Wake Forest University Business School

Fine. Just flagged it.

What were the points of feedback from the kids that didn’t love the Biz School on accepted students day?

What barriers did you encounter please?

I think that in our opinion the main barrier was limited career support for non B-school students. We felt our older son got significant better career services at his large state university than D did. Would be interesting to poll the other non-B school parents to see what they think–if there are any on here.

Oh-and also not being able to register for specific classes. This was an issue until senior year. Made it difficult/stressful to get divisional and major requirements completed and also plan a class schedule that would support success.

Full disclosure S is in B School so I can’t speak with personal knowledge of non B school career services activity. That said, I do know the the OPCD (Office of Professional And Carerr Development) offers several things of interest including courses (for credit) in Stength Finding (determining one’s interest in a career), resume building, interviewing, etc. They also have career Treks (anyone can attend) in Politics (DC) , Tech (Silicon Valley and Austin, TX, Communications (NYC) and of course the typical business treks. The Fall and Spring Career Fairs are open to everyone and they bring a lot of companies to campus. Info sessions are typically open to all but likely heavily attended by B school kids. I know this because kids select their major 2nd semester sophomore yr and S had been attending info sessions starting Freshmen yr (so no B school requirement). S had a certain mindset so that may have something to do with it but certainly don’t know or wouldn’t comment on anyone elses motivation.

The head of the OPCD was a senior exec of career placement at Stanford (B School) and is an advocate of positioning career services for the whole university, not just the B School.

I beleive the resources are there for those that seek them out, but again, I can’t speak to the non B school experience.

Point of clarification–I did not intend to imply that B-school students get better career support from the OPCD than non B-school students and if that’s the impression I conveyed I apologize.

My post referred to the fact that the B school provides its students with designated career coaches who give regular personalized support in terms of opportunities, upcoming deadlines, etc. There are also networking events and on-campus recruiting/interviewing events reserved for B-school students.

In terms of the OPCD, if a student comes to Wake already knowing he or she wants a career in business, the OPCD provides job fairs/treks and its job-searching app Handshake is certainly business-oriented, so those are helpful resources. I’ve also heard there may be some recruitment events that open up to all students if they haven’t filled with B-school students.

Liberal arts students less sure of their potential career path may benefit from proactively meeting with their major advisor, once one is assigned (junior year, I think), to brainstorm career options. The First Destination reports are also a good source of ideas. My daughter felt that faculty in her major were very helpful in this regard. Not sure about the Education courses focused on career choice as I don’t believe those were available at the time. While D was at Wake the OPCD website advised that internships were best found through parental connections–don’t know if that has changed or not–but that’s what we did.

Prospective families who want to investigate further might consider checking out the University of Richmond’s website to see what resources are provided to all students by a highly ranked college career service and use that as a benchmark for evaluating services at other schools. Princeton Review’s 384 Best Colleges was our college-hunting bible and lists top-ranked college career services in its ā€œRanking Listsā€ section.

My daughter busted her tail to get into the business school finance program. If your kid wants to get into finance they need to get ready for the competition - getting into the business school is just the beginning. Most of the NYC firms that many aspire to are looking for a 3.6-3.8 GPA minimum. Finance is arguably the most difficult major at Wake, but the kids who do well and keep up their GPA are generously rewarded. My daughter landed a financial analyst summer internship at one of the top 3 investment banks in NYC. The support of the Wake Business School is a big deal, they provided her with a career coach that has walked her through the whole process and met with her numerous times to prepare her for her interviews.

Just had a nice weekend visit at Wake while D was auditioning at UNCSA down the street. S is a junior and just secured a great summer internship. He’s a fin major. Happy to report that virtually all of his friends, B school and non B school, have great plans for the summer. The B school kids are naturally job focused and lined up good career launching internships. The others are doing interesting things relevant to their majors. PoliSci majors working in senator’s office as an aid, pre law working at a law firm, Spanish major spending the summer in Cuba, several doing Prof led research, etc.

The career services support is real. However, you still have to be quite proactive. They’re not doing it for you but are really ready, willing, and able to help. The alumni network is a real thing! Very helpful and proactive. Great source of informational interviews, guidance, etc. Again, takes the student to be engaged and determined.

Facts - My S was accepted ED to Wake (class of 2026) with the intent to major in accounting in the B school. He worked hard, pledged a fraternity (now is the Treasurer), made an A in accounting, B in econ, and AP for his calc prerequisite. He has a 3.5 GPA. Spent 2023 summer interning with a $200M/year construction company. He was rejected by the B school. The stated reason was that the B school admissions committee took a ā€œholistic viewā€ of the applications and the foregoing coupled with the scoring on the essay questions was not one of the top 300. Total number of applicants was 456. No appeal process. No deferrals. He now can’t major in accounting at Wake, despite having the aptitude.

Those are the facts.

Opinion – Nobody told us the code for ā€œholistic viewā€. The feeling is a bait and switch. He worked hard and got the grades. You can’t tell me there were 300 more qualified applicants. The ā€œholisticā€ notion for evaluation allows Wake to subjectively determine winners and losers, after we are spent life altering funds for two years. You can’t tell me they can’t find one more seat in the B school for a student with demonstrated aptitude. These decisions permanently change the trajectory of lives, and the notion of such impact being predicated on holistics is disengenous given all that Wake tells prospective students, and parents.

I’m sorry to hear this. This is the reason why many counselors tell students to prioritize direct entry to their intended major. Wake isn’t the school with secondary admit to business that uses holistic admissions…UVA is another notable one. These schools want to balance gender, majors, and other types of diversity in their business school.

Did your son transfer so that he could be an accounting major?

This thread is four years old. Feel free to start a new post. Closing.

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