<p>Just accepted to JMU. Think I am excited, liked it a lot when I visited. Can someone who goes tell me some pros and cons about the school? I am from New England and plan to be an education major. I am going to attend the Open House for accepted students, anything specific I should look for when I'm there?</p>
<p>Pros - Everything else (Good teacher-student relationship, challenging work, VERY nice people, laid-back campus).</p>
<p>Cons - Campus SMELLS sometimes, and kids like to drink a lot. </p>
<p>I can’t think of anything else.</p>
<p>A significant pro or con depending on your viewpoint is that JMU (and I believe all schools in Virginia) only offer Education degrees as part of a 5 year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. Elementary. middle school and others will have an undergraduate major of Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies (IdLS). </p>
<p>Teacher candidates are required to meet competencies identified by the state of Virginia as well as additional competencies required by the teacher education unit at JMU.</p>
<p>IdLS is a liberal arts and sciences major that is cooperatively produced by four different colleges (Arts and Letters, Integrated Science and Technology, Math and Science, and Education). The IdLS major provides content-area education for future teachers, and is designed to prepare students to meet subject area competencies required for teacher licensure in Virginia. It is “interdisciplinary” because preK-8 teachers teach multiple subjects in ways that interweave knowledge rooted in numerous disciplines. It is “liberal” because it liberates the mind and generates new possibilities for the future.</p>
<p>Who majors in IdLS?
If you are planning on teaching in the areas of early childhood (ECED), elementary (ELED), middle grades (MIED) or special education (SPED), then you major in IdLS with an Education licensure area in ECED, ELED, MIED or SPED.</p>
<p>You will NOT major in IdLS if you are interested in teaching at the high school level. Future high-school level teachers must major in the relevant discipline (e.g. English, math, Spanish, biology, etc.) and minor in secondary education (SEED). If you are interested in teaching high school history or social studies, contact Dr. David Dillard (<a href=“mailto:dillarpd@jmu.edu”>dillarpd@jmu.edu</a>).</p>
<p>I don’t have anything to contribute. However, I hope this post will fill up with comments JMU students and parents as my child was just accepted EA. All thoughtful comments welcome!!</p>
<p>I am a JMU grad, I met my wife there, two of my sisters graduated and I have some close friends from my time there. We go to a football or basketball game and visit about every other year. I now have college age children of my own. My oldest goes to Va Tech and the next one is considering JMU. So take this with whatever grain of salt since I graduated over 20 years ago and just visit occasionally now.</p>
<p>Pros:<br>
- Nearly everyone is friendly: students, professors, staff, etc
- College of education is excellent. See above post about 5 year MAT program
- Food is terrific
- Great school spirit, the kids seem to really enjoy being associated with JMU
- Great core of sports fans for football/basketball
- Beautiful Shenandoah Vally location - tons of outdoor activities: hiking, camping, rafting, etc…
- Great intramural and club sports
- Great fitness center
- Outstanding variety of clubs
- On-campus entertainment: movies, rec center, student activities </p>
<p>Cons:
- Transportation may be an issue from JMU to/from New England. There is a bus that runs to a DC area metro station where you could ride the subway to the airport or train station.<br>
-Campus is now split by the highway. Many great new building on the other side of Rt. 81, but it is a bit of a hike from one end of campus to the other. - NCAA sports at a lower level than ACC, Big Ten, SEC, etc…many kids don’t support the teams.<br>
- Town has grown quickly in last ten years and some of the local charm is harder to find beyond the plethora of chain restaurants and big box stores. It’s still there, you just have to go look for it.
- Very limited merit aid</p>
<p>Whatever:
Dorms run the range from terrific to OK.</p>
<p>Pros- school spirit/pride, friendly, beautiful campus, good academic reputation, decent surrounding area, good food believe it or not, happy students!!!</p>
<p>Cons- huge party school, travel time**</p>
<p>Regarding travel - college transit runs buses to various locations. For $200 round trip my D rides from JMU to the last exit on the New Jersey Turnpike! Save us $$ and time. They also run buses to BWI airport and the amtrak station.</p>
<p>I am a current student at JMU from New England, MA to be exact. I was looking over some of these cons…transportation home is no problem at all. Shannandoah airport is approx 10-15 min drive from campus. I fly out of here into dulles which connects to Boston.
JMU is a great school and its national reputation is on the rise. The athletics are a big draw, especially tailgating for football. Food is great, parties are greater, and the beer is free. </p>
<p>JMU is constantly building so there is always construction. Currently the football stadium is being renovated.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p>just curious- why don’t you take the bus to the DC airport? For my D, flying out Shannandoah airport seemed really expensive. Granted, I checked once and said forget it :)</p>
<p>In my opinion, flying out of shanandoah is way easier. It usually costs around $220 round trip which is more expensive than flying out of dc, which is typically $150 is rd trip? The bus to Dulles is not cheep either and it is cramped. I just get a friend to drop me off at the Shenandoah airport, and since they only have 2 flights a day, getting in and out is a breeze. I guess its your personal preference.</p>
<p>hayze: which exit on the Turnpike are you referring to? top or bottom?..</p>
<p>also, curious about this bus that goes to Union Station in DC…is it only for school vacations or does it exist for emergencies?</p>
<p>we have not looked at JMU for junior daughter; very concerned about transportation issues…we had a couple of emergencies that older daughter had to come home for during her freshman year that her friend at JMU could not come home for…</p>
<p>Rodney- top of the NJTP at the Vince Lombardi service area. Check out the JMU website and search student travel or ride home.</p>