<p>Been accepted to both, help me decide. Penn State was my definite top choice, but now I'm torn because of the scandal. I love James Madison too, but it's a little far for me.</p>
<p>What are you interested in studying in? What kind of environment are you looking for? I have to think they are both different. But honestly, I think you should try to keep the scandal out of it. Read the other forums below about “Torn with the scandal”. </p>
<h2>Job recruiters have increased by 10% this year at PSU.</h2>
<p>Just a question in your opinion, if I was rejected from JMU do you think I could still get into PSU? Are they looking for different students? I was kind of shocked I was rejected, and PSU is my number 1!</p>
<p>kblist what are your “stats”? in what state are you resident?</p>
<p>what I know of Penn State admissions is that it tends to be pretty much a function of your SAT and GPA, with the famous “bubble” chart showing in general the scores and GPA that would likely get a student accepted. </p>
<p>as to JMU, my impression from reading the discussions there is that admissions for in-staters, particularly from the northern va region, are becoming more and more competitive. however, it seems like out of staters may have an easier time. At the JMU info session, they also stressed that rigor of courseload and grades were the primary factor, they are looking for students who have Bs and As and no Cs and have taken challenging courses. I am not sure that Penn State looks as closely as all that, I think it tends to boil down mostly to your overall weighted GPA.</p>
<p>There are some differences between how the schools look at SAT scores, as well. Penn State looks at the best single sitting score on all three sections. JMU only uses the CR and M score and takes the best subscore for each section (superscore). JMU says the mid- 50% is in the range of 1100-1280. If your writing score was higher than your CR/M scores, that would generally help you at Penn State.</p>
<p>I’ll be curious to know how it turns out for you. Hopefully we’ll all find out soon…Good luck!</p>