Wake Forest is a private, purpose-minded university committed to the greater good. The school was founded in Wake Forest, North Carolina in 1834, but moved to a 340-acre Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the 1950s. And it’s beautiful. What really matters, though, is that Wake Forest offers an exceptional education for just under 5,500 undergraduates. These students have access to more than 50 majors, more than 60 minors, and more than 60% of students take part in an academic study abroad experience. 99% of classes have fewer than 50 students, making Wake Forest an ideal school for students who want access to their professors and opportunities for mentorship.
Wake Forest is a sought-after university by high-performing high school students who are in the top 25% of their high school class. The university is also known for jumping on the test-optional bandwagon more than a decade ago — long before Covid pushed many other colleges and universities to follow suit. Wake Forest has been test optional since May of 2008, meaning that they don’t require the SAT or ACT as part of your application. Ever since implementing the policy, they’ve found no difference in academic achievement at Wake Forest between students who submit standardized tests and those who choose not to. This makes them very confident in their decision, and we don’t expect this policy to change anytime soon (if ever). If you’re scores are strong, though, they can form an important piece of your application and increase your chances of acceptance by underlining your academic achievement and potential.
For first-year admission, Wake Forest receives nearly 19,000 applications, and accepted only about 22% of those who applied to enroll in 2023. In this post, we’re going to break down what you need to know to make the supplement a difference-maker in your application, increasing your chance of admission.
If you have Wake Forest on your list, contact us before you start writing. We’re experts at helping students get into their dream schools.
Something we love about Wake Forest is that they like to empower prospective students and fuel them for success. While most schools release their supplements for the coming year in August, or even later, Wake Forest published the supplement in “A Note for Rising Seniors” on June 17th. Talk about a head start!
There are four supplemental prompts, and they are technically optional. But are they? No, no they aren’t. If you have read any of our writing on supplements, you know where we stand. Optional is only optional if you don’t want to get in. If you don’t really care, sure, treat these as optional. But if you want to get into Wake Forest, you’re not just going to do these supplements — you’re going to ace them. So, let’s break down how you can do just that.
List five books you’ve read that have intrigued you.
This first prompt is straightforwrd, but not so simple. It’s a list, but it takes some thought. First, don’t list anything that you were assigned to read in an English class. You can pick a book assigned for a more focused course, like a geographically-focused history course, an anthropology elective, an ethics class, or a course focused on a specific type of literature. The reason we say not to include a book from your standard English course is not because we have something against your teacher. However, most high school English courses assign the same general list of books which means that you risk having your list here feel generic or repetitive if you pick from that list.
Ideally, though, at least three of the five books are books that you’ve read outside of school. If you don’t read outside of school, we have good news: you got this prompt early. You have time, so pick up a book. The New York Times just released a list of the 100 best books of the century so far as picked by authors and critics. Pick a few. And if you don’t like one of your picks, pick another one. Keep going, and keep exploring.
Tell us what piques your intellectual curiosity or has helped you understand the world’s complexity. This can include a work you’ve read, a project you’ve completed for class, and even co-curricular activities in which you have been involved (limit 150 words).
First, let’s make it clear that you shouldn’t write about a book here, or really anything you’ve read. The previous prompt was all about books, so take this prompt off the page.
Start by brainstorming experiences you’ve had that made you excited about learning — not simply book learning, but the process of acquiring new information in any scenario or environment. The reason the brainstorming part is so important is that this supplement is short, but it still must be a story.
Start your response with a small moment, a vignette, of you experiencing, immersing yourself in, or grappling with something. For example, if you’re really into engineering it could be puzzling out a problem with a robot you’re preparing for a competition. Whatever you pick, we encourage you to look small. They challenge you to consider “the world’s complexity,” and that sounds massive — but it’s something you will best explore in a small way.
And if you’re wondering what 150 words looks like, and how ‘small’ we mean by small, the three paragraphs above add up to 154 words.
Dr. Maya Angelou, renowned author, poet, civil-rights activist, and former Wake Forest University Reynolds Professor of American Studies, inspired others to celebrate their identities and to honor each person’s dignity. Choose one of Dr. Angelou’s powerful quotes. How does this quote relate to your lived experience or reflect how you plan to contribute to the Wake Forest community? (limit 300 words)
This is Wake Forest’s identity question. It’s them opening the door to talking about race, culture, ethnicity, or religion, without them actually asking. With that in mind, we are actually more interested in the second options they offer, “reflect how you plan to contribute to the Wake Forest community,” no matter your background.
This isn’t because where you come from doesn’t matter — because it does and it will play into how you answer this prompt, but we find that too many students take an easy route to answering this prompt by simply talking about what they know already (themselves) rather than exploring what they want for the future. Namely, to be part of the Wake Forest community.
So, start by picking a quote. We recommend using a source like this one so you don’t end up with a fake or misattributed quote by mistake. Pick a quote that resonates with you personally, not the one you think they’ll like best. Then, you need to do two things. First, you need to connect the quote to your life. Second, you need to specifically mention how, in a related way, you will contribute as part of Wake Forest. Don’t assume your response to this prompt should be laid out in this order, though. We dislike supplement responses that are too literal. Answers that are step-by-step formulaic responses are as boring to write as they are to read. Instead, tell a story, link that to Wake Forest, and show the connection between this narrative and your chosen quote before you tell it.
Give us your Top Ten List. The choice of theme is yours.) (limit: 100 characters per line)
We LOVE this question. The best advice we can give here is to put on your teenager hat (as opposed, perhaps, to your top-performing academic wiz hat) and have fun. Seriously, this supplement is an amazing opportunity to show that you are the real deal. You aren’t just a serious high-achiever, you’re also a real person who likes junk food or reality television or who ranks dog breeds or who has really strong opinions on chili crisp.
We want you to have fun here, but the caution we will give is to not try to be funny. Your application is not a joke, so don’t try to make it one. Instead, be earnest and show a side of yourself that they won’t see anywhere else on your application.
Final thought on this supplement: you don’t have to use all 100 characters for each item. Use what you need, then stop.
The Wake Forest supplement is like the perfect Goldilocks porridge of supplements. There’s just enough here to highlight different sides of you, but not so much that you feel bogged down or stretched thin (we’re looking at you schools with super long supplements). Start early, work slowly, edit carefully, and show yourself honestly.
Applying to college can be stressful, even when they give you a head start. Email us for a strong support system for success.