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Lol at the new WakeWill campaign

I'm missing something here, 923. Your numbers show a significant decline in valedictorians and a likely drop in percent who were in the top of their class (50% in the top 5% vs. 75% in the top 10%). The drop in valedictorians is particularly striking because the freshman class is much bigger now compared to the late 90s.
 
Man, a bunch of whiners here. Every school on earth sends out a million mailers a year. If you don't want to give, don't give.

I agree with all of the complaints about administrative bloat, but those problems exist everywhere. We're just all sad because we suck balls at sports. If we were awesome and everyone went out and rolled the quad every week and we were on ESPN all the time we'd all be acting completely different.

So the crux of this whole thread is that 1) private higher education in the US is too expensive and 2) we all take sports way too seriously.
 
wakephan09 said:
Man, a bunch of whiners here. Every school on earth sends out a million mailers a year. If you don't want to give, don't give.

I agree with all of the complaints about administrative bloat, but those problems exist everywhere. We're just all sad because we suck balls at sports. If we were awesome and everyone went out and rolled the quad every week and we were on ESPN all the time we'd all be acting completely different.

So the crux of this whole thread is that 1) private higher education in the US is too expensive and 2) we all take sports way too seriously.
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#betterphundraiser
 
PhDeac said:
I'm missing something here, 923. Your numbers show a significant decline in valedictorians and a likely drop in percent who were in the top of their class (50% in the top 5% vs. 75% in the top 10%). The drop in valedictorians is particularly striking because the freshman class is much bigger now compared to the late 90s.
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They're not my numbers, they're Wake's. I don't think they show some tremendous drop off, though. Wake is not in danger of becoming HPU or Elon, not even close. I dislike the same things about the current direction of the school as most others here but I don't see evidence of a big dumbing down of the student body.

Anyway, yeah that March madness wake will mailer was lolbad. So there's clear evidence of dumbing down in the development office. What a bone headed move.
 
PhDeac said:
I'm missing something here, 923. Your numbers show a significant decline in valedictorians and a likely drop in percent who were in the top of their class (50% in the top 5% vs. 75% in the top 10%). The drop in valedictorians is particularly striking because the freshman class is much bigger now compared to the late 90s.
Click to expand...

Comparing the numbers directly is making the assumption that the students are from the same quality of schools. My hypothesis is that we are skewing towards quality (as we move to a more national student body), but I have no data to back it up. In my mind, if today's students are lower quality it's more likely driven by the size of the student body, not the cost of attendance.
 
A larger, more disturbing issue: My freshman year (79-80) tuition was $3300 and a double in Kitchen was another $500 per year. Corrected for inflation that equates to about $12,500 today, yet someone on this thread says our current tuition and fees is north of $65K.

I realize this is not unique to Wake, but that is an issue that needs to be addressed. How have college costs risen at 5X the rate of inflation?

Is it bloated administration as Ph suggests? Has campus turned into Disney World?
 
Admin bloat was already apparent in the 90s. I'm sure it's worse now. And yes, from what I have seen the campus is disneyfied. A student from 79-80 would be stunned at the amenities students have now.
 
Deacon923 said:
Admin bloat was already apparent in the 90s. I'm sure it's worse now. And yes, from what I have seen the campus is disneyfied. A student from 79-80 would be stunned at the amenities students have now.
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I graduated in 2008 and am often surprised by the amenities that students have. With that said, I will say that dmsome departments lack the admin support that they deserve. When a department of 6 people serve 7,000 studentson a daily basis and each employee works overtime there is an issue. Other departments are extremely overstaffed.
 
WakeGal said:
I graduated in 2008 and am often surprised by the amenities that students have. With that said, I will say that dmsome departments lack the admin support that they deserve. When a department of 6 people serve 7,000 studentson a daily basis and each employee works overtime there is an issue. Other departments are extremely overstaffed.
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This. I'm faculty at a much larger institution and there are plenty of departments with 2 or 3 people serving an entire college of faculty. Meanwhile, there are far more assistants to the associate dean.
 
Competitive revenue sports was an excellent bridge between Wake and the general Triad community.

That bridge has successfully been burned. Wake has really distanced itself from the local community. Other than the medical facilities, I think very few in the community have any interaction with Wake Forest. That's why fielding competitive teams was critical to the university's relationship with the local community. Currently, it might as well be a million miles from Winston. It's a real shame that so much goodwill and community support has been squandered in record time. But, athletically, Wake appears to be heading in a different direction than most of us would prefer.

As for the university? I've basically lost all interest.

Oh, and the ad looks like a 4th grade project. Embarrassing. Somehow, some way, Wake needs to develop a relationship with Winston-Salem and the region.
Since 90% of the region can't afford the tuition for their kids, the only means I know is athletics to keep Wake truly connected with the community. And, currently, that has gone to hell in a hand-basket.

Wake needs to find its way again.
 
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Well said, core.
 
A lot of insightful and sobering observations here on what has gone wrong at Wake.

MSD seems to have taken a very bad wrong turn; how can she be brought back on the right track?
 
I think the post about athletics being a "bridge to the community" is excellent. I would however go one step further and say that the estimate that 90% of the region can't afford the 65k to send their kids to wake as low. It's probably more like 95-98%. Wake has boxed itself in a corner now and it can only take in kids from super rich families who can afford it. There is nothing good about that. I think the founding fathers at wake would be dismayed and highly disappointed. That embarrassing ridiculous fundraising email only illustrates how far this once great institution has fallen
 
jimjenkdeac said:
I think the post about athletics being a "bridge to the community" is excellent. I would however go one step further and say that the estimate that 90% of the region can't afford the 65k to send their kids to wake as low. It's probably more like 95-98%. Wake has boxed itself in a corner now and it can only take in kids from super rich families who can afford it. There is nothing good about that. I think the founding fathers at wake would be dismayed and highly disappointed. That embarrassing ridiculous fundraising email only illustrates how far this once great institution has fallen
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Already addressed and found to be false:

Rafi said:
I put this in a previous post, but the number of applicants from North Carolina has increased 52%. I'm not sure the exact time frame for that, but I provided the link in the previous post.

This link http://admissions.wfu.edu/campus-life/diversity/ suggests that economic diversity has increased 143% from 2007 to 2012, and this is the second largest increase amongst all national universities during this time period. I'm not certain how this is calculated, but I think it might be based on the number of Pell grants.
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I was in the class of 2012. The last SAT required class. Over the next three classes (which also encompassed the need-blind change), I saw a noticeable and positive change in student diversity. I know this is anecdotal, and I don't know exactly how those classes measured up academically pre-Wake or how they performed academically at Wake, but all of this chicken little bullshit about Wake Forest becoming a school exclusively for the super rich rang very false to me.
 
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Yeah but less valedictorians doe
 
Ph, given that you're probably the most qualified to answer this, where could Wake make cuts to admin that would begin to fix this problem. Better yet, do you think that would require a change in leadership to set anything like that in motion? Do universities ever change course like that and trim down admin?
 
jimjenkdeac said:
Honestly not trying to rub anyone the wrong way. Ask any high counselor where the top kids in high school are going. It's UNC. Wake knew they were going to be drawing every year from a smaller richer pool. That is why they dropped the SAT requirement. They knew with a smaller pool of richer kids, the SAT's would fall and they didn't want to report it. It's more important to be willing and able to pay 65k per year now to attend Wake than it is to be super smart. It is a far different place now than 30 years ago.
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Just a reminder that UNC is in the middle of an investigation into academic fraud that spans a couple decades. A public disclosure statement was filed by their accrediting body (SACS Commission on Colleges) in June. Here are the schools being investigated by SACS:

Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama
Bauder College, Atlanta, Georgia
Bluefield College, Bluefield, Virginia
Kentucky Wesleyan College, Owensboro, Kentucky
Paine College, Augusta, Georgia
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina
St. Catharine College, St. Catharine, Kentucky
Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

http://www.sacscoc.org/june2015actionsanddisclosurestatements.asp
 
Rafi said:
Just a reminder that UNC is in the middle of an investigation into academic fraud that spans a couple decades. A public disclosure statement was filed by their accrediting body (SACS Commission on Colleges) in June. Here are the schools being investigated by SACS:

Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama
Bauder College, Atlanta, Georgia
Bluefield College, Bluefield, Virginia
Kentucky Wesleyan College, Owensboro, Kentucky
Paine College, Augusta, Georgia
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina
St. Catharine College, St. Catharine, Kentucky
Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

http://www.sacscoc.org/june2015actionsanddisclosurestatements.asp
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latest


(but not really)
 
wakephan09 said:
Man, a bunch of whiners here. Every school on earth sends out a million mailers a year. If you don't want to give, don't give.

I agree with all of the complaints about administrative bloat, but those problems exist everywhere. We're just all sad because we suck balls at sports. If we were awesome and everyone went out and rolled the quad every week and we were on ESPN all the time we'd all be acting completely different.

So the crux of this whole thread is that 1) private higher education in the US is too expensive and 2) we all take sports way too seriously.
Click to expand...

come on man. you must be kidding.
 
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