Is JMU on the rise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if there are any parallels from across the river. I remember when UMD was a safety with a higher acceptance rate than JMU. Now it’s a highly sought after world-class university that rejected my 4.7 WGPA kid and broke her heart along with the hearts of 80% of her classmates. What changed? Increased performance in sports? Common App? College in general getting too darned expensive? A tipping point of high performing students embracing the school? Aren’t those forces also at play with JMU?

Stop trying to make fetch happen.

Lol! But actually, I’m curious about this as well. What causes seismic shifts in a school’s popularity and reputation within a decade or two?

First and foremost: Winning some football games and going to bowl games.
Secondarily: joining the Common App; other schools becoming harder to get into because they have so many more students applying due to the Common App; rising costs of colleges making in-state public school tuition more feasible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will JMU catch W&M in the rankings now that VT passed W&M?

As to post itself, the poster assumes this is permanent and then uses ranking as a plural. Tech is one spot higher in the USNWR ranking than William and Mary and methodologies will change again. Forbes has W&M significantly higher in its 2025 ranking. I can locate others where W&M is higher so the post is not correct but give Tech credit as a great school.

As to the question itself, maybe one day but not in your or my lifetime. W&M just received $150MM in donations to fund one degree program and the amount is greater than JMU's entire endowment, not to mention JMU is many times larger than W&M.

Yikes. Why is JMU's endowment so low? I have a person connection to JMU and I find this troubling........

Perhaps a different thread topic but endowments are driven by a small number of very large gifts. The PP mentioned the $150m Batten gifts to WM. That’s the Weather Channel founder family and the family net worth is probably $3 billion.

JMU as a historic women’s teachers college has not had graduates who founded companies or went to Wall Street or hedge funds. The two largest gifts in JMU history are a $5 million and a $6 million donation.

DP. As the school's popularity and national visibility/recognition rises, its donations will rise. Also, the school used to be much smaller. As it graduates more prosperous students, more alumni will contribute. It takes a long time to build-up a big endowment. But it's probably never going to be a Harvard level fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if there are any parallels from across the river. I remember when UMD was a safety with a higher acceptance rate than JMU. Now it’s a highly sought after world-class university that rejected my 4.7 WGPA kid and broke her heart along with the hearts of 80% of her classmates. What changed? Increased performance in sports? Common App? College in general getting too darned expensive? A tipping point of high performing students embracing the school? Aren’t those forces also at play with JMU?

Stop trying to make fetch happen.

Lol! But actually, I’m curious about this as well. What causes seismic shifts in a school’s popularity and reputation within a decade or two?

First and foremost: Winning some football games and going to bowl games.
Secondarily: joining the Common App; other schools becoming harder to get into because they have so many more students applying due to the Common App; rising costs of colleges making in-state public school tuition more feasible.

This is by far the reason...you see it with every school that joins the Common App. Other factors include schools that now will accept your common statement to satisfy their similar requirements.

You need the awareness that the school exists, but having to complete a different application is a huge barrier. Also, schools like University of Washington saw a big jump in applications when they no longer required you complete their own 650 word essay, but will just accept your common app essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The acceptance rate for 2024-2025 has not been published yet and is expected to be lower than the prior years.

We attended CHOICES day for admitted students this past weekend. They said they had 44,000 applications this years. Higher, not lower, than prior years.

I think you may be confusing number of applications with acceptance rate. Usually when the first goes up the second goes down.

Oh, yes sorry - I was reading it as applications.

Such a civil exchange! 👏👏👏

[Anonymous]

In popularity yes but in academics no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In popularity yes but in academics no.

Disagree. And for the record, not everyone wants to be an Engineer!

[Anonymous]

Yes it has moved up to Safety School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

It depends on what your definition of a safety school is. It used to be that if you had a 3.7 or up unweighted GPA you would definitely get in to JMU. That is no longer true. There were several kids in my DS class that thought JMU was a given and they were either deferred or rejected EA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

It depends on what your definition of a safety school is. It used to be that if you had a 3.7 or up unweighted GPA you would definitely get in to JMU. That is no longer true. There were several kids in my DS class that thought JMU was a given and they were either deferred or rejected EA.

Really weird to hear this because I know of multiple kids with 3.4s and below weighted (with good test scores) who got in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

It depends on what your definition of a safety school is. It used to be that if you had a 3.7 or up unweighted GPA you would definitely get in to JMU. That is no longer true. There were several kids in my DS class that thought JMU was a given and they were either deferred or rejected EA.

Really weird to hear this because I know of multiple kids with 3.4s and below weighted (with good test scores) who got in.

Doubt it

[Anonymous]

Gpas are not easily comparable across schools systems.

For my kids in McLean/Langley schools in FCPS, if you look at naviance for JMU, it is not always a green check mark below 3.7w. That’s FCPS in schools where many kids go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

It depends on what your definition of a safety school is. It used to be that if you had a 3.7 or up unweighted GPA you would definitely get in to JMU. That is no longer true. There were several kids in my DS class that thought JMU was a given and they were either deferred or rejected EA.

Really weird to hear this because I know of multiple kids with 3.4s and below weighted (with good test scores) who got in.

Doubt it

Doubt all you want. The truth is evident whether you choose to see it or ignore it and continue being blind

[Anonymous]

I think JMU is very quickly becoming comparable to the VT type kid who doesn't want engineering. Same academics, vibe and culture on a smaller campus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it has moved up to Safety School

Agree that it is a safety but isn't safety the "lowest" category?

It depends on what your definition of a safety school is. It used to be that if you had a 3.7 or up unweighted GPA you would definitely get in to JMU. That is no longer true. There were several kids in my DS class that thought JMU was a given and they were either deferred or rejected EA.

Really weird to hear this because I know of multiple kids with 3.4s and below weighted (with good test scores) who got in.

Doubt it

Doubt all you want. The truth is evident whether you choose to see it or ignore it and continue being blind

I think you are salty because your kid probably got denied