<p>My oldest dd will be a Junior this coming year and JMU is her 1st choice school. </p>
<p>What's the earliest she can apply to JMU? Can she apply as soon as she completes her Junior year? Or does she have to wait until September of her Senior year?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Kelly</p>
<p>They probably won't have their application for 2008 available until late August. Early Action deadline is Nov.1. It is not rolling, so applying on Sept.1 does not give you an advantage over someone applying Oct.1.</p>
<p>If you apply EA will they let you know about any scholarships you may qualify for when you get your initial acceptance letter, or do they wait until April when all the financial award letters usually go out?</p>
<p>peteypie...JMU introduced a new scholarship for the 2007-2008 school year, the Dingledine, a grades-based, community service scholarship. The scholarship covers the in-state cost of tuition and is renewable, based on grades and some other requirements. An EA application is required. Students applying for the Dingledine also must submit a separate application; for the current crop of students it was due last Nov. 10. For its inaugural run, JMU received 475 applications for the Dingledine, granted 52 interviews (in February) and chose 6 recipients of the scholarship by about March 15. The other 46 candidates were given (much) smaller Madison Achievement Awards. My D went to the interview but was awarded a Madison. We were grateful, of course, but the Dingledine would have been great.</p>
<p>Be aware that JMU is a school where it is still harder to get in EA than it is RD. There has been a trend in recent years for many schools in which the opposite is true. If your D isn't a really clear match, I don't recommend applying EA there. I also recommend choosing a safety school that has rolling admissions to apply to very early. Getting an acceptance in December or late November, even from a school that may not be the first choice, feels really good and makes the wait in March more tolerable.</p>
<p>I agree with cartera regarding EA at JMU having higher standards than RD. However, it doesn't hurt your chances to apply EA. They'll just defer you to the RD pool if you're not a high match. My D applied EA, was deferred, then accepted RD. Unfortunately, (for our finances), she fell in love with her "back up" school long before regular decisions were made, so will not be attending JMU. I know that the school she chose is right for her, but I had really hoped that she would attend JMU.</p>
<p>From JMU's website, regarding EA:</p>
<p>"Early Action is more competitive than the Regular Decision process. To be admitted through Early Action, a student needs to be superior in curriculum, grades, test scores and extracurricular activities. For the class entering in the 2006 Fall semester, 49 percent of the students deferred from Early Action to Regular Decision were eventually admitted. Students who apply through the Early Action process do not have an advantage over students who apply Regular Decision."</p>