<p>I’ve never understood these threads on college social life. It depends so much on one’s personality. if you’re anti-social, it’s not like the college you go to will all of a sudden make you social. And the opposite is true as well. You will find like-minded people no matter where you go. </p>
<p>People like medman and warbler can say different things about the schools, but they both didn’t go to either hopkins or wake for undergrad. It’s therefore impossible for them to accurately capture and contrast the experiences at the two schools. You’d really have to speak to students/alumni from the two schools. And even for majors like bio or physics that require higher degrees like warbler referred to, you’d have a much easier time getting into a reputed grad school coming out of Hopkins versus Wake. Getting a recommendation letter from a faculty member from a renowned Hopkins faculty member in say biology or physics is night and day versus getting a recommendation letter writer from Wake Forest for graduate school. I can tell you this based on my prior role in admissions at Stanford’s graduate school for engineering. I’ve seen applicants apply to engineering programs at Stanford with non-engineering degrees from Hopkins and Wake. At Stanford graduate school, a 3.5 at Wake was never viewed in same light as a 3.5 from Hopkins due to the reputation of the faculty writing the letters of recommendation. This is even despite the likely similar education provided by either school (math in terms of general material is likely the same wherever you go, but higher achieving classmates might dictate the speed of the course along with higher demands by instructors) . The accepted applicants from Wake were truly among the tops of their class. I could not say the same about the accepted Hopkins applicants.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, college is four years. Your life is about fifteen times that amount post college. There’s a reason why Hopkins students didn’t go to a smaller LAC or a big state school with a potentially better social atmosphere. You <em>might</em> have the same opportunities coming out of Wake versus Hopkins, but you’d have to work and network a lot harder at Wake. If you’re confident that you’ll do well at Wake, then by all means choose Wake.</p>