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James Madison University Data & Information Overview

453 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
86% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how James Madison University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is James Madison University Ranked?

#169 Best Colleges in Nation
#6 Best Colleges in VA
Sports Management Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

James Madison University was awarded 453 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is sports management.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked JMU as #169 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

JMU also holds the #6 spot on the Best Colleges in Virginia ranking.

See all of the rankings for James Madison University.

Is It Hard to Get Into JMU?

86% Acceptance Rate
64% Of Accepted Are Women
26% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at James Madison University is 86%, which is higher than many other schools to which you may be applying. But don't think getting into JMU is a sure thing. The admissions staff is still going to review your application to see if you are a good fit for the school.

Average Test Scores

About 26% of students accepted to JMU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 660. Math scores were between 560 and 650.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for James Madison University  ( 580 to 660 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for James Madison University  ( 560 to 650 )
200
800
JMU received ACT scores from 5% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 24 and 29.

ACT Composite Scores for James Madison University  ( 24 to 29 )
1
36

Learn more about James Madison University admissions.

James Madison University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
85% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, James Madison University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at James Madison University is 85%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  85 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at James Madison University

91% Freshmen Retention
69% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 91% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like James Madison University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  91 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At JMU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 69%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  69 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at James Madison University.

James Madison University Undergraduate Student Diversity

18,420 Full-Time Undergraduates
21.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
58.6% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 19,727 undergraduates at JMU with 18,420 being full-time and 1,307 being part-time.

How Much Does James Madison University Cost?

$22,562 Net Price
36% Take Out Loans
$36,252 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of JMU is $22,562. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for JMU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$14,288 $14,985 $19,216 $24,471 $27,196

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of JMU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At JMU, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $9,063 a year. That adds up to $36,252 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at JMU is 2.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for James Madison University.

How Much Money Do JMU Graduates Make?

$61,268 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from JMU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $61,268 in their early years. That's great news for JMU students since it is 44% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at James Madison University make the most money.

Location of James Madison University

Virginia State
18,420 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
James Madison University is a public institution located in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The location of JMU is great for students who prefer living in an urban area.

Get more details about the location of James Madison University.

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Contact details for JMU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 800 South Main Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807
Phone: 540-568-6211
Website: www.jmu.edu/
Facebook: http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/facebook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JMU

James Madison University Majors

54 Majors With Completions
4,524 Undergraduate Degrees
718 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 54 majors graduated from James Madison University. Of these students, 4,524 received undergraduate degrees and 718 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Mental & Social Health Services 504 $30,000
Health & Physical Education 292 $33,807
Liberal Arts General Studies 263 $32,885
Nursing 254 $65,005
General Psychology 240 $28,370
General Biology 226 $27,637
Marketing 174 $49,719
Information Science 168 $70,020
Hospitality Management 138 $43,827
Finance & Financial Management 137 $65,544

Learn more about the majors offered at James Madison University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at JMU

35% Take At Least One Class Online
5% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 7,843 students took at least one online class at James Madison University. This is a decrease from the 20,632 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 7,843 1,103
2019-2020 20,632 4,653
2018-2019 1,832 689
2017-2018 1,632 545
2016-2017 1,530 591

Learn more about online learning at James Madison University.

If you’re considering James Madison University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against JMU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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