Wake Forest University Data & Information Overview

Want the scoop on Wake Forest University? We've put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors Wake Forest University offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more. Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you'll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

• Rankings
• Admission and Acceptance
• Faculty
• Retention and Graduation Rates
• Diversity
• Cost
• Student Debt
• Average Earnings
• Location
• Majors
• Online Learning

How Well Is Wake Forest University Ranked?

2021 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Wake Forest University was awarded 84 badges in the 2021 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general biology.

Overall Quality

Wake Forest University landed the #37 spot in College Factual's 2021 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 1,715 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Wake Forest University also holds the #3 spot on the Best Colleges in North Carolina ranking.

See all of the rankings for Wake Forest University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Wake Forest University?

Acceptance Rate

Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into Wake Forest University since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 28%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.

Learn more about Wake Forest University admissions.

Wake Forest University Faculty

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Wake Forest University, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 11 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Wake Forest University is 76%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Retention and Graduation Rates at Wake Forest University

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 94% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Wake Forest University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Wake Forest University the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 82%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Wake Forest University.

Excellent Overall Diversity at Wake Forest University

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 5,287 undergraduates at Wake Forest University with 5,240 being full-time and 47 being part-time.

Wake Forest University Diversity Score

For each college and university, College Factual calculates an overall diversity score that takes four factors into account: gender, ethnicity, age, and home location of the student. Then, the schools with the best mixtures of students with respect to these factors are ranked the highest.

With an overall score of 96.10 out of 100, Wake Forest University is one of the most diverse schools in the nation.

Get more detailed information on diversity and student demographics at Wake Forest University.

How Much Does Wake Forest University Cost?

The overall average net price of Wake Forest University is $32,129. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Wake Forest University

$0-30 K	$30K-48K	$48-75	$75-110K	$110K +
$8,349	$13,837	$19,650	$24,987	$47,934

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Wake Forest University, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Wake Forest University, approximately 23% of students took out student loans averaging $10,879 a year. That adds up to $43,516 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Wake Forest University is 1.4%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Wake Forest University.

How Much Money Do Wake Forest University Graduates Make?

Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Wake Forest University with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $63,800 in their early years. This is good news for future Wake Forest University graduates since it is 60% more than the average college graduate's salary of $39,802 per year.

See which majors at Wake Forest University make the most money.

Location of Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Winston-Salem is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

Get more details about the location of Wake Forest University.

Contact details for Wake Forest University are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1834 Wake Forest Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
Phone:	336-758-5000
Website:	www.wfu.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/wfuniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/WakeForest1834

Wake Forest University Majors

During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 57 majors graduated from Wake Forest University. Of these students, 1,431 received undergraduate degrees and 1,275 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors	Bachelor’s Degrees	Average Salary of Graduates
Economics	152	$51,700
Communication & Media Studies	130	$37,700
General Psychology	121	$32,600
Political Science & Government	113	$42,900
Finance & Financial Management	108	$71,900
General Business/Commerce	104	$60,100
General Biology	90	$34,700
Health & Physical Education	62	$26,300
Computer Science	54	$69,900
Sociology	50	$36,700

Learn more about the majors offered at Wake Forest University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Wake Forest University

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2017-2018, 511 students took at least one online class at Wake Forest University. This is an increase from the 433 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year	Took at Least One Online Class	Took All Classes Online
2017-2018	511	415
2016-2017	433	332
2015-2016	369	293
2014-2015	321	225
2013-2014	222	177

Learn more about online learning at Wake Forest University.

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

• National Center for Education Statistics
• College Scorecard
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
• Image Credit: By JHMM13 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.