Wake Forest offers a high-quality business education that is characterized by cross-functional learning and strong career advising support. In this year’s rankings, the B-school placed No. 33 – climbing an impressive 10 places from last year’s ranking at No. 43. Of the three methodological categories, the B-School placed highest in Career Outcomes, where they came in at No. 15.
Wake Forest had an even more selective acceptance rate than last year’s 24.34%, at 20.16% for their most recent incoming class. They had a pretty large jump upwards in their average SAT scores, from 1430 for last year’s class to 1465 for the most recent incoming class of students.
In terms of employment outcomes, Wake Forest had maintained 98% of students landing a business-focused internship before graduating, and this year, their rate is nearly in line at 97% for the Class of 2023. Career stats rose from 90.12% for the Class of 2022 to an impressive 96.10% of the Class of ‘23 grads securing a full-time position within three months of graduation. The average starting salary for this year’s graduates was $85,783.
With its cross-functional education and supportive career advising resources, Wake Forest University’s School of Business ensures each and every student not only discovers his or her true calling but succeeds in it as well.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL, REAL-WORLD EDUCATION
At Wake Forest, many of these learning experiences tie in an element of cross-functional collaboration and learning.
For instance, the senior project consists of a hands-on simulation where students “run” a company from initial R&D to sales, operations, marketing, and finance.
“It was a true culmination of our entire undergraduate curriculum and required team collaboration of ‘SMEs’ as we had teams of finance, business management, accounting, and mathematical business [students] similar to executive team makeups,” one alumni told us.
“The experience was unique in the fact that it truly simulated a business in that each group member was from each business program major,” another alumni said in regards to the senior project. “Everyone offered their expert opinions like departments in a company.”
This type of cross-functional collaboration is key to the business education at Wake Forest. By working across different disciplines, Wake Forest students get a taste of what the real business world is like — giving them a leg up in experience by the time they graduate.
And alumni rate their business education highly. When asked to evaluate how well Wake Forest’s business program prepared them for the world of work, alumni gave a strong 9.31 average rating.
“I believe the accounting and finance program at my school was instrumental in my preparation for my current role and I always see resemblances in the learning curriculum with the actual work,” one alumni told us.
STRONG CAREER ADVISING SUPPORT
Wake Forest invests heavily in resources to ensure its students are supported in achieving their career goals and interests. One of the newest additions to the business program is the Pre-Wall Street Career Track. The program is essentially a comprehensive education for careers in investment banking, asset management, sales and trading, and private equity. Independent of their major study, the Pre-Wall Street Career Track includes targeted coursework, mentoring and coaching, experiential learning, and networking opportunities.
In addition to career-track programs, the Wake Forest faculty is dedicated to mentoring and supporting each student in discovering their career interests.
“My School of Business adviser suggested me to the professor who taught the course due to my high GPA in my Spanish and business school classes,” the alumni told us. “Without that referral, I would not have experienced such an amazing opportunity.”
Any B-school can offer career advising or specialized career training and support. But the testimonials and ratings from alumni speak volumes about Wake Forest’s dedication to ensuring each and every student receives the proper resources and support they need to achieve their career goals.
Alumni say:
“We had multiple different types of simulation or case studies available to us, either via the capstone project, case competitions setup by other companies and other types of case studies in classes.”
“I elected to do a semester abroad in Venice, Italy, with a professor from the business school who provided a business-centric curriculum. This was a unique opportunity to continue business studios abroad while engaging with my interest in art history. Through this experience, I nurtured both sides of my academic interest and had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live and study abroad.”
“Engaged in a team strategy consultant exercise for one semester where we essentially led a company through simulation and had to make product and growth decisions and give cost constraints and expected demand in a competition against other student teams. We were graded based on our performance, and our team won the exercise. I found it really valuable in terms of replicating decisions facing business leaders.”
“Wake Forest required every graduating senior to partake in a management simulation course that was a team-based, semester-long competitive class that required effective communication, critical thinking, layered problem solving and other key business techniques to place well amongst other classmates. This was instrumental in my educational process and allowed me to see business “in action” while attending Wake Forest.”
“Wake Forest University opened my eyes to what it meant to learn wholeheartedly through different facets. My experience taught me how to be an adult, how to see the world for what it is and question what it should be, how to give back to the world of business. I am thankful for my experience and the professors that invested in me intentionally throughout my 2 years there.”