| Full-time undergraduate program |
The admissions process at JMU is fairly standard. It has been nearly 10
years--and they likely have changed their process since then--but they
required letters of reference, along with an essay.
The basic process, however, is where the term "standard" ceases to apply
as an accurate description of JMU's selection process. I graduated 85th
out of 435 students in a public high school located in Virginia. I knew
students who graduated well above me in rank who were not accepted to
JMU. Why was I accepted, and students who graduated in the top 30 of
our graduating class were not? After comparing notes with my JMU
classmates, I determined that the common denominator was SAT scores. My
SAT scores were higher than all the students who performed better in the
classroom. Another major factor was extra-curricular activities. In
four years at JMU, I never met an individual who was not heavily
involved in an activity during high school--athletic, or otherwise. In
comparing with my high school classmates who had higher GPAs than I did
who were not accepted to JMU, it was clear that my involvement outside
the classroom made the difference.
Virginia is proud of their competitive higher education system, and to
justify the amount of tax payer dollars that fund the system, they must
ensure that no more than 35% of the student population comes from
outside the state. As a result, the entry standards are considerably
more competitive for residents of states other than Virginia. Another
factor that drives competition is the socio-economic gap that separates
the two counties and various cities that comprise "Northern Virginia"
and the remainder of the state. Admissions directors, in order to
maintain geographic diversity, are forced to "cap" the number of
students that come from the wealthy areas in the northern part of the
state. As a result, a student from a school that does not produce many
applicants to the university has a better chance with lower test scores
than a high scoring student from Northern Virginia. These practices are
standard for all the state-funded institutes of higher education in
Virginia.
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