JMU EA is out

[Anonymous]

The financial aid offering is a big consideration for us...it's such a balancing act waiting to hear about that, waiting on other schools, deciding by X deadline at ABC school but not sure because DEF school hasn't emailed yet, etc.

I guess we'll hang tight until mid Feb (per the JMU email), but curious why they can't run their numbers with their secret formula to determine how much tuition will cost/scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deferred, with a 3.6 GPA and 34 ACT.

Wow. Would not have expected that.

Why? That gpa doesn’t correspond with ACT

Also just 2 data points. No idea about rest of app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why, exactly do we all think Penn State is so amazing? I’ve yet to meet an impressive Penn State grad.

Penn State is actually quite amazing, which is why it’s such a popular out-of-state choice and t's the number one OOS school from my kid's FCPS school However, getting admitted to University Park is competitive, and it's especially difficult for certain majors. As a result, it might be surprising for some students to be admitted to Penn State but not JMU.

And yet, I’ve never encountered a remotely impressive PSU grad.

We haven’t met yet then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The financial aid offering is a big consideration for us...it's such a balancing act waiting to hear about that, waiting on other schools, deciding by X deadline at ABC school but not sure because DEF school hasn't emailed yet, etc.

I guess we'll hang tight until mid Feb (per the JMU email), but curious why they can't run their numbers with their secret formula to determine how much tuition will cost/scholarships.

What’s their NPC telling you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU is going to continue to get harder to get in to…

Pretty campus
Rising sports programs
“Traditional College Experience”
Affordable In-State
Big enough but small than VT

It was much harder back in the 90s…only a 30% acceptance rate back then.

I remember this as a mid 90s grad. Our valedictorian went to JMU. What changed in the 2000s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deferred, with a 3.6 GPA and 34 ACT.

Wow. Would not have expected that.

Why? That gpa doesn’t correspond with ACT

Also just 2 data points. No idea about rest of app.

It doesn’t correspond because of significant health issues which were explained in the app and the counselor’s letter and yet here we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deferred, with a 3.6 GPA and 34 ACT.

Wow. Would not have expected that.

Why? That gpa doesn’t correspond with ACT

Also just 2 data points. No idea about rest of app.

It doesn’t correspond because of significant health issues which were explained in the app and the counselor’s letter and yet here we are.

And 1st quarter grades were submitted which are all As! And excellent essays.

[Anonymous]

I think the JMU vs PSU bashing are uncalled for. My daughter got into both and likes both. There are a lot of similarities between the two, and I’ve heard of many people over many years choosing one or the other. I think the deciding factor really comes down to the size of school.

[Anonymous]

Just a data point for others becuase you never know.

Son, accepted, Finance/Acct.
In State, FCPS
3.7 GPA
1480 SAT
Average EC
11 AP course (all grades so far 4 and 5), rest of honors.

I think he is leaning towards some OOS options but we are not ruling this out yet either. I love the tuition and proximity and know there is great student spirit. Counseler was not sure he would get in so pleasant and somewhat big surpise he has been admitted here and to 7 others so far with just one deferral to RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does VA have colleges for average kids anymore? Or decent safeties? There seems to be a big drop off between the top 4 schools and the rest.

I assume VCU, CNU, Mary Washington, Longwood, ODU would all fit the bill?

Admittedly, that is a very broad and diverse range of different types of public universities, but I would have had JMU in that category, as easier to get into than UVA and VT, but not anymore??

It's definitely easier to get into than UVA. For VT it's more about major. There are majors at VT with very high admit rates.

Really?? I know it's harder to get into Engineering at VT, but I didn't know there were majors that had very high admit rates. Do we seriously have to wait until 2/28 for EA release date at VT?

You can dig into the data here: https://udc.vt.edu/irdata/data/students/admission/index#college

Limiting it to in-state applicants, here are a few I found with admit rates >70%. A lot of these are newer/small majors.
Smart and Sustainable Cities (78%)
Environmental Policy & Planning (74%)
Sustainable Biomaterials (91%)
Packaging Systems and Design (82%)
Water Resources Policy and Management (88%)
Polymer Chemistry (78%)
Systems Biology (82%)
Mathematics (74%)
Statistics (74%)

There are a lot of majors with admit rates in the 60% range for in-state students.

It looks like you have to have an account to log in. Can you see what the Economics admit rate is?

? I've never logged into it. However, it doesn't work well on mobile so that might be the issue?

Anyway, the in-state admit rate for economics is 63%

Thanks so much! Appreciate you checking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is a mid tier school such as Pen State hijacking this JMU thread?

Let’s get back to JMU admissions.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU is going to continue to get harder to get in to…

Pretty campus
Rising sports programs
“Traditional College Experience”
Affordable In-State
Big enough but small than VT

It was much harder back in the 90s…only a 30% acceptance rate back then.

I remember this as a mid 90s grad. Our valedictorian went to JMU. What changed in the 2000s?

I went in the early 90s. It was truly Just Missed UVA (JMU) and much better than Tech. It went from 12,000 students in the 90s to 22,000 now. Selectivity went down a lot to grow it to almost double the size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why, exactly do we all think Penn State is so amazing? I’ve yet to meet an impressive Penn State grad.

Penn State is actually quite amazing, which is why it’s such a popular out-of-state choice and t's the number one OOS school from my kid's FCPS school However, getting admitted to University Park is competitive, and it's especially difficult for certain majors. As a result, it might be surprising for some students to be admitted to Penn State but not JMU.

And yet, I’ve never encountered a remotely impressive PSU grad.

We haven’t met yet then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the JMU vs PSU bashing are uncalled for. My daughter got into both and likes both. There are a lot of similarities between the two, and I’ve heard of many people over many years choosing one or the other. I think the deciding factor really comes down to the size of school.

And/or money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU is going to continue to get harder to get in to…

Pretty campus
Rising sports programs
“Traditional College Experience”
Affordable In-State
Big enough but small than VT

It was much harder back in the 90s…only a 30% acceptance rate back then.

I remember this as a mid 90s grad. Our valedictorian went to JMU. What changed in the 2000s?

I went in the early 90s. It was truly Just Missed UVA (JMU) and much better than Tech. It went from 12,000 students in the 90s to 22,000 now. Selectivity went down a lot to grow it to almost double the size.

This is what I heard from a friend who is native to NOVA and went to VT back then, too. JMU lowered selectivity purposely to grow its size. Hopefully they're happy with their current size and can implement ED to better identify high performing students who really do want to attend, and then also be a little less selective during RD because VA needs schools like JMU (affordability, quality, size, athletics, good band, etc) for strong students who aren't tops in stats.