We live in NY. What’s the merit situation for OOS? We would probably need $5-$7K range per year to get it into budget.
Our daughter’s GPA is around 3.55 weighted with 2 ACT tests of 30, which superscore to 31. She’d got a good mix of AP, Honers and regular classes. She’ll have a 3 year varsity sport (kickline), a bunch of different ECs and lots of community service work.
What’s her odds of getting in and getting enough merit to get in the budget? I’ve heard some people say that JMU doesn’t give much merit for OOS.
We are looking to visit in a couple of weeks, but it may not be worth the trip unless there’s at least some reasonable chance to get to the budget.
Just 100% guessing here… odds of getting in 50/50. OOS Merit $ less % odds. I am coming to this based on her GPA being in the average range and OOS $, if any, would go to those with higher stats. Others will weigh in on their experiences. I do hope I am wrong however. I imagine decisions will come out with merit awards prior to your visit however.
This is for Fall 2019 admission, so haven’t even applied yet. Trying to decide if it’s worth visiting at all in a couple of weeks.
I think you are low on odds of getting in. She’s right around average GPA and that 30 (31 superscore) probably helps quite a bit.
JMU admissions just called me back and I discussed merit with the rep. OOS and In-state seem to be treated the same. She said less than 10% of incoming freshmen get merit aid. Her stats won’t qualify her for the Dingledine award. That just leaves the Madison award which is offered by the schools depending on the major anticipated.
I think it’s relatively unlikely that she’d get merit there, but it doesn’t take too much to get it in budget.
I am glad you got your answer from admissions. Maybe consider looking at the EA and RD threads to determine her odds of admissions based on this years’ decisions. Good luck
@lexluthor5 As an alumn I would advise you to visit. It’s a great campus. It also has several strong programs and the facilities have come a long way since I graduated. They obviously invested my tuition money wisely…
@time2shine Yes, the school seems great. It’s just adding 6 hours of driving and 2 nights to our trip and I think realistically the chance of her getting merit are slim and $42K is out of budget.
Looking at it again, $42K actually isn’t a fair number. I’ve been comparing based just on tuition and fees and room and board, not all of the other estimated expenses that they add in the official coa. It’s really closer to $38k oos, which puts it only a few thousand over budget. It wouldn’t take much merit to make it a contender, I just got the impression from admissions that it’s very competitive. I think at her numbers, getting anything at all is rather unlikely.
We are going to be as far down as Towson in a couple of weeks, but it’s still over 3 hours south so it’s adding 6 hours of driving. Plus, we’ve got Towson in Monday, Delaware on Tuesday, so we’d have to do JMU on the Saturday prior, so it’s also adding 2 days to the trip. Very torn.
Is there any historical information on what it took to get oos merit? Will visiting increase the chances of merit? With the small LACs that our older daughter was looking at, showing interest by visiting, interview, etc was very important.
According to the CDS, JMU does not consider level of interest so I don’t think a visit will help all that much. Chances of merit aid are very low from what I can tell. I could not find anything on stats required but just looking at the CDS for 2017, only 85 freshman (out of 4,589) received non-need based aid, averaging $6,600.
@lexluthor5 JMU is test optional now so I am not sure how much they weigh test scores. From what we saw (we are in state) they were heavily focused on GPA’s. Lots of IS kids got deferred EA with high test scores.
She is going to wind up applying to JMU. We have not yet had a chance to visit, but we did meet with the area admissions officer at a local college fair and we are going to a JMU only even at a local hotel in a few weeks. We’ve heard so many great things about JMU.
Our daughter had a great junior year and raised her GPA to 92/100 weighted (I guess that’s now over a 3.6?) at a very well respected public school and now has a 31 ACT (32 superscore, but JMU doesn’t superscore). Perhaps her 95 range junior year grades with a tough schedule will weigh more with some schools.
At the sticker price, JMU is probably a bit out of budget, but a lot of that will ultimately depend on where other schools on her list wind up at. If she does get accepted and JMU comes up with any merit aid at all, I’m sure it’ll be right in the mix at the end.
Is there any historical information on what OOS people are receiving of late? I don’t see much in the acceptance threads.
My daughter is a current JMU student. As an in-state student she got ZERO merit aid, and she had stats high enough to get into a more competitive school: 1410 SAT, 4.25 GPA, 31 ACT, all AP and Honors, etc.
She chose JMU because she was blown away by the positive energy, friendly happy students, beautiful campus, strong business school extras, and energetic happy-to-be-there vibe. So far, so good. She is thriving.
@paulster69 are you in state or out of state. There could very well be a difference as to how merit is given between the 2.
Either way, it’s clear that the chance for any merit aid is slim at JMU.
We are still interested in learning more though. We are going to a JMU open house here on Long Island this weekend where the dean of admissions, faculty and alumni will be so we are looking forward to that.
Perhaps they are slightly more generous with OOS merit since the starting cost is so much higher than in state? I think either way, merit will be tough to come by for our daughter at JMU.