<p>It looks like it may come down to these three schools for my son (accepted early in all three). We like all of them, but they are different. While we are developing impressions of all three, wondering if anyone out there has compare / contrast observations on any of these.</p>
<p>I have 1 son at Loyola who loves it, he wanted a small school. My other son is waiting to hear from JMU he loved the campus, and the size, but it’s 2 hours from DC and I’m concerned that he may get bored being far from everything. Also we live in Ma. and the ride to and from the airport would be a long journey. My Loyola son has a short ride to BWI and the flight is 50 minutes. Just a thought. Good Luck</p>
<p>My son was also on the fence about JMU or Loyola, chose Loyola and loves it!
We are also from Massachusetts and the flights from Loyola are very convenient and pretty inexpensive. Two different schools, my son has also said that he thought that he would be more successful at a smaller school. So far, so good!</p>
<p>Bumping this <very relevant!=“”> thread. Are you all OOS for VA? I grew up in VA and can’t seem to get the idea of JMU being an all-girls teachers college out of my head. What is its reputation out of state? BTW–going to look at Loyola in a few weeks. They are very different schools and I guess I’m surprised that people not in VA would be looking at both.</very></p>
<p>To answer “MyLB’s” questions – yes, I am a Massachusetts resident, looking at Loyola and JMU (along with several other schools) as an Out-of-stater. JMU has a pretty solid reputation in my part of Massachusetts. Not sure why, but it seems to have gotten very popular over the past several years. I think Loyola is a little less well known up here. We stumbled across it when doing comparisons to a couple other Jesuit schools (St Josephs, Fairfield, and Fordham). From looking at close to 20 east coast schools from New Hampshire down to VA, I can say there is a distinctly different (and I mean that in a positive way) vibe that you get when visiting the mid-Atlantic schools than the New England ones. For me, that is what makes them interesting.</p>
<p>MyLb - It’s funny how things change. I live near the Boston area and when I was growing up, Northeastern was a “commuter” school, located in a " not-so-great" part of the city. When we were visiting colleges with our son in North Carolina in Virginia, it seemed as though everyone had applied to Northeastern!! My reaction was…huh? Especially since it is so expensive now!! We also loved JMU and the price tag is much more reasonable. You just never know…</p>