Before you call, read through this information. You may find the answer to your question below. If not, you're welcome to contact your regional counselor or call our office at 540-568-5681.

The admissions office has extended you a waitlist offer. You have the option to accept the offer to be on the waitlist which indicates your continued interest in JMU, or to decline the offer and have your application canceled. To accept or decline, go to the Applicant Center of MyMadison. You have until May 1 to accept the waitlist offer, however we recommend accepting it as soon as you decide that you’d like to remain in consideration for admission. In addition to accepting the offer to be on the waitlist, you may also submit a Letter of Continued Interest. If you do not indicate an interest by May 1, your application will be canceled. We will only give your application further consideration for admission if you’ve accepted the offer to be on the waitlist.

The waitlist is not pre-ranked. As mentioned above, only those students who accept the offer to be on the waitlist will be considered for admission if we are able to make additional offers of admission.

We have a limited number of seats in our incoming class, so we closely watch how the class is filling up by tracking the deposits we receive. If we need to admit more students to fill our class, we will begin to contact students who have accepted their offer to be on the waitlist. The waitlist process can start as early as mid-April and run as late as August 1. To be considered for admission from the waitlist, you must accept the offer to be on the waitlist. You may also submit a Letter of Continued Interest to further support your desire to become a JMU Duke.

We consider a variety of factors when making admissions decisions. The JMU Admissions Committee takes a comprehensive approach when reviewing applications. Most students admitted to JMU have:

• Taken the most difficult classes at their high school (usually AP, IB or DE classes).
• Taken 4 to 5 core classes in all 4 years of high school (core subjects include: English, Math, Science, History/Social Science, and Foreign Language Studies).
• Solid grades, B's and A's, very few C's and no D's or F's.
• A wide range of personal qualities (extracurricular activities, work experience, life experience, special talents, and/or community service).

We recognize that some students do not fully meet the criteria outlined above but still possess the potential to be successful members of the JMU community. Applicants offered a position on the waitlist have strong credentials that placed them among the best of those not offered admission in our initial process.

The Admissions Committee will reevaluate all students who have accepted their offer to be on the waitlist and make offers of admission based on academic credentials.

JMU will make our decisions based on your academic record and your demonstrated interest. Have you submitted a Letter of Continued Interest?

You do NOT need to submit:

• Additional recommendations.
• Updated transcripts (we will reach out if we need your mid-year grade report).
• Additional essays.
• Personal interviews (we do not offer interviews).
• Change your preference for major (we do not make admission decisions based on requested major).

Yes, you may upload your Letter of Continued Interest online. You will need your nine-digit JMU ID number to submit it. In addition to this letter, be sure to formally accept your waitlist offer in the Applicant Center of MyMadison.

Sometimes we hear this comment from students, but we cannot share applicant information. We can simply assure you that the Admissions Committee looks at several factors and carefully weighs each applicant.

Unfortunately, the process does not work that way. We monitor how many people, like your friend, decide to decline our offer along with how our deposit numbers are trending. We then go to the waitlist and consider everyone on the list at that time.

Every year is different and we often don’t have all of the information we need to make offers of admissions from the waitlist until after May 1. We recommend that you carefully consider other offers you may have received. If you do not make any deposits by the deadline, you may end up without a college option in the fall. You may want to contact each individual college and ask about their refund policy for deposits recognizing that most universities do not offer deposit refunds. Do not make a deposit to JMU if you are on the waitlist. We cannot accept a deposit until you have been offered an official acceptance to the university.

You will be treated like the rest of our first-year class once you are admitted to JMU. Orientation dates for new first-year students run from late June to mid-July and class schedules are finalized at the end of July. You will have access to the same classes as all other first-year students. Housing is available for all first-year students. Housing assignments are not finalized until the end of July. Your eligibility for financial aid will not change. However, you may want to contact the financial aid office as soon as you are admitted to see how the timing of an award may be affected.

You must weigh that choice carefully for yourself. We welcome over one thousand transfer students each year, and this is a viable pathway to join our community. We encourage you to review our transfer pathways website for more information. If you’d like to discuss your options with a Transfer Admissions Counselor, please email transferadmissions@jmu.edu.

Please call us at 540-568-5681, or e-mail us at admissions@jmu.edu.

We do realize that this is a difficult process and being on the waitlist prolongs the anxiety.

We will do all we can to finalize our waitlist decisions in a timely manner.

Before you call, read through this information sheet. In April, we receive hundreds of calls a day. You may find the answer to your question below. If not, you may want to contact your regional counselor or call our office.

The Office of Admissions has extended you a waitlist offer. We are giving you the option to choose to be on the waitlist or to decline our offer and have your application canceled. Please respond to your waitlist offer through the Applicant Center in MyMadison. If you indicate your interest to our office by the deadline in MyMadison and submit an official transcript with spring grades, you will be included on the waitlist.

The transfer waitlist functions differently from the first-year waitlist. Transfer students offered a waitlist opportunity are students for whom we need to review academic progress in current coursework before finalizing an admissions decision. A strong spring semester will well-position transfer students for admission from the waitlist after their updated college transcript is reviewed by the Admissions Committee. The sooner a student sends us an updated official college transcript with spring grades posted, the sooner we will be able to provide a final admissions decision. We will not extend any admissions offers to waitlisted applicants after July 1.

This year approximately 2,400 students applied for transfer admission to James Madison University. We consider a variety of factors when making admissions decisions. Most transfer students admitted to JMU have:

• Completed at least one college level course in the four core academic areas (English, Math, Lab Science, and History/Social Science)
• Strong grades in core coursework - mostly A's and B's with few C's
• A wide range of personal qualities (extracurricular activities, work experience, life experience, special talents, and/or community service).

Many of our students on the waitlist also have these credentials. The JMU Admissions Committee takes a holistic approach when it reviews applications. This year the committee determined that 85% of the applicant pool would do well in college; unfortunately, the committee could only extend offers to about half of the applicants. Applicants offered a position on the waitlist have strong credentials that placed them among the best who were not offered admission.

The most important thing to do is indicate your interest in being on the waitlist. You will only need to do so by accepting your offer to be on the waitlist (through the Applicant Center in MyMadison) and sending in your final transcript showing your final spring semester grades. After that, we will make our decisions based on your academic record and choose students who best fill the remaining spaces. 

You do not need to submit:

• Additional recommendations
• Additional essays
• Personal interviews (we do not offer interviews)
• Change your preference for major (we do not make admission decisions based on requested major)

Sometimes we hear this comment from students, but we cannot share applicant information with other applicants. We can simply assure you that the Admissions Committee looks at several factors and carefully weighs each applicant. You cannot simply compare your GPA and assume that one student is stronger than another.

Unfortunately, the process does not work in that manner. When we make our offers of admission, we anticipate people like your friend. We must wait until the May deadline to see how many other people, like your friend, decide to decline our offer. We then go to the waitlist and consider everyone on the list at that time.

We cannot make decisions before your deadline. We will not have the information we need to make any waitlist offers until after your spring semester grades finalize. We recommend that you carefully consider other offers you may have received. If you do not make any deposits by the deadline, you may end up with no college options for the fall. You may want to contact each individual college and ask about their refund policy for deposits. Most universities do not offer a refund on deposits. Do not send a deposit to JMU if you are on the waitlist. We cannot accept a deposit until you have been offered an official acceptance to the university.

You will be treated like the rest of our transfer class once you are admitted to JMU. Course enrollment begins in early June and orientation dates for new transfers take place in late June and mid-July. You will have access to the same classes as all other transfers although you may end up registering after other transfers should you be admitted from the waitlist after enrollment has begun. On-campus housing is limited for transfer students. The Off Campus Life office can help you arrange off-campus housing accommodations. Your eligibility for financial aid will not change. However, you may want to contact that office as soon as you are admitted to see how the timing of an award may be affected. Payment of fall bills will be due around mid-August.

Please call us at (540) 568-5681 or e-mail us at admissions@jmu.edu.

We do realize that this is a difficult process and being on the waitlist prolongs the anxiety.

We will do all we can to finalize our waitlist decisions in a timely manner.