How difficult is admission to Wake Forest compared with Boston College for undergrads?

Wake Forest and Boston College are both quite selective for undergraduates, and for most applicants they belong in a similar difficulty tier. If you are building a college list, it is safest to treat both as reaches or at least high-target/reach schools unless your academic profile is clearly very strong for each. In practice, neither is a school most students should count on, and the difference in admissions difficulty between them is not large enough to base a list on selectivity alone.

Boston College tends to draw a very large national and international applicant pool and has strong demand across business, nursing, liberal arts, and preprofessional tracks. That makes it feel especially competitive for students aiming at popular programs and for applicants without a very clear academic and extracurricular match. BC also pays close attention to academic rigor, writing, and fit with its Jesuit, service-oriented culture.

Wake Forest is also highly selective, but it can appeal especially to students who like a more intimate, residential campus experience with strong emphasis on teaching and community. At the same time, that holistic approach does not make it easy. It just means strong numbers alone are not enough.

For list-building purposes, I would not assume one is meaningfully easier than the other. A student could be admitted to Wake and denied by BC, or the reverse, based on institutional priorities, intended major, application quality, and demonstrated fit. The more useful distinction is not which is easier, but which school matches your academic interests, campus preferences, and application strengths more naturally.