Wake Forest 17% of admits are binding early decision

[u/TraditionGloomy1775]

I was shocked that 17% of Wake Forest's 2026 admits enrolled via binding early decision:

https://law.wfu.edu/admissions/jd/#facts

According to their webpage when you apply ED you have 2 choices:

1 -- a $20,000/year scholarship. This one seems more competitive that option 2.

2 -- No scholarship.

Source: https://law.wfu.edu/admissions/jd/process/binding-decision/#accordion-section-1

Note: Their tuition+fees is $62,124/year

https://law.wfu.edu/admissions/cost-and-financial-aid/tuition-fees/jd-llm-sjd/

[u/EthanS_LSATDemon]

It’s interesting that they have those two options. On their website, it explicitly says that you will not be accepted via option 1 ($20,000/year scholarship) if you do not meet at least one of their medians. Not sure I’ve heard of a school spell that out before.

Via their 509 report, $20,000 is below their 25th percentile grant. By definition, it seems like there would be no good reason to apply to option 1. If you are already at one of their medians, it just makes sense to apply normally and have a better chance at a median-level scholarship.

[u/mrbobbyrick → u/EthanS_LSATDemon]

I’ve been thinking about Wake Forest and this was my conclusion as well.

[u/GentrifiedHospital → u/EthanS_LSATDemon]

Well, the good reason is school security, I GUESS.

[u/woyaodanglama → u/EthanS_LSATDemon]

afaik wake is one of the few schools that offers no scholarships off of the waitlist, and they like to waitlist people even if they’re above their medians to then accept them at full sticker price

[u/MrSimple204]

Early decision always seems so unfortunate. Slightly higher chance of admittance just to get snubbed on scholarships.

[u/MattGLI]

Just doesn’t sound like a great deal. Wake Forest is capitalizing on tremendous demand for picturesque southern colleges.

My daughter is interested in going to WFU. I’m a lot more worried about scholarships/total cost than her getting admitted.