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Amen

Completely agree.

Well, Brian. That certainly is a passionate article. As a young alumni, I must admit, it worries me to think that there are seniors out there who honestly believe that a flyer posting wall (actually, a campus tradition from way back when… ) and a new logo are reasons to decide not to donate to our alma mater. I can appreciate that you are concerned for the future of our school with all the changes that seem to be occuring- enrollment size, divisional requirements loosening, etc… But, Brian… I hate to break this to you, if you decide to never give a cent… how do you expect to ever make a difference? How can Wake Forest add research labs, improve teacher salaries, renovate outdated buildings, or improve campus parking without the generous support of our alumni and donors? And, when our alumni donor percentage goes down, it has adverse effects on national rankings, putting us in jeopardy of becoming unable to recieve much needed grants and support from other institutions. So while your 10 dollars to the senior class campaign may not be moving mountains, your participation surely is, and collectively, alumni giving makes a world of difference. 
I hope you come to realize the importance of donating annually to our school before you graduate. I must admit- I am much less impressed by you than I am by say, those seniors who actually put their money where their mouth is.

We are alumni of 2008, you got out early.  Stop by Wake and talk to students; WFU was not frozen in time when you left, Kate.

I graduated in ‘07, Danny… not that much could have happened…

I didn’t fully realize how bad Wake was until I went to grad school somewhere else.  Every aspect of my experience was better.  At Wake I felt like half the faculty actively disliked the student body and that the administration viewed students and alumni as a constant source of headaches holding the school back from its nobler goals.  I honestly thought that was normal until I went to a school where the administration and faculty really cared about the students and wanted to help the students succeed. It was like night and day.

Think about it. At Wake something like 2/3rds of the students come in wanting to be pre-med. So what does Wake do?  It designs its pre-med program specifically to weed out as many people as possible.  The handful that get through have been so ravaged by Wake’s ridiculous grading system that they almost always end up in crap programs.  Or take the Calloway school - 95% of Calloway students want to work for big companies that will only interview students (from any school) if they have a 3.5 or higher.  At most other decent schools you have to be literate and capable of basic arithmetic to graduate with a 3.5 - it’s not a high bar.  Naturally, Wake does everything possible to ensure that the vast majority of its students graduate with a 3.3 or lower.  Low enough that no decent employer or grad school outside of the south will touch the average Wake grad with a ten foot pole (at least not without an uncle or family friend in management).  The only reason I got into a good law school was my LSAT score.  Future SAT-optional admits probably won’t have that safety net. 

In any event, I stopped giving to Wake a couple years ago.  The school consistently squanders the money it has, and there’s no shortage of charities (not to mention schools) that do a lot more to actually improve the world.

“And, when our alumni donor percentage goes down, it has adverse effects on national rankings”

SAT optional admissions will take care of Wake’s rankings.  The fact that Wake is so willing to embrace a program that will invariably sink it’s already embarrasing ranking into the 40s is just another example of what’s wrong with the school.  Most students and alumni (not to mention employers, parents, etc.) actually care about these ratings.  Not surprisingly, Wake couldn’t care less.

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