Wake Forest University Top Questions

Academics at Wake are definitely tough. Given this, the faculty and staff try to give students every chance to succeed and do well. Classes are small which fosters learning and encourages participation. Teachers are always available for extra help. Wake provides an active learning environment in which the student is challenged, but has the tools for success. In the end, the value of a Wake Forest education is something that I expect will evident for the rest of my life.

Wake recently changed their divisional requirements, so now we have more freedom to take what we want instead of what's required. All professors hold office hours, and in my experience all are willing to schedule other times to meet if their office hours aren't conducive to your schedule. Many professors build class participation into the grading percentage breakdown, but class sizes are small enough to where this isn't a problem.

I'm impressed that professors do know everyone's name. My favorite class was Dr Batten's Human Sexuality class and my least favorite was American and Brit Lit. Personally, I don't spend a significant amount of time studying but I do know a select few that when they aren't in class or sleeping, they are in the library. Intellectual conversations outside of class do happen but the ones I've experienced are usually in a bar setting with alcohol involved. Are students competitive? Ruthless is a better word. The education at Wake for me seemed like it was for learning's sake. I am job searching right now and I don't feel prepared at all.

Wake is great as far as academics are concerned. One key example of how great the professors are in general just happened to me. I am in a Religion course and I got a grade on a paper that I was not happy with. I talked to the professor, who was more than willing to give me tons of feedback and scheduled a time to meet with me around MY schedule, and he allowed me to write a replacement paper and drop that grade! I don't think that this could happen at any other school with a larger student body, and that's why academics at Wake are great.

Students definitely study and work hard. Let's not lie--really hard. The classes are small enough that the professors almost always know your name and recognize your presence in class. Many really want to support you both in and outside of the classroom. I have been over to multiple professor's houses for dinner for a special class discussion or celebration. I have the type of relationship with a few of the professors in my department such that tears have been shed in their offices, laughter is common, and conversation extends way past the classroom.

Yes. ~ Favorite this semester: Internship at Baptist Hopsital, Least this semester: Hindu Religious Traditions ~ My friends study all the time. ~ Yes. ~ Yes. ~ Yes. ~ Magic Ritual and Power in Indian Culture ~ Religion major - the Religion department is amazing I love all of my professors and I'm close with most of them. We're a small department too so that helps. ~ Yes. ~ Tooo many required courses - though it's getting better. ~ Learning for its own sake on the Undergraduate side thats based on Liberal Arts.

All of my classes are really small--the biggest class I've had yet was 40 students and the smallest was 15. Unfortunately, the professors do learn your name and they notice if you skip class. But it's nice, too, because the professors are always available to help you out. As a freshman, I really appreciated my first semester Spanish professor. I was struggling in the class and she made a point of meeting with me once a week until I understood the material better. I think Wake tries to make classes about learning for the sake of learning, which is why we have the liberal arts divisional curriculum. But students seem driven to get good jobs when they graduate, which is why a lot of students are pre-med, pre-law, or business majors. Students don't really compete with each other but they do tend to compete with themselves over their grades and work really hard to be academically successful. My favorite class last semester was Introduction to Asian Religions. It has nothing to do with any major or minor I'm interested in, but I thought it sounded like it would be an interesting class, so I took it. It was fascinating and I looked forward to going every day. It wasn't easy, but it was really interesting.

the professors here are terrific. all my professors know my name, and the class size is perfect. i really love my econ class with Boko, he really knows his stuff and he's really interesting. students here study a lot; pre-med students tend to live in the library. class participation is often a part of our grade, so there is a lot of it in the classroom. wake students are rather competitive, but not as much as i've seen or heard about at other schools. i haven't picked a definite major yet, but i'm interested in economics. the education i'm getting at wake is partly for its own sake, because of everything im also learning outside of the classroom, and because it's liberal arts so i get to learn about everything, and also towards getting a job because i think it will impress my future employers.

All of my professors know my name and a lot about me because I haven't had a class with more than 30 students in at least 2 years. The departments (at least the ones I'm a part of--Psychology and Religion) are very intimate, with faculty-student dinners and socials at least once a year or semester. Students work very hard, study a lot, and are usually very vocal in classes, especially in classes of 10-12 people. All my Wake friends are very intelligent and political, and engage in disciplines outside of their majors...constantly fostering a well-rounded education. If you want to be prepared for a specific job, you can definitely do that with Wake's pre-med, pre-law, accounting program, and business school. I chose to approach my education with a more liberal arts focus, studying primarily psychology and religion, but dipping into other disciplines and classes that have interested me. This hasn't necessarily prepared me for anything specific, but has prepared me instead to be continually interested in learning for the sake of learning.

I love the small classes I have at Wake. All of my professors know my name and I feel like I have relationships with many of my current and past professors. Some of my favorite classes so far have been outside of my major, my divisional classes, like Philosophy and Theatre. Students here study a lot, some people keep crazy hours and don't sleep. The workload is definitely not impossible though, especially if you choose your classes wisely and use good time management. The psychology department here is great. I got to know a professor my first semester here who has helped me out a lot planning my classes and giving me other advice. I started helping with her lab's research for class credit spring semester of my freshmen year and I have continued up until now. I am now the only student investigator on a project with her and another professor that will probably become my honors project next year.

Academics are the best thing about Wake. Class sizes on the whole are very small and professors are absolutely amazing. This is not to say the work load isn't difficult and requires a lot of studying, but often times classes are interesting so the work is enjoyable. I've had many great professors who are not only geniuses but do a great job of teaching class and offering help outside of class. I have multiple professors who I consider friends and visit with whenever I have a chance. Academic requirements give students a taste of everything and are to the students benefit. Wake is geared for learning for it's own sake, but will definitely help you get a job after school.

For the most part, professors will know your name, and may even remember it years later if you had a relationship with them. Favorite classes: Foundations of Education with Scott Baker, Jewish American Literature with Dean Franco, and Contemporary American Lit with Jim Hans Least favorites: Intro To Christian Tradition, Juvenile Delinquency Students study a lot and are quite competitive. Most unique class: Theological Perspectives on Ecology with Mark Jensen Students occasionally have intellectual conversations outside of class if you know the right people. There are many great professors in the English department where I am a major, but the actual layout of the dept. and the required classes definitely needs to be updated. We only have to take ten classes to major, but we currently have to take 2 pre-18th century Brit lits AND a class on Shakespeare, and I have little to no interest in this time period and wish I could specialize in something else. There is also no room to really concentrate on a particular genre or era of literature or even to concentrate on creative writing, which I think is a weakness of the department. I love the small classes and sitting around a large table instead of at desks in rows. The education at Wake is definitely geared toward getting a job, which is a definitely flaw of the system. Maybe the individual teachers place more emphasis on the learning component, but the overall vibe I get is that we are here in order to become successfull, and success seems to be correlated to happiness and the amount of money you make. That said, the school is definitely NOT good at helping the true liberal arts majors like English, Philosophy, Religion, etc. find jobs. They assume that everyone wants to be in the business world.

Most professors know my name. I am a biology major, and all of my professors are so enthusiastic about the classes they are teaching. Students study all the time anywhere they can, but have fun too. Many of my classes are lecture style, so class participation is less in those. But my english class and sociology class were very involved. Students are competitive to a certain extent, but not to a malicious extent. People are willing to help if you do not understand something. I am going on a trip to Peru that my Bio professor from last semester takes every summer. There were too many divisional requirements when I entered Wake, but they've lowered them some. Education is geared toward learning and then once you get to junior year they start getting you to attend career services events.

While students have other activities around campus, academics are obviously the main focus of all students. For the most part, professors do know my name. Even in my Introduction to Economics class, with about 50-60 students (which is HUGE for Wake), my professor knows my name. I would say that on average, students study almost every day. This is not like a large state university where you can go out every night of the week. Students mostly only go out on weekends or Wednesday nights. Classes, for the most part, are not optional. Almost every teacher has an attendance policy that expects students to be there on a regular basis. Wake students know this and rarely miss class. Class participation is very very very common. Almost every teacher has a percentage of the grade allocated to class participation. Wake students are very competitive. It is just the nature of people here. Even if students are not in the same classes, many students will compete with each other to have a high GPA.

Professors know my name: almost always Favorite class: MIS with Professor McCray, always depends on the teacher Least favorite class: most core classes Study: all the time except on weekends Class participation: a must for a good grade Intellectual conversations outside class: yes with good friends Competitive: yes to a degree Most unique class: Interpersonal Communication with Professor Louden Major department: business with the undergraduate Calloway Business School Outside class time with professors: no Academic requirements: too many core requirements although recently revised Job or learning centered: mainly learning but job as well

Some do and some don't. Students study a lot, they don't call is Work Forest for nothing. Class participation is very common. Students are competitive with themselves not each other. The education at Wake is geared towards learning for its own sake.

Yes, many professors know my name. Students study constantly, although I think a lot of people just aren't very good at time management and sit in the library doing nothing. Also, people LOVE to complain about how much work they have. Not a ton of intellectual curiosity on campus outside of class. I'm an Econ/Psych double major and I really have enjoyed all my teachers, but don't really spend time with them out of class. Students are competitive but it is not at all cutthroat, not a lot of relative curves so students aren't really directly competing against each other. Students are very willing to have study groups, help out if someone doesn't get the material, etc. We had a lot of divisional requirements, which they've since cut down, but I liked them all because it opened me up to a lot of subjects I wouldn't have thought to take, like Econ, which I ended up loving and majoring in. Education is geared for learning for its own sake, maybe should be a little more focus on helping students look for and obtain jobs. Career services could do more alumni networking, etc.

In most classes my professors know my name. My favorite class is my modern art class, my least favorite is my math class. Students study varying amounts, but most study a good deal in order to keep up. Yes in most classes, people participate. Wake students do have intelligent conversations outside of class, especially about current events and politics. Yes students are very competitive, it is the reason why we are all here. My most unique class was my social dance class. My major department has great faculty and a great arts building. No I don't really spend time with my professors outside of class unless I have a question or concern. Wake has too many divisional requirements. I think it is a good mix depending on your department between learning for learning sake and getting a job.

-academics are intense, professors have high expectations, students have higher expectation -wake has a great deal of academic requirements -everyone is highly concerned with getting jobs after graduation, everything appears to be a means to an end, rather than just learning for enjoyment; this isn't the fault of our professors though, the education isn't geared in such a manner, but rather it is a result of the competitive nature of students

Love my professors... I even call one by her first name. They invite groups over to their houses for dinner on occasion. Students study ALL THE TIME. The library is a social place. Participation is common and expected. Intellectual conversations occur all the time. Wake students are the most competitive I know. I just wish the academic reputation would have more credit.