<p>Both schools cost the same for me and they both have good departments for my major....so besides those two deciding factors, which one would you go to?</p>
<p>Are you Catholic? Do you prefer lacrosse or football? Where is home?</p>
<p>If academics and finances are roughly even, do you have a location preference? JMU is in a largely rural area, although Harrisonburg is a reasonably-sized city. Loyola gets you proximity to a big city. Since you are settled on a major, what are the opportunities to do research, intern, or learn more about it over the next 4 years? Placement success? Opportunities to take electives, minors, or a double major? If you have AP credits, does one school take significantly more?</p>
<p>Yeah it's tough, no I'm not Catholic and Baltimore is closer to home (NY) but it's soo hard I like the location of Loyola much more but JMU seems like a more classic college experience. I can't decide...</p>
<p>What's your major going to be? business? They are known for their business.
My son likes the number of undergrads, something like 3,500 and smaller class sizes-but not as small as his LAC choices.</p>
<p>Note: He's looking at them for pre-med and one of his LAC schools is much stronger in this area-but he's not sure he wants to go the LAC route.</p>
<p>i'm probably going to major in communications..</p>
<p>Loyola is a lot closer to home and you can easily take train, plane or automobile to get to Baltimore. I-81 is the only way to get to Harrisonburg and it actually divides the campus, which would become bothersome to me. J.M.U. might have strength in the Northern Virginia, Richmond and Tidewater job markets but Loyola would trump J.M.U. in the heavily Catholic Northeastern cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Loyola is one of only 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the U.S. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Jesuit_Colleges_and_Universities%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Jesuit_Colleges_and_Universities</a> Loyola College was an all male private college until becoming coeducational in 1971. J.M.U. on the other hand was an all female state college (Madison College and other earlier names) until becoming coeducational in 1946. J.M.U. would only make sense to me if it were significantly cheaper than Loyola.</p>
<p>Yeah the location of Loyola is >>> than JMU's. The only thing I'm worried about is that Loyola seems to be completely a bar school which seems weird since you can't even buy drinks until you're a junior. Well I'm visiting Loyola next week so hopefully that will help to make a decision.</p>
<p>bump...anymore ideas...</p>
<p>I would think you would find a lot more to do outside of the classroom and the party scene in the culturally rich Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area than in Harrisonburg, Virginia.</p>
<p>yeah, you are probably right.</p>