We visited over the summer and stayed in W-S. I have friends who have kids there. And another is an alumna and works there. Their experiences have all been positive. I didn’t get any sense that W-S was anymore dangerous than most of the urban and suburban schools that we visited and the campus was great. W-S itself seems to be coming back and it has a nice revitalized downtown section with restaurants, etc. It’s my daughter’s first choice and her only concern is that it has a reputation for being a bit of a grind (Work Forest) but she’s no stranger to hard work so that’s not a huge concern.
I guess there are lots of ways to measure this. Here’s a link I found by a simple google search (crimes on campus) and it would have you believe the UCs are the worst in the country.
https://insurify.com/insights/ivory-tower-incidents-americas-most-dangerous-universities/
Like all rankings, these are subjective based on reporting method. How active is the campus police? How serious is the campus police (give warnings or actually cite kids for underage drinking)?
WS itself is a town on the rebound. A lot of cool spots downtown. Artsy, laid back vibe. Good microbrews, etc. Foodies would be happy. Like any town / city, it has it’s bad parts. Avoiding them is pretty easy.
S is a junior and feels it’s quite safe. Never felt threatened or even uncomfortable. Late nights he’s almost always with a group of kids.
This is some thread! It’s taken a pretty crazy turn in answering a simple inquiry about WFU.
DD is a junior at WFU, DS has applied ED, so I’m speaking from personal observation and experience. Wake has a cloistered, suburban campus that is largely surrounded by fairly nice residential and office/retail areas. It’s hard to walk onto the campus and it is gated at night, as opposed to Vanderbilt (or Davidson), where one can walk onto the campus anytime. DD has never felt unsafe and the WFU police do a good job of letting students know when something is amiss, which is not that often.
Winston-Salem is an old southern manufacturing city reinventing itself as a tech/healthcare/enterpreneurial center. It’s a litttle gritty in some areas, but the cost of living is low and there are lots of young people starting new businesses. We really enjoy visiting and have spent a lot of time downtown, where there are numerous new restaurants, clubs, breweries, and other concerns. We have never felt unsafe there, nor has DD, who is pretty skittish about things like that.
Look at the crime statistics for Nashville or St. Louis. Can you imagine anyone ever sending a child to Vanderbilt or WUSTL? Wake’s a great school that does things its own way and is worth considering. OP should make a visit.
Arguing about crime statistics endlessly is really not addressing OP’s post. Let’s agree to disagree and move on.
Agree that it is best to ignore Wake Forest’s reports to the US Federal Government Dept. of Education regarding on campus crime statistics.
“Arrests for Major Crimes” = 63% at Wake Forest University versus less than 11% at Vanderbilt University and slightly above 12% for WashUStL.
I agree. Heck I went to one of those UCs. I had my car broken into twice (tried stealing my stereo but never could get it out of the dashboard) and my roommate had his expensive mountain bike stolen when he left it unattended for a few minutes. With that said, I felt completely safe on and around campus at all hours of the night. Violent crimes and armed robberies were never an issue.
I would move off the safety factor at WF as I don’t see it as a big problem, any more so than any other college campus in a medium/ large city. You think Durham, New Haven, or South Central LA (USC) are much better? Think again…
Can someone explain how ED works? Answers come on a rolling basis? How early can one apply and how soon do they find out? Is it possible to apply ED and get an answer before other schools’ ED1 deadline?
ED is on a rolling basis. Most students hear back within 3-6 weeks of the application being complete. So yes, someone applying ED now could have two more ED opportunities if deferred or denied.
@marrast wow. That’s particularly awesome.
@homerdog , my D’s campus is gated, Loyola Marymount in LA. Two gates, back gate closed at night, front gate requires ID at night. Funny, I never drew the conclusion that this means the area is unsafe. Comparing LMU’s surrounding area to say USC, ungated, it seems on a much safer level. Her (and our) experience on campus and surrounding area has been quite safe, given the fact that its in a large city. I wonder if the gate issue has more to do with the physical size and location of the campus and the entrance layout, kind of like @Skrunch describes for WF, than with particular safety concerns about the surrounding area.
OP, the Fiske guide book for colleges makes listings of “similar to” or “competing with” or “students that applied here also applied to” schools for each of their listings. Might be worth checking out (nothing against WF, we visited, agree with most insights here except for safety concerns), but because it seems as if WF popped up as a bit of a surprise to you and you might want to find some more surprises that are closer.
Seriously @Publisher let it go. You obviously have an issue with Wake and choose to ignore the many posters on here with direct, recent experience with the University. If anyone would like an educated opinion about Wake, feel free to PM me.
Have to say I am surprised by the many posts here alleging that Wake Forest is a crime-free campus. My student graduated this spring. In the last four years, there was a murder on campus, a shooting of a student during a robbery on Polo Road, and numerous unprovoked attacks of students by strangers both on-campus and right off campus, in addition to all the usual alcohol-related assaults, thefts, etc.
My daughter’s boyfriend’s house, directly across from campus and at the location where the student had been shot the year before, was burglarized so many times that I personally purchased a home security system and monitoring for the entire house. I have no idea if this series of events is more or less than at other universities, but parents who state that Wake is as a safe as a kangaroos pouch are kidding themselves badly.
“numerous unprovoked attacks”? What does that mean exactly? Kids walking on campus and being accosted? for money? @WFUparent can you be more specific?
Also, I was getting the impression that there are no houses directly across from campus. i thought it was set off from any neighborhoods.
By unprovoked attacks, I mean students on and off campus being approached by a non-student stranger who suddenly and without provocation assaulted them. Not in the context of a verbal dispute, or robbery. These were all reported publicly. The last incident occurred at midnight to a female student who was walking alone across the quad. I believe at that point I emailed Wake administration to point out there appeared to be a pattern of serial escalating unprovoked attacks which could be consistent with a someone with a mental illness targeting Wake students in a progressively more aggressive manner.
And no, the campus is not “set off” from neighborhoods. Polo Road bounds the campus and is a straight shot into a pretty dicey part of W-S, and the house I referred to above is on Polo Road. In fact, just last week a shot was fired into a university-owned house on Polo Road. And incidentally, the off campus parking lot where underclassmen park at night is on Polo.
Again my point is not that Wake is less safe than other schools–I don’t know if it is, or if it isn’t and once our daughter was there, it didn’t matter, that’s where she was and we had to cope with it. But statements to the effect that Wake is crime free and as safe as a kangaroo pouch are being made by parents who either aren’t reading their email alerts, or are misrepresenting the school.
@WFUparent still don’t get it. A student walking on campus at midnight was assaulted how? Verbally? And are you saying that a non-student (maybe a homeless person?) got into campus that late even though the gates are supposedly locked before that?
And Polo Road is a straight shot into W-S? How many miles into the part of town you consider dicey? This whole thing is so weird. And it’s one of the reasons that S19 didn’t apply. I couldn’t get a grip on the truth!
@homerdog: In January of 2018, you started a thread titled “Shooting at Wake Forest”.
Just the first page of posts detailed shooting, murder & kidnapping of WFU students & tells of seriously bad race relations at WFU. What more do you need ? This was your own thread.
If still not enough, then check the crime & safety report filed by Wake Forest officials with the US Government’s Dept. of Education.
Sigh. Yes I know. I just really think it could be the perfect match for D21 and she’s excited about it so I can’t let it go. I think I’m going to have to talk to the couple of kids from our town who are there. Sorry to keep going around and around here on CC.
Although off topic, Bucknell University & Colgate University might be of interest to your daughter. University of Richmond is another to consider.
I loved my experience at WFU, but it was a bit dangerous for me–but significantly less dangerous than the current environment.
@homerdog I am not sure what is difficult to understand here. Of course it was not a verbal “assault.” That would not have been reported by Wake.
To spell it out: a female student was walking across the Quad at midnight, back to her dorm. She was approached by a non-student, whom she did not know, who without warning or provocation, punched her in the face.
In terms of Polo Road, I am also not sure what’s confusing about what I said, but I will be more specific. If you drive down Polo half a mile from Wake and make a left, you arrive at the Forsyth Correctional Center, which is a prison. So, to be perfectly clear, there is a PRISON within 5 minutes of campus. If you don’t believe me, you can Google it. In general, prisons are not found in nice neighborhoods.
Again, my point is not that Wake is any more dangerous than any other school But parents who claim that Wake is a haven of safety are doing prospective students and parents a disservice by lulling them into a false sense of security.
I know next to nothing about safety around WFU but this
makes me laugh because it’s a minimum security prison with a work release program. Y’know, the kind of place where drug dealing college kids, people with multiple DUIs, or white collar criminals like Rick Singer are send. We have the same thing in my wealthy, extremely safe town where I never lock my door. Work crews from the prison do things like road maintenance, washing dishes in a local restaurant, or storm drain clearing. We also have a medium security prison across the road from the minimum security. In the over 25 years I’ve lived in town there have been only two incidents I’m aware of involving the prison. In both people walked off a work release job. One was taken into custody after two hours, the other returned on his own later in the day. There were safety concerns raised about the fact that our newly constructed rail trail crosses a downtown road, but none that it skirts the prison or that parking for the trail is across the street on land that used to be housing for prison workers. 
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
The OP asked the question 5 months ago. Since the thread has now turned into an OT debate, and not a friendly one at that, I’m closing.