Info on Wake Forest? Forum

[Marie34]

Hi everyone! So I orginially applied to Wake Forest just as an afterthought- I didn't really know anything about the school at the time I applied except that it was in NC which is one of my top choices for location. I recently got accepted with a pretty big scholarship, so I started doing more research into the school to find a lot of things I liked, including a large course selection for both tax law and international law and some interesting study abroad oppurtunites. I'm still waiting to hear back from UNC, but I was wondering if anyone could give me any info on Wake Forest? Literally anything would help! Course selection, student life, info on Winston-salem, reputation? Thanks in advance

[Grizz]

The chances you get a job in international law are basically nil.

Job search in N Carolina will be tougher if you are not from N Carolina, and probably even more so if you're not from the South.

[ran12]

Wake Forest has a good rep in NC and the SE states but further you get away from NC the harder it is to get a job even though WF is a good school. Most people self-select for SE states from what I learned when visiting. The campus is nice enough, the law school building is okay. Winston-Salem kind of sucks in my opinion. Everything closes early and it doesn't seem like the most ideal place if you want a social life comparable to Chapel Hill. If you're from NC, you're way better off at UNC even though UNC's law building and class sizes are a joke.

[MattThiessen]

Wake 1L here. If you have more questions, check out the "Wake Law Students Taking Questions" thread (just try searching for that).

Class sizes are awesome. No more than around 40 in all of your 1L sections (and Legal Writing is only about 20 students per section). Typical class size is about 160 with four sections for 1Ls, but this last year it jumped up to about 185 because they extended a few too many offers apparently, so they had five sections. My understanding is that the increased enrollment was on accident and they intend to have a smaller class size next year. Small class sizes wasn't really a factor for me in choosing a school, but it has been really great. All the professors have been extremely accessible and want you to succeed. The atmosphere at the school is not at all cutthroat. I had people share outlines, briefs, E&Es with me all throughout the semester.

A lot of people seem to hate Winston Salem. I personally love Winston Salem though. If you are looking for a big city like New York or D.C. then WS is probably not your best bet. It's not like a po-dunk town though. Hanes Brands, Reynolds Tobacco (duh), Krispy Kreme, and BB&T among others all have their corporate headquarters in WS. It has pretty much everything I need in a city. But, like I said, if you are looking for New York city or a town with a jumping nightlife then WS is probably not your place. There are numerous bars and things to do, so it's not like there is *nothing* to do. We have a pretty big mall, and pretty much everything in WS is no more than 15 minutes away. We don't get a ton of concerts, but Charlotte is only about 1 hour 15-30 minutes away (Raleigh is about the same distance as well).

Price of housing is pretty darn good. I know people who rent nice two-bedroom townhomes for $600. There are several big apartment communities that a lot of the students will frequent, which I believe run about $7-800 for a two bedroom or around $1100 for a three bedroom. Wake usually puts on a "house hunt" in June where you can come down to Winston and they will take you around to different apartment complexes and give you a chance to meet possible roommates.

I can't really speak to 2L-3L course selection. For sure though, considering the small class size they do have a ton of clinics (http://academics.law.wfu.edu/clinics/) which I have been told that everyone who comes to school here is guaranteed the opportunity to participate in a clinic if they want to.

Facilities are adequate. I haven't had any issues with them, but they aren't spectacular. Campus is beautiful, imho.

I'm not doing study abroad, but they have study abroad in London, Vienna, and I forget where else. Apparently Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going to be there for a week of the Vienna one this summer, I think.

If you get into UNC (and they will probably get back to you in April because their admissions office is slower than frozen molasses) then it largely comes down to price. I had to make the same decision. If you look at the employment stats, Wake and UNC are almost identical, but Wake actually fares slightly better overall and by a couple percent with NLJ 250 firms (haven't looked the numbers recently though, so double check me).

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or go check out the Wake Students Taking Questions thread.

In conclusion, tl;dr.

[kalvano]

I visited Wake, and almost went. I really enjoyed every interaction with the school, and the staff and faculty were awesome. It seemed pretty laid-back, and not a bad place to spend 3 years.

Since I ended up not going, I can't speak for the job opportunities and such, but the school itself was nice and enjoyable.

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

A big scholarship at Wake is a pretty solid deal since they've eliminated the GPA stips. CoL is cheap in Winston-Salem so you should be able to keep your debt load minimal.

This year's 2Ls probably placed a smidge over 15% into biglaw through OCI and hustle. We usually bat slightly better than our rank in terms of job prospects (29th in the most recent NLJ placement numbers I think), but god help you if you're outside the top quarter and have a biglaw or bust mindset.

Good people, good teachers, etc. Overall I'm happy in my second year here.