James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia is a large public institution with 22,000 students. 20,000 of them are undergraduates. As such, the focus here is very much on undergraduate teaching. For example, 98% of classes are taught by professors, 89% of classes have fewer than 50 students, and the average class size is 25, which you would not expect in a public university this large. One caveat: we were told they have a lot more adjunct professors than in the past. There are pros and cons to that - these professors may be experts in their field, but they don't really live in the world of academia. Teaching may or may not be their forte, and their "real" job may be elsewhere. That said, they often have great contacts in whatever field they're coming from which can be fantastic for students seeking internships. In short, many universities are trying to save money by hiring adjunct faculty. JMU is one of them.

James Madison is a really nice campus in the Shenandoah valley, 2 hours from both Washington, DC and Richmond. It felt a lot like Virginia Tech to me in terms of the physical campus and the student body. Not surprisingly, that's their biggest crossover school with applicants. Only freshmen are required to live on campus and housing is easy to find after that, but about 30-40% of students elect to stay on campus after their first year.

I really like JMU, but apparently so do a lot of other people. Three years ago, when they joined the Common App, their applications increased from 24K to 40K. But they said their bread and butter is the 3.25 to 3.5 student, so the bar for admission is approachable for many. And demonstrated interest counts - they said to definitely send them an email if you're waitlisted! I think that JMU checks a lot of boxes for a lot of students. It's big. It's in the south. Football and tailgate culture is popular and 20% of the students are involved in Greek life - enough to have a presence for those who like it but it doesn't overwhelm the campus culture. There's an honors college with separate housing for those who are looking for more rigorous academics and like-minded peers.

One of my favorite things here is that they do not admit by major. So many young people don't know what they want to study, and this gives them the breathing time they need to figure it out by sophomore year, just like small liberal arts colleges allow them to do. In this world of elite schools that are harder and harder to get into, and pushing their way north of $90K per year, JMU is a great option and a real value with an out-of-state all-in price of under $44K!