In my area, known as northern virginia, JMU is one of the top schools basically most people apply to. I applied to it (just submitted my application) and I’m concerned. I wanted to know, do colleges look at your GPA more or the classes you took? I took 1 AP class sophomore year, four last year and three this year (if you include Pre-Calc, which is considered an ‘honors’ class) I’ve checked up on what JMU requires: 3 or 2-2 years of language (I have taken all three), 4 years of math (I have taken all four, 1 AP), 4 years of english (I have taken 5, 2 are AP), 4 years of social studies (I have taken 5, 3 of which are AP)and 4 sciences (I have taken 5, 1 AP) . I have also gone out of the box in the sense that I took classes this year I did not need but they are science and social study classes. What I mean to say is I have been freaking out and I’m scared I won’t get in because my GPA is just a 2.97 but I have yet to retake the SAT (and do BETTER) (original score being 1120-1130) but I just need some advice. On a side note, I think my personal essay was good. Back to the point: Do you think my GPA will make them throw away my whole application or will they go through and see the classes I took, my SAT score and my ECs too? Please let me know what you guys think!
On a side note - I took Pre-AP classes for ANY class I could. That shows on my transcript too.
JMU considers the level of class and the grade received. Less about GPA since every school weights things differently and/or has different grading scales.