Perry
One of the best things about going to school at Wake is that there’s almost always something fun to do. Sure, Winston-Salem doesn’t have much of a nightlife, but within the Wake bubble there’s always something planned for students. Some events many students look forward to include Shag on the Mag, a completely prepped-out night of South Carolina-style shag dancing on the quad, Project Pumpkin, a volunteer day where local kids trick-or-treat on campus, and Wake ‘n Shake, a newer fundraising 12-hour dance marathon for cancer research. Greek life aside, there are many clubs on campus that many students manage to get excited about. The Lilting Banshee’s, a comedy group on campus, perform for students every semester and are promoted during that time by ubiquitous yellow signs with hilarious sayings. In fact, one of the first things a new freshman might encounter could be a neon sign cautioning that “the Freshman 15 shouldn’t come out in 9 months with a name”. In addition, the extremely talented and numerous a capella groups always draw big crowds to their shows. We even have a secret society, called the Twenty-Threes, but the details about it are shrouded in secrecy. But for me, and many others on campus, Greek life dominates the social scene. If you want a party and can’t go to bars yet, you’ll have to find a fraternity house, hall, or lounge to go to. The party situation at Wake is complicated because, unlike many schools, we don’t have official frat houses. We do have halls and lounges in dorms, where sometimes the fraternities hold parties that almost always get busted. It’s easy though to get rides to off-campus parties, especially if you’re a freshman. For big parties, fraternity pledges will run shuttles and pick you up right at your door. The biggest party nights, besides the weekend, are Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesdays many fraternities rent out bars, where you shouldn’t have much trouble getting a drink, or house parties. Thursdays, however, are for the 21-and-up crowd at bars and sporting events with drink specials. On Saturdays, there’s almost always an opportunity to drink at a party during the day, which sounds like a recipe for disaster because it is. That being said, I’ve also had some of my craziest and most fun times at Wake during these day parties. Off-campus, a lot of students get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters and mentor once a week with their little. I’ve gotten so much out of my time with my little, Cymone, who just started high school. I’ve enjoyed doing things with her that I often wished that I had an excuse to do, like put-put golfing, painting pottery, or just getting my nails done.
Matt
I participate in Student Government and there are a lot of dedicated and hard working kids here. There are plenty of things to do on the weekend for the drinkers and non-drinkers, and the Student Union really works hard to give everyone something to do.
Tom
Popular organizations are the greek organizations; I know one student who does not lock her door; the athletic events are very, very popular, speakers not so much, theatre moderately popular; the dating scene is very much composed of hookups and one-night stands; there are people in long-term relationships, but lots of them are with students at other schools; the GLBT dating scene is absolutely horrible since no one here is out; I met my closest friends through the Gay-Straight organization and through a diversity residence organization; 2am on Tuesday I would be working on homework; People party at least once a week, usually on Fridays; Last weekend I watched movies, slept in, went to a get-together at a friend's house, and did work
Susan
Fraternities and sororities are the most popular organizations on campus. I was in Kappa. Students in the dorm do leave their doors open. If I'm awake at 2am on a Tuesday, I'm drunk.
Tradition: When sports teams win events, we throw toilet paper all over the trees.
Off campus we go to bars, restaurants or movies.