2014-2015 Wake Forest University Application Thread

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SUPER low stress. You really feel the southern hospitality at wake. You have three interviews for ~20 mins each so they just want to get to know you a bit. Everyone involved with the interview day was so friendly it was just very pleasant and enjoyable. No stress at all.

Agreed. Some of my interviewers were more formal than others but overall everyone was low stress.
 
For those who interviewed at wake - what was the interview like? We're they stress interviews or just casual ones? How did it feel?

Same here - really low stress, super conversational. I really felt that the staff of the admissions office and the interviewers themselves made all of us interviewing feel as comfortable as possible and they were very attentive to us. Overall, I had a great experience interviewing here. Also lunch was delicious!!!! Wake definitely beats the other schools I've interviewed at in that category 🙂
 
I'm super excited for my interview here soon! I have a few questions for all you awesome, knowledgeable, and incredibly intelligent SDNers:

1. Anyone stay at the Holiday Inn Express Downtown West? Is it an easy walk to the interview? Are there restaurants around within walking distance?

2. How did you get from the airport to the hotel? Did the shuttle listed on the website work well for you? Is it possible to do this without renting a car?

Thanks everyone! Good luck with everything!
I did. It's an easy 5-10 min walk to the interview although I had a car. The interview place itself in the building is a little tricky to find so I recommend scoping out the place the night before. There is a grocery mart and some restaurants nearby (5 mins walking)
I got from the airport to the hotel by car (my dad actually drove me bc I wasn't old enough to rent a car yet ) but I remember it being pretty far (20 mins or so) so I'm not sure if the shuttle would go that far. GL at your interview!!!
 
I'm super excited for my interview here soon! I have a few questions for all you awesome, knowledgeable, and incredibly intelligent SDNers:

1. Anyone stay at the Holiday Inn Express Downtown West? Is it an easy walk to the interview? Are there restaurants around within walking distance?

2. How did you get from the airport to the hotel? Did the shuttle listed on the website work well for you? Is it possible to do this without renting a car?

Thanks everyone! Good luck with everything!

As you exit the Holiday in Express on Miller St, to the left is a Whole Foods with a nice hot bar, a Qdoba, and a local place called Mayberry. Be careful crossing Miller St. To the right (down the hill) is an Panera, Cloverdale Kitchen (local), a pizza place, and some other places to eat. There is also a Thai restaurant inside the Harris Teeter (I haven't eaten there).
 
As you exit the Holiday in Express on Miller St, to the left is a Whole Foods with a nice hot bar, a Qdoba, and a local place called Mayberry. Be careful crossing Miller St. To the right (down the hill) is an Panera, Cloverdale Kitchen (local), a pizza place, and some other places to eat. There is also a Thai restaurant inside the Harris Teeter (I haven't eaten there).
Thank you so much!
 
Is your status on the same website they gave us to fill out the secondary? I don't seem to have an actual status (just my completed secondary summary), so I'm wondering if I'm looking on the right page. Thanks!!
Nope different site. I was confused for ages also, here is the site!

I am also wondering if the changed text to continuously reviewed means a hold status but who knows!

Regardless, happy new year everyone and lets all hope for some good news!
 
I just called them, it is a hold status. The woman was very nice and informed me that they actually do review applications many times throughout the cycle.
 
Also when you email to confirm your interview time, it is fine if they do not respond right? When I confirmed, I replied to the email asking us to email to confirm since it was the same email address. I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly! Thanks all and good luck!
 
Also when you email to confirm your interview time, it is fine if they do not respond right? When I confirmed, I replied to the email asking us to email to confirm since it was the same email address. I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly! Thanks all and good luck!

I think that it is fine. I didn't get a response to my confirmation email and everything was okay on my interview day 🙂 Good luck!
 
Congrats to those who have already been accepted. Enjoy the rest of the year, you may never have time to relax like this again. Believe me, 4th year of medical school is great, but we're all still sweating bullets until match day.

Since decision time will be creeping up pretty quickly, I want to put in a shameless plug for my school, Wake Forest is a great place. The school is outstanding, more so than I realized when I was an applicant. I am an MS4 here and currently have free time so feel free to ask questions and I'll get around to them.

A few things to harp on though about WF. Our 3rd year is really actually pretty awesome. Its the most important year of medical school and I think we do a really good job to make it a good experience. A lot of this is because all of our rotations are done at Wake Forest; you are always with your classmates, you are always with Wake residents and you don't have the added stress of having to move every few months. It will feel like home. This is not trivial. This can completely change your medical school experience. You have good rapport with your attendings, especially ones in the field that you are going into, because they take interest in their students. I have attendings that I can call mentors, and not just in the sense that they wrote me letters, but in the sense that I feel 100% comfortable walking into their OR or their office and soliciting advice. Obgyn is done at Forsyth medical center, which is the only rotation not on Wake's campus, and that is 5 minutes away, also working with Wake residents and attendings.

I think this stuff is worth it to touch on, because a lot of people are curious about first year, the adjustment to medical school, curriculum, etc. but reflecting back on the last 3.5 years, I'm not sure if things like block schedules, system based schedules, pbl vs lecture, etc. really matter. Regardless of how your medical school does pre-clinical years, you're going to be spending most of your time in front of a computer reviewing lectures and first aid. But clinical years are definitely variable at different institutions, and we have a great culture here. You will work hard, you will be frustrated at times, but all in all, we have a way of doing things that permeates through the entire medical center, and I think a lot of that is because all of our attendings are school of medicine faculty, and all of our residents are Wake residents.

This is a student centered school. You will have the opportunity to work out in the community doing rural medicine and whilst also seeing highly specialized surgical procedures done at only a handful of centers in the world. Feel free to ask any questions, I have no interest in anything but seeing that my medical
 
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Congrats to those who have already been accepted. Enjoy the rest of the year, you may never have time to relax like this again. Believe me, 4th year of medical school is great, but we're all still sweating bullets until match day.

Since decision time will be creeping up pretty quickly, I want to put in a shameless plug for my school, Wake Forest is a great place. The school is outstanding, more so than I realized when I was an applicant. I am an MS4 here and currently have free time so feel free to ask questions and I'll get around to them.

A few things to harp on though about WF. Our 3rd year is really actually pretty awesome. Its the most important year of medical school and I think we do a really good job to make it a good experience. A lot of this is because all of our rotations are done at Wake Forest; you are always with your classmates, you are always with Wake residents and you don't have the added stress of having to move every few months. It will feel like home. This is not trivial. This can completely change your medical school experience. You have good rapport with your attendings, especially ones in the field that you are going into, because they take interest in their students. I have attendings that I can call mentors, and not just in the sense that they wrote me letters, but in the sense that I feel 100% comfortable walking into their OR or their office and soliciting advice. Obgyn is done at Forsyth medical center, which is the only rotation not on Wake's campus, and that is 5 minutes away, also working with Wake residents and attendings.

I think this stuff is worth it to touch on, because a lot of people are curious about first year, the adjustment to medical school, curriculum, etc. but reflecting back on the last 3.5 years, I'm not sure if things like block schedules, system based schedules, pbl vs lecture, etc. really matter. Regardless of how your medical school does pre-clinical years, you're going to be spending most of your time in front of a computer reviewing lectures and first aid. But clinical years are definitely variable at different institutions, and we have a great culture here. You will work hard, you will be frustrated at times, but all in all, we have a way of doing things that permeates through the entire medical center, and I think a lot of that is because all of our attendings are school of medicine faculty, and all of our residents are Wake residents.

This is a student centered school. You will have the opportunity to work out in the community doing rural medicine and whilst also seeing highly specialized surgical procedures done at only a handful of centers in the world. Feel free to ask any questions, I have no interest in anything but seeing that my medical

Thank you for this post. It really confirmed what I thought of Wake and made me more anxious to get an interview. Did you get involved in any global health activities that you could elaborate on? Read up on a lot of wake's rural/global health focus, but would love a student input
 
Thank you for this post. It really confirmed what I thought of Wake and made me more anxious to get an interview. Did you get involved in any global health activities that you could elaborate on? Read up on a lot of wake's rural/global health focus, but would love a student input
Sure! So here is my spiel on global health. The opportunities are there and they are plentiful. I did not do any global health projects but know several who have. You can get involved at any point, whether you are an MS1 or a senior. A lot of physicians here like to go abroad and will bring students with them. The biggest problem is time. If you make it a priority, you could probably go abroad every year of medical school if you wanted with the exception of MS3. A lot of MS1s go to Haiti with a group every year because it's during spring break. The 2nd years are usually busy with step studying during that time, 3rd years are busy with rotations and 4th years are usually just doing their own things at that point (whether it's a rotation or otherwise). You can also go during 2nd year if you want to make the time for it, and during 4th year, we have a global health rotation that can be arranged (ie. an entire month to do a rotation somewhere else in the world).
 
Any news yet for those hearing back today?
 
Accepted!! Love the program and am really excited and lucky to have this acceptance. I hope you all who are still waiting to hear back get some wonderful news in the near future 🙂

Feel free to ask about my interview day or any other questions you have!
 
Accepted!! Love the program and am really excited and lucky to have this acceptance. I hope you all who are still waiting to hear back get some wonderful news in the near future 🙂

Feel free to ask about my interview day or any other questions you have!

Congratulations!!
How long after being interviewed did you get the results? Is it within a week?
 
Congratulations!!
How long after being interviewed did you get the results? Is it within a week?

Thank you 🙂

I interviewed at the beginning of December. On the day of the interview, our group was informed that the committee would meet on 7 Jan and release decisions shortly thereafter. Wake has been, by far, the most transparent with their admissions process.
 
Thank you 🙂

I interviewed at the beginning of December. On the day of the interview, our group was informed that the committee would meet on 7 Jan and release decisions shortly thereafter. Wake has been, by far, the most transparent with their admissions process.


Thank you!
 
Sure! So here is my spiel on global health. The opportunities are there and they are plentiful. I did not do any global health projects but know several who have. You can get involved at any point, whether you are an MS1 or a senior. A lot of physicians here like to go abroad and will bring students with them. The biggest problem is time. If you make it a priority, you could probably go abroad every year of medical school if you wanted with the exception of MS3. A lot of MS1s go to Haiti with a group every year because it's during spring break. The 2nd years are usually busy with step studying during that time, 3rd years are busy with rotations and 4th years are usually just doing their own things at that point (whether it's a rotation or otherwise). You can also go during 2nd year if you want to make the time for it, and during 4th year, we have a global health rotation that can be arranged (ie. an entire month to do a rotation somewhere else in the world).
This info is so helpful, thank you! Is there a list of regions/countries that students typically pick from or is there enough leniency that students are allowed to pick any country of interest to work in?
 
This info is so helpful, thank you! Is there a list of regions/countries that students typically pick from or is there enough leniency that students are allowed to pick any country of interest to work in?
Since I haven't gone through the process personally, I can't tell you with 100% certainty about a list of available countries or funding. What I do know is that people have gone all over the place. As noted, people have gone down to Haiti during first and second year, a few folks did international work in India between first and second year. In last year's 4th year class, a guy went down to South Africa to work in their ED for a month, and a girl went abroad with one of the faculty surgeons for clinical work.
 
Since I haven't gone through the process personally, I can't tell you with 100% certainty about a list of available countries or funding. What I do know is that people have gone all over the place. As noted, people have gone down to Haiti during first and second year, a few folks did international work in India between first and second year. In last year's 4th year class, a guy went down to South Africa to work in their ED for a month, and a girl went abroad with one of the faculty surgeons for clinical work.

Here is a list of countries students in the Class of 2017 did global health work in the past year: China, India, Ecuador, Colombia, Nepal, France, Haiti, and Honduras.

The Global Health 4th Year Elective for the Class of 2014: Nicaragua, South Africa, Mozambique, China, Costa Rica, Angola, Trinidad, Nepal, Mexico, and India.
 
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Hi Friends!
Current WFSOM MS1 here 🙂 Congratulations to those of you already accepted to Wake (and to everyone in general for going through this insane masochistic process...)!!! If you've been accepted, feel free to PM your name as it appears on Facebook and I will friend you to add you to the new Class of 2019 group we set up for you guys. There will also be current MS1s like myself in the group to answer any questions you may have! #godeamondeacs

Edit: You can also search Wake Forest School of Medicine Class of 2019. Probably easier!

Edit: @surely and I met here <3
 
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Hi Friends!
Current WFSOM MS1 here 🙂 Congratulations to those of you already accepted to Wake (and to everyone in general for going through this insane masochistic process...)!!! If you've been accepted, feel free to PM your name as it appears on Facebook and I will add you to the new Class of 2019 group we set up for you guys. There will also be current MS1s like myself in the group to answer any questions you may have! #godeamondeacs

Edit: @surely and I met here <3

@brittjmd is a wonderful human being.
 
Here is a list of countries students in the Class of 2017 did global health work in the past year: China, India, Ecuador, Colombia, Nepal, France, Haiti, and Honduras.

The Global Health 4th Year Elective for the Class of 2014: Nicaragua, South Africa, Mozambique, China, Costa Rica, Angola, Trinidad, Nepal, Mexico, and India.

How plausible would it be to start a new global health initiative in a country that is not mentioned above? There's an NGO that I've been working closely with for awhile and would love to bring that relationship to WF if possible.
 
for those that sent updates, did Wake email you back to confirm they had received your update?
 
Absolutely. I received an email usually within 1 week saying the update has been added to my file.
 
Absolutely. I received an email usually within 1 week saying the update has been added to my file.
yeah! they got back to me that day actually saying it was added to my file
Thanks! I sent an update to the generic email about 6 days ago and haven't heard back yet...maybe I'll shoot them an email soon and ask!
 
Is all financial aid need based here? Or are there a couple merit awards floating around?
 
Is all financial aid need based here? Or are there a couple merit awards floating around?

There are a few merit awards floating around - I know definitively of 3 people with full-tuition scholarships, which I'm 99% sure are merit based. There are probably other smaller scholarships rolling around, too, but I can't confirm that.
 
There are a few merit awards floating around - I know definitively of 3 people with full-tuition scholarships, which I'm 99% sure are merit based. There are probably other smaller scholarships rolling around, too, but I can't confirm that.
Thanks for the info! Do you have any idea when fin aid is awarded? (Need or merit based)
 
Thanks for the info! Do you have any idea when fin aid is awarded? (Need or merit based)

The first mention of merit aid in last year's thread was on February 17th. The need based information went out in mid April.
 
The first mention of merit aid in last year's thread was on February 17th. The need based information went out in mid April.
you da best surely! much appreciated!
 
Thanks! I sent an update to the generic email about 6 days ago and haven't heard back yet...maybe I'll shoot them an email soon and ask!
Same, should we assume they added it or that it got lost in the shuffle of things?
 
Same, should we assume they added it or that it got lost in the shuffle of things?


I don't know! I don't want to come off as annoying or anything, but everyone says wake is super responsive to updates and all...so I can't help but think it got lost/went to their spam mail or something lol
 
I don't know! I don't want to come off as annoying or anything, but everyone says wake is super responsive to updates and all...so I can't help but think it got lost/went to their spam mail or something lol

I just searched my spam and I found that I did get a confirmation email the day I sent the update. maybe double check that?
 
I just searched my spam and I found that I did get a confirmation email the day I sent the update. maybe double check that?

Just checked...didn't get an email from them...maybe I'll shoot them an email and ask!
 
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