<p>My son submitted his early action application last week - anyone else? I'd be interested to hear what major interests you and what attracts you to JMU. My son applied for the Sports Mgmt major. He liked the casual, friendly vibe of the campus when we visited last year. We are planning to visit again in September.</p>
<p>My daughter is working on her application right now. She is still putting the finishing touches on her essay. My older daughter is going to be a junior at JMU and DD #2 really loves JMU! She has said she wanted to go there ever since she first visited it with her sister, nearly 4 years ago. She went for a tour last week and fell in love with it all over again!</p>
<p>She plans to retake the SATs in October and is taking dual enrollment courses at a local community college for her senior year. She is nervous that there is no place to list these courses on the JMU application and her high school transcript displays as “study hall” for her morning session when she is taking college courses. She does not want JMU to see her schedule and think she is slacking with 3 classes of study hall. She is going to call JMU later about that concern. </p>
<p>She plans to enter as a undecided major because she truly is unsure about what she wants to do. Best of luck to all the potential Dukes out there!</p>
<p>Hi - my thought would be to send a transcript and letter of clarification on the cc classes to admissions. You absolutely want them to understand what she is doing academically for senior year. So nice to hear that your family is so satisfied with the experience of one student that you are interested in sending a sibling - very encouraging.</p>
<p>@rockvillemom I think I have noticed you on the university of south Carolina and now Jmu forumns. I am looking at both schools right now. I would like to know what you think of each- like the surrounding town, academics, size, etc? :)</p>
<p>I get around, huh? We have visited JMU once and will visit again in September - have not had the opportunity to visit USC as of yet. </p>
<p>USC is larger and more urban than JMU - which could be a good thing or a bad thing - depending on your preferences. Certainly Columbia, SC has more to offer in terms of dining options, cultural events, etc. USC has better sports - if you like football and so forth. Not that JMU’s are bad - just that USC draws a bigger crowd. JMU does have very pretty scenery in the Shenandoah valley and more of a quiet town feel to it. While it does have Rt 81 dividing the 2 halves of campus - once you are on campus - it is very attractive and contained. The USC campus does have that central green area - but is otherwise surrounded by city streets.</p>
<p>I see them as fairly equivalent academically. USC has more opportunities for OOS students to receive merit awards and in-state tuition.</p>
<p>JMU seems to have a more casual, friendly vibe. USC - here I’m going more from what I have read - more southern obviously and preppier. I believe JMU has more religious and cultural diversity - not that it is incredibly diverse - but more so than USC. JMU is close to 70% female/30% male.</p>
<p>I tend to see my son fitting in better at JMU - and it is only a 2 hour drive for us. But USC is also of interest and I have no idea how he will react when we have a chance to visit.</p>
<p>How about you? Have you seen both? What did you like and dislike?</p>
<p>I just saw your JMU vs USC thread - wonder how I missed that one? Anyway - I do not know about Int’l Relations at either university - I would focus in on that a bit. I know USC has an amazing Int’l Business program. And you are right about the in-state scholarships for OOS kids at USC - great opportunities there. My guess is that it would also depend for you on issues like travel time and whether you prefer to know a lot of kids already or prefer to branch out a bit. I’m assuming that JMU would be closer for you and you would most likely know other students from your hs going there. That appeals to some kids - others like to “start fresh” and go further away where fewer people know them.</p>
<p>I haven’t been to either campus, but I’ve seen every picture and virtual tour online. I plan on taking visiting both next spring break. Although I’m used to the city (from northern va), I do like the traditional campus of JMU. I think one of the deciding factors will be which honors colleges I can get to. Both JMU and USC offer extremely nice dorms for honor students, which is a big plus. And although I want to branch out, I still like being in a place where I know some people. Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>^^^The female/male ratio at JMU is about 60/40 (61.5% to 39.5% according to fall 2010 data). The In-State/OOS ratio is about 70/30.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/aboutJMU/wm_library/Factsheet_4-20-2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/aboutJMU/wm_library/Factsheet_4-20-2011.pdf</a> </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>rvm- we’ve met on another thread but I’ll respond too- as an OOS parent from PA, we were looking for a medium sized public university within about 5 hours driving distance, which would be an admissions match for a B+/A- student and with reasonable OOS tuition. We are not looking for a specific academic program as my D is undecided. We are also very interested in our in-state public options, Pitt and Penn State. JMU seems to offer a traditional college campus feel and good school spirit without the hugeness of Penn State. Pitt is obviously an urban environment so completely different. We are also looking at U Del which has the advantage of being much closer to our home. Transportation from Harrisonburg VA to Philadelphia is an issue.</p>
<p>KATMT - thanks for the correction - I did confuse the male/female ratio with the in-state/OOS ratio!</p>
<p>Incidentally - I still can’t find much info on the website regarding the new School which is combining sports mgmt and hospitality/tourism. I actually called admissions to ask which College this new school would fall under - and they did not know! Which was kind of odd, I thought. Have you by any chance heard more?</p>
<p>rvm- funny that admissions would not know that. This link lists the head of the new program so you could call and ask him. <a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/kinesiology/[/url]”>http://www.jmu.edu/kinesiology/</a> Dr. Michael O’Fallon 568-5168.</p>
<p>You know - I saw that - but while I love to research colleges - calling on my son’s behalf seems a bit much. He is content to wait and see what we learn when we go to the Open House in September. I’m the impatient one! But thanks for linking it!</p>
<p>As a senior at JMU who also applied to USC–</p>
<p>I must say that JMU certainly has more and better dining options- We are ranked top 3 in Princeton Review in Best Campus Dining Options. We really strive to improve it every year, and wherever you are on campus, everyone has the hardest time picking out what they want because of the depth of options.</p>
<p>JMU might have the friendlier vibe, but JMU is also a preppy population. We have plenty of kids the the northeast with a ton of kids from the northern virginia area that give it the nice southern comfort/preppy vibe.</p>
<p>JMU sports in average are probably better than USC. The only two sports they have going for themselves in Columbia are Baseball and Football(and they have a hard time competiting in SEC football). JMU Lacrosse and Soccer will probably field better than any USC team, Women’s basketball has made it to the NCAA’s the past few years, and we have one of the most prestigous football programs in FCS football, which is the lower subdivision of Division 1 football.</p>
<p>The reason I chose JMU is because USC never really had a program that reached out to me that was truly impressive. JMU has a nationally ranked business school, an excellent Education program, and really one of the better Liberal Arts programs on the east coast. </p>
<p>If you have any questions whatsoever about JMU, I can certainly help you. I’m a die hard Duke.</p>
<p>So great to hear! We are looking forward to visiting campus again for the September Open House. I’m sure it’ll be a zoo - but hopefully a fun zoo.</p>
<p>I’m a brand new member and was inspired to join because of this thread. We visited USC in April and my son fell in love with it. It really had a college feel campus that was surrounded by a city. We are planning on getting to JMU in October. He is still unclear about majors - business and music engineering are in the running. Thank you, Hesstopher, for your thoughts on sports as that is a big decision maker for my son - we live in the boston area and sports are a big part of his social life. Can students easily get tickets for the sporting events at JMU? Is it as big deal on the weekend as it is at a big school? What is the social scene? Oh, and do kids go home on the weekends there?<br>
As he will be too far to do that we are concerned about that. THANKS IN ADVANCE!</p>
<p>In responce to JMU vs. USC…I’m an incoming frosh at JMU, and the way I picked between JMU, Penn State, and Mason was when I’d walk through JMU and say to myself “I just feel like I belong.” </p>
<p>I have worn my JMU shirt on a cruise this past June and had at least 8 or so people stop and talk to me about that, and one or two “DUKKKESSSSS” shouted at me from another part of the ship. I also work at the Redskins Traning Camp and just yesterday two or three people saw my JMU lanyard sticking out of my pocket and stopped to tell me how much of a great school it was and how much fun it was going to be. </p>
<p>The last thing that sold me was actually when I went to University Outpost (the JMU bookstore not officially affiliated with JMU) and asked the girl at check-out what year she was…her responce was “I’m going to be a senior…so I thankfully (key word being thankfully) have another year left.” Normally most people are all “I cant wait to graduate”…but apparently not at JMU!</p>
<p>I’d revisit all his choices of schools and see if any reach out to him like that.</p>
<p>As a Mom, I just love what you wrote! All I want is for my son to end up somewhere he is happy and comfortable - and gets a good education while having fun doing so. I really hope JMU lives up to your expectations. Please post in a few weeks and let us know how you are doing - how your freshman year is going - classes, dorm, activities, etc.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!!</p>
<p>I agree Rockville Mom. My son also has Penn State on his list. Please let us know what you think in Sept/Oct. And GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>@rockvillemom/ideagetter: I actually have a blog where I’m documenting all of it for purposes exactly such as this…</p>
<p>[Endeavours</a> of a Duke](<a href=“http://endeavoursofaduke.blogspot.com/]Endeavours”>http://endeavoursofaduke.blogspot.com/)</p>
<p>Its not exactly much right now, simply because nothings really going on; but I do hope to keep it updated.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if the mods will leave the link - I think the CC rules prohibit linking to personal blogs - but I copied it - so I will check in and see how you are doing. Sounds like you ready to go!</p>