Wake Forest University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
My review is based on my own experiences attending Wake Forest University as a graduate student.

This is a goodish school for undergraduates. Not so for graduate students. The system is set up so that the school dumps gallons of money on undergraduate endeavors, but treats graduate students like second class citizens. Although, do not believe the lie they tell to prospective students that graduate students don't teach classes (we definitely do - and do so frequently).

The departments at the university are very political and are filled with internal schisms and grudges. It's a school that suffers from an extremely bloated administration - there are way too many people doing silly jobs at this school. This is something that doesn't really impact undergraduates, but becomes a nightmare for graduate students working more closely within a department. Professors are more invested in their own work than they are in their students, often creating ludicrous sub-branches off of their main departments as a way of advancing their own ends, with no direct relation to the students. This causes education to suffer - especially for graduate school classes. It was rare that any of our teachers had a clearly defined lesson plan - they always seemed to phone it in. It saddens me in saying this, but I did not learn much in my time here. I came in looking to earn an education, but I ended up only buying a degree.

Also, I would like to mention, the President of WFU makes more than 1 million dollars per year, while many departments don't have enough money to hire full professors (despite outrageously high tuition) and are forced to hire adjuncts and (yes) graduate students to teach. It sort of shows you where the school's priorities are.

Wake Forest looks good on paper, and probably is a pretty good school (if outrageously expensive) for undergraduates. But beneath the facade there is rot and a definite focus on making money on the part of the administration and gaining power on the part of the professors. Education is only emphasized as far as it advances either of those two ends.

In short, if you are a graduate student, I would strongly advise you to apply elsewhere. That is just my experience.