<p>Is any one in the James Madison program? My son has applied to the James Madison program at MSU (we are out of state) and wanted some first-hand information.</p>
<p>I was in it last year and can conclude that it's an excellent program for political and social science students. For people who feel somewhat uneasy with a large university experience, JMC makes up its own smaller community since all freshman have the same first year courses in writing and intro to public affairs. The difficulty of material does one of 3 things to students after their first year: 1. weeds out the slacker types, 2. allows the clear leaders and brightest to emerge, or 3. leaves those less successful students remaining somewhat unfufilled with the knowledge other majors within the university can promise higher grades with less work. There are few complaints about the quality of faculty although it is self-acknowledged that their focus is more on teaching than most research U professors.</p>
<p>One further note about the close community arrangement. Since some of the brightest students tend to be eccentric and annoying about schoolwork, their voices can be more readily heard. While I enjoyed much of the work, my personality works better in a somewhat more anonymous setting and I am no longer in the program or at MSU.</p>