Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but I still maintain that a school's football team providing national name awareness and recognition is a primary factor. I'm an 80s person, so I reference the Flutie effect - Doug Flutie's success at Boston College significantly increasing applications the following year; and
Villanova making the sweet 16 for the first time.....applications up.

JMU's applications greatly increased as soon as it joined Common App; but it has continued to increase year-over-year since then....during which time the football team won it's conference and has gone to bowl game....raising the school and its name's visibility nationwide. Went to a bowl game last year, this year applications up another 4,000. That 4,000 isn't because of it's 5th year with the common app.

Anonymous wrote:Yawn. Endowment troll needs to go to a JMU party.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yes, but I still maintain that a school's football team providing national name awareness and recognition is a primary factor. I'm an 80s person, so I reference the Flutie effect - Doug Flutie's success at Boston College significantly increasing applications the following year; and
Villanova making the sweet 16 for the first time.....applications up.

JMU's applications greatly increased as soon as it joined Common App; but it has continued to increase year-over-year since then....during which time the football team won it's conference and has gone to bowl game....raising the school and its name's visibility nationwide. Went to a bowl game last year, this year applications up another 4,000. That 4,000 isn't because of its 5th year with the common app.