Wake Forest Acceptance Rate: 25%
Shortcut to sections offered for Wake Forest prospective students:
Successful Applicant Profile
- Demographics
- Majors
- SAT/ACT scores
Entry Requirements
- Tuition
- Scholarships
- Checklist of Application Requirements
- Application Deadlines
What Should You Expect?
- Student Life
- Academics Offered
- Athletics Offered
- Notable Alumni
Located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and originally founded back in 1834, Wake Forest is a private research university that is proud to be part of the Southern Ivy League, a group of private schools in the southern United States that are amongst the most prestigious n the country.
While this Southern Ivy League is not an entirely official list like the Ivy League further in the north is, it is still considered to be a grouping of incredibly well-respected and challenging schools.
When it comes to Wake Forest specifically, the Wake Forest acceptance rate is approximately 29% with the majority of students who are accepted to the school ranking amongst the top students in their class.
If it is your dream to attend Wake Forest University, chances are pretty good that you are going to want the academic guidance from a top admissions consultant who can help you get from the very first steps of gathering your materials for your application to the very final steps before sending that application in to make sure that your chance of beating the odds of the Wake Forest acceptance rate is strong.
Here at AdmissionSight, we have the tools, resources, and experience necessary to help the top students in the United States get into the schools of their dreams.
Wake Forest is far from just a place where students can get an incredible education. It is also a place where students go who want to be a part of an electric and fun-loving community, proud and die-hard sports fans, and become part of a wonderful alumni community that has helped open professional doors for countless past graduates.
Going to Wake Forest can absolutely serve as a valuable part of a foundation for a great future. However, before all that fantastic future of yours gets started, you are going to have to actually get into Wake Forest first!
The Wake Forest acceptance rate is currently over 25% which should already give you quite a bit of confidence when it comes to your ability to get in. Still, the average GPA and standardized test score of those students that get into Wake Forest clearly indicates that only the best are actually able to beat the odds.
When it comes to those raw numbers, students who get into Wake Forest tend to score between 1310 and 1470 on the SAT. As for the ACT, students typically score between a 29 and a 33. Finally, when it comes to the grade point average in high school, students who are accepted to Wake Forest average an unweighted GPA of 3.92!
However, before we break down what those numbers mean in more detail, let’s start off with what a successful applicant to Wake Forest University will look like!
Successful Applicant Profile
Wake Forest University sits atop a beautiful suburban campus in Winston-Salem where students can explore the 340 acres of the southern outdoors.
In all, students who attend Wake Forest have over 40 majors and 60 minors in order to choose from. Without a doubt, the fact that the Wake Forest acceptance rate is quite a bit higher than the many of the most competitive schools in the United States does that means that it is easy to get into.
In fact, given the test scores and GPA that are needed to get into this school, it is quite clear that the vast majority of the students who are admitted are amongst the top students in their classes.
As is the case for the vast majority of schools in the United States, the admissions process at Wake Forest is heavily based on the grades that a student earns in high school, the test grades that their score in either the SAT or ACT, as well as vitally important factors such as extracurriculars, teacher and counselor letters of recommendation, and personal essays.
Even if your scores and grades fall right in line with the kinds that Wake Forest is expecting, you will want to make sure that you pay the utmost care to the entirety of your application so that you come off looking as great to the admissions officers as you truly are!
Taking that approach to your applications will not only increase your chances of getting into Wake Forest but all of the universities and colleges that you are interested in attending.
When you do finally get into Wake Forest, this is what your class will most likely look like:
Wake Forest demographics:
When it comes to Wake Forest, a reputable site that ranks schools based on overall diversity ranked the schools as “highly diverse.”
While just over 70 percent of the students at Wake Forest identify as white, a majority of the students at Wake Forest identify as women. In fact, female students at Wake Forest outnumber male students 52.8% to 47.2%.
Perhaps where Wake Forest sets itself apart the most when it comes to diversity is when you consider how many international students travel to Winston-Salem each fall to get a top-notch university education.
In a poll that evaluated a total of 1,288 schools within the United States, Wake Forest ranked as the 262nd best school for students who are traveling from other countries in order to get an education in the United States. Just under 10 percent of the total student body at Wake Forest is made up of international students.
When it comes to what counties these students are coming from, some of the places where Wake Forest is an especially popular destination include China, the United Kingdom, Canada, Peru, Italy, and Australia.
Thanks to this high level of international students, college-aged kids from all over the world get a chance to experience just how special a multi-national and multi-cultural community can be. As the world continues to modernize and expand, there is no doubt that Wake Forest’s international student body will only continue to grow along with it.
What are the most popular programs at Wake Forest?
As you now know, Wake Forest offers a huge wealth of major and minor programs that students can take advantage of. When it comes to which are the most popular, here is a brief breakdown:
- Economics
- Political Science and Government
- Biology
- Finance
- Communications
- Psychology
- Business
- Kinesiology and Exercise Science
- Computer Science
- Spanish Language and Literature
As you can see, the vast majority of these programs offer a clear-cut path when it comes to achieving great things in the professional world. Whether their goal is to become a doctor, lawyer, high-powered business person, or anything in between, you will find that the students at Wake Forest as dedicated to achieving their goals and finding great success.
That will not only put you in the classroom with men and women who are sure to have major impacts on the world, but it will also encourage you to do the very same!
What are the average ACT/SAT scores and GPA or admitted students?
Earlier, we briefly broke down the scores and grades that are necessary to get into Wake Forest, but a big part of our job at AdmissionSight is making sure that students have all of the information that they need in order to achieve their college dreams.
In order to do that, knowledge is often the most important tool at your disposal. So let’s break down everything that you need to know about the SAT, ACT, and GPA expectations when you are applying to Wake Forest.
When it comes to the SAT, the 25th percentile score to get in is 1310 and the 75th percentile score to get in 1470. That means that if you score 1310, you will be facing an uphill battle to get into Wake Forest and your score will be working against you.
On the other hand, if you are able to score about 1470, you will absolutely be in rarer air when it comes to Wake Forest and your application will certainly be looked at very seriously.
When it comes to the CT, the 25th percentile score to get in is 29 and the 75th percentile grade is a 33. Just like the SAT’s 25th percentile score, if you score a 29 you will have a score that is less than the average score of students who get in. If you score a 33 or higher, you will look great compared to your fellow applicants as your score will be above the average score.
Finally, in terms of your high school GPA, students who are accepted to Wake Forest tend to perform very well in their high school courses. In fact, the average GPA for students who are accepted to Wake Forest is a 3.9 out of the perfect 4.0.
If you are curious about how you can improve your GPA, one of the most useful ways to do that is by enrolling in AP courses or honors courses that come with weighted GPAs. This means that if you earn an A grade in either an AP course or Honors course, it will actually count towards your GPA as more than a 4.0!
Entry Requirements
While the vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States have a similar list of entry requirements for incoming freshmen, there are always some small differences that high school students who want to beat the Wake Forest acceptance rate odds will want to keep in mind.
As previously mentioned, it is going to take more than just great grades and standardized test scores alone to get into this school. Students have to be able to prove that they will be a positive and productive force within the student body and on the school’s campus.
Just as universities have to make tough decisions about students who they admit, students have to make some tough decisions about what school they end up going to.
The truth is, money may very likely play a large role in your final decision. Keeping that in mind, here is the information about how much weight force will cost and what kind of financial aid options are available to students.
How much will it cost to attend?
If you are at all familiar with the pricing of the typical private school in the United States, the following price breakdown of what it costs to attend wait for us these days should not come as much of a surprise to you:
As you can see, Wake Forest stacks up quite comparable to many of the most expensive schools in the United States. Luckily, the school also offers an incredible amount of financial aid to students who are in need.
Financial aid at Wake Forest
Financial aid of course refers to funding that incoming students are able to use in order to pay for college. The most common types of funding include merit-based funding and need-based funding. need base funding is determined based on you or your family’s ability to pay for the college that you have been made to based on the calculations made by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
For students at Wake Forest, the average amount of a need-based scholarship is a fairly astounding $50,422. Beyond that, over 30 percent of students who are enrolled at Wake Forest received need-based aid.
What are the application requirements?
When it comes to applying to Wake Forest, there are some things that you will be required to send in in order to be considered. That includes:
- $65 application fee
- Secondary school report form
- Teacher recommendation form
- Official high school transcript
- SAT/ACT scores (only if you want the scores considered)
- Official TOEFL or IELTS score report (for international students)
- Confidential financial information form (for international students)
When is the application deadline?
For students who are looking to get into Wake Forest, the early decision deadline for applications is November 15. The early decision II and regular decision deadline is January 1.
What to Expect
One of the very best ways to get a good idea about whether or not a school will be right for you is to simply see what current students are saying about the school. Thanks to a site that allows students to review the schools that they are attending, you can read hundreds of reviews about Wake Forest.
Here are some of the best:
“Wake Forest is a collaborative and supportive environment. Class sizes are small, so participation and preparation are a must. Professors are available and willing to help as long as you reach out. Wake offers a variety of majors and minors and even has an innovation quarter downtown that houses the new engineering dept.
Wake does have a very prominent greek life that brings more harm than good to the social life here; however, the administration has been cracking down on societies. Wake’s Office of Professional and Career development is relatively helpful, although I recommend using the resume templates provided to business school students. The office offers a number of stipends to support students taking on unpaid internships.
There are lots of on-campus events and traditions as well for students to take part in, such as the lighting of the quad, Wake ‘N Shake, Project Pumpkin, and Shag on the Mag. All these events provide lots of involvement and leadership opportunities for students.”
“I love this school with my whole heart. The campus is beautiful and welcoming, and I have met some lifelong friends so far during my two years as a student here. However, the school is small in nature, which takes some getting used to as it continuously gets smaller over time, in the aspect that there are increasingly more familiar faces a student can see in a given day.
Wake Forest could be more diverse, and I think that would help the campus learn more from each other. Right now, to me, it seems like the student body is somewhat homogenous. I think that by admitting more students from different backgrounds, the school could only improve.”
Great courses to consider
Of course, Wake Forest has all of the important courses and programs that top schools are expected to have, but the school also goes far beyond. Here are some of the courses they have been given top scores from students who took them at Wake Forest.
- PSY 260 – Social Psychology
- CRW 100 – Intro to Creative Writing
- ENG 150 J – Literature Interprets the World
- CSC 111 – Intro to Computer Science
- ECN 150 – Intro to Economics
- ACC 111 – Intro to Financial Accounting
- JOU 276 – Art of Sounds: Radio, Podcasting & Digital Narrative
- Bio 320 – Comparative Anatomy
What about sports?
Known as the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, the school has a total of 16 varsity teams that compete in the NCAA Division I and within the Atlantic Coast Conference. Their most popular varsity sports include men’s and women’s basketball, golf, soccer, tennis, and women’s volleyball.
Famous alumni
As is the case with all of the most prestigious schools in the United States, a number of men and women who studied at Wake Forest went on to achieve great things. Here are some of the most influential alumni.
- Arnold Palmer, golfer
- Tim Duncan, basketball player
- Chris Paul, basketball player
- Jesse Helms, politician
- Carol Barbee, producer
- Kay Hagan, lawyer
- Donna Edwards, politician
- Al Hunt, journalist
- Frank Thompson, politician
If you hope to one day see your name on this admissions list, the very first step you will have to take is getting into Wake Forest!
Let us at AdmissionSight help you craft the strongest possible college application so that you can beat the odds of the Wake Forest acceptance rate and spend the next four years studying at this wonderful school.