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May 13 Weekly Update: Travel, Transportation & Pre-Experiences

Bottom Line, Up Front

  • Upcoming key dates or action items for families 
    • Sign up to receive the Daily Deac blog (optional but recommended)
  • Travel considerations
    • We are a walkable campus – your student doesn’t *have* to have a car: we offer shuttles, Zipcars, and bike-sharing
    • Registering a car on campus
    • Airports and airport shuttles
  • Pre-Orientation Programs
  • Travel Planning for Pre-Orientation Move-In (August 15 or 16)
  • Travel planning and Move-In for students not doing Pre-Orientation (August 20)
  • New Student Receptions (virtual and in-person)
  • Project Wake

Dear parents and families of incoming students,

Every Tuesday, we bring our incoming families news you can use. In addition to our every-week feature of upcoming key dates to be aware of, this week’s issue will cover travel planning,  Pre-Orientation programs, New Student Receptions, and Project Wake. 

Upcoming key dates or action items for families  

  • In these weekly messages, we will always begin with any upcoming key dates or action items for you (or critical items for your students). Here is this week’s item for families:
  • Subscribe to the Daily Deac blog (optional but recommended): Have you discovered the Daily Deac? The Daily Deac is an opt-in blog that shares important news, offers advice about supporting your students, provides reminders of important deadlines, and covers a variety of WFU activities and events to help you get a sense of campus life. You can subscribe here. (Full disclosure: I author the Daily Deac :)).

Travel and transportation considerations

Here’s all you need to know about travel to and from Wake Forest:

We are a walkable campus and have shuttles – your student doesn’t *have* to have a car

  • Walkable campus: Wake Forest’s Reynolda Campus is extremely walkable and bikeable. All academic buildings and dining locations can be reached on foot from the first-year residence halls in about 10 minutes or less.  
  • Shuttles: Wake Forest operates a fleet of scheduled shuttle lines in the center of campus and on-demand services to members of the campus community. Different shuttle lines will take students to parking, Hanes Mall, Target, various apartment complexes, Wake Downtown, and Allegacy Stadium (football games) and the LJVM Coliseum (men’s basketball games).
  • Zipcars: If your student doesn’t have a car (or you don’t want them to bring a car), we have you covered! Wake Forest has a car-sharing program called Zipcar that allows students to rent a car for hours or even a day. Zipcars are parked on campus near the first-year residence halls on Gulley Dr. They are available 24 hours a day. Rates include gas and insurance. Students can register here: Zipcar.
  • Bike-sharing: Don’t want to bring a bike to campus? Consider our ReCycle bike sharing program. If you do plan to bring a bike, be sure to bring a lock to secure your bike.

Registering a car on campus

  • For families who still decide to send a car to campus, first-year parking permits will be available online beginning August 1. Students will visit the parking website to purchase their parking permit, access the parking map, and become familiar with the parking rules and regulations.
  • All first-year and transfer students, including those who commute to campus, are required to park in a designated lot off campus. Shuttle service is provided.

Airports and shuttles

  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Students who fly into Charlotte or Greensboro at a time when our shuttles are not running (or are fully booked), or fly into Raleigh-Durham, must find alternative transportation back to campus. That might mean having a friend with a car drive them there/back, using a private car service like Black Tie Transportation, Uber, or public transportation. Every family will need to make the choice that works for them.
  • When families ask me, I always tell them my preference as a student was to fly into Greensboro because it is so much easier to get to campus from Greensboro than from Charlotte or Raleigh. Even if the cost to fly into Charlotte or Raleigh is cheaper than Greensboro, the cost of ground transportation from Charlotte or Raleigh to Winston-Salem may eat up much of that ‘savings.’

Pre-Orientation Programs

  • Hopefully by now your Deac has seen the section of the New Students website on Pre-Orientation Programs. These are remarkable launch experiences that our students can participate in. These sessions begin a few days before the official Move-In and they give students an opportunity to make friends and meet people in a smaller group setting and around a shared activity or interest.
  • These are also student-led programs, allowing our new students to meet upperclass (i.e., not new) students as well as staff members from various offices within the University. These early connections can make for powerful mentoring opportunities down the road. It never hurts to have a trusted upperclassman or a staff member you can talk to in the first weeks of school if you need help or advice.
  • Students are encouraged to register for up to three program choices and will be asked to rank those choices. If your student does not get into their first-choice program, they may be placed in one of their other choices. While we cannot guarantee your student a spot in their program of choice, we can guarantee them a spot in one of the programs.
  • A little more than half our students do a Pre-Orientation program. If yours is on the fence about whether this might be for them or not, they may want to see what previous participants have said about Pre-Orientation. But if your student does not want to do one, or their summer schedule does not allow it, they will be just fine (I didn’t do one during my time at Wake and I still made plenty of friends in my hall in the first few days of school).
  • Be sure your student fully reviews the Pre-Orientation website and understands the finer points (e.g., when they will be notified if they are accepted, accessibility, medical forms, and planning for meals and snacks).
  • A note about the Pre-Orientation Medical Form: 
    • A medical form is REQUIRED of all participants. The Medical Form for Pre-Orientation is in addition to the other required medical forms for Deacon Health.
    • The form can be completed via Adobe but will need to be signed manually. The completed, signed form will be uploaded during the Pre-Orientation application process. The upload process allows for two pages if needed.

Travel Planning for Pre-Orientation Move-In (August 15 or 16)

  • Some of you have asked me about travel planning for Pre-Orientation programs. It is probably wisest not to make plans yet: students participating in Pre-Orientation programs will receive notification of program acceptance between June 5-July 8.
  • Move-in details will be communicated by the Residence Life and Housing only after a student is accepted, paid, and confirmed by their respective Pre-Orientation program. Move-in details will not be communicated until first-year assignments have been finalized and released in late July. 
    • Students approved to participate in Wilderness to Wake will move in on Friday, August 15 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
    • Students approved to participate in any other Pre-Orientation program will move in on Saturday, August 16 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. 
    • Move-in assistance will be available ONLY between 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, August 16. 
    • Special Move-In Note regarding Marching Band (Spirit of the Old Gold and Black) – Students approved to participate in Marching Band will move in on Thursday, August 14th, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
  • Note that students will move into their assigned housing for 2025-26, not a temporary space.
  • Families tend to approach Pre-Orientation move-in in one of a few ways:
    • The family moves their student in 100% when they arrive for Pre-Orientation, then remains in Winston-Salem (or goes to the mountains or the beach for a couple of days while their student does Pre-Orientation) then comes to campus for official family Orientation on August 20-21.
    • The family moves their student in 100% at Pre-Orientation, but the family can’t remain in town because they have other kids at home/work commitments/etc., so they go home after they move their student in.
    • The family sends the student to campus for Pre-Orientation with only the bare bones necessities they’ll need for Pre-Orientation, then the family comes on official move in day (August 20) with the bulk of the student’s belongings, and remains for family Orientation. 
    • There is no right or wrong way, just what is right for your family. And while our parent and family Orientation programming is not mandatory, we strongly encourage you to attend if you can, so you have the opportunity to hear from the various support offices and learn about resources in place to help your student.
  • We strongly recommend that your travel plans remain flexible and do not finalize them until your student receives official move-in instructions from the Residence Life and Housing.

(And because we know you want to know) Travel planning and Move-In for students not doing Pre-Orientation (i.e., moving in August 20)

  • All students who are not participating in Pre-Orientation programs will come to campus for official Move-In Day for new students (August 20). 
  • Check-in and move-in assistance will be available from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and ALL students must be moved in by 1 p.m.
  • Move-in details will not be communicated until first-year assignments have been finalized and released in July. I will have much more information about this closer to August, so stay tuned.

New Student Receptions (virtual and in-person)

  • All parents/families and their new students are encouraged to register for our Virtual New Student Reception on June 24 from 7-8:30 p.m. EST via Zoom. The event will be recorded and posted in the days following the event. The virtual reception will provide a glimpse into life at Wake Forest; University faculty and staff will review the New Student Checklist – covering everything from advising to residence life and housing, and everything in between!
  • There will also be regional, in-person New Student Receptions, and we invite you to sign up for one if convenient. Details, dates, and registration can be found here (this list will be updated throughout the summer as new locations are added).

Project Wake

  • Our final Pre- experience to talk about is Project Wake. Project Wake is an optional program, and one I highly recommend.  It functions similar to a book club in that students will sign up to read one of this year’s pieces of media, all centered around the theme of A Brave New World. 
  • Your students will then read their chosen book this summer, and then at a specified time during Orientation, their reading group comes together to discuss the book.
  • This is a wonderful way for your students to begin the process of engaging in intellectual dialogue. They will meet other students in a small group setting (helping to build their social network) and they will also have the benefit of connecting with the faculty or staff member who is leading the discussion. It’s always a good thing to be able to have an adult in your corner when you are starting out in college – someone who knows you, who you could go to for advice and counsel if needed, etc.
  • The book list and registration should go live in June. Your students will be able to see both the books and the discussion leaders, who are faculty and some staff.  

Parting thoughts

We will continue sending weekly messages to our new P’29 families throughout the summer. In case you missed last week’s message, you can view our archive here.

With best wishes,

Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (‘92, MA ‘94)
Executive Director of Family Communications

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