Wake Forest 2012 Forum

[dextermorgan]

Dean Shively,

First of all thanks for taking the time to come on TLS and keep us all informed with everything. I definitely appreciate it and I know many fellow TLSers do as well.

I'm curious as to your thoughts on the class size. There seems to be some disillusion among students about the direction Wake Forest is heading in this regard. I know this past year's class was a bit larger than expected and some students are saying Wake is "becoming like UNC," and losing its small school feel. Was this past year's class size simply a result of more students matriculating than expected, or are you planning to gradually increase class sizes?

Having said all that, Wake definitely seems to be on the up and up given what you've said about the competitiveness of this cycle and the drastic rise in applications, especially in a year where they fell overall.

Thanks again for your time.

-Z

When I visited Dean Shively said that they were overenrolled by I believe 15%. He didn't sound happy about it, and I think that how conservative they are being this year shows that they don't want that to happen again.

[placencia]

The class sizes will not be increasing. To confirm, a different formula was used last year to compute acceptances and attrition. Admissions realized relatively early in the cycle that it was going to be incorrect, but there wasn't much they could do other than pray for people to withdraw.

Wake's class sizes are amazing. I have spoken with law professors routinely at other schools who want to work here just because of that. In your first year you can expect class sizes of around 40, depending on size of enrollment. Your writing and research sections will be half that.

In the second and third year, there are large survey classes that everyone has to take and these are your largest classes while at the school. You can have as many as 80 or so in a section, but on average you will only have one of these a semester, maybe two. This year I have had three of the larger classes. Here are the sizes of my other classes, only one of which is a clinic - 8, 11, 12, 19, 23, 23, 36. I may be off by a couple on a few of those. So the point is the mean class size isn't even indicative of what it's like here. I think my numbers are a little abnormal, but not significantly.

There really is no possible way to compare what we have at Wake to other law schools.

[TheZoid]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Hopefully it was an aberration and not the start of a trend, which it seems is the case.

[Dream Machine]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

[SteelyDan]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

[Dream Machine]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

I am genuinely sorry; I didn't take the time to painstakingly read the text of every single post written by every single person who wrote on this thread...Thanks for enlightening me though I guess?

[SteelyDan]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

I am genuinely sorry; I didn't take the time to painstakingly read the text of every single post written by every single person who wrote on this thread...Thanks for enlightening me though I guess?

You're welcome. Thanks for not coming here!

[parebare23]

Link to WF 2015 FB group...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/279091115470436/

[FreeLolita]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

I am genuinely sorry; I didn't take the time to painstakingly read the text of every single post written by every single person who wrote on this thread...Thanks for enlightening me though I guess?

Yikes. This is probably a dumb question, but does this mean that a merit-based award offer that has already been made can potentially be rescinded prior to the start of classes? I was afterall kind of surprised by the generosity of my award.

[SteelyDan]

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

I am genuinely sorry; I didn't take the time to painstakingly read the text of every single post written by every single person who wrote on this thread...Thanks for enlightening me though I guess?

Yikes. This is probably a dumb question, but does this mean that a merit-based award offer that has already been made can potentially be rescinded prior to the start of classes? I was afterall kind of surprised by the generosity of my award.

No, the offers are binding. That was the problem last year - they offerred more money than ever, and way more people than they anticipated accepted it. They couldn't rescind the offers, so the class was a little on the large side.

Don't worry! Unless you go on a crime spree, your scholly's safe.

[ash0117]

No. All law schools give out more money than they have available because they know that many students will choose to go elsewhere. They have some sort of formula to figure out which people are most likely to attend. The problem wake had last year was that they didn't use the same formula that they usually do. So they ended up having more people accept than expected, thereby increasing the class size and scholarship expenditures. Once you put your seat deposit down, you have the scholarship money. They may just have to take it from somewhere else.

I am a 0L, so please correct me if I am wrong. Also, please disregard any potential typos, I am on my phone.

I will be withdrawing this week and freeing up 16K per year, so hopefully it helps someone on here out.

As the Dean said, they've offered more money than is available, so unfortunately it probably won't be going to anyone else.

I am genuinely sorry; I didn't take the time to painstakingly read the text of every single post written by every single person who wrote on this thread...Thanks for enlightening me though I guess?

Yikes. This is probably a dumb question, but does this mean that a merit-based award offer that has already been made can potentially be rescinded prior to the start of classes? I was afterall kind of surprised by the generosity of my award.

[ash0117]

^^ sorry for the double info, someone posted basically the same thing right before me.

[WakeLawAdmDean]

Greetings TLSers~

Wake Law has no plan now or in the forseeable future to increase class size. The cornerstone of the Wake Law experience is the 4X40 Plan which calls on us to bring in 155-165 students or 4 sections of 40. Last year we were overenrolled by 25 people. Even if we had rolled those extra folks in to the first year sections there would have been 45-47 in each 1L section - much lower than most schools. Still my direction is to bring in the most qualified class of 160 students I can find. That is the goal.

Let me know if there are other questions or if I've missed some subtext.

Jay Shively
Wake Law

**For at least the first semester we created an extra section so that students had fewer than forty in their first semester.

[PurplePirate]

Who else is attending the Sholar's Day tomorrow? I'm excited!

[reinbowbrite]

I'm still waiting to find out if I'm accepted....could today be the day?

[BenPH]

I will be at the open house tomorrow as well. Pretty pumped to finally get a chance to check out the school.

So... business casual? Khakis, button down shirt, and blazer? Is a blazer too much?

[PurplePirate]

I will be at the open house tomorrow as well. Pretty pumped to finally get a chance to check out the school.

So... business casual? Khakis, button down shirt, and blazer? Is a blazer too much?

I think khakis and a button down are fine. That's what I'll be wearing.

[goldeneye]

.

[hookem7]

Withdrawn. Good luck to all

[parebare23]

Who else is attending the Sholar's Day tomorrow? I'm excited!

I'll be there. Pretty pumped.

I'll be there!!

[alwayslovely]

Who else is attending the Scholar's Day tomorrow? I'm excited!

I'll be there. Pretty pumped.

I'll be there!!

+1

[irish1485]

Will also be withdrawing tomorrow, good luck everyone still waiting!

[Supurbia]

waitlisted above both medians.... applied too late in cycle I guess.

[Lvaughn714]

Withdrawn...going to Notre Dame most likely

Good luck everyone on waitlist!

[adc1222]

So if I'm waiting for Wake in terms of a $ offer, what's the best way to go about it? I was accepted a couple of weeks ago. I'm very interested in Wake, but the price tag is hefty (I also got into Vanderbilt, WUSTL). Can you send in multiple first deposits (the ~$50 one) and then make a decision before the second deposit, given that Wake might extend more offers in April?

Thanks guys.