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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The truth is that NC has very good public universities and residents are not always willing to pay for private tuition when there are plenty of good in state public options (same thing in Virginia). So you won’t see super high in state state for Wake or Duke because NC kids are going to Chapel Hill, NC State, UNCC, ECU, etc. Same thing with UVA, VT, JMU, W&M, VCU, GMU vs UR, W&L, etc.

The state mandate of minimum 85% allows more NC residents to attend certain schools (Carolina, NC State and UNCC) but it’s more than that for why NC kids prefer Carolina over Duke or Wake. Wake is a perfectly fine school. It’s got a very preppy, a bit conservative, heavy Greek and big drinking culture reputation for social life. Academics are good. not sure Winston is happening.

[Anonymous]

A lot of people at Wake got rejected from Duke and Vandy. No harm in that. Gorgeous campus and people I know who have gone there have loved it

[Anonymous]

We visited Wake and Davidson on the same day. DC loved them both, and I can truly see them happy at either school.

But the students at Wake seemed quite homogeneous (wealthy/preppy) while the students at Davidson seemed much more socially diverse. Lots of different types of kids. True? (I would have expected the opposite given their sizes - the larger school would have more diversity than the smaller school. But maybe this is the difference between a very expensive private research university and a liberal arts school?

Also, my sense is that Davidson is a good bit stronger academically and has better student opportunities on campus, maybe because there’s more than enough to go around? Thoughts?

[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?

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

NC State. As the kids at Duke say, “if you can’t go to college, go to State.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The truth is that NC has very good public universities and residents are not always willing to pay for private tuition when there are plenty of good in state public options (same thing in Virginia). So you won’t see super high in state state for Wake or Duke because NC kids are going to Chapel Hill, NC State, UNCC, ECU, etc. Same thing with UVA, VT, JMU, W&M, VCU, GMU vs UR, W&L, etc.

The state mandate of minimum 85% allows more NC residents to attend certain schools (Carolina, NC State and UNCC) but it’s more than that for why NC kids prefer Carolina over Duke or Wake. Wake is a perfectly fine school. It’s got a very preppy, a bit conservative, heavy Greek and big drinking culture reputation for social life. Academics are good. not sure Winston is happening.

General idea here is right but neither Wake nor any school on par with it or better is competing for students with UNCC or ECU. Also, Richmond and W&L aren't competing for students with GMU or JMU, and probably not VT either. The only in-state students they're competing for go to UVA and W&M.

[Anonymous]

NC resident, i think highly of WF and their focus on undergrad teaching. I’d agree that most residents view UNC higher, but it’s an immensely popular school, tough to get in from hot areas, and the price is extremely affordable. Engineering kids will choose State. Other regional campuses offer beach or mountains. So, the ones left to afford WF are usually aiming higher for oos privates. I personally think despite rankings you could probably get a better education there than UNC though.

[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?

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

NC state is for engineering better than UNC
NC state has some fabulous masters programs in Textiles which has a huge track to CEO jobs and start up culture .

Elon is crap , it’s like High point yuppie parents dumb kids .

ECU medical sv
Chocolate applicants do well from. Great acceptances after undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Oops sorry
ECU medical school acceptances are great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited Wake and Davidson on the same day. DC loved them both, and I can truly see them happy at either school.

But the students at Wake seemed quite homogeneous (wealthy/preppy) while the students at Davidson seemed much more socially diverse. Lots of different types of kids. True? (I would have expected the opposite given their sizes - the larger school would have more diversity than the smaller school. But maybe this is the difference between a very expensive private research university and a liberal arts school?

Also, my sense is that Davidson is a good bit stronger academically and has better student opportunities on campus, maybe because there’s more than enough to go around? Thoughts?

They are seen as peer schools. Wake is also a small school, just not as small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited Wake and Davidson on the same day. DC loved them both, and I can truly see them happy at either school.

But the students at Wake seemed quite homogeneous (wealthy/preppy) while the students at Davidson seemed much more socially diverse. Lots of different types of kids. True? (I would have expected the opposite given their sizes - the larger school would have more diversity than the smaller school. But maybe this is the difference between a very expensive private research university and a liberal arts school?

Also, my sense is that Davidson is a good bit stronger academically and has better student opportunities on campus, maybe because there’s more than enough to go around? Thoughts?

Wake is going to have more STEM opportunities given that it has a medical school and hospital.

[Anonymous]

I like UNC , but it seems like a 1/3 of every NC high school's graduating class gets accepted to UNCCH. Reject most OOS kids which gives the impression they are more competitive than they are with admissions. Then the OOS kid asks his new in-state classmate "you got accepted with those stats!?". Still not sure what major or field they really rank high in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like UNC , but it seems like a 1/3 of every NC high school's graduating class gets accepted to UNCCH. Reject most OOS kids which gives the impression they are more competitive than they are with admissions. Then the OOS kid asks his new in-state classmate "you got accepted with those stats!?". Still not sure what major or field they really rank high in.

Not remotely close to a third. Mine attended a specialized school where they are all more than qualified and nowhere near that get in. They spread the wealth for better or worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like UNC , but it seems like a 1/3 of every NC high school's graduating class gets accepted to UNCCH. Reject most OOS kids which gives the impression they are more competitive than they are with admissions. Then the OOS kid asks his new in-state classmate "you got accepted with those stats!?". Still not sure what major or field they really rank high in.

Not remotely close to a third. Mine attended a specialized school where they are all more than qualified and nowhere near that get in. They spread the wealth for better or worse.

I was curious so I just did a quick look at 2023-24 Common Data for in-state applicants. 15,337 applied and 6,312 were accepted. Puts it at about 41 percent acceptance rate in-state that year. One could go further back like the last 10 years and I imagine would find the same or similar percentages. This last cycle probably not as representative for admission stats for a lot of schools, not just UNC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like UNC , but it seems like a 1/3 of every NC high school's graduating class gets accepted to UNCCH. Reject most OOS kids which gives the impression they are more competitive than they are with admissions. Then the OOS kid asks his new in-state classmate "you got accepted with those stats!?". Still not sure what major or field they really rank high in.

Not remotely close to a third. Mine attended a specialized school where they are all more than qualified and nowhere near that get in. They spread the wealth for better or worse.

I was curious so I just did a quick look at 2023-24 Common Data for in-state applicants. 15,337 applied and 6,312 were accepted. Puts it at about 41 percent acceptance rate in-state that year. One could go further back like the last 10 years and I imagine would find the same or similar percentages. This last cycle probably not as representative for admission stats for a lot of schools, not just UNC.

I was referring to individual schools, a third don’t get in.

[Anonymous]

As an NC native, I view WF well below Duke, Davidson and UNCCH. Unless something has really changed, and the rankings certainly don’t indicate that they have, the caliber of students that attend WF is simply not in the same league. It’s a very solid school and more on par with Elon and Richmond.