2014-2015 Wake Forest University Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Pluto2 said:
I am no adcom - just a humble applicant like you and on my first cycle too. I'd have said the same thing, assuming <30 as a hard line for Wake - yet this is a selective secondary and here you are, so there is something they see in you, keep the faith!
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this isn't a great assumption, mainly because if you were <30 and that was their hard line, why would you receive a secondary? there are plenty of students with greater mcat scores who didn't get one. just relax and let them do the picking, you've worked hard so far!
 
Pluto2 said:
Secondary's are requested of about 35% of applicants and of those abut 10% are invited to interview. From what I can tell nearly everyone who interviews is granted an offer and the yield is about 30% - these are my notes and they came from "the best 168 medical schools" - 2012 data?
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Heads up folks - This is NOT accurate! I'm going to repost what I posted six weeks ago when I matriculated:

2013-2014's numbers, as reported here: https://www.facebook.com/wakeforestsm

8,091 applicants
541 interviewed
238 acceptances
Final class of 120

So while I don't know how many people are offered secondaries, I do know that about 6.6% of all applicants were interviewed last year, and 43% of the people who interviewed were offered acceptances. A little over half of those accepted chose to matriculate at Wake Forest. This is a vastly different situation than your proposed "nearly everyone who interviews is granted an offer and the yield is about 30%," @Pluto2, so I recommend editing or deleting your post so that people don't see it and miss my correction.

Luck to all!
 
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hopeful_derm said:
Does anyone know if wake is receptive to in the area emails
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I sent one and didn't hear anything. I sent an update a month later (which also brought up that I would be in the area) and received an II the following week so it doesn't hurt! I didn't get an "unfortunately we do not accept updates" email either time.
 
Pedsmdplease said:
I sent one and didn't hear anything. I sent an update a month later (which also brought up that I would be in the area) and received an II the following week so it doesn't hurt! I didn't get an "unfortunately we do not accept updates" email either time.
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Did you just send your update to the admissions email address?
 
surely said:
Heads up folks - This is NOT accurate! I'm going to repost what I posted six weeks ago when I matriculated:

2013-2014's numbers, as reported here: https://www.facebook.com/wakeforestsm

8,091 applicants
541 interviewed
238 acceptances
Final class of 120

So while I don't know how many people are offered secondaries, I do know that about 6.6% of all applicants were interviewed last year, and 43% of the people who interviewed were offered acceptances. A little over half of those accepted chose to matriculate at Wake Forest. This is a vastly different situation than your proposed "nearly everyone who interviews is granted an offer and the yield is about 30%," @Pluto2, so I recommend editing or deleting your post so that people don't see it and miss my correction.

Luck to all!
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Thank you very much for what is better and clearly more accurate and current, information!
 
tarheel1408 said:
Hey everyone! Good luck in the upcoming 2014-2015 cycle. I am an MS2 here at Wake and I would be happy to help anyone out if they have specific questions about the school or Winston-Salem itself. Wake is a wonderful school and I am so happy to be here. I hope that many of you will feel the same way!

A few tips for applying to Wake: I believe that Wake is interested in having students that want to be here, and also fit with the culture of the medical school campus. Letters of interest have a strong impact in the admissions office at Wake - if you want to be here, then tell us why! Additionally, I want everyone to know that once you've been invited to interview, Wake believes your academic credentials are sufficient and that you'll be able to succeed here. So if you're here for an interview, don't worry about the ad com worrying if your MCAT score is high enough, or something else. When you're here for an interview, we want to see how well you fit. So just be yourself!

Anyways, feel free to PM me if you have questions, but if it's a question that other people may benefit from, or another student may also be able to answer, I'd appreciate it if you just posted in this thread. Good luck!
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Does Wake prescreen before offering secondaries?
 
longroad2here said:
Does Wake prescreen before offering secondaries?
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Don't all schools prescreen before offering secondaries? Maybe I'm confused by your question. Can you explain what you mean by prescreen?

Edit: Oh my god, I'm an idiot, please ignore this post. I'm leaving it rather than deleting it just to showcase how truly stupid I am when I go on the internet ten minutes after waking up. To answer your question, yes, not all applicants receive a secondary.
 
goldfish91 said:
I believe it is stated earlier in the thread, but WF appears to do a relatively stringent pre-secondary screen (as in only about 1/2 - 1/3 of applicants get a secondary). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't seen anything verifiable stating that to be the case.
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I think we applied to pretty much all the same schools gold fish haha. But yea, I'm pretty sure Wake Forest only gives about 35% of their applicants secondaries. Considering that they interview around 500 people, you have a decent chance of getting an interview if you get a secondary (about a one out of six chance). Take all this with a grain of salt though, these are really crude numbers. They supposedly only give secondaries to individuals they think have a chance of getting interviewed.
 
Hiya

I'm currently in my first year at Wake. Even if you guys have already figured this out, I'll reiterate just to hammer the point home:
Call the admissions office if you haven't received an ii already

Do your research on the program before you interview and tell them why you want to be a part of the program.

If you're waitlisted don't give up. Keep calling and sending in letters.

I had a very low GPA, got an ii over the phone when I called to check status. So did 2 of my friends. Hint hint.

Got waitlisted and didn't get off until about a month before orientation, after sending 4 letters of interest.

Point being, just show them you want to come here. If that's actually the case it shouldn't be too hard. And be tactful, there's a fine line between being persistent and getting slammed with a restraining order hehe. Let me know if you have any other questions, and keep up the hard work
 
thrillho89 said:
Hiya

I'm currently in my first year at Wake. Even if you guys have already figured this out, I'll reiterate just to hammer the point home:
Call the admissions office if you haven't received an ii already

Do your research on the program before you interview and tell them why you want to be a part of the program.

If you're waitlisted don't give up. Keep calling and sending in letters.

I had a very low GPA, got an ii over the phone when I called to check status. So did 2 of my friends. Hint hint.

Got waitlisted and didn't get off until about a month before orientation, after sending 4 letters of interest.

Point being, just show them you want to come here. If that's actually the case it shouldn't be too hard. And be tactful, there's a fine line between being persistent and getting slammed with a restraining order hehe. Let me know if you have any other questions, and keep up the hard work
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. . . I'm calling tomorrow lol. Thank you for the advice
 
thrillho89 said:
Hiya

I'm currently in my first year at Wake. Even if you guys have already figured this out, I'll reiterate just to hammer the point home:
Call the admissions office if you haven't received an ii already

Do your research on the program before you interview and tell them why you want to be a part of the program.

If you're waitlisted don't give up. Keep calling and sending in letters.

I had a very low GPA, got an ii over the phone when I called to check status. So did 2 of my friends. Hint hint.

Got waitlisted and didn't get off until about a month before orientation, after sending 4 letters of interest.

Point being, just show them you want to come here. If that's actually the case it shouldn't be too hard. And be tactful, there's a fine line between being persistent and getting slammed with a restraining order hehe. Let me know if you have any other questions, and keep up the hard work
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What exactly did you say when you called to check status and got an interview invite?
 
I should add that it's much better to give the admissions office at least 4 weeks after you get notice that your application is complete. Waiting sucks, but they'll probably notice your patience and appreciate that.

As for the call - just be pleasant and polite. For all adcoms that I called by phone pre-ii, I just told them that I was trying to stay on top of my applications and keep organized, and so I was hoping they could let me know how my application was doing. Don't hesitate to make small talk, it could go a long way (and will make you feel less awkward).

If it doesn't work the first time, there's no harm in trying again in 2 or 3 weeks. Just stay positive
 
thrillho89 said:
I should add that it's much better to give the admissions office at least 4 weeks after you get notice that your application is complete. Waiting sucks, but they'll probably notice your patience and appreciate that.

As for the call - just be pleasant and polite. For all adcoms that I called by phone pre-ii, I just told them that I was trying to stay on top of my applications and keep organized, and so I was hoping they could let me know how my application was doing. Don't hesitate to make small talk, it could go a long way (and will make you feel less awkward).

If it doesn't work the first time, there's no harm in trying again in 2 or 3 weeks. Just stay positive
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^^^ call me crazy but I just think this would be terribly annoying to any admissions member
 
amad01 said:
^^^ call me crazy but I just think this would be terribly annoying to any admissions member
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You're not crazy. I would advise against this "strategy". Some schools allow you to update them via secondary portal, and obviously they know that's where you should check your status as well. Other schools don't allow letters of interest/updates because of the sheer number of apps they gotta sift through. Perhaps this one school admired this student's persistence. I wouldn't say most schools would welcome this, though.

But who am I to say this. Just my opinion.
 
You're both absolutely correct, as a general rule it's a bad idea to assume something that works at one school will translate to another. So always be sure to read through past threads and gauge whether or not calls or letters seemed to work for good or for bad. For instance, Temple accepted absolutely no calls last cycle. Drexel lost both of my letters (continued interest while on waitlist) via e-mail, and seemed really pissed when I called and asked why they hadn't enclosed them in my file. (No bad blood there, just making a point - I totally understand in light of the fact that they receive record numbers of applications each year).

Nevertheless, when I had two friends clue me in on how they managed to score ii's, and when several other people, including one of my student hosts at the interview, told me about how they got off the waitlist after sending in letters, I felt like I couldn't pass on that protip.

So while you raise a good point, don't be so quick to discourage people from placing a quick phone call or sending a few e-mails to the good folks at Wake. It may irritate the admissions officers at other schools, but it's an expectation here, almost like an extra step in the admissions process, in addition to the AMCAS, the secondary, and the faculty interview. On at least 3 different occasions, I had 10 - 15 minute conversations with admissions/financial aid officers about football, or how cold the winters get in the northeast. If you play your cards right, and find a balance between appearing determined without being too desperate (I was about as desperate as they come), then it can only help you.

TL;DR

Just trust me on this one - give the office plenty of time before calling or writing a letter to check on the status, tell them how stoked you are to be a student here, and see where it takes you.
 
For those of you who have already interviewed is it recommended to rent a car or is a taxi from the greensboro airport to the school affordable?
 
Where do single students usually live? And what is the cost of living like?
 
yaoigirl said:
For those of you who have already interviewed is it recommended to rent a car or is a taxi from the greensboro airport to the school affordable?
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Taxi is going to be $50 each way. Rent a car.
 
VanEman said:
Where do single students usually live? And what is the cost of living like?
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Most students live in Ardmore or West End in apartment complexes. CoL is very low here. Rents run aroun $400/mo? Not too sure because I live in a house.
 
yaoigirl said:
For those of you who have already interviewed is it recommended to rent a car or is a taxi from the greensboro airport to the school affordable?
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The interview info page gives a detailed description on using public transit if you are up for it! It also is really cheap so I will probably opt for that!
 
Hi guys! Anyone know if these interviews are open file or closed file? I know we have 3 interviews but I don't know much more beyond that, even after looking through the website/old SDN forums (of course, I definitely could've missed something, in which case, sorry!). From the info I was able to find about Wake, I cannot wait to see it! Thank you in advance 🙂
 
Pedsmdplease said:
Hi guys! Anyone know if these interviews are open file or closed file? I know we have 3 interviews but I don't know much more beyond that, even after looking through the website/old SDN forums (of course, I definitely could've missed something, in which case, sorry!). From the info I was able to find about Wake, I cannot wait to see it! Thank you in advance 🙂
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3 interviews!? Guess I need to read up on my interview info
 
Pedsmdplease said:
Hi guys! Anyone know if these interviews are open file or closed file? I know we have 3 interviews but I don't know much more beyond that, even after looking through the website/old SDN forums (of course, I definitely could've missed something, in which case, sorry!). From the info I was able to find about Wake, I cannot wait to see it! Thank you in advance 🙂
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MS1 here - When I interviewed last year, I had three faculty interviewers (which means no student interviewers), and about 15 minutes to talk to each. They had access to everything in my file except my GPA and MCAT, though one of them did ask me my MCAT score (which threw me off, haha). One of my interviewers talked to me extensively about my background and experiences in ways that demonstrated she'd read my file.
 
Apropos of nothing, I just want to point out the correct name of the school: It's Wake Forest School of Medicine, or WFSM. Not Wake Forest University School of Medicine. So even though this thread is incorrectly titled, I'm now trusting all of you to use the correct name during your interviews, phone calls, letters of interest, Christmas lists, sacrificial blood rituals, etc.
 
What % of applicants are sent a secondary application?
 
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