<p>For my D, James Madison is an academic target/slight reach school. We are trying to decide whether to apply EA or Regular Decision. She plans to audition in January and we would need to drive 6+ hours for the audition. Which is the better choice and why?</p>
<p>Hopefully KatMT will chime in on this, but I’ll go ahead and acknowledge that my son will apply EA. The deadline is a bit early–i.e., it would be nice to get his first-trimester grades before applying–but I think the odds are a bit better for general acceptance? Sounds like our kids are in a similar boat academically. Is your school on a quarter/semester system or a trimester one? If you have quarters and her Q1 grades are good, I’m not sure there’s any particular reason to wait. Even the October SAT scores should be in by then. Since you have to go through the regular admissions route anyway, it seemed like it would be good at least to know whether you were accepted (or deferred/rejected) academically before auditioning. I’m sure there are factors that haven’t occurred to me, and my S will check with his college counselor at school, but right now, EA is the plan.</p>
<p>If she applies EA, there are 3 possible academic outcomes:</p>
<p>1 - Rejection - It probably wouldn’t have made a difference whether she applied EA or Regular and at least we won’t waste our time and money on a trip for the audition</p>
<p>2 - Acceptance - Good to know going into it</p>
<p>3 - Deferral - Does it have any impact on the MT department evaluation process? Does the department see this as a problem or is a student considered on equal footing with someone who has not yet applied, or who has applied regular decision and therefore not gotten any response academically?</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>There is no real general admissions boost for those applying EA because it is non-binding. Generally JMU will admit or defer during the EA round rather than denying an applicant outright, except in the case of an applicant who they know for certain would not be admitted in the RD round either. </p>
<p>While we do recommend to academic admissions during the RD round (including students deferred from EA) applicants we would like to admit to the programs, academic admissions will say “no” if an applicant is well below the academic admissions standards for JMU. So, you are correct “it probably wouldn’t have made a difference whether (s)he applied EA or RD.” </p>
<p>An applicant being admitted academically through EA does not influence our decision in terms of program admissions. An applicant being deferred from EA to RD does not influence our decision in terms of program admissions (ie. recommendation to academic admissions).</p>
<p>The real benefit of being admitted academically in the EA round is that those applicants will find out about admission to the program in late February/ Early March, while those admitted academically in the RD round will find out about admission to the program in Late March/ Early April. This is a benefit in terms of notification only. We do not make any decisions on who will be admitted to the Theatre or Musical Theatre programs in the School of Theatre & Dance until we have completed all auditions in mid-February. We simply cannot notify applicants of the program decision until they have been admitted academically to the university, so EA academic admits find out sooner than RD academic admits.</p>
<p>The other benefit this past year was that students offered admission to the programs who were also admitted academically EA were offered a guaranteed place in the Wayland Arts Living Learning Community. Although all students admitted to JMU in Visual and Performing Arts majors may apply for a place in the community, and there are students who were admitted academically in both the EA and RD rounds in the community. [JMU</a> Office of Residence Life - James Madison University](<a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/orl/halls/wayland.html]JMU”>http://www.jmu.edu/orl/halls/wayland.html)<br>
[James</a> Madison University - Extreme Makeover Makes Residence Hall One Of A Kind](<a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/news/general11678.shtml]James”>http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/news/general11678.shtml) </p>
<p>I do not know whether or not the Wayland Hall Arts Living Community EA guarantee will be the same this admissions cycle. </p>
<p>Hope this helps with the decision making process. Let me know if you have any additional questions.</p>
<p>^ KatMT, thanks so much for posting that link–we didn’t know about that residential program, and it wasn’t mentioned on the theater department tour/info session that we attended a couple of weeks ago. Very helpful information!</p>
<p>No problem. I will have to make sure it gets on the info session program! It is still pretty new community… this year’s freshman class is only the second to live in the community, and the first at full capacity, since last year was a smaller pilot program. </p>
<p>The kids that live there really seem to enjoy it, although there are quite a few incoming freshmen who decide not to apply, preferring to live in a “regular dorm” with non-arts majors or apply for a non-arts learning community.</p>
<p>Here is a link to a page with information about the seven Living Learning Communities that were available to the class of 2016. I do not believe that any of them will be discontinued, I do not know if there is a plan to add any additional communities. <a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/orl/involved/which.html[/url]”>http://www.jmu.edu/orl/involved/which.html</a></p>
<p>Thank you!!!</p>