Wake Forest Ranks 28th in U.S. News’ Annual Guide

The 1998 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” gives Wake Forest high marks for financial resources, alumni giving and student selectivity. The guide also recognizes Wake Forest’s high graduation and retention rates and its small classes.

It was the second time this month that Wake Forest has been ranked in a national magazine’s college guide. Earlier, Money magazine placed Wake Forest among its 100 best college buys. The magazine listed Wake Forest at 96, after ranking it at 100 a year earlier. Money also placed Wake Forest 12th in a list of “costly but worth it” schools that included Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

“For years, Wake Forest has consistently received favorable recognition in many highly regarded college guides and rankings. It is gratifying to see Wake Forest again placed among many of the finest national universities by U.S. News,” said Sandra C. Boyette, Wake Forest’s vice president for university advancement. “We know that our ranking among the upper echelon of national universities reflects the continuing accomplishments of our faculty and students.”

“Of course, we realize that a college guide paints only a partial picture of a university and cannot tell a student whether a particular school is right for them. We hope that our rankings will encourage prospective students and their families to visit our campus and see for themselves what Wake Forest offers,” Boyette added.

During the 1996-97 fiscal year, 6,934 prospective students visited the university’s Welcome Center for information sessions and tours. This fall, 975 freshmen entered Wake Forest. Applications for the class totaled 6,841, a record number.

Recently, prospective students have shown particularly strong interest in Wake Forest’s new undergraduate plan, said Boyette. With the start of fall classes, Wake Forest marks the second year of the extensive campaign to enrich the learning experiences of undergraduates through new technology, classes, faculty, and more.

Freshman who arrived just this week for orientation will soon receive new IBM laptop computers and Lexmark color printers from the university. They will be using them in a number of the university’s new first-year seminars, small classes introduced last year to give students an early start in bolstering their critical and analytical thinking skills. In one particular Shakespeare seminar this fall, freshmen will enjoy videoconferences with staff at London’s new Globe Theatre, visit the World Wide Web’s Shakespeare sites, and read, hear and see portions of plays on a new CD-ROM.

Overall, the plan is intended to support the university’s long-standing commitment to small classes and mentoring by senior faculty.