College of Business

<p>I visited JMU with my rising junior last week - he liked it quite a bit. He is interested in majoring in business. I am concerned about COB for 2 reasons - first, the 10 courses one has to take before applying for admission seems like a lot. Second, the whole secondary admission process worries me - what if he does not get in? I would love to hear from students and parents about COB. Did you get in? What did you do if you did not get in? How hard are the prerequisite classes? Any info would be appreciated.</p>

<p>I am a rising senior who considered JMU but am not applying for that very reason. I e-mailed a JMU admissions officer and he told me that about 60% get into the COB. He also said that if you don’t get in, you either have to transfer or switch majors. I figured that I could get into more competitive schools that guarantee admission into the business college freshman year. I didn’t want to take the chance of not getting in because I want to major in business and nothing else.</p>

<p>Thank you for that info. I had not heard that 60% statistic previously. My son likes JMU and his alternate idea would ne to major in sports mgmt - I think this is actually Kinesiology with a concentration in sports mgmt and maybe minor in business. In your research - did you hear of anyone doing something like this?</p>

<p>I personally happen to agree with you - I’d be happy to take JMU off son’s list.</p>

<p>You may have already found it, but here is the link to the COB page in the 2010/2011 Catalog – [2010-2011</a> Undergraduate Catalog | James Madison University](<a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/catalog/10/colleges/cob.html]2010-2011”>http://www.jmu.edu/catalog/10/colleges/cob.html)</p>

<p>What major within the College of Business does he wish to pursue? It looks like different majors may have slightly different admissions criteria.</p>

<p>Is your son interested in Sports Management? From what I understand that program – through Kinesiology is strong.</p>

<p>Kat - he is interested in sports mgmt as an alternative option - particularly if he can also do a business minor. If he wished to keep JMU on his list - this is the option I would suggest he pursue - as the secondary admission to CoB worries me. Do you think the 60% admission rate quoted by the above poster is correct? I think if we visit JMU again in the spring we will try to meet with someone from the sports mgmt dept. If you can add any statistics on CoB admissions, I would be interested. Thanks.</p>

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I graduated from JMU’s COB in 2009. The COB is a great program, and has become more and more popular since BusinessWeek has given it awards every year. </p>

<p>When I was a sophomore students only needed a 2.5 GPA in their core BBA classes to be accepted into the program. Now that bar has been raised into a 2.8. I am not familiar with the 60% admission rate… from what I remember, as long as you fulfilled the the grade and course requirements you would be admitted to the college.</p>

<p>Classes are of average level difficulty - and if your son is willing to put in the time and effort he should have a very good shot of getting it. Depending on his strengths, the most difficult would probably be accounting, management science (requires a solid understanding of statistics), calculus, and micro and macro economics. </p>

<p>I partied four nights a week and it was a piece of cake.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input. My concern is what happens to those kids who don’t get in after completing the 10 prerequisite classes? If you have to change your major - will you still be able to graduate in 4 years? And it sounds like the program has grown in popularity since you did it - meaning it might not be a piece of cake anymore. I just can’t see the wisdom in spending 2 years preparing to major in business only to have the door slammed in your face because the number of applicants exceeds the number of open slots. Furthermore - I see no transparency on JMU’s website. No where can I find data on how many openings are available and how many students applied for those openings this past spring. If anyone has that info - I’d be interested to see it.</p>

<p>[2010-2011</a> Undergraduate Catalog | James Madison University](<a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/catalog/10/colleges/cob.html]2010-2011”>http://www.jmu.edu/catalog/10/colleges/cob.html)</p>

<p>Looks like admission to the COB is limited to 750 per year… not sure how many who are qualified apply and are not admitted because they are number 751, 752, etc… The COB should have these stats in terms of % admitted and I would think would provide them if asked. </p>

<p>“While meeting the three criteria described previously will allow a student to apply for admission to the College of Business, it will not guarantee a student’s admission. Admission to the College of Business is competitive, and enrollment will be limited to 750 students each academic year. Students will be rank-ordered by cumulative grade point average at the time of application and slotted into the academic term indicated on their application forms until the maximum number of students for each term has been reached.”</p>

<p>I have never heard of a case of students being shut out of the COB even when they meet the GPA requirements; they only reserve that right in case of anomalies. The 2.8 GPA is set in such a way so that it screens out a predictable proportion of applicants. I don’t know about the 60% statistic that somebody mentioned earlier, but if it is true, it would mean that 40% of the students that applied did not meet the GPA reqs. I would not worry about him meeting the requirements and getting shut out of the door… </p>

<p>I’ve heard that they may increase the required GPA to 3.0 if there is another spike in applicants, but I can’t verify if that is true or not. </p>

<p>In the unlikely event that he does not make the cut, he will have to stay an extra semester or two… not all of the BBA courses will be put to waste, they can be applied to Gen Eds. </p>

<p>How strong is your son in mathematics? If he has excelled in statistics and calculus then he will do well on his 10 BBA core classes. The junior year COB300 program is well-known in the region, looks good on the resume, and is a transformational experience. There is also a COB300 semester that is held in Belgium, which I heard is a lot easier and more fun, but I do not regret taking it at Zane Showker Hall!</p>

<p>Also, the faculty at the COB are great. They are willing to spend as many after-class hours as possible with each student as long as they see that that student is making the effort in class. It’s a really close-knit community. Study groups are abundant and extremely helpful in understanding the subject matter.</p>

<p>Sorry for the length!</p>

<p>Kat and JMUEcon - thank you both very much for this info. Both of your posts were extremely helpful. It is interesting for me to compare business programs from one college to another. JMU’s is very rigorous and very calculus/statistics oriented - as opposed to some at other colleges that are more marketing/mgmt/organizational studies and perhaps require only 3 calculus/stats/accounting classes total.</p>

<p>It sounds to me that you are right JMUEcon - and for a student who is strong in calculus/stats/accounting - these requirements should not pose a problem. I’m not sure yet about my son - he does ok in math - precalc this year as a junior - but I can’t say for sure. He’ll take calculus and stats next year and we’ll see how those go. I think I will contact CoB directly to ask about admissions - I am very curious to hear if more than 750 students had the 2.8 and the 10 prerequisite courses - but did not get in.</p>

<p>Thanks again for taking the time to educate me on this.</p>

<p>My son is OOS/NY, Junior at JMU. As a freshman, he entered with acct/BBA major. He took 8 of the 10 required business classes, and did not have the GPA, at the start of sophomore year, to get into the business program. At that point, he could have continued to try and repeat classes, to raise his GPA, to get into the BBA program. He was realistic, at that point, and decided the BBA/ACCT was not for him, and changed hs major, to CS. When he was a BBA/Major, he really hated his 10 prereq/ BBA classes. He really struggled through them, and his self confidence plummeted. To have a freshman taking Calc, ECON, Micro and Macro, was a lot to ask of him, and he hated it. There are students that struggle with those classes as juniors and seniors. Anyway, my point is,BBA was not his thing. If it was, he would have done better with it. Now, in CS, he loves the classes, and last semester had a 3.6 GPA. </p>

<p>Better to know sophomore year that the major is not for you, than to get into junior year and then realize. If you want to ask me more, feel free to PM ME. </p>

<p>By the way, we all love the school, and hold no ill feelings that he didn’t get into the BBA program. It was up to him to get the GPA, and he didn’t.</p>

<p>And also, other schools, any really good business schools that is, if you do get into Business program as a freshman, there is still a minimum GPA you must maintain to continue as a business major. So, there is really no difference.</p>

<p>Thank you so much - that was extremely helpful. The truth is - I don’t see my son doing that well in the 10 prereq. classes - seems very heavy on the math. I’ve looked at other schools where there is just one semester of calculus, one semester of econ, one of stats, etc. - rather than 10 classes. I think the JMU program is one of the most rigorous I have seen - and I just think it will be too much for him.</p>

<p>I really like the fact that your son is happy at JMU despite having to switch majors - the school has a reputation for happy students and that seems to hold true.</p>

<p>His other thought is to major in sports mgmt and minor in business - anyone done that?</p>

<p>He also heard of some kids taking one or two of the harder BBA core classes(ECON, MACRO,CALC) at community college, which is significantly easier, and transferring the classes to JMU. The grades do not transfer, but the classes do. There is a limit as to how many classes can be transferred in. This is a good way to keep up your JMU GPA to gain admissionto the business school.</p>

<p>I understand why you would do that - but it also troubles me - then you are paying additional monies to take courses at cc - and I guess you take them over the summer. My cousin went to Indiana and had some math class there that she could not pass - she took it twice! at our local CC and then was able to pass it and transfer it to Indiana. I just find this practice kind of unsettling - like you are diluting your degree by taking harder classes at a CC. But I guess if they allow it for a certain number of classes than it is one alternative.</p>

<p>dd1 goes to Univ. Of South Carolina, (USC) Marketing major, rising senior. Here are their COB progression reqs…</p>

<p>"The requirements stated below are minimum requirements and are subject to change as stated in the last paragraph of this section. To continue in the sophomore year of the prebusiness division of the Moore School of Business, a student must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.60 on a minimum of 24 hours. The 24 hours must include ENGL 101 and 102, SPCH 140 or 230,(public speaking & business writing) MATH 122 or 141 (calculus), and either math at the next higher level or PHIL 110 (philosophy), with a minimum grade of C in each of these courses. A student not meeting these requirements must transfer out of the prebusiness division of the Moore School of Business.</p>

<p>To be admitted to the upper division (junior year) of the Moore School of Business, a student must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.60 on a minimum of 48 hours. The 48 hours must include ENGL 101 and 102, SPCH 140 or 230, MATH 122 or 141 and either math at the next higher level or PHIL 110, ECON 221/222, ACCT 225/226, MGSC 290, MGSC 291,(computer science) and MGMT 250 or ENGL 463, with a minimum grade of C in each of these courses.</p>

<h2>All majors in the Moore School of Business will be expected to pass all business administration and economics courses with a minimum grade of C. Students repeating a business administration or economics course more than once may not use the course toward a degree in business administration.“”</h2>

<p>Doesn’t look like it’s capacity controlled…GPA requirement is a little harder at USC to get to the sophomore year (2.5 vs. 2.6) but then gets easier for the junior year (2.8 at JMU vs. USC staying at 2.6) and you can’t get any D’s in any courses there at USC, whereas at JMU you can. So, instead of 10 “business courses” before getting accepted in the JMU COB, at USC you need 9 of them. Not a whole lot of difference between the two business programs, it seems.</p>