Wake Forest University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Communications
Minor: Entrepreneurship
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Heterosexual Male
Summary
I’m a part of the Entrepreneurship Society, I’m in a fraternity, and I participate in intramural sports. I’m also in a club called Nourish, which fights for hunger equality.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
High School Experience: Public school in Westchester, NY with a graduating class of about 400 students. There was a culture of going to college.
Major: Communications
Minor: Entrepreneurship
Extracurricular Activities: I’m a part of the Entrepreneurship Society, I’m in a fraternity, and I participate in intramural sports. I’m also in a club called Nourish, which fights for hunger equality.
Have any of your extracurricular activities had a particularly big impact on your experience?
Intramural sports have been a pretty good way to meet new people and still play sports. I love playing sports but it can be hard to do that at the varsity level and the club level can still take a lot of time, so that’s been really good. Greek life has been for making a lot of new friends and having people to have your back and introduce you to new communities.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
It’s heavily reading and writing assignments.
Is there anything you feel the Communications department does especially well or especially poorly?
I think it’s good at introducing you to the professional world and what writing and messages are supposed to be like. You have to learn how to format and also have correct bibliographies. They also make you take a class on rhetorical criticism so you understand how other professionals in the field are critiquing other’s writing. One thing they do poorly is I don’t think they test critical thinking as well as other departments.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s competitive or collaborative?
I would say it’s more collaborative. Oftentimes you’re working in a group and it’s not really a department where only one person can get the top grade or the class is graded on a curved. Everyone is on their own level and it doesn’t matter how the person next to you is doing.
What has been your favorite class you’ve taken for your major?
Public Speaking because it was a class that gets you out of your comfort zone. It was also a small class so it created a community.
What has been your least favorite class in your major?
Empirical Research in Communication because you look at statistics in Communications, which is really hard to do because there are no set numbers on how messages do.
Why did you choose Communications? Are you happy with your choice?
I had taken a couple of Communications classes early on and liked those. I thought that with today’s world getting so into media, it would provide some really useful skills that I would take to try to get a job. I’m pretty happy with it. I think it’s good in the sense that I don’t have to take any hard math classes or science classes that involve a lab. The only thing is because of that, some people look at it in a less favorable light. In some ways, I agree that it’s not the hardest major and I could probably challenge myself more, but, overall, I think it’s a good choice.
Reasons to Attend
1) It’s a great balance of a work hard environment where it’s academically pretty competitive, and play hard in that on the weekends we do party a decent amount.
2) It’s a really nice campus, especially when the weather gets warmer. It’s really nice to be on campus, especially coming from the North. I thought the South was a really good environment.
3) We have Division I athletics. We have tailgates for football and in basketball we play the best teams in the country, so for a sports fan that is really fun.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) Make sure that you’re ready for the small school environment.
2) It’s very much a bubble campus where most things happen on campus so prepare for that.
3) If Greek life isn’t for you, or if you don’t understand it, or you want to be more inclusive in some ways, I would say the school is very Greek life heavy. [In the spring semester after first-year students have been through recruitment, 49% of students are in Greek life.]
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Bostwick dorm with one roommate
Sophomore: Davis in a six-person suite. It was a very small hallway with a bathroom. I had a single when I lived there.
Junior: I studied abroad first semester and then lived in the student apartments for the second semester. We had a little kitchen and a bathroom shared with one other person, and a single room.
What was your favorite living situation?
Davis because I got to live with five of my friends and it was just a really fun time. Although, haven’t had any complaints with any of my living situations. Freshman year was a lot of fun because you got to meet a lot of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I personally have never felt unsafe on campus. Everything is generally fine except the town itself has had a couple of robberies, and there was actually somebody shot and killed on the campus of Winston-Salem State so that was a little scary. But, I personally have never been close to anything that was threatening.
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
Ryan’s is a really good on for your parents to take you to, and then Putter’s and May Way dumplings are my two other favorites.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
I don’t know if I really have a place to get away from campus because it’s somewhat of a bubble campus. There’s not all that much to do in the city. I guess I haven’t explored that much yet.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
Mostly fraternity parties on Friday and Saturday. Thursday night there’s a local bar that has college night, so that’s really the only thing to do on Thursday. There will occasionally be a Wednesday where we go out somewhere too.
Can you describe a typical night freshman year?
Freshman year here everything is kind of open, so you can go to whatever party you want. Before your party, you would talk to your friends and figure out where you want to go. You pick a place to go beforehand, which is usually someone’s dorm, and go there around 10PM. Then around 11:30-12 you call for rides and go out to whatever frat party you want to go to that night.
Do freshman boys have trouble getting into parties?
Actually no, because freshman year first semester is when they are rushing you so they’re actually happy to have freshmen guys there.
What have been your favorite days or nights at Wake Forest?
I would say when the weather gets really nice and we have day parties. We have one where we have a water slide and a dunk tank at the end of the year.
What is the impact of Greek life on nightlife?
Since it’s mainly frat parties until you turn 21, it’s a pretty big impact. [In the spring semester after first-year students have been through recruitment, 49% of students are in Greek life.]
How happy are you with the nightlife? Is there anything you would change if you could?
Overall, I think it’s pretty fun. The only thing I would change is that it’s a little exclusive in the sense that once you’re in a frat, it’s hard to go to other ones. Like if you try to go to other frats, occasionally they’ll give you some problems at the door. That’s the only bad thing about it, but otherwise I have no complaints. It’s probably easier freshman year to get into fraternities than it is when you’re older.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
I had a friend from high school who I knew, so that’s who I would with hang out with freshman year. I met a lot of my friends because they lived on his hall, and I met a couple of people playing pickup basketball and invited them to hang out too. Then, pledging a fraternity helped me make a lot of my closest friend as well.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Wake Forest?
It’s a smallish school, so a lot of people know each other. You can go around campus and you’ll see a bunch of people you know, which is something I like about that. I think people are relatively friendly, like, no one’s going to ignore you. If you know them or have class with them, they’ll smile or wave at you or something. [Wake Forest’s undergraduate enrollment is about 5,200 students.]
To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I would say there is some diversity, but it’s not huge. Because we’re a Division I school, we have a lot of Black athletes, especially on the football team. At the same time, there are a lot of White preppy kids. There is a fair Asian population, as well. In terms of mixing, I would say it’s 67% staying with their own group and the other third intermingling. A lot of the international students from Asia who hang out together, but I room with an Asian guy and have a couple of Asian friends. [About 70% of students are White, 4% of students are Asian, and about 6% are Black.]
Do you think people are happy with their choice of Wake Forest by senior year?
Most people I know and talk to are, but I do know a couple kids who wish they went to a bigger state school.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
So far, no.
Have you used the career office at all?
Not very much. I’ve used their job website before, but it’s not very good and everyone else doesn’t think it’s a very good source.
Have you learned any computer programs that will be helpful to you professionally?
Yeah, I took a computer science course that was focused on Java. I’ve taken a couple of media classes where I’ve learned Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere, and I’ve learned SPSS, which is a statistics software.