Wake Forest University: Inside the Numbers

In September 2025, Wake Forest University welcomed the largest first-year class in its history. The 1,545 students who arrived in Winston-Salem outnumbered every entering class before them, and they did so in a year when the university also reported its highest share of Pell-eligible and first-generation students in a decade. Those two facts frame Wake Forest’s five-year record. This is a university that has grown steadily larger and harder to get into while widening the door for students who could not always afford to walk through it.

The numbers behind that record come from Wake Forest’s own Common Data Set submissions, the standardized reports colleges publish each year, supplemented where noted by the university’s published class profiles and third-party compilations. Wake Forest is a private research university of roughly 5,500 undergraduates, built around a liberal arts core, a large undergraduate business school, and a national reach that pulls more than four in five of its students from outside North Carolina. Reading five years of data against that identity explains most of the patterns below.

One more piece of context shapes everything that follows. Wake Forest was among the first nationally ranked universities to stop requiring the SAT and ACT, dropping the mandate in 2008, long before the pandemic pushed hundreds of colleges to do the same. That head start shows up in a submission rate that sits far below what most selective private universities report, and it changes how the test-score figures in this report should be read.

A pool that keeps growing, and a class that keeps getting harder to enter

Applications rose in every year of this period, from 15,156 for the Fall 2021 class to nearly 20,000 for Fall 2025, an increase of about 29 percent. Unlike many universities where a swelling applicant pool coincides with a rising admit rate, Wake Forest tightened as it grew. The admit rate fell from 25.2 percent for Fall 2021 to 20.8 percent for Fall 2025, its lowest point in the five years. The class of students who enrolled grew at the same time, which means the university did this while making room for more freshmen, not fewer.

Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings for 2021-2022 through 2023-2024, section C1. Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 figures reflect Wake Forest class profiles and published compilations; the Fall 2025 application total is reported by the university as “nearly 20,000.”

Applications and offers of admission, Fall 2021 to Fall 2025. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings and class profiles.

The single sharpest move came between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022, when the admit rate dropped almost four points even as applications climbed. That was the year Wake Forest crossed a line most applicants notice, from a rate in the mid-twenties to one near 21 percent, where it has stayed. For a family reading these numbers, the practical meaning is simple. A student who would have been a comfortable admit a decade ago now faces roughly one-in-five odds, and the trend points down, not up.

The yield that barely moves

The most stable number in Wake Forest’s file is the one most universities struggle to hold steady. Yield, the share of admitted students who enroll, stayed within a single point of 37 percent in all five years, from 37.0 percent for Fall 2021 to 37.9 percent for Fall 2025. A yield near 37 percent is high for a private university outside the small group of national names that win most of their cross-admit battles, and it is the quiet engine behind the falling admit rate. When a university can count on a stable, high share of its admitted students choosing to enroll, it can admit a smaller fraction of a larger pool and still fill a growing class.

Admit rate falls while yield holds near 37 percent. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings and class profiles.

Two features of Wake Forest’s admissions design explain that steadiness. The university runs binding early decision, which locks in a committed core of the class before the regular round, and it does not publish its waiting-list or early-decision counts, marking those cells “do not publish” in every filing. What the stable yield reveals is a university that knows its market well. Students who apply to Wake Forest tend to want Wake Forest specifically, drawn by its size, its residential character, and a culture the university markets under the Latin motto Pro Humanitate. That loyalty is worth more to the admissions math than any single policy.

A class that grew to a record

Enrollment tells its own story. The entering class held near 1,400 for the first three years, dipped to 1,370 for Fall 2022, then jumped to 1,513 for Fall 2024 and 1,545 for Fall 2025, the largest in the university’s history. Total undergraduate enrollment, which sat around 5,450 to 5,470 in the years with complete filings, has risen with those larger classes. Growing the freshman class by about 160 students over two years is a deliberate act for a university that prizes small classes, and it puts pressure on housing, advising, and the roughly nine-to-one student-to-faculty ratio the university has long advertised.

Entering first-year class size, Fall 2021 to Fall 2025. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings and class profiles.

Testing, and the pioneer’s low submission rate

Because Wake Forest has been test-optional since 2008, its score figures describe a self-selected minority rather than the class as a whole. Across the years with full filings, only about a quarter of enrolled students submitted an SAT and a similar share submitted an ACT, so roughly half the class sent any national test score at all. The ACT share fell steadily, from 32 percent for Fall 2021 to 22 percent for Fall 2023, while the SAT held closer to a quarter. The university treats scores as “considered if submitted” and continues the policy for applicants through at least the Fall 2027 cycle.

Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings, sections C9 and C10. Fall 2024 ranges reflect the university’s published profile; Wake Forest reports a single combined submission figure of about half the class for that year.

SAT composite, middle 50 percent of submitters, Fall 2021 to Fall 2024. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings and class profile.

Among the students who do submit, the scores are strong and moving up slowly. The middle 50 percent of SAT composites climbed from 1380-to-1480 for Fall 2021 to about 1410-to-1520 for Fall 2024, with the median settling at 1450. The reading for applicants is the same one that applies at most test-optional schools with a low submission rate. The students who send scores are those whose scores help them, so the published ranges sit above what a typical admitted student scored. A strong transcript, which the university marks as its most important factor alongside grade-point average, carries the file. Wake Forest lists rigor of the secondary school record and academic GPA as very important, the essay and recommendations as important, and test scores only as considered when they appear.

Share of enrolled first-year students submitting each test, Fall 2021 to Fall 2023. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings.

Who enrolls

The composition of the entering class shifted meaningfully over the three years with published racial and ethnic detail. The white share of first-year students eased from 65 percent for Fall 2021 to 62 percent for Fall 2023. Asian enrollment rose the most in relative terms, from about 5 percent to 8 percent, while the Hispanic share held near 10 percent and Black enrollment climbed from under 5 percent to nearly 7 percent. International enrollment moved the other way, falling from about 10 percent of the Fall 2021 class to 6.5 percent for Fall 2023, part of a broader softening in first-year international numbers after the post-pandemic rebound.

Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings, section B2, first-time first-year students. American Indian and Pacific Islander categories, each at or below one percent, are omitted here. The Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 filings were posted as blank forms, so first-year racial detail for those years is not available from the Common Data Set.

First-year class composition, Fall 2021 versus Fall 2023. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings.

The two most recent classes, entering in Fall 2024 and Fall 2025, were the first admitted after the 2023 Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admission, and Wake Forest did not post usable racial detail for either year. What the university did report points in a clear direction on access rather than race. For the Fall 2025 class it announced that 14 percent of students were Pell-eligible and 12 percent were first-generation, both described as ten-year highs. Wake Forest also runs an early action plan reserved for first-generation applicants, an unusual structural commitment that gives those students a non-binding early read on their chances. A university that grew its class to a record while lifting its Pell and first-generation shares to decade highs is making a deliberate statement about who the larger class is meant to include.

What students study, and where the real competition sits

Wake Forest admits students to the university rather than to a major, and the degree data show a school anchored in business and the social sciences rather than in engineering or the health professions. Business and marketing has been the single largest field in every year, holding near 22 percent of bachelor’s degrees. The social sciences ranked second, though their share slipped from about 20 percent to 18 percent. Communication and journalism, a genuine Wake Forest strength, drew 8 to 10 percent, and biology and psychology each accounted for 7 to 9 percent. Computer science, still small, grew from 3 percent to more than 4 percent, and engineering, a department the university launched in 2017, remained under 3 percent as its first cohorts moved through.

Bachelor’s degrees conferred by field, share of all degrees, 2021 to 2023. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings.

Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings, section J, share of bachelor’s degrees conferred. Degrees lag admission by roughly four years. The 2023-24 and 2024-25 filings were posted as blank forms.

The single-door admission process hides where the actual competition lives. The clearest example is the School of Business, which most undergraduates enter through a secondary internal application after completing prerequisite coursework, typically in the sophomore year. Popular majors such as finance and accountancy admit selectively from that internal pool, so a student admitted to Wake Forest is not thereby admitted to the business major. The pattern repeats in miniature across the most sought-after programs. For applicants who arrive certain they want business, the university-wide admit rate near 21 percent understates the sorting that still lies ahead on campus.

Price, need, and a modest merit budget

Published tuition rose from $61,012 for the 2022-23 year to $66,470 for 2024-25, and with required fees, housing, and food the full cost of attendance for that year approached $94,000. Very few families pay the sticker. Wake Forest meets close to 100 percent of demonstrated financial need, reporting figures between 97 and 100 percent across these years, and the average financial aid package for an aided student climbed sharply, from about $55,500 for Fall 2021 to more than $70,600 for Fall 2023. The average need-based grant rose over the same span, reaching about $63,800.

Published tuition by academic year. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings.

Merit aid is a smaller part of the picture at Wake Forest than at many private universities that use it to buy yield. In a typical year only a few dozen to roughly a hundred first-year students with no financial need received an institutional merit scholarship, and the average award, while it grew toward $22,000, reached a far smaller group than the need-based program did. This is a university that competes on fit and need-based generosity rather than on broad discounting, which fits its high and stable yield. Borrowing has stayed moderate as a result, with roughly a quarter of each graduating class taking any loan and average debt for those who borrow near $31,000 to $37,000.

Average total aid package and average need-based grant for aided first-year students. Source: Wake Forest Common Data Set filings.

The gap between the sticker and the net price is the number families should hold onto. A cost of attendance near $94,000 describes what a full-pay family pays, not what a typical aided student pays, and with need met close to the full amount, the figure that matters is the one the university’s net price calculator produces. For a family with real financial need, Wake Forest can land well below its public reputation as an expensive private, though its merit awards are too few to count on for a student without need.

Staying and finishing

Outcomes stayed strong throughout the period. First-year retention held between 93.8 and 94.7 percent, and the six-year graduation rate ran near 90 to 91 percent, both figures consistent with a residential university whose students largely persist to a degree. The student-to-faculty ratio held close to ten to one, and about 59 percent of undergraduate class sections enrolled fewer than 20 students, a proportion that has edged up even as the entering classes grew. Those numbers are the counterweight to the record class sizes. So far, growth has not visibly loosened the retention and completion figures that a residential liberal arts university sells.

What the five-year record means for applicants

Wake Forest is getting harder to enter, and the trend is steady rather than noisy. The admit rate has settled near 21 percent and touched 20.8 percent for the most recent class, while applications keep climbing and the entering class keeps growing. A capable student should treat Wake Forest as a reach or a strong match rather than a safety, and should not read the still-generous class sizes as a sign that the door is opening.

Three practical readings follow from the data. The transcript carries the application, because the university weighs rigor and grades above everything and only about half of enrolled students submit a test score, so a strong record in demanding courses does more than a number ever will. The price on the website is close to fiction for a family with need, because Wake Forest meets nearly all of it, though a student without need should not count on merit aid that reaches only a small share of the class. And the admit rate is not the last hurdle, because the business school and other popular programs admit selectively from within, so getting into Wake Forest and getting into the major a student wants are two different questions. The class that arrived in Fall 2025 was the largest and, by the university’s own account, the most accessible in its history. The five-year record suggests both of those things were on purpose.