU is one on campus rape & threatening emails sent to 12 profs in Womens & Gender Studies Dept. & another academic dept.
You’re right, disciplinary actions at Wake were 80.5% of the total. Huge difference from Davidson…(by the way, 88.4% doesn’t round up to 89%). And zero incidents for Davidson off-campus? Hard to believe.
Just a note. On the weekends, kids do use Uber quite a bit, but I would also note that most of the fraternities that host parties off campus arrange for drivers to and from. It’s a safety/drunk driving prevention effort. Shuttles also run to Target etc. It is fair to say the kids don’t walk to a cute little downtown; that’s just not the set up. However, nothing is far away. My child’s typical Uber bill was a few dollars.
From Wake Forest Campus Security, “The Winston-Salem Police Department and the University Police Department are investigating an alleged incident of rape that was reported to have occurred on Sept. 14, 2019, in Angelou Residence Hall. It was reported to police on Sept. 17, 2019.
A student reported being raped by another student. The alleged victim reported that the suspect is known to them.”
Sorry, my child is there now and crime is not an issue on campus. I am not suggesting there is no crime, no school can say that, but my kid laughed at this thread and said it is not a concern.
@Flydad1 same and I agree