Anonymous wrote:In with a 4.0 Unweighted GPA, test optional, 5 APs

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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.

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

Anonymous wrote:No one thinks Penn State is special.

Anonymous wrote:Accepted with a 3.7, 1320 SAT and IB diploma.

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

OP here. Very surprised, and helpful to hear of other deferral stats. We are in at Pitt and some other good places so not too worried.

Last year, that would not have gotten you in. I’m assuming it’s becoming harder, not easier to get in.

I’m curious why you thought those stats were high enough? I’m not trying to be mean, just genuinely curious.

Maybe you can enlighten us where you found the JMU GPA stats for last year. The JMU website lists the 50% ACT range at 26-31.

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Anonymous wrote:Acceptance is very school dependent, and in my Fairfax County school Naviance data (McLean/Langley), a 3.6 gpa is not a safety or a slam dunk by any means. Even with a 34 ACT.

Interesting because I'm looking at Gonzaga scattergram and last year everyone with 3.2 and over got in, regardless of test scores (scores ranged from 1030-1500 but I'm not going to check who was test optional bc there are a ton of kids who applied), So a 3.6 with 34 GPA would absolutely be a slam dunk

Definitely very school dependent. At the higher performing FCPS high schools (like Oakton, Chantilly, Langley, etc), it is more difficult to get into JMU because they are competing against a lot of high stats students from those high schools. At Chantilly, for example, they generally need closer to a 3.9 gpa to get an acceptance. (Obviously, other factors come into play -- I'm just talking in general.)

This just seems like a bogus way of doing things. I mean it should be based on s whole school district, not an individual school.

Admissions are always, always based on the individual school and the peers at that school. Are you new to this?

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

Anonymous wrote:To those who were deferred, don't lose hope. My FCPS son was admitted last year EA, but many kids at his HS who were deferred wound up getting in RA. I qualify this by saying that it did seem like kids with WGPA below 3.5 might have been put on WL.

Good luck to all. My son is attending JMU and loves it.

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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.

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Anonymous wrote:In From MCPS
3.73 uw, 4.5 W
8 APs
1320 SAT
Okay ECs

Shocked at some of the deferred profiles!

Above student was probably unlikely to attend if accepted- JMU assumed it and decided against giving up a spot that wouldn't be taken. Protecting their yield.