Wake Forest and how it's viewed, especially in NC

[Anonymous]

How is Wake Forest seen, in your opinion? Specifically, if you know, does it have a good reputation in NC or is it overshadowed significantly by UNCCH and Duke? Do people see it as being a tier lower or somewhat similar? What schools would you say are its peers? Thanks in advance for any and all responses

[Anonymous]

You'll notice which colleges were and weren't mentioned by the Ratliffs in the new season of The White Lotus.

[Anonymous]

As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

No dog in this race, but in what way is UNC behind Wake?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

No dog in this race, but in what way is UNC behind Wake?

The PP explicitly said "most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

No offense…but what other NC schools are there, especially if you claim they are behind Davidson?

I guess ahead of Elon, Highpoint and ECU et al?

[Anonymous]

Wake is looked as the rich kid school.

Interesting to note that UNCCH is 85% North Carolina residents, but WF is only 20% North Carolina residents. obviously that’s because it’s a private school, but it leads to different dynamic than half of your high school being on campus with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wake is looked as the rich kid school.

Interesting to note that UNCCH is 85% North Carolina residents, but WF is only 20% North Carolina residents. obviously that’s because it’s a private school, but it leads to different dynamic than half of your high school being on campus with you.

Well UNCCH legislates that it’s 85% NC residents. It’s impossible for it not to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake is looked as the rich kid school.

Interesting to note that UNCCH is 85% North Carolina residents, but WF is only 20% North Carolina residents. obviously that’s because it’s a private school, but it leads to different dynamic than half of your high school being on campus with you.

Well UNCCH legislates that it’s 85% NC residents. It’s impossible for it not to be.

Of course, that wasn’t a dick. Just a fact of how it is. But it’s similar to do which only has 15% North Carolina residents. I think it’s really hard to compare UNC versus wake when it’s more like wake versus Duke.

[Anonymous]

^ oops! dig not d1ck!

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Winston-Salem. I agree with the poster who said it is generally viewed as behind UNC and Duke academically (significantly so in the case of Duke, slightly so in the case of UNC). I remember a number of kids in my graduating class who went to Wake who didn’t get into UNC. Not to say it didn’t happen, but I don’t recall anyone going to UNC after not getting into Wake. Most years there were also a few elite kids (HYPS-competitive) from my school or Winston who would go to UNC on Morehead or Robertson scholarships, whereas I don’t ever recall those kinds of kids going to Wake. All of that added up to it being viewed as slightly below UNC academically as I recall (whether fairly or not). Sort of a school for kids who had good grades, but also didn’t exactly blow you away in terms of how smart they were.

That said, I also agree that it was viewed as ahead of every other school in NC with the possible exception of Davidson. Davidson was very much a peer school, and I recall a LOT of kids whose top two choices were Wake and Davidson. A lot of those same kids would apply to Elon as a back-up option. But basically no one who got into Wake or Davidson picked Elon.

The only other thing I’d add is that, at least at the time (15 or so years ago), it definitely had the reputation—like Duke—as being heavy on kids from the Northeast, which wasn’t always viewed as positive thing within NC…

Most people I know who went there really liked it. But, more so than with a lot of other schools, it seemed to have a clear “type” — from wealthy families, gung-ho about Greek life, reasonably smart but not especially nerdy/intellectual. Basically everyone I know who went there fit that “type,” so it wasn’t a surprise that they ended up liking it. (And to be clear, I don’t mean any of the pejoratively — some of those kids were good friends, and I had some fun weekends at Wake with them).

It’s a nice little campus, but kind of cloistered and not really integrated into Winston very well. And Winston isn’t much of a fun college town.

There’s ACC sports (some of which are quite successful), but no one would mistake the atmosphere for an SEC school (or even UNC or NC State).

Hope that’s helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wake is looked as the rich kid school.

Interesting to note that UNCCH is 85% North Carolina residents, but WF is only 20% North Carolina residents. obviously that’s because it’s a private school, but it leads to different dynamic than half of your high school being on campus with you.

Grew up in NC, and I'd say a combination of this and the other comment about it being behind Chapel Hill and Duke. It's a good school but it's not as big a part of the consciousness as UNC or Duke. My high school always sent one or two kids to Duke and a bunch to Chapel Hill but mostly didn't send many to Wake.

It's also the a while since their basketball team mattered which means something in NC.

[Anonymous]

Wake is a Duke safety. And there is no shame in that. I have heard some say that Wake is what Duke was 25 years ago - work hard play hard - while Duke has turned into more of a nerdy pressure cooker. So Duke parents who want their kid to have their college experience send them to Wake (or if they can't get their kid into Duke).

It has a national reputation and places kids well but they will have to hustle a bit more to get really good jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

No dog in this race, but in what way is UNC behind Wake?

Every way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has lots of family in NC and went to UNCCH I would say that most people would view Wake as behind UNCCH and Duke and ahead of all other schools in NC except perhaps Davidson, but that is a liberal arts college. I don’t know any people who look down their noses at Wake and I have several UNC and Duke alumni as relatives.

No offense…but what other NC schools are there, especially if you claim they are behind Davidson?

UNCW, UNC-Charlotte, Elon, Appy State, Guilford, UNC-Greensboro, Western Carolina, etc. there are plenty

I guess ahead of Elon, Highpoint and ECU et al?