<p>I went to james madison and I really like the school. Im african american and native american. I have a 3.0 gpa. I take all advanced classes and two ap's. My sat was in the 1500's. Would james madison ever accept a 3.0? Dont they need a few below average students? Anywhere else I could apply to? I have to stay in virginia.</p>
<p>I don't want to be in lynchburg, because I already live there.
vcu was horribe
randolph macon was tiny
mary washington was okay, it might be a reach though
I like george mason, but my mom wont take me to visit because she said its too big.</p>
<p>I have no clue where to apply. I'd prefer to be near a city or in a suburburban area.</p>
<p>Have you thought about Bridgewater College? BC has an Open House coming up on October 23. It’s not far from Harrisonburg. Although it is private, the BC website notes:
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<p>Another suggestion: think about re-taking the SAT and try to improve your scores. Higher scores will open up more college options for you. You can still make late registration for the Oct 9 test (deadline is Sept 24 with late fee) or regular registration for the Nov 6 test date.</p>
<p>Have you thought about Old Dominion? It’s in Norfolk near Virginia Beach. Apply for the honors college by 12/1 and you could get a scholarship. DS is doing first year there and seems to like it. They are updating a lot of things on campus. They have 6 newer dorms, and the librabry is under construction.</p>
<p>I plan on visting odu soon. Im worried about campus safety and also large classes. The representative from the school said that the psychcology class has around 200 students and I don’t want that. </p>
<p>You could try Christopher Newport. Longwood is good but not near a city. Both are smaller and excellent schools. You could work on getting your SAT up or try the ACT. Do you do anything besides going to school? Any other interests that would make you stand out? Those are the ones that they usually accept that are below the 50% mark.</p>
<p>Well I did cheerleading in 9th and 10th grade, chorus in 10th grade, showchoir in 11th and 12th grade, yearbook staff and editor in 11th and 12th grade, i do gymnastics, ive played the piano for 5 years, ive volunteered for a few things, im part of a small native american tribe in va. There’s other stuff that I can’t think of right now.</p>
<p>virginiagirl, the George Mason website says they have 30,000 students. JMU is a big school also.
Both of them would more than likely have some Gen. Ed. classes (like Psyc. and sciences) with 200 students in them which you said you did not want. </p>
<p>S’s friend just graduated fr. Emory&Henry and liked it but it’s not near a city.</p>
<p>Would you consider any of the HBCU’s in VA like Hampton Univ. or Norfolk State?</p>
<p>I agree that you need to consider retaking the SAT or doing the ACT. Virginia colleges are quite competitive. Also, while you do not want to be in Lynchburg, the city does have some fine schools in Randolph, Liberty and Lynchburg. I have former students at all three. The young man at Randolph got some nice scholarship money, and your SAT is better than his. Your GPA is about the same. As for Liberty, I have four or five students there. All received scholarship money, and they had around 3.0 GPAs. Lynchburg is small, but the academics are good. </p>
<p>Any of the ODAC schools like Bridgewater and Emory & Henry are very good. They also have nice scholarship money available.</p>
<p>As for George Mason, it’s a good school, but again, you may need to bump up your SAT/GPA to make yourself more attractive to the admissions people.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters that it would be a good idea to re-take the SAT’s. I would suggest that you contact each of the schools that you are interested in. I know that Mary Washington has a multicultural discovery day in November. Sadly, in the past, Virginia’s colleges were very discriminatory, and I think that it’s fair to say that they all are going out of their way to encourage minority students to apply. I suggest that you call the Admissions office at the schools that you like and ask to speak to an admissions counselor personally. I think that you will find that they are very supportive and will be more than glad to give you a realistic idea of your chances.</p>
<p>I think you have a chance at James Madison. We are out-of-state and, according to Naviance, there have been kids with a gpa close to 3.0 who have been accepted but they had higher SATs. The closest accepted student to your profile seems to have had about a 3.2 gpa and SATs around 1500. There also seems to be a 3.1 who was accepted with SATs just over 1600. I have no way of checking race or hooks. </p>
<p>As far as other schools, we’ve had kids get into VaTech with your current gpa and SAT combo.</p>
<p>CNU is a nice school. The dorms are just gorgeous, my former students say. Good Division III sports. Usually, if you fill out the online application, you get an answer about admission very quickly. </p>
<p>I’ll throw in another school, the U. of Virginia at Wise. Yes, it’s not a big school (about 2000 kids). But your SAT/GPA should get you in. There are lots of majors/minors. Sometimes, kids will transfer from Wise to Charlottesville, if they have the grades. It’s small town America. I have a former student who is a sophomore there. He loves it, and I would not be surprised if his younger brother and sister also made the decision to continue their educations there.</p>
<p>Virginiagirl, at a lot of schools, popular introductory classes will be pretty large. I attended Cornell University, and there were 1200 kids in my intro psych class! And my first-year chemistry class was so large that it was taught three times in succession, at 9 AM, 10 AM, and 11 AM–that was the only way all the students could fit into the lecture hall. </p>
<p>However, this is not necessarily as bad as it sounds. For one thing, once class size gets above 50, it doesn’t really matter how many other kids are sitting there, because it’s going to be a lecture rather than a discussion-based class. (In fact, at most universities the biggest classes are assigned to dynamic and experienced lecturers, so it can be a lot more fun to take a really huge class than a medium-sized one.) For another thing, at most schools, large classes are broken down at least once a week into labs and discussion sections, and have tons of extra-help study sessions and so on. So the format is very different from an overcrowded high school class.</p>
<p>At even the largest schools, class sizes go way down once you get into your major and the more advanced work. So while there might be hundreds of kids in introductory psych or chemistry or economics, upper-level classes at the same school might only have 20 kids or fewer.</p>
<p>In short, don’t be afraid of JMU or George Mason just because they have big introductory classes. If you end up at a school like that, just try to balance the huge classes with smaller ones in your freshman year. For instance, most students take a first-year English composition class, and those are generally limited to 20 people or so, because otherwise the grading is unmanageable for the teacher. Some schools also have a freshman seminar program so that first-year students will be guaranteed some discussion-based, smaller-scale educational experience. By your sophomore year, you will probably be getting into the smaller classes anyway, but you can ask your faculty advisor to help you choose some such classes if you prefer a more intimate educational experience.</p>
<p>^^^Wow 1,200 students in one lecture hall at the same time at Cornell? If so that’s about twice as big a class than at places such as U of Arizona and Penn State that some might associate as having large classes.</p>
<p>VAgirl 11 should check out Old Dominion, VCU and George Mason. First two are city schools, Mason very safe and suburban.</p>
<p>Virginia girl…if you want small and safe try radford…you have a great shot at admission and even some merit aid. It isn’t just about the grades and the virginia schools really want to keep virginia minority students who look like they have a good shot at success. Radford is wonderful for someone easing into college because of the small classes and very supportive environment. At the same time, courses can be very rigourous when you get into your major. It is close to Tech so you can get away to a more lively social life. What part of virginia are you from? the VA schools work very hard at getting kids from rural and southern virginia into their programs so if you are not from NoVa I would consider some of the reachier schools potential fits.</p>
<p>I was surprised that you hated VCU. I don’t know anyone who is not deliriously happy at that school…it is large, it is urban, but the facilities are great and it is the most diverse schoos in the state. You should apply there as a safety at least and try visiting again. JMU, ODU and CNU are known for being party schools so you need to be able to balance your social with your academic there. Actually, radford has a little of that too.</p>
<p>Don’t sell yourself short. Take the SAT again or ACT and consider Mary Washington…a reach but not too far. Small, located in a lovely town but close to DC for internships, etc. </p>
<p>VCU, ODU, CNU,–safeties
Radford, GMU match
JMU slight reach
Mary Washington, reach
VTech–bigger reach
UVA, William and Mary–very big reach</p>
<p>We are fortunate to be in a state with such amazing schools to choose from. Good luck!</p>
<p>dudedad, I went to Cornell a long time ago! I just googled psych 101 at Cornell and in the last decade–still taught by the same guy!–it seems to have enrolled more like 1600-2000 students at a time. It is, or was, a pretty memorable course, making heavy use of material from Cornell’s sleep research lab and of tapes given to Cornell by the Candid Camera TV show.</p>
<p>For this years freshman class at JMU the average GPA for admitted students was 3.8. The common set data is not posted for this year, very few admitted students had below a 3.3 GPA. JMU looks at rigor of HS course load and HS profile as well. Your stats may be low for JMU, but it would not hurt to apply. Do you know what you plan to major in? Is it an area where a program audition, portfolio review, etc… Is required? </p>
<p>CNU, Radford, ODU are all great schools for you to look at. </p>
<p>If you want to look at the admitted student data for a school type “common data set” into the search box on a school’s homepage. There you can see the percentage of students admitted by GPA range, SAT range, gender, etc… This data can give you a clearer sense of match, safety, reach, etc…<br>
I teach at JMU, and I do not believe there are classes with as many as 200 students. Even intro level general education classes appear to have caps of 100 or less for the most part.</p>