I hadn't, but I'm from the Midwest and very few people around here know of my alma mater, either.

Apart from Maryland and JHU, there are no schools in the state with much name recognition. If you live in Virginia and got into both JMU and Maryland, you'd probably still go to JMU. The DC region is full of JMU grads.

they have almost 700 International students. Somehow the Indians and Chinese know about JMU.

JMU is pretty well-known and popular in NJ, Pennsylvania, etc. A friend of mine in NJ just told me she was going to tour it soon. Another NJ friend is sending her kid to VA Tech. Probably not the same for CNU.

Anonymous wrote:Are you serious? I went to JMU. I am not from Virginia and there were tons of kids from NJ and NY there. We also had numerous West Coast kids too. Of course it's primarily kids from VA but you have to be joking if you think only people from VA have heard of it.

It's a regional school. Sure, some people who have ties to the region and live outside the region, or people who research into schools with a particular major or who research schools in a certain area will hear about and know about it, but outside of Virginia, the name recognition for the school will plummet. I grew up in Pennsylvania and had never heard of the school. I came to Baltimore for college and didn't hear about it until some friends from Virginia talked about it. I heard more about it when I moved to the DC suburbs. But you hear more about it the closer you get to the school. It does not have national name recognition at all.

As someone else pointed out, this is try of any regional school.

Anonymous wrote:JMU was a fairly popular safety school for my MD high school back in the 1980s. I'd never heard of CNU until last year when it was mentioned here.

A safety school to what? JMU was more selective then UMD in the 80's. Don't know how it compares now.

This thread is ridiculous. How many people have heard of regional schools if they aren't from that region? You could make the same statement about almost any regional school.

Anonymous wrote:I'm from New Jersey and never heard of either of these schools until moving to DC a few years ago.

Have any of you DMV folks every heard of Rider U, Fairleigh Dickinson or Montclair State U?

+1
I don't automatically think less of a school just because I haven't heard of it. I'm not conceited enough to think that if I haven't heard of it, it must not be good. There are many solid schools that produce great graduates. I think people obsess too much over name recognition.

I'm from New Jersey and never heard of either of these schools until moving to DC a few years ago.

Have any of you DMV folks every heard of Rider U, Fairleigh Dickinson or Montclair State U?

I'm from out of state and no, I never heard of either.

Yes.
From Wikipedia:

Approximately 28% of all students are from out-of-state, representing all 50 states and 89 foreign countries.

Yes.

JMU is a gorgeous university and a great value if you are a Virginian.

JMU was a fairly popular safety school for my MD high school back in the 1980s. I'd never heard of CNU until last year when it was mentioned here.

My nephew lives in NJ and he is super smart. He and a few friends are looking at JMU. He goes to an exclusive private school, but he is on scholarship so money is an issue. He is Asian so some schools will be out of his reach. He has been told by counselor a VA state schools not only give healthy scholarships but also stipends for smart kids that can get into IVY but can't pay. So, he will apply.

My friends daughter is at UVA on full scholarship and stipend from MD and her sister went to JMU on a full scholarship.

We are in MD lots of kids like JMU.