Wake Forest is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They are known for their strong liberal arts program. Wake Forest also has a large Greek system and strong sports programs for a midsized school. Wake Forest has about a 25% acceptance rate. Their supplement is one of the more creative supplements out there but also asks some standard questions. The first trick of the Wake Forest Supplement is that not all the writing prompts are under the section titled “Writing.”
You’ll find your first essay in a section confusingly labeled “Contacts.” There they ask:
Why have you decided to apply to Wake Forest? Share with us anything that has made you interested in our institution.* 150
This is a question we have seen approximately 1 million times. Because we see it so often, we have developed a formula of how to approach the rather ubiquitous “why do you want to go here?” question.
First, you have to choose a major to write about. If you aren’t sure about what you want to study, make an educated guess. This essay isn’t binding, but you should choose something you would likely want to study. Once you have a major, think of a short personal story about how you fell in love with that topic. Maybe volunteering at a recycling center made you want to study environmental science. Introduce your passion and how you want to study it specifically at Wake Forest.
To prove you want to study it at Wake Forest, you need specifics about your intended major. You need to mention 2 higher-level courses that you would want to take. You should also mention a professor in your intended department that you would want to do research with and why.
After you have talked about academics, you should talk about an opportunity outside of class that you want to get involved with. This could be a club or other on-campus activity, but the best choices relate to something you already do. This gives you a chance to highlight an extracurricular passion and show how it relates to the school. For example, if you are in your high school’s theater club, maybe you want to get involved with the Anthony Aston Players or the BiMoo Chinese Theater Club. Take a look through their student organizations and on-campus life page and see what sticks out to you.
This essay is short, so this is probably all you will have time for. If you have extra space you can sneak in a conclusion, but 150 words will go faster than you think.
The next section to look at is called “Writing.” This section is where Wake Forest starts to get creative. The questions are technically optional, but we push our students to do them. Wake Forest is giving you the opportunity to show why you are unique and interesting, take it!
We welcome the opportunity to get to know you beyond the numbers. You are invited to answer any, all, or none of the following optional short-response questions.
In Brief:
1. List five books you've read that intrigued you.
In this question, you will need the title of the book, the author, and whether it was required reading or not. That third point is important. The majority of this list shouldn’t be required reading. Honestly, ideally, none would be required reading, but if one required reading book sneaks in, that’s not the end of the world.
However, if you choose to sneak a required reading book in, it should be one that usually isn’t required reading. And on top of that, even if you weren’t required to read it, you shouldn’t include books that are usually required. What do we mean by that? Certain books are taught in almost every high school and listing those books says nothing about you other than maybe that you don’t read for pleasure. This includes books like The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible, Hamlet, etc. You are more interesting than these books. We also say stay away from YA. Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, etc are not super helpful here.
So what are good choices? Anything that says something about you and your interests! They can be academic or not, but they should connect to something you are fascinated about. If you are obsessed with Russian Literature, you can choose all 5 from that interest. Conversely, you can choose to show multiple interests here. Yes, maybe you start with The Death of Ivan Ilyich, but then you add a Cook Book, a memoir, a book on horticulture, and a novel you recently read for pleasure. That also works.
2. Explain how a text you've read – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or literature of any kind – has helped you to understand the world's complexity. (150 words)
Think about the books you have just listed. This is an opportunity to explain what you learned from one of the books above and how it shaped your understanding of a topic. This is probably the easiest done with non-fiction books. For example, if you choose Norah Vincent’s Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin, you could talk about how it shaped how you see mental health treatment and patients’ rights in America. Maybe you listed, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner. You could write about how water shortages made you passionate about environmentalism.
But you don’t need to write about a non-fiction work. Maybe Vonnegut's Bluebeard made you think more about art preservation and Art History. Maybe Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, made you think about race and postcolonial feminism in a specific way.
If you listed more out-of-the-box choices, you can still use them here. Anna Jones’ One: Pot, Pan, Planet: A Greener Way to Cook for You and Your Family might be a cookbook but it’s also an opportunity to talk about food waste if that is something you are passionate about.
3. Tell us more about the topic that most engages your intellectual curiosity. (150 words)
This question is worded a little oddly, but it’s more simple than you think. It’s very short, so all you have to do is introduce a topic you are passionate about and tell a very short narrative about how it fascinates you.
This academic passion can be linked to what you want to study, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s more important that you have pursued the topic in some way. It works best if you have pursued it outside of class (it can start in a class, but it shouldn’t finish there.) For example if you read an article in AP US History and that article lead you to do outside research to learn more. However, it doesn’t have to be related to a class at all. It can be tied to an extracurricular. Maybe you teach science to kids after school and something at your job fascinates you. Maybe you volunteer at a museum and became interested in a specific exhibition topic.
150 words is fast, so introduce your topic and how you became interested in it, and then what about it makes you curious. That’s probably all you have time for.
4. Give us your Top Ten list.
This is probably the most unique question Wake Forest asks and you can have fun with it. This question asks you to choose a theme and then list your top ten things in that theme. Your theme can be anything, but the only thing it shouldn’t be is basic. Get creative and keep it personal. If you aren’t a movie buff, don’t choose “top 10 movies.” Your theme should be something you already know well. This is a chance to showcase a creative, quirky, or specific interest of yours, take it! And have fun with it.
The options are endless:
-Top 10 things you’ve cooked this month
-Top 10 cheesiest romcoms you have actually enjoyed
-Top 10 Parks in Your Home State
-Top 10 songs by black artists that were stolen by Elvis
-Top 10 kinds of cheese
-Top 10 sustainable fashion houses
-Top 10 Roadside Attractions
-Top 10 New Jersey Diners
-Top 10 free online sewing patterns
-Top 10 Coffee Table Books
-Top 10 Candles
While most of the writing you have to do for Wake Forest is optional, we highly suggest you do their full supplement. They give you a lot of opportunities to showcase your passions and interests. Having an opportunity to show you are a well-rounded and passionate person is a good thing. Take some time. Do some brainstorming. Follow our tips and you’ve got this!
Still, need help with supplements? Reach out here!