During the first week of January, many sophomores can be found anxiously refreshing their email. They’re waiting for an answer to the question that many of them have been asking since they arrived at Wake Forest: Will I get into the School of Business? On Jan. 7, the business school released decisions. Whether applicants were left celebrating or scrambling to choose a new major, the long wait was finally over.
“The business school application has been on my mind since before I even got into Wake [Forest],” sophomore accounting major Catherine McLaughlin said. “The stress has been heavy since freshman year.”
Students must be accepted into the School of Business in order to major in Accountancy, Business and Enterprise Management (BEM), Decision Analytics or Finance. To be eligible to apply, students must take the following prerequisites: Introduction to Economics, Calculus with Analytic Geometry I and Introductory Financial Accounting.
The rigor of the undergraduate School of Business application process matches the rigor of the programs themselves. Wake Forest’s business school is competitive and highly regarded across the country, earning a No. 18 overall ranking in the Poets & Quants 2025 list.
The application, due in the fall semester of students’ sophomore year, consists of a bullet-point list of a student’s qualifications and activities alongside their cumulative GPA and GPA for the required prerequisites. In previous years, the application also had an essay section, but admissions cut that requirement for the 2025 application cycle.
“I was happier about the lack of essays because I don’t think English relates to business as much,” McLaughlin said. “Even if I were to write about one of my experiences, I don’t think that essay is reflective of my qualifications.”
Not all students share this opinion. Paige Shepard, a sophomore BEM major, wishes the essay section was still part of the application so that she could further describe her qualifications, which include running her own nonprofit organization.
“I think an essay section would have increased my chances of getting in, or even just having an extra space where you get to describe what you’ve done a bit more than a list,” Shepard stated.
As the business school application has evolved over the years, so has Wake Forest’s student body. The university’s class size has consistently expanded over the past few years, with the current freshman class being the largest ever. Since the School of Business does not publish detailed admission statistics, undergraduate applicants don’t know if the growing number of students impacts their likelihood of admission.
Junior finance major Caroline Moritz believes that this ambiguity can put additional pressure on applicants.
“It would be helpful to have an idea of how many people they let in and how many people are applying in total,” Moritz expressed. “Sometimes people will just throw out numbers and that gets around and scares people more. It’s just helpful for people who want to enter the B-School to know what they’re up against and what their odds are.”
Sophomore BEM major Zach Klein would also prefer if admission statistics were made available to the public.
“As an applicant, you obviously want statistics to know what you’re up against,” Klein said. “I understand why they don’t want to publish that, because it might look bad on the university if they’re only letting in 40% of kids.”
Another unique aspect of Wake Forest’s School of Business application process is that students apply relatively late in their college careers compared to many other universities. While most colleges allow students to apply prior to or during their freshman year, Wake Forest’s School of Business applicants don’t know if they’ll graduate with their preferred degree until almost halfway through their four years at the university. Though many find this frustrating, leaders in the business school say there are reasons for the relatively late process.
“Wake Forest’s sophomore-year admission cycle reflects its identity as a residential liberal arts institution at the undergraduate level,” Whitney Milhouse, Senior Associate Director at the School of Business, said in an email interview. “The structure allows students time to explore academic interests, establish a Wake Forest academic record and make informed decisions before committing to a specific major.”
Many applicants would prefer if the admission cycle took place earlier so that they could plan their own academic journeys accordingly. Shepard notes that the timing of business school decisions can inconvenience students who are set on pursuing a specific major or career path.
“I’m not a fan of the timing of it, because it screws over a lot of second-semester sophomores,” Shepard said. “I understand why – if they want an elite business school, they have to do it a bit later because they want something to evaluate, but I don’t think the timeline is fair compared to other colleges.”
The late acceptances may also have implications for Wake Forest students entering the job market.
“It hurts Wake Forest in the recruiting cycle for a lot of important banks,” Moritz contended. “A lot of sophomore students have only taken Accounting, and they’re being compared to other students at other schools that have taken a lot more finance classes and in-depth accounting classes.”
Overall, even if it allows students to explore other majors and build up their qualifications and GPA, many applicants find the late-stage application process frustrating.
“The most stressful part of the application is knowing that when you’ll find out, it’s already pretty late in your college career,” McLaughlin said. “If I had found out I didn’t get in freshman year, I probably would have transferred.”
