College profile
James Madison University
VA · Public · Small city · 35,750 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Information Science grads from here earn about $113,345 four years out; drama grads about $45,225 — a 2.5× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 6× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$31,735/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$69,954/yr) still runs about 6× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- In-state residents (tuition ~$14,250 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Health Professions or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
- Research-curious students (R2 — active research output)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1170, or ACT below 25, or unweighted GPA below ~3.50 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
19% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 3% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What James Madison University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by James Madison University's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$573K ahead at full price +$606K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at James Madison University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what James Madison University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — James Madison University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Information Science/Studies. | $113,345 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $104,926 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $104,806 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $98,767 |
| Engineering, General. | $91,761 |
| International Business. | $91,141 |
| Systems Science and Theory. | $91,034 |
| Marketing. | $89,944 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $87,056 |
| Economics. | $86,681 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at James Madison University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to James Madison University
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to James Madison University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
32 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name James Madison University on it. Between them they printed 141 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at James Madison University, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
and 22 more
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
8 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name James Madison University on it. Between them they printed 31 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to James Madison University, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
All 40 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantJames Madison University is a public four-year college in VA. It admitted 76% of applicants (35,750 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1170–1320, ACT 25–29. 19% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 3% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $23,322 a year on average with aid, $31,735 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $69,954 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $606,252 ahead with aid, $572,600 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Information Science/Studies ($113,345); Finance and Financial Management Services ($104,926); Computer and Information Sciences, General ($104,806).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 2% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 40% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name James Madison University: 32, 141 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Cape Henry Collegiate School (14.0 per class year, 14 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Collegiate School (9.0 per class year, 9 over 1 class year, Class of 2026 College Enrollments / 2023-26 4-Year College Enrollments, counted column "Class of 2026 College Enrollments"); St. Christopher's School (6.8 per class year, 34 over 5 class years, 2022-2026). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/james-madison-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming James Madison University: 8, 31 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Oratory Preparatory School (7.0 per class year, 7 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Key School (2.3 per class year, 14 over 6 class years, 2021 - 2026, counted column "Acceptances 2021–2026"); Jack M Barrack Hebrew Academy (2.0 per class year, 2 over 1 class year, Class of 2026). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/james-madison-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/james-madison-university.json