The low-profile Wake Forest University, USA is routinely ranked among the top 30 universities in the US. Moreover Businessweek ranks its school of business #18 overall and #1 for academic quality

Founded in 1834, Wake Forest University (WFU) is a collegiate higher education institution offering a well-reputed liberal arts undergraduate curriculum and post-graduate and doctoral programmes. The universitys undergrad Wake Forest College offers bachelor of arts and science degrees, while its five graduate schools (divinity, medicine, business, law and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) offer a range of Masters and doctoral study programmes to a small contingent of 7,432 students.

The low-profile Wake Forest is routinely ranked among the Top 30 varsities in the US. The US News & World Report in its Americas Best Colleges Rankings 2013, ranks WFU #27 overall and #13 for best undergraduate teaching. Moreover, BusinessWeek in its Undergraduate Business Schools Rankings 2013, ranks Wake Forests School of Business #18 overall and #1 on the parameter of academic quality.
I am convinced that Wake Forest can claim a very special; even extraordinary; place in American higher education. I have learned in my time here that Wake Forest is a deeply personal place, dedicated to community and face-to-face interaction. We help students connect who they are, with what they do, helping them to find meaning and purpose in their lives and work, says Dr. Nathan Hatch, president of WFU.

Sprawled across 340 acres in Winston-Salem, a mid-sized city in North Carolina, WFU is distinguished by its selective and limited intake while offering the resources of a large university. A faculty-student ratio of 1:11 ensures greater one-on-one interaction and collaboration between students and professors. The core curriculum equips students with broad competencies in critical thinking and analysis of arguments; oral and written communication; quantitative reasoning; under-standing of cross-cultural perspectives and learning methodologies across disciplines.

WFU also offers enviable study abroad opportunities; more than 70 percent of undergrads study abroad from univ-ersity-owned residences in London, Venice and Vienna, and enroll in more than 400 programmes across 200 cities in 70 countries, including Australia, Africa, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Russia and Spain. It also provides a generous aid progra-mme with 60 percent of undergraduates receiving financial support.

Winston-Salem. Sited in the state of North Carolina, Winston-Salem (pop. 229,000) offers a broad range of cultural and historic attractions. Also known as a city of arts and innovation, Winston-Salem has many artistic firsts to its credit. The twin city promoted the first Arts Council in the US, as also the first state-supported arts conservatory in America; the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. With numerous galleries, performing arts groups, theatres, collectives and collections, Winston-Salem attracts arts lovers from around the world.
Downtown is a mere three miles from Wake Forests main campus with several galleries and shops; indoor and outdoor performance spaces and museums; a greenway traversing the Old Salem district; hotels, restaurants and sidewalk cafes. The ski slopes of North Carolinas Blue Ridge Mountains are a mere two-hours drive, while the beaches of North and South Carolina are four hours away.

Winston-Salem has a humid subtropical climate characterised by mode-rately cold winters and hot, humid summers. Average winter temperatures range from -2°C-11°C rising to 19°C-32°C in summer.

Campus facilities. Wake Forests main 340-acre Reynolda campus hosts the undergraduate college, three of the five graduate schools, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village. The heart of the Reynolda campus is two interlinked quads of the north and south campuses separated by the main administrative building and dining facility. About a mile from the campus is the Graylyn International Conference Center, a 55-acre estate owned by the university.

Located in the Ardmore neighbourhood of downtown Winston-Salem is the Bowman Gray campus of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which hosts the Wake Forest School of Medicine. The universitys School of Business is sited on a satellite campus in Charlotte.
WFUs Z. Smith Reynolds Library offers access to over 100,000 books and 5,500 print and 3,000 electronic journal subscriptions. The Professional Center Library serves the School of Law and the Babcock Graduate School of Management while the Coy C. Carpenter Library caters to the School of Medicine.

Sports facilities include the Miller Center (fitness and exercise studios); Leighton Tennis Stadium and Upper Recreational tennis courts, several sand volleyball courts; jogging trails; Kentner stadium; Poteat Recreational Field; the Water Tower Field; Collins basketball courts and the Frisbee Golf course.

Moreover, there are over 160 organisations on campus including sports and cultural clubs, academic and service fraternities, religious societies, political groups, and debate teams.

Admission. The minimum eligibility for admission into Wake Forests undergraduate programmes is completion of Plus Two. All foreign students whose first language is not English are required to submit an official TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score report. WFU does not accept the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) as a test of English proficiency. But WFU does not require applicants to submit SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) or ACT (American Colleges Testing) scores in admission applications. Submission of SAT and ACT scores is voluntary.

All admission applications must be accompanied with certified transcripts of secondary school, college or university attended, letters of recommendation, admissions essay, and a $50 application fee. The submission deadline is January 1.

For further information contact Wake Forest University, Undergraduate Admissions, PO Box 7305, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7305, USA. Tel: 001.336.758.5201; e-mail: admissions@ wfu.edu; website: www.wfu.edu.

Accommodation. WFU has a three-year residency requirement. Under-graduate students are required to reside in on-campus housing during their first three years unless they live with parents or guardians in the Winston-Salem area. Only senior students are eligible to live off-campus. First-year students typically live in halls of residence on the South campus with easy access to classrooms, library, post office and bank, food and convenience stores. All halls of residence are co-educational.

Degree programmes. Wake Forests six academic schools comprising 40 undergraduate and graduate depart-ments offer an array of majors and minors, interdisciplinary, and co-curricular programmes, and research opportunities (see box).

Scholastic options at Wake Forest
Wake Forest University offers a wide range of undergraduate, postgrad  and PhD programmes. They include:
Undergraduate/Wake Forest College. The bachelor of arts degree is conferred with majors in anthropology, art history, biology, chemistry, Chinese, classical studies, communication, economics, English, French, German, German studies, Greek, history, Japanese, Latin, mathematics, music performance, music in liberal arts, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, religion, Russian, sociology, Spanish, studio art or theatre.

Bachelor of science degrees are conferred with majors in biology, chemistry, computer science, health and exercise science, mathematical economics, mathematics or physics.

School of Business. Bachelor of science degrees with majors in accountancy, business and enterprise management, finance or mathematical business; MBA; MA in accountancy.

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (MA/MS). Bioethics, biology, biomedical engineering, biomedical science, chemistry, clinical and population translational sciences, communication, comparative medicine, computer science, counseling, documentary film, education, English, health and exercise science, interpreting and translation studies, intercultural services in healthcare, teaching of interpreting, liberal studies, mathematics, molecular medicine and translational science, physics, psychology, religion.

The School of Divinity, School of Law and School of Medicine also offer postgraduate programmes.
Tuition fees (per year): $44,742; Housing and other expenses: $15,500

Summiya Yasmeen