The importance of primary sources
One of the academic lessons we try to teach our students is the importance of using reliable sources in research and papers. By reliable, I mean primary sources: places that have a proven track record of verifiably true content because it was generated by the subject matter experts in that topic.
We want to encourage students and families to use that same approach when asking questions about processes at Wake Forest. Your best primary sources for Wake Forest information would be the wfu.edu website (and all its subpages – parents.wfu.edu, newstudents.wfu.edu, etc.), or emailing parents@wfu.edu or other offices when your family has questions. Those are likely to give you the most accurate, official information.
Some examples:
If you are a P’25 and trying to figure out what tasks your incoming student needs to accomplish this summer, the primary source is the Parents and Families page of the New Students website and the individual calendar pages for May, June, July, and August.
If you are trying to find out dates for holidays/breaks, the drop-add period, etc., the primary source would be the Academic Services Calendar page of the Registrar’s website.
If you are trying to find move-in/move-out dates, the Residence Life and Housing website is a primary source.
If you are trying to understand requirements for a major, the Academic Bulletin on the Registrar’s website (for the year your student entered Wake Forest), is a primary source.
If your student has questions about which classes to take, their assigned academic adviser, or the Office of Academic Advising’s professional academic counselors are the best primary sources for guidance.
Our Who to Contact For… page provides links to other offices for commonly-needed topics, and we encourage you to use those links as your primary sources.
Going to the official source is always your best bet. While it could be tempting to take the word of your student, their roommate, or crowdsource the answer (via a group chat, text with another family member you know, message board, etc.) that information could be – and sometimes is! – incorrect. Sometimes processes change from year to year. I can’t tell you the number of times I talk to a family member who has heard incorrect information (from a well-intentioned source who thought they were giving good counsel) that they took to be true, and now they are in a pickle because they have missed a deadline or some important detail.
Our website, the Daily Deac blog, and individual offices are here to help you and your students find the information they need. And one final thought: allow your students to do most of the legwork when you or they have questions; don’t do the research or make those inquiries for them. Your students need to get used to navigating our website and our administrative offices, and forming relationships with those staff members. If you do it for them, it robs them of a chance to make those important connections. So let them take the lead and do the asking when they (or you) have questions.
— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)