Wake Forest University, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is a private, co-educational institution that offers a liberal arts curriculum. With an undergraduate enrollment of less than 4,500, Wake Forest is the third smallest school in Division I-A and the smallest among BCS programs. Wake Forest is home to 18 varsity teams that collectively hold eight national titles. A few notable athletics alumni include Tim Duncan, Arnold Palmer, Brian Piccolo and Chris Paul.

Wake Forest Institute was founded in 1834 by the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. The school opened its doors on February 3 with Samuel Wait as principal. Classes were first held in a farmhouse on the Calvin Jones plantation in Wake County, North Carolina, near which the village of Wake Forest later developed. Re-chartered in 1838 as Wake Forest College, Wake Forest is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the state. The School of Law was established in 1894, followed by a two-year medical school in 1902. Wake Forest was exclusively a college for men until WWII, when women were admitted for the first time.

In 1941, the medical school moved to Winston-Salem to become affiliated with North Carolina Baptist Hospital and was renamed the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. In 1946, the trustees of Wake Forest and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina accepted a proposal by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to relocate the College to Winston-Salem. The late Charles and Mary Reynolds Babcock donated much of the R.J. Reynolds family estate as the site for the campus and building funds were received from many sources. From 1952 to 1956, the first fourteen buildings were constructed in Georgian style on the new campus.

The move to Winston-Salem took place in the summer of 1956; the original, or "old" campus, is now home to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Following the move, Wake Forest grew considerably in enrollment programs and stature and became a University in 1967. The School of Business Administration, first established in 1948, was named the Charles H. Babcock School of Business Administration in 1969 and admitted its first graduate students in 1971. In 1972, the school enrolled only graduate students and the name was changed to the Babcock Graduate School of Management; departments of business and accountancy and economics were established in the College. In 1980, the Department of Business and Accountancy was reconstructed as the School of Business and Accountancy was reconstituted as the School of Business and Accountancy; the name was changed to the Wayne Calloway School of Business and Accountancy in 1995. The Division of Graduate Studies, established in 1961, is now organized as the Graduate School and encompasses advanced work in the arts and sciences on both the Reynolda and Bowman Gray campuses. In 1997, the medical school was renamed the Wake Forest University School of Medicine; its campus is known as the Bowman Gray Campus. The Divinity School was established in 1999.