I don’t know if the admissions office reads CC threads, but I hope so . We visited Wake as part of a multi-school spring break family trip. My husband and I joined our junior son and his friend, also a junior . Our negative impressions were shared by 4 other families who we met that day and talked with at another college later on the trip .
Everything that Wake could have done wrong , they did wrong.
The pre-tour information session was an abbreviated 10 minute chat from a knowledgeable admission person who had to cram 45 minutes of information into 10. We didn’t learn anything other than that the admissions officer seemed enthusiastic and nice .
This was because we were then given a “mock college class” experience . The teens in our group seemed dazed and confused by the professor who wanted to make a possibly important point, but who ran out of time and so left us with only a vague understanding and a poor impression .
This all would have been possibly tolerable if our tour was ok- but it wasn’t . Even though the school knew that hundreds of families were visiting (as it was spring break for many high schools ), there were so few tour guides that we were
herded into a group of 40. Lawnmowers blared as our tour guide tromped along telling us about her Halloween costume , her illegal coffee maker and nailed up posters , and all the classes that would be an “easy A”. After asking her 3 times to speak up as no one could hear her in the back 20, we left and joined another group . That tour was a bit informative but the impression we got was that Wake has nothing to distinguish itself . That coupled with our knowledge of a bad anti Semitic incident that we know was poorly handled by the school has taken Wake off of our list. All 4 families that we met expressed the same very poor impression of the school .
I hope the admissions office considers this and thinks about the visit day . While one can learn a lot about a school by reading the literature online and in mailings, a negative face to face impression is a deal breaker .
So sorry for the negative impressions, and best of luck to you in your search for Nirvana U!
Dr. Ernest P. Worrell
Office of Redneck Inclusion
Hmm. Our Wake tour guide was so knowledgable and engaging that her entire tour group stayed with her despite the pouring rain. Our info session was ok; the admissions officer who led it was a recent alum and was good, but we spent too much time watching a video. The mock college class experience sounds silly; why didn’t they just encourage kids to sit in on a real class?
Fresh coffee - what ? We have visited 9 other schools and all did a much better job- not looking for Nirvana!
IMHO, Vern gives the best campus tours. But he’s interning for the Senate Intelligence Committee this semester. Sorry you missed him.
Dr. Ernest P. Worrell
Office of Redneck Inclusion
Momofsamiam, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. Campus visits can leave a powerful impression - that’s why we do them! We had a similar negative reaction to UNC Chapel Hill and wrote it off immediately after visiting. Your experience at Wake sounds very different from our own and from others I have heard. Maybe it was just an off day? Busy spring break? If you have any residual interest in Wake, I hope you try again.
We visited for the first time early last summer when our son had his admissions interview. At the information session, the speaker was a Wake grad who gave a very engaging and articulate 45 minute talk, without notes or slides (and certainly no video that I remember), about her experiences at Wake, her professors, her overseas studies, etc. It really stood out for us compared to other schools that used the information session to regurgitate the same admissions statistics you could find on their websites without even trying.
Then our tour guide was a very smart, funny, engaging sophomore. He did a great job and took time to answer all our questions afterward.
Before we visited Wake, our son’s first choice was Vanderbilt by far. We knew not to pull all our eggs in the Vandy basket and were just looking for a viable plan B. When we visited Wake, it shot right to the top of his list. We did a second visit later, just to be sure. He ended up applying to Wake ED and will be a freshman in next year’s class.
We just visited Wake with our junior daughter and had a completely different experience than the OP.
Our admissions officer was a Wake grad, very funny and engaging to the entire assembled group. There had to be close to 100 people for the tours that day and they had enough tour guide to make sure each group was small. We had only 10 and they broke up the groups to make sure they were small.
Our guide was a senior and it was the best tour we have ever been on. Although from the West Coast, he was clearly taken by the WS area and Wake. He took some time to share experiences when professors had truly gone out of their way to help him succeed.
My daughter is completely taken with Wake and it is at the top of her list. I was completely amused when we went into the the dining hall, called the Pit I believe, and he walked us around and showed us his favorites.
I think your tour guide was less than optimal and I am not sure what the class room part of your experience was. I would always have my D just attend a regular class to get a feel for what was going on.
It might be worth a repeat visit. On the other hand, if you feel it is a no go, it is good to learn early. We visited a well known LAC and my D wanted to leave before the Admissions session was over.
All I can say is that I have no ties to WFU, but I wished we had looked south when I was attending school.
Our friend told us of the son of their friends who had a swastika painted on his dorm room door. The “investigation” at the school yielded no results , and aggravated the bully (ies?) who started leaving notes suggesting the young man leave the school and move to Israel. The boy and his parents felt that the administration’s response was tepid and inadequate , and the boy transferred .
I’m not sure when this incident happened to the son of a friend of a friend, but I asked my son, a current Freshman, and he said that he had heard nothing about the issue.
Wake Forest works very hard to practice transparency. My son says that administration is very good about informing students about safety and climate issues on campus. There was a racial incident in the fall involving a fraternity party and the campus came together to address the problem. Recently a female student was drugged and raped by another student and administration sent emails to the entire student body letting them know about it. Frankly I struggle to believe that Wake Forest would let slide an incident where a swastika was painted on a student’s door.
As far as the OP’s poor visit… Unfortunately, sometimes tour guides are not at the top of their game. When we visited Tulane, we had a terrible tour guide. Instead of just letting it go, my son went to admissions to let them know how poor the tour was and a dynamic young man in the office graciously sat down with my son to fill him in on everything there was to love about the university. In life, you can not simultaneously wring your hands and roll up your sleeves. If your son did not feel like his needs were met, he needed to reach out and self advocate.
If I were to rate our initial tour guide at Wake, I would give him a meh. We are a theater family, so we have high standards for presentation skills. I do realize, though, that not every student is going to play well to the back row. What made my son’s visit to Wake special was the willingness of professors and administration to spend time with my son and help him to understand what Wake is all about. The chair of the history department spent 1.5 hours with him talking about opportunities in the major. A professor from the theater department spoke with him at length about the program and gave him a personal tour of the facilities. Administration arranged for my son to sit in on a couple of classes to see how students and professors interact. It was a productive visit and it sold my son on Wake. My son will be a tour guide at Wake this summer and next year. I hope he will do a good job. It is hard to be everything to everyone. Frankly, he is going to need to brush up on sports. (note to self… remind him that football is played on a field and basketball on a court.)
I stand by my review as well as our friend’s report of the incident . It occurred a few years ago so a current freshman would have no knowledge of it.
One bad experience does not make a school a bad school , but a very poor first impression lasts.
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