Parent of a Wake Forest ‘21 grad. I can only speak to S’ experience and our personal observation of his growth, type of kids he associated with, quality of students / education. outcomes, etc. We are upper middle class from FL. I own a business and we do well but not wealthy by any stretch. I would say we’re comfortable. We were full pay and that was not a “no brainer” like it would be for some.
Certainly there are wealthy kids at Wake. But there are also plenty of middle class and lower income. I don’t have data to break down. In S’ fairly large friend group, we were about average. Some kids came from very wealthy families, while others received a significant amount of need based aide. From what we observed, most of the kids were pretty down to earth either way. That’s how our kid is so maybe he self selected a group of “similars”. There are a lot of private HS kids there if that matters.
Greek life is prevalent, however it is not a necessity to have a rich, full experience at Wake. S was not in Greek life (outside of his business fraternity which was a mix of everyone and a major social outlet for S). He also played Club Baseball (which also had a mix of Green and Non- Greek). More on that in a minute.
I would characterize S as a borderline introvert and he was definitely seeking a college environment to reset. If left unchecked, especially at 18, he would be perfectly happy just staying home and binging some show vs. going out all the time. He did go out but wasn’t an initiator. Had a small but close group of friends in HS. His identity in HS was basically surrounded by sports, student government and being an excellent student. Came from a small public charter HS because we felt the regular public options were pretty lousy. He was his school’s Jefferson Scholar’s nominee if that paints the picture. I use that as a reference because that type of kid is pretty common at Wake Forest. His final choice was between Wake and W&M. He chose Wake because he felt it was right of center on the social scene. He liked W&M a lot but felt like it would keep him more like his then current self which he was looking to change. Pretty common cross admit schools BTW.
He received an excellent education (very LAC like). He was a Finance Major and Politics/ International Affairs Minor ( of which interest was developed via the LAC like core curriculum). He really like the politics classes - maybe more so than his major.
Politically I would say, from what we saw, it is pretty balanced. Many kids may come from a conservative home, but they’re not necessarily conservative. The profs certainly fall in the typical college range of leaning left so they are exposed to a lot of that. Diversity and ESG have become major topics and the College is making major efforts to shine a light on past deficiencies in our culture. Almost to the point where I want to say, “Give it a rest already…” but that’s a different conversation. The new President is female. The new Provost is Female. The new Dean of the B School is female. They all are quite accomplished and qualified so that’s great to see and I’m sure sets an example to all stakeholders of what can be. There are many resources and efforts spent on highlighting pro LGTQ+, pro diversity, and pro female messaging, so I think it’s not that different than any other college from that respect. Sometimes I think what gets confused with “conservative” is the gentile demeanor of a southern school. It is in the south. It’s hard to not notice that when you’re in downtown Winston Salem. Very polite, friendly people. Interestingly enough it’s student body hales from all points but heavily and equally represented from the northeast and southeast / south. Almost like a bunch of people from Philly to Boston wanted a great liberal arts type education without the snow and cold.
Similar to most LACs, there is a heavy emphasis on the teacher / scholar model and residential focus. All kids live on campus for three yrs, including the Greek kids which secure wings within the dorms. All freshmen live in one area (south side of campus), typically move to around the quad for Soph / Junior years and then many move off to nearby apartments for senior yr. Between living on campus, the small classes, and lots of campus wide events (that actually get major support from the whole campus including staff), you get to know tons of kids. Because of the total UG population of 5k, it’s big enough to always meet new kids, yet small enough to see people you know whenever you want.
Greek life is interesting. S chose not to go down that path. There was a time when he felt he would as a chunk of his freshmen friend group (made through the dorms) thought they’d do that so they could still go to frat parties and such. S actually rushed and was accepted in his first choice but most of his friends actually decided against rushing so he had a decision to make. You certainly can be friends with both groups however the pledge period is really busy and it would have meant spending very little time with his primary friends so he made the decision He decided to quit the frat process right away. Through his dorm, he bonded really well with several kids and that group has grown. They remained very close all four yrs and have visited each other in several cities throughout the US since graduation (including some RV trips out west). They typically didn’t do much with the frats in terms of parties but they were very busy with their own events, business frat events (many), intramural sports, Club sports, etc. When we would visit (once per semester because we loved the area) we made a point of taking him and friends out to pizza or whatever. Freshmen yr it was a group of 5. Senior yr we hosted a dinner party at our airbnb for about 25 (had to scramble for chairs) of a great mix of guys and girls. Their female friends were a good mix of sorority and non-greek. I mention this because I would have thought the sorority girls would basically just hang out with the frats but S and many of his friends were invited to “date nights” and formal all the time. So no need to “have to be greek”.
I’ll finish by saying this. All of his friends were/are very sharp. Some of them very outgoing. Some of them more reserved. All of them like hanging out together regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds. The common denominator I witnessed was everyone was very smart and quite accomplished in at least one or two things. Also I noticed a sense of everyone being pretty active especially in areas of interest / ECs. Very rigorous academically, yet they found the time to do lots of things outside the classroom. I haven’t delved in to D1/ ACC sports. But if that’s an interest the fan base is great and it’s very exciting. S is a major sports fan. If he’s not playing, he’s watching. Had a blast at football, basketball, soccer (big time!), baseball. Even went to a few tennis matches. They’re just very proud of their school with spirit evident everywhere. This is probably the biggest differentiator between Wake and the traditional LACs. Best of both world IMO but not for everyone of course.
Hope this helps.