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Anonymous wrote:CNU is beautiful and I know students who love it. JMU is much larger, also lovely, and I know MANY students who love it.
If I were thinking about them I would note the size differences which lead to differences in the alumni networks— JMU network is HUGE compared to CNU. Alums helped my daughter find summer jobs, etc.

Of course a larger school is going to have a larger alumni network. But that also means there are far more students that may be seeking their help in looking for jobs, etc. (and there's only so much time/help to go around). The ratio of students to alumni and the percent of alumni in influential positions that can provide meaningful help can be just as important as the total number of alumni.

Good point

PP with a kid that graduated from CNU. I was randomly in a Walmart with my kid last summer. Kid was wearing a CNU tshirt. In the checkout line, the guy behind us (looked like a random suburban dad) struck up a conversation with us bc of the tshirt. Turns out subarban dad was a CNU graduate and had some high powered job on the Hill. He offered to connect my kid should he want to pursue work (my kid has a job, not into politics). Anyhow random incident, but my older VT graduate who pretty much wears nothing but VT swag when out has never had this kind of encounter. I mean Go Hokies and the fan base is rabid but I think the smaller nature of the CNU population may mean they look out for alums more? Who knows and I know this is N1.

Interesting! I talked to someone yesterday who told me that their daughter really enjoys JMU, but it has been challenging to register for classes needed to graduate on time. This concerns me.

DP. I’ve had two kids at JMU and neither ever had any issue registering for classes and graduating in four years - to include study abroad semesters.

NP. My daughter goes to JMU and course registration is the biggest negative of the school. They don't open up enough classes in a lot of cases. So far it has worked out, but it has been very stressful. All seniors register for classes at the same time, all juniors the same time the next day, and so on and so on. Daughter as well as everyone else in her year all get on early and refresh until it opens, which casues the system to not load properly sometimes and you have to guess whether it is better to wait for the page to load or start over. The gods need to be in your favor. If you aren't a lucky one then you need to stalk the class registration page or use coursicle to notify you when there is an opening and then you must act fast. If all classes are full, they should open up another section. This isn't just a one time occurance, this is something that regularly happens. Its not the case of there being an 8 am or a professor with a bad review with an opening. Even these are full. JMU really needs to get their act together with course registration/scheduling.

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Anonymous wrote:CNU is beautiful and I know students who love it. JMU is much larger, also lovely, and I know MANY students who love it.
If I were thinking about them I would note the size differences which lead to differences in the alumni networks— JMU network is HUGE compared to CNU. Alums helped my daughter find summer jobs, etc.

Of course a larger school is going to have a larger alumni network. But that also means there are far more students that may be seeking their help in looking for jobs, etc. (and there's only so much time/help to go around). The ratio of students to alumni and the percent of alumni in influential positions that can provide meaningful help can be just as important as the total number of alumni.

Good point

PP with a kid that graduated from CNU. I was randomly in a Walmart with my kid last summer. Kid was wearing a CNU tshirt. In the checkout line, the guy behind us (looked like a random suburban dad) struck up a conversation with us bc of the tshirt. Turns out subarban dad was a CNU graduate and had some high powered job on the Hill. He offered to connect my kid should he want to pursue work (my kid has a job, not into politics). Anyhow random incident, but my older VT graduate who pretty much wears nothing but VT swag when out has never had this kind of encounter. I mean Go Hokies and the fan base is rabid but I think the smaller nature of the CNU population may mean they look out for alums more? Who knows and I know this is N1.

Interesting! I talked to someone yesterday who told me that their daughter really enjoys JMU, but it has been challenging to register for classes needed to graduate on time. This concerns me.

DP. I’ve had two kids at JMU and neither ever had any issue registering for classes and graduating in four years - to include study abroad semesters.

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Anonymous wrote:I am surprised that someone would be considering both JMU and CNU. Due to each being on opposite sides of the size equation, they are completely different based solely on that fact.

They’re really not. CNU is a larger small school and JMU is a smaller large school. Especially if you’re instate and UVA isn’t realistic, it makes sense that you would at least look at both.

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised that someone would be considering both JMU and CNU. Due to each being on opposite sides of the size equation, they are completely different based solely on that fact.

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Anonymous wrote:That's surprising, I didn't think CNU even existed long enough for old dads to have attended.

I read responses like this and I just cringe. Not at the "witty" response but at the poster. I find responses like this so odd and embarrassing for the person who typed them.

It wasn't a university until after most middle aged Virginians made their college decisions. Perfectly normal to be surprised a middle aged dad attended. Now if you moved here from somewhere else, you might not realize that.

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Anonymous wrote:All are good. She is entitled to have a preference and she has no need to defend it. However, if I were the parent, I'd consider that very few decide to turn down JMU in favor of VCU or CNU

Yes, I absolutely agree with you and I'm not going to push her. Ultimately, it is her decision. She also told me that JMU is a party school and that it is mostly for average students. I totally disagree. I think that the school has gotten a lot more competitive in recent years. She has very good stats, but they weren't good enough for VT or UVA. I feel that JMU is the best option.

any school can be the party school. Most parents would pick JMU because that's what they know. It has a better (or longer) rep than CNU. Keep in mind CNU just turned to a 4 year institute in 1997 or so. I would go to both admitted days and let her make the decision.

Anonymous wrote:My DS chose CNU over JMU. He was looking for a smaller school and he was no fan of the football culture. I really wanted him to go to JMU and brought him to campus multiple times (including admitted student day) but he just didn't like it.

He will be graduating from CNU in May. If it matters, he has [b]accepted a job offer that he will start in June.[/b]

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Anonymous wrote:That's surprising, I didn't think CNU even existed long enough for old dads to have attended.

I read responses like this and I just cringe. Not at the "witty" response but at the poster. I find responses like this so odd and embarrassing for the person who typed them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All are good. She is entitled to have a preference and she has no need to defend it. However, if I were the parent, I'd consider that very few decide to turn down JMU in favor of VCU or CNU

Yes, I absolutely agree with you and I'm not going to push her. Ultimately, it is her decision. She also told me that JMU is a party school and that it is mostly for average students. I totally disagree. I think that the school has gotten a lot more competitive in recent years. She has very good stats, but they weren't good enough for VT or UVA. I feel that JMU is the best option.

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Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM can a campus be criticized for being nice looking.

For me, the odd feeling at CNU comes from the fact that everything was either built or extensively renovated at the same time, so there’s an almost jarring uniformity that you don’t see on other campuses that were built up over centuries. It’s like someone really got into the college campus aesthetic and added a few too many cupolas and archways so that it feels like a theme park version of a campus.

Plus that it’s plopped down in Newport News, which is not exactly known for its uniform opulence. It’s just feels weird there.

+1 my DD had a negative reaction to the CNU campus too. Overly pristine and manicured with no soul (in her opinion). She much preferred the UMW campus.

We also visited the UMW campus and she liked it, but ultimately did not apply there.

I have heard multiple people use the word creepy about the campus, but I have not been. In the pictures another PP shared, it looks similar to what I have seen in some buildings at UVA. I guess the difference being that that happened organically and not planned to look like an old southern campus.

NP here. I'll get some hate for this but we liked UMW's campus better than UVA. Thought it was prettier.

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Anonymous wrote:CNU is beautiful and I know students who love it. JMU is much larger, also lovely, and I know MANY students who love it.
If I were thinking about them I would note the size differences which lead to differences in the alumni networks— JMU network is HUGE compared to CNU. Alums helped my daughter find summer jobs, etc.

Of course a larger school is going to have a larger alumni network. But that also means there are far more students that may be seeking their help in looking for jobs, etc. (and there's only so much time/help to go around). The ratio of students to alumni and the percent of alumni in influential positions that can provide meaningful help can be just as important as the total number of alumni.

Good point

PP with a kid that graduated from CNU. I was randomly in a Walmart with my kid last summer. Kid was wearing a CNU tshirt. In the checkout line, the guy behind us (looked like a random suburban dad) struck up a conversation with us bc of the tshirt. Turns out subarban dad was a CNU graduate and had some high powered job on the Hill. He offered to connect my kid should he want to pursue work (my kid has a job, not into politics). Anyhow random incident, but my older VT graduate who pretty much wears nothing but VT swag when out has never had this kind of encounter. I mean Go Hokies and the fan base is rabid but I think the smaller nature of the CNU population may mean they look out for alums more? Who knows and I know this is N1.

Interesting! I talked to someone yesterday who told me that their daughter really enjoys JMU, but it has been challenging to register for classes needed to graduate on time. This concerns me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM can a campus be criticized for being nice looking.

JMU, VT and UVA have nice looking campuses as well without looking like a hotel or museum.

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Anonymous wrote:Only on DCUM can a campus be criticized for being nice looking.

For me, the odd feeling at CNU comes from the fact that everything was either built or extensively renovated at the same time, so there’s an almost jarring uniformity that you don’t see on other campuses that were built up over centuries. It’s like someone really got into the college campus aesthetic and added a few too many cupolas and archways so that it feels like a theme park version of a campus.

Plus that it’s plopped down in Newport News, which is not exactly known for its uniform opulence. It’s just feels weird there.

+1 my DD had a negative reaction to the CNU campus too. Overly pristine and manicured with no soul (in her opinion). She much preferred the UMW campus.

We also visited the UMW campus and she liked it, but ultimately did not apply there.

I have heard multiple people use the word creepy about the campus, but I have not been. In the pictures another PP shared, it looks similar to what I have seen in some buildings at UVA. I guess the difference being that that happened organically and not planned to look like an old southern campus.

NP here. I'll get some hate for this but we liked UMW's campus better than UVA. Thought it was prettier.