Wake Forest University is a privateindependent, non-sectarian research university founded in 1834. The Reynolda Campus, the university’s main campus, is located north of downtown Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The University is home to over 4,800 undergraduate students and almost 3,000 graduate students in arts and sciences, medicine, business, law, and divinity. Wake Forest offers the personal attention of a small liberal arts college, coupled with the breadth and global relevancy of a leading research institution, and is consistently ranked among the top 30 universities in the nation. The mission of Wake Forest University is to educate the whole person, graduating students who seek purpose-filled lives while building a community dedicated to serving humanity in the spirit of our motto, Pro Humanitate.

The University Counseling Center serves all undergraduate students of Wake Forest University and students in graduate programs that are housed on the University’s main campus, including arts and sciences, business, law, and divinity.  The University Counseling Center is available for consultation and to provide referrals to business students based on the University’s Charlotte, North Carolina campus.  Medical students of the affiliated Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center are not served by the University Counseling Center and have access to their own dedicated mental health services.  The University Counseling Center (UCC) is located centrally on WFU’s main campus and operates as part of the Division of Campus Life.  The UCC provides individual and group counseling for personal, interpersonal, developmental, vocational, and academic issues as well as offers a breadth of outreach and educational programs.  In addition, the UCC provides consultation services to students, faculty and staff; classroom teaching; and training for graduate students in counseling and psychology.

Diversity on Campus

Wake Forest University enrolled 8,495 students who were eligible for University Counseling Center services in the 2019-2020 training year. The University draws students representing 49 states and 49 foreign countries. Self-reported ethnic identities of the undergraduate student body included African-American/Black (8%), Asian-American/Asian (11%), Hispanic/Latino (7%), White (68%), and Multiracial (3%).

During the 2019-2020 year, the University Counseling Center served 1,131 students (13.3% of the eligible student population) and was generally reflective of the diversity of the overall student population at Wake Forest. Race/ethnicity of our client population was similar to the campus as a whole: African-American/Black (12.2%), Asian-American/Asian (9.7%), Hispanic/Latino (6%), White (64.7%), and Multiracial (3.9%). Additionally, 10% of UCC clients were International students. The distribution for religious preference also closely mirrored that of the undergraduate population as a whole: Atheist/Agnostic/No preference (35%), Buddhist (0.9%), Christian (43.9%), Hindu (0.5%), Jewish (3.5%), and Muslim (1.2%). Finally, while official comparison data is not available, the UCC’s client population is likely more diverse with respect to sexual orientation than the total student population. UCC clients self-identified as Heterosexual/Straight (78.8%), Lesbian (1.5%), Gay (2%), Bisexual (8%), and Questioning (3.3%). Approximately 2% of clients identified as transgender and gender nonconforming.