PLUS Loan Changes Transcript

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Speaker 1

Important changes are coming to the federal Parent Plus direct loan program changes that will affect all new borrowers across the country, including families here at JMU. Let's walk through what's new and what parents need to know before borrowing. The One Big Beautiful Bill act, signed into law on July 4th, 2025, made major updates to the Parent Plus loan program.

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Speaker 1

These new rules apply to all new borrowers after July 1st, 2026, which includes parents borrowing for students who begin college. As of that date, and parents of current students who have not already borrowed a federal direct loan. Even if the parent has borrowed Parent Plus loans for other children in prior years. Under the updated rules, the borrowing limit is associated with each student, not each parent.

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Speaker 1

That means for a student's education, the amount borrowed can be up to $20,000 per year and no more than $65,000 for total lifetime in parent plus loans. Regardless of how many parents want to borrow on the student's behalf, here's something important. Parents of first year students who borrow the full $20,000 each year will only have $5,000 left for the student's fourth year.

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Speaker 1

This has the potential to create real financial strain near the end of a student's degree. If the goal of a first year parent is to borrow the full $65,000 but spread it evenly. Borrowing no more than $16,250 per year allows for four years of consistent funding. Just remember, in this example of the first year student, once that fourth year is done, parent plus eligibility for that student ends.

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Speaker 1

So staying on track to graduate in four years is essential to help families avoid running out of eligibility. JMU will typically include no more than $16,250 in the initial parent plus loan amount on financial aid offers. Depending on the student's overall aid, the amount offered may be lower when it's time to borrow. Parents will complete the Direct Plus loan application from the Federal Direct Loan Program.

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Speaker 1

JMU will send instructions to parents via email when it's time to apply. The application gives parents two choices. One. Request the maximum loan, or two enter a specific amount to borrow. Here's the key thing to understand if a parent selects maximum, JMU is required to process the full $20,000 as long as the student is eligible. Even if the financial aid offer shows $16,250, this means parents who select the maximum amount may use up all loan eligibility before the student completes their program of study.

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Speaker 1

To keep borrowing steady across all four years, parents of first year students should enter a specific amount, such as $16,250 or less. These new rules make it more important than ever to borrow carefully. If you have questions, JMU was here to help you understand your options and make the best financial decisions for your students college journey.

Completing the FAFSA Transcript

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Narrator

In order to apply for federal financial aid like grants and loans, state aid, and many university programs. You must submit a free application for federal student aid. Otherwise known as the FAFSA, the FAFSA is available October 1st prior to the beginning of the academic year. Starting with the 2024-25 FAFSA, those whose information is required on the FAFSA will be indicated as contributors.

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Narrator

A contributor can include a student, a student’s spouse, a parent, and or stepparent. Each contributor will need to provide consent on the FAFSA for the student to be eligible for financial aid. When submitting the FAFSA, prior prior tax information will be used. This means that tax information from two years prior to the academic year for which you are applying for aid will be utilized. As part of the consent mentioned prior

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Narrator

the direct data exchange will be used to link the prior prior tax information directly from the IRS to the student's FAFSA. Simplifying the process of completing the FAFSA. This also has the potential to reduce the need for us to request certain documentation during a verification process. JMU has a priority filing date of March 1st. This date exists to potentially increase the student's eligibility for certain types of aid, as well as allowing for appropriate amount of processing time prior to the start of the academic year.

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Narrator

Factors such as the number of applications received and the amount of money available to award, will play a role in the types of aid we can offer. A FAFSA can still be submitted after the priority filing date, but funds may be limited. More information regarding the FAFSA can be found on our website at www.jmu.edu/financialaid

Official Financial Aid Offer Transcript

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Unknown
This video is intended to help students review their official financial aid offer. This guide will focus on the first page of the notice, and highlight some areas that students and parents often ask questions about. The official financial aid offers purpose is to break down certain costs of attending JMU and explaining your options for paying those costs. Students will be notified of this offer by an email to their Duke's email account.

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Unknown
Parents will also receive an email stating the eligibility for a Parent Plus loan to the parent email placed on the Fafsa. Once available, the official financial aid offer can be accessed and accepted by a student through their student center on MyMadison. I want to start out by saying that the cost of attendance is not a bill for a student.

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Unknown
It is an estimate of billable and non billable costs. Broken down between the items below that may need to be paid while attending JMU over the academic year. All students are billed for tuition and fees. JMU does assume that the student will be full time 12 or more credits for each semester. It is important to note that depending on the courses taken by the student, there may be other fees not listed here, such as lab fees or course differentials that may be added to the bill.

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Unknown
Now let's talk housing and meals. Housing and meals are the average cost for living in a dorm room on campus, and the standard meal plan for a year. Both of these items are billable expenses. Any students living on campus are required to purchase a meal plan. Students that live off campus will have the same estimates for this section.

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Unknown
However, the bill was doing, you may be lower depending on their personal choices. Any student living off campus does not have any housing billed to them by JMU, but they are able to use financial aid to pay for their apartment, commuter meal plan, and food they may purchase outside of JMU. If a student living off campus would like to purchase a commuter meal plan, they would need to do so through card services.

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Unknown
If students living at home or with family would like to purchase a commuter meal plan for when they are on campus, they are able to do so with card services. Moving to books and supplies. This is just an average cost for students. This number will not show up on a bill from JMU, but a student will need to purchase these items themselves.

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Unknown
Students should try to purchase or rent their books before the start of each semester. Transportation and other educational costs are built into every student's cost of attendance. These are not billable charges. This part of the cost of attendance estimates for needs such as having a car on campus, or any kind of tickets for busses or planes, as well as toiletries and other miscellaneous items that may be needed throughout the year.

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Unknown
Again, you will not have a bill for these items, but they may be needed outside purchases and the cost is dependent on each student. Grants and scholarships are free assistance from federal, state, university, or outside needs. This section includes any merit based JMU scholarships offered at the time. the official aid offer is issued to a student. Other scholarships are outside scholarships that you apply for on your own.

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Unknown
These will only be listed here if you reported the amount to our financial Aid office through the Supplemental Scholarships form. To break down the grant section, Pell Grant is a federal grant offered to lower income students, whether in-state or out-of-state. Your FAFSA is used to determine the amount of Pell Grant offered. A federal Pell Grant should be the same between all schools a student applies to

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Unknown
since the federal government determines the offered amounts. State grants include VGAP the Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program, or Commonwealth Award. These grants are for inside students that filed their Fafsa by the March 1st priority filing date. JMU uses the Fafsa Student Aid Index, or SAI, to determine your state grant eligibility. Your SAI is calculated by the Department of Education when they receive your Fafsa.

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Unknown
State grants can vary between schools depending upon the amount of funding they receive from the state. Each school has the right to use their state grant funding how they see fit, and no two schools will have the same grant offered to your student.

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Unknown
I would like to start this section by saying that this form is a standardized form prepared by the government in this section of it can be sometimes misleading.

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Unknown
The net cost is a technical term that amounts to the total cost of attendance, minus any grant or scholarship assistance. This number is not your remaining bill, and does not include any loan options chosen to help pay your bill. To add up your true net cost, add up your tuition and fees and your housing and meals. Subtract any free assistance in the grants and scholarships section and this would be closer to your true net cost you or your student would need to pay to attend JMU.

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Unknown
If you have an amount for federal work study listed on your official aid offer, a student can apply for a federal work study position on campus by going to the JMU website under the JMU Job section. Work study is not deducted from your bill. The student would receive a paycheck like they would if they were working at home

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Unknown
that would help offset any personal needs. Please keep in mind, though, that all students have the opportunity to work through institutional employment. JMU offers a larger number of institutional employment positions than they do federal work study jobs. These positions can be found under the JMU job section. So moving on to loans. This section details the student's federal direct loan amounts they are able to borrow.

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Unknown
Loan amounts are based on the total number of credit hours at the time of awarding. Incoming freshmen are awarded up to 5500 for the academic year, with that amount increasing to 6500 as a sophomore and 7500 as a junior or senior. The loan total can be split between two loan types subsidized or unsubsidized. For subsidized loans, the government will pay the interest when the student is in school

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Unknown
While for unsubsidized loans, interest is accruing.

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Unknown
All loans are ten year loans and will go into repayment six months after the student graduates, or drops below half time.

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Unknown
This section details other means of paying for students education and includes payment plans through the University Business Office, Military benefits, 529 prepaid plans, and Parent Plus loans. The Parent Plus loans are again ten year federal loans that you can choose either to start repaying right away or wait until six months after the student graduates.

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Unknown
And that's it. We've made it through the first page. If you are interested in borrowing a parent Plus loan or accepting the federal student loans, please view the other videos found on the official Financial Aid Offer page. Please remember, you need to file a FAFSA every year starting October 1st. Hopefully, this video has helped answer your questions about the official financial aid offer, but if you have further questions, please contact our office.

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narrator

This video is a walkthrough on accepting your JMU student financial aid. Once awarded, a student is sent an email notification to their JMU email. To view and accept your aid, you will need to log in to your My Madison account.

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narrator

Once you are signed in, you will select the student tab. Then select the Student Center link. Once you are within the Student Center page, you will need to scroll to the finances section to accept or decline your aid. Select accept decline. Awards. If this is your first time accepting aid for this academic year, first need to complete the questionnaire that follows before you are able to accept your aid.

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narrator

The first part of the questionnaire will ask about any outside scholarships you have received or will receive. Place the official scholarship name and the amount dedicated to each semester within the table. Do not list any JMU scholarships or outside scholarships placed on the supplemental scholarship sheet here. The following question requires you to indicate whether you will be an undergraduate or a graduate student.

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narrator

From there, you will need to select the option to participate in electronic transactions. This allows our office to communicate with you electronically as well as move money electronically. Finally, check the box explaining that you understand that your financial aid is divided evenly in half between the fall and spring semesters. To an evenly split the loans, you will need to submit a loan change request form found on the financial aid website in the form section.

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narrator

Once the questionnaire is complete, click submit on the following page. Select the eight year for which you are accepting financial aid. To choose the proper aid year. You will need to select the calendar year tied to the spring semester. For example, the academic year that includes Summer 2025, fall 2025 and spring 2026. You would choose the eight year 2026.

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narrator

The next page is your aid package. The table on this page displays all the financial aid offered for the academic year. It includes the category of the aid, the amount offered, and the amount accepted. To view a more detailed description of each aid type you can make, click on the corresponding links. Some aid offered cannot be accepted through myMadison.

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narrator

However, you are still able to read details on the award or decline it if you would like to decline. Select the checkbox in the declined column to accept an offer. Select the checkbox in the accept column. You may accept the offered amount or enter a lesser amount than the accepted box. Federal work Study Options Impairment plus loans cannot be accepted through students.

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narrator

My Madison account. To accept work study, a student would need to be hired for a position. If a student wishes to decline the work study option, the parent plus eligibility would increase by the declined amount. The Parent Plus loan option is accepted once an approved Parent Plus loan application is processed. After everything is accepted or declined, click the submit button on the bottom of the page.

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narrator

Select yes to confirm. If this is your first time borrowing any federal student loans. You will be prompted to complete entrance counseling and a master promissory note, often referred as an MP in the federal government, requires both before any student loans are disbursed. These items can be completed by going to Student Aid gov and logging in with the student's FSA ID and password.

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narrator

Once you click the okay button at the bottom of the page, you will be directed back to the Aid package page. The status shows anything accepted by having checkmarks in the accept column. You can change your accept, select decline choice and resubmit unless that line is grayed out, meaning our office has already processed your aid or does not eligible for change.

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narrator

Through my Madison. Once your aid is accepted, our office will process it as quickly as possible. If you are missing any information, our office will communicate via your GMU email. If you have any additional questions about accepting your aid, please contact our office.

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Parent Plus loans are credit based Federal loans

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available to parents of dependent undergraduate students.

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This video walks you through the loan application

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process to help you avoid common mistakes.

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First, ensure your student completes a free application

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for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.

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Once your student has been offered financial aid,

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the student will receive an email notification to their JMU Dukes email.

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If the student has not been offered financial aid, the loan application will not be processed.

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Do not submit a loan application until your student has received their financial aid offer,

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and you have determined how much you need to borrow.

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Once your student has their aid offer and you know

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your potential loan amount, the parent borrower should log in to studentaid.gov

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to complete the PLUS loan application.

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Parents need their own FSA ID to submit the PLUS

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application, so parents not listed on the FAFSA may need to create an FSA ID.

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Do not use your students FSA ID log in.

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Students may not apply for a Parent PLUS loan.

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Once you're logged in, hover over “Grants and Loans” and select

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“PLUS loans: Grad PLUS and Parent PLUS”.

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Scrolling down the first option says “I am a parent of a student.”

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This is the start of the PLUS loan application.

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Be sure to select the correct option.

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Completing the wrong application will delay

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your PLUS loan request, and you will need to reapply.

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Next, click the Learn More button.

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As you scroll down the following page, there is an information panel explaining

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there will be a credit check done on the submission of the application and on top of completing the application

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you will also need to complete a Master Promissory Note found on the Student Aid website.

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Go ahead and click start.

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Check that the information at the top of the page

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is the parent's name and Social security number.

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To start the application, select the academic year for which you are requesting the loan.

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Next, you will be prompted to enter your students information.

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Do not place the parent borrower's information in this section.

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Sometimes parents incorrectly put their own information in the student section

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and must submit a new application.

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Make sure to answer and review your students information carefully.

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Select James Madison University as the school to receive the application.

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At the top of the next page, you will now request your loan amount.

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Loan applications cannot be processed if they are missing a loan amount.

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You will be prompted with three options.

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Remember to account for the origination fee

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if you decide to specify the loan amount.

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The origination fee is immediately deducted from your loan

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total by the federal government when the loan disperses.

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Failure to properly account for this fee may lead you to borrow less than you need.

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Leaving your student with a remaining balance on their

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JMU bill.

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Use the Origination fee calculator on the JMU Financial

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Aid website to estimate your origination fee.

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If you select I do not know the amount,

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your loan request will not be processed and you would need to submit a new loan application.

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The maximum amount

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allows the borrower to be considered for an amount up

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to the student's total cost of attendance at JMU.

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Parents listed on a student's FAFSA are sent an email at the time their student is awarded,

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explaining the maximum amount they are eligible to borrow in the Parent PLUS loan.

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Next, select your loan period.

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Parents usually request loans for the full academic

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year, which covers both fall and spring terms.

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JMU’s academic year is August through May.

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Full academic year loans are evenly split,

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so half disperses in the fall and half disperses in the spring.

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Just like the FAFSA, the plus loan application

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needs to be completed each year that you'd like to receive the PLUS loan.

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After selecting the loan period, you are prompted to select the deferment option.

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This is how long you would like to postpone the required payments for your repayment.

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For this example, we will choose yes to defer repayment while the student is enrolled at least half time,

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and yes to defer the repayment until another six months after the student drops below half time.

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You're provided the opportunity

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to authorize the school to use funds for charges other than tuition and fees and room and board.

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For the credit balance option, if the Parent PLUS loan

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was to generate a refund after the bill with JMU was paid,

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you would designate here who that money would be refunded to.

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Students can use this refund money to help pay for rent,

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food, books, etc..

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On the next page you will designate your relationship with your student

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and then provide the borrowing parent's personal information.

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Make sure to release any security freezes

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you may have on any accounts, as credit freezes will impede your loan credit check.

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Review the important notices next and by clicking on the dropdowns,

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you are given more descriptions on each of these notices.

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Certify that your loan application information is correct

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and then provide authorization for the credit check.

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Once you submit, you will know if your credit is approved or denied immediately.

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If your loan application is denied, you will then be prompted

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with options to select for proceeding with an appeal,

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proceeding with an endorser, or to not pursue either option.

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If you need to reduce or cancel a portion of your loan or change a refund option,

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please email loans@jmu.edu or give us a call.

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Unknown

Hi, I'm Brad Barnett, director of the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at James Madison University. I'm going to take the next few moments to give you a high level overview of the process to apply for financial aid and scholarships here at JMU. Applying for financial aid for the first time can seem like an overwhelming process, but we've tried to make it as easy as possible by requiring only one form for all non scholarship assistance.

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Unknown

That form is the 2022-23 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, called the FAFSA for short. You can find the Fafsa on the web at www.studentaid.gov

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Unknown

I'll explain the scholarship application process in just a moment. When the FAFSA was completed, it goes to the federal government and then two things happen after that. The government sends a copy back to you, and then they send a copy to us. If you apply it online, then you'll receive your copy online as well. This is your opportunity to review the FAFSA and make sure everything is accurate, as well as receive some initial feedback from the government about your application.

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Unknown

When submitting your FAFSA make sure it gets to the federal government no later than March 1st, as that's the FAFSA priority filing date at JMU. In some cases, meeting the March 1st date can increase your eligibility from assistance from certain financial aid programs. Most students submit the application online, and if that's your plan, I suggest you submit it a few days before March 1st just to make sure it gets received and processed by the government by that date.

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Brad

When we receive your FAFSA, we'll use the information on the application in addition to your student record at JMU to determine your eligibility for assistance from the federal grants, state grants, university grants, federal loans, and federal work study programs. The culmination of this process will result in us sending you a financial aid award offer. That offer will list in the aid you may be eligible to receive from the before mentioned programs.

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Brad

With that said, there are other opportunities to help cover your college expenses that might not be directly tied to the FAFSA. For example, institutional employment, which are part time jobs on campus outside of the federal work study program, off campus jobs in the community, and yes, scholarships. However, I should note that some scholarships do have a financial need component, and the FAFSA is used to determine need in those situations.

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Brad

So even if you're only interested in receiving scholarships, we still suggest you complete the FAFSA, as doing so could open the door for need based scholarship assistance as it pertains to scholarships. I'm happy to report that most scholarships don't even require additional application outside of your application for admissions and the FAFSA. And remember, the FAFSA is only needed if there is a financial need component to the eligibility criteria.

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Brad

It's not required for merit based awards. In short, the information from these applications is used to help us match students with available scholarships. However, there are a few scholarships that do require an additional application for consideration. We suggest visiting our scholarship website at www.jmu.edu/scholarships.

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Brad

At that site, you'll be able to see the few scholarships that require an additional application, as well as find the opportunity to submit a general scholarship application through the Madison Scholarships Hub. Now, submitting the general scholarship application is not a requirement for scholarship consideration, but doing so could give us additional information about you that we don't already have.

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Brad

And in the end, it could give you more exposure to certain scholarships. So in summary, to give yourself the greatest opportunity for consideration of financial aid and scholarships from all available programs, you should submit the FAFSA before March 1st. Review our scholarship website to determine if there are any scholarships you can apply for that require a separate application, and complete the general scholarship application in the Madison Scholarships Hub.

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Brad

One thing we do want to note as you move forward in this process, is that the majority of the communication we send regarding financial aid goes directly to students, not to parents. So we recommend students keep an eye on their email for any communications from our office. In closing, we're happy to see your interest in JMU. If you have additional questions about the application process, feel free to contact us by phone, email or stop by our office on the fifth floor of the Student Success Center.

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Brad

You might also want to check out our website, as we have a lot of great information out there that will probably answer most of your general aid questions.

This video is intended to help prospective students review their Preliminary Aid Offer. This guide will focus on the first page of the offer, and highlight some areas that students and parents often ask questions about. The Preliminary Aid Offer s purpose is to break down certain costs of attending JMU and explaining your options for paying those costs. Prospective students will be notified of this offer through the email address used on their admissions application. Once available the Preliminary Aid offer can be accessed through their Applicant center on MyMadison.

I want to start out by saying that the Cost of Attendance is not a bill for a student. It is an estimate of billable and non-billable costs, broken down between the items below, that may need to be paid while attending JMU over the academic year. These numbers are based on this current year and may change for next year. 

All students are billed for tuition and fees. This offer makes the assumption that the student will be full time (12+ credits) for the academic year. It is important to note that there may be other fees not listed here, such as lab fees or course differentials that may be added to the bill depending on the courses taken by the student. 

Now let's talk Housing and Meals. Housing and meals is the average cost for living in a dorm on campus with a standard meal plan. Both of these items are billable expenses. Any students living on campus are required to purchase a meal plan.

Students that live off-campus will have the same estimates for this section, however, their actual bill with JMU may be lower depending on their personal choices.  Any student living off-campus does not have any housing billed to them by JMU, yet they are able to use financial aid to pay for their apartment, commuter meal plan, and food they may purchase outside of JMU. If a student living off-campus would like to purchase a commuter meal plan they would need to do so through Card Services and the cost could be added to their semester bill with JMU. 

For students living at home or with family, if they would also like to purchase a commuter meal plan for when they are on campus, they are able to do so with card services and the cost could be added to their semester bill.

Moving to Books and Supplies, this is just an average cost for students, not specifically what you are expected to pay. This number will not show up on a bill from JMU, but a student will need to purchase these items themselves. Students should purchase or rent their books before each semester.

Transportation and other educational costs are built into every students Cost of Attendance. These are not billable charges. This part of the Cost of Attendance estimates the cost for things needed like having a car on campus, any kind of tickets for buses or planes, as well as, toiletries and other miscellaneous items needed throughout the year. Again, you will not have a bill for these items from JMU directly, but they may be necessary outside purchases. These costs will vary by student.

Grants and Scholarships are free assistance from the federal, state, university, or outside means. This section includes any merit based JMU scholarships offered at the time the Preliminary Aid Offer is issued to a student.

Other scholarships are outside scholarships that you apply for on your own.  These will only be listed here if you reported the amount to our financial aid office through the Supplemental Scholarships form.

To break down the grants section, a Pell Grant is a federal grant offered to lower income students whether in-state or out of state. Your FAFSA is used to determine the amount of Pell Grant offered. A Pell Grant should be the same between all schools a student applies to since the federal government determines the offered amounts.

State grants include VGAP (Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program) or Commonwealth Award. These grants are for in-state students that filed their FAFSA by the March 1st priority filing date. JMU uses the FAFSA's Student Aid Index, or SAI, to determine your state grant eligibility. Your SAI is calculated by the Department of Education when they receive your FAFSA. State grants can vary between schools depending upon the amount of funding they receive from the state. Each school has the right to use their state grant funding how they see fit and no two schools will have the same state grant amount offered to your student. 

I would like to start this next section by saying that this form is a standardized form prepared by the government and this section of it can sometimes be misleading. The Net Cost  is a technical term that amounts to the total Cost of Attendance minus any grant or scholarship assistance. This number is not your remaining bill and does not include any loan options chosen to help pay. 

To add up your true net cost, add up your tuition and fees and your housing and meals, subtract any free assistance in the grants and scholarships section, and this would be your net cost you or your student would need to pay. 

If you have an amount for federal-work study listed on your preliminary aid offer, a student can apply for a federal work-study position on campus by going to the JMU website under the JMU jobs section. Work-study is not deducted from your JMU bill. The student would receive a paycheck, like they would if they were working at home, that would help offset any personal needs. 

Please keep in mind though, that all students have the opportunity to work through institutional employment. JMU actually offers a larger number of institutional employment positions than they do federal work study positions. These positions can be found under the JMU jobs section.

So, moving on to Loans, this section details the student s Federal Direct loan amounts they are able to borrow. Loan amounts are based on the total number of credit hours at the time of awarding. Incoming freshmen are offered up to $5,500 for the academic year, with that amount increasing to $6,500 as a sophomore and $7,500 as a Junior and Senior. The loan total is split between two loan types: subsidized, or unsubsidized. For subsidized loans, the government will pay the interest while the student is in school. While for unsubsidized loans, interest is accruing. All loans are 10-year loans. The loan will go into repayment 6 months after the student graduates or drops below half time (6 credits). 

This section details other means of paying for a student s education and includes institutional payment plans, 529 college saving plans, and Parent PLUS loans. Parent Plus Loans are federal direct loans that parents can use to assist with the cost of student s attendance. These are also considered 10-year loans for repayment purposes. 

And that s it, we made it through the first page. Remember, every university aid offer may look different. When comparing schools, it s important to pick out your billable charges and subtract any free assistance to find the more accurate out of pocket cost. Also, please remember you need to file a FAFSA every year starting October 1st. Hopefully this video has helped answer your questions about the Preliminary Aid Offer, but if you have further questions please contact our office. 

00:00:05:03 - 00:00:32:13

Unknown

James Madison University offers a variety of scholarships to incoming undergraduates, but our four primary programs are the Madison Award for Academic Excellence, the Dingledean Bluestone Scholarship, the Second Century Scholarship, and the Centennial Scholarship. For most merit based scholarships. JMU's academic colleges and departments are responsible for the selection process. Awards are highly competitive, with less than 5% of incoming students receiving them.

00:00:32:15 - 00:01:02:23

Unknown

JMU's largest scholarship program, the Madison Award for Academic Excellence, does not require students to complete a separate application. JMU departments will use the students admission application information to make selections. The scholarship is available to incoming freshmen and new transfer students and to both Virginia and non Virginia residents. Award amounts vary by department. The Dingledine Bluestone Scholarship is for incoming freshmen and transfer students who demonstrate excellence in academic achievement, leadership, and community service.

00:01:03:01 - 00:01:31:12

Unknown

Incoming freshmen must apply to JMU through the Early action process and transfer students must have graduated from a Virginia community college. Virginia residency, though, is not a requirement. The award is equivalent to in-state tuition and required fees per year for a total of four years. Freshmen students enrolling in one of the designated STEM or science, technology, engineering, and math programs are eligible to apply to be second century scholars and receive scholarship support.

00:01:31:14 - 00:01:57:11

Unknown

The amount of the scholarship is set at 100% of in-state tuition and fees for the year recipients enter the university and continues at this amount for a maximum of four consecutive years. Most Virginia and non Virginia residents may apply. The Centennial Scholars Program is for qualified and deserving students from underserved backgrounds. Eligible students must be Virginia residents with financial need, as demonstrated through federal Pell Grant eligibility.

00:01:57:12 - 00:02:30:01

Unknown

Centennial scholars receive a financial aid package that covers the full billable costs to attend JMU in the form of grants for all four years. Both incoming freshmen and new transfer students may apply. The Dingledine Bluestone Scholarship, Second Century Scholarship, and Centennial Scholarship programs have special application requirements. Visit the scholarships website at www.jmu.edu/scholarships and carefully note the application requirements and deadlines for each program that interests you.

00:02:30:03 - 00:02:57:05

Unknown

In most cases, eligible students must apply prior to notice of their acceptance to JMU. For consideration of other scholarships, we recommend students complete a scholarship application in the Madison Scholarships Hub. For more information regarding scholarships for freshmen and incoming transfer students, as well as how to secure an application for these scholarships, visit our website at www.jmu.edu/scholarships.