Thread for the JMU Honors College decisions. I just found out I was accepted today. Anyone else?
I was accepted too!
My DD was also admitted, congratulations to everyone who got in.
I was surprised I got in because I know they look for straight A’s and I’ve gotten a few B’s. My stats are:
SAT: 1310
ACT: 29
GPA: 4.26 weighted
Full IB diploma candidate
Deferred???
Sat: 1450 (760 M/ 690 R/W)
Gpa: 4.07 W
Second Guessing my attendance to this school…
It seems that there are a few people posting with high test scores and GPA’s and are being deferred. I know people who did not have as strong test scores that were accepted but they did have a lot of leadership and other awards such as Eagle Scout or Girl Scout Gold award. All I can think is that they either look at activates and leadership more or the fact that students in NOVA have more competitive schools and they don’t want to fill their class with students that are all from Northern Virginia. It is a state school so you can’t take all of your students from one small section of the state. It seems that students in NOVA would have a better chance at getting in private schools that do not have to answer to the state as far as where they accept their students from. I wonder if the deferred students also took the time to write a good personal statement or did they assume that their test scores would get them in the school?
I think there are alot of competitive students all across Virginia. My elder child goes to another state college and their dean’s list just came out. I sorted by town and the number of kids on the dean’s list at that college was almost identical between my county and Loudoun - and my county is in southern virginia
Remember GPAs are not a good gauge on if a student is “more” qualified than another. Weights really skew things as does individual school grading scales, using +/- system and what classes comprise the GPA. So, you may have someone with a 3.3 GPA from a school that does not weight classes, has a 7 pt grading scale and has taken the most difficult classes offered get accepted whereas someone with a 4.2. GPA be deferred with a 10-pt scale, Honors and APs weighted highly and a schedule with perceived “easier” classes. Admissions has a difficult job of trying to normalize these variations.
I think that the essays had a lot to do with it. My test scores weren’t great but I put so much thought and effort into my essays.
After visiting JMU yesterday, they told us that over 1200 students applied for roughly 200 spots in the program so that’s why so many got deferred. Last year there was only around 1000, and less the year before so it’s becoming more competitive. But they also said they would likely be taking more this year (225-230) because of how many qualified applicants there are. 
@headofneuro17 When you say 1200 students for 200 spots, what program are you referring to?
@rbc2018 they’re referring to the general honors college. Grades probably played the biggest role in acceptances just like when being accepted to the school as a whole. I literally applied the day it was due (essays and all) and I was accepted because my GPA is 4.67 W. I’d think that they’d accept more than the spots available since not everyone is committed to JMU (I’m thinking about UVA)
@Alezzu or VT
I can’t speak for how they handle OOS kids (I assume they do something similar) but to avoid the GPA inflation issues as well as to make apples to apples comparisons, they group applicants together by high school and compare kids to their peers. For example, a kid from Central VA will be compared with other kids from his/her own school. They know the high schools well and know the opportunties that exist for each student. Admissions basically told our students that GPA matters more than test scores (which seems to coincide with the test optional approach they are taking). So, there are plenty of kids with mid 3 GPA’s and higher test scores (above the middle 50th) that got deferred. It’s less about being from NOVA and more about how you did relative to your peers. They have a lot to choose from as there are plenty of smart kids from all over the state. Oh, and I am sure they track matriculation. Sometimes they deny kids with super high stats because they know that they are using JMU as a safety school.
@lastone03 I totally agree with you about many kids using JMU as their safety school. Even if they are accepted, and still haven’t told JMU if they are attending or not, once they hear from UVA, VT or W&M, they will be done with JMU. That is figured into their numbers I’m quite sure, but since I heard 2/3’s of EA apps were deferred, they are still appearing to play it safe for now. Does history show that they won’t announce until April 1?
@x2018x I think they deferred about 35% of the EA apps, however, I am not sure how many were rejected or accepted. I believe they received 12000 EA apps