What it is like to attend James Madison University
Nestled in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, and located between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, is James Madison University. The city of Harrisonburg is only a two hour trip from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, and offers a variety of shows, plays, concerts, and festivals, including the Renaissance Festival put on each year. JMU sits on 676 acres of landscaped campus; 125 acres include an arboretum, where students can study, or jog on the warship trails, while taking in the mountains on campus. There are more than 16,000 undergraduates enrolled, with 30% being from out-of-state, and 12% being multicultural students.
The admission process at James Madison University is competitive. Freshmen typically hold SAT scores between 1,100-1,260 or ACT scores between 24-28. JMU offers 200 majors, minors, and concentrations, and more than 75% of students have completed internships by the time they graduate. Some of the most popular majors where students want to find entry level jobs are communications, business, education, and engineering. JMU employs 854 full-time professors and 398 part-time faculty members, with 81% holding doctoral or terminal degrees. The Director of Admissions, Michael Walsh, says JMU’s strength is what happens in the classroom and the accessibility of the faculty to the students.
Athletic teams at James Madison University compete in the NCAA’s division one Colonial Athletic Association and the Eastern College Athletic Conference. The Tailor Down Under is a hot spot on campus where students can study, relax, hang out with friends, or even enjoy poetry readings and open mike nights. JMU has 36 residence halls, with 25 exclusively for first year students, and offers over 300 organizations and many performance opportunities to participate in or enjoy. Students can work in the most up-to-date laboratories and clinical field programs; undergraduates at JMU can get the same access to research equipment and opportunities as graduate students do in other schools. In addition, there is a movie theater on campus, with cheap ticket prices.
So, if you’re looking for a school that offers a friendly environment to learn and have fun, and opportunities to prepare you for the real world, then watch a college video tour of James Madison University, http://www.youniversitytv.com/james_madison_university.html, and learn more today.
