Freshman class snapshot

About 4,200 members strong, the James Madison University Class of 2017 arrives on campus for the new academic year to begin learning, exploring and making its contributions to the university.

While official enrollment figures are due after census days – Sept. 16 for on-campus enrollment and Oct. 7 for off-campus enrollment – a check of freshman class information reveals that biology (328) is the most popular major among freshmen declaring a major.

Other majors well represented are: nursing (278), health sciences (230), marketing (197), interdisciplinary liberal studies (177), management (171), psychology (169), accounting (149), finance (142) and media arts and design (117). A total of 585 freshmen are exploring their options and have not declared majors.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia are represented by freshman class members. Including the United States, 31 countries are represented. They are Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, England, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, United States and Vietnam.

Popular names among female class members are variations of Sara (83), Emily (75), variations of Katherine (65), variations of Megan (55) and variations of Rachel (48).

Popular male names are John/Jonathan/Jonathon (53) – a fact that should please JMU President Alger, who prefers the second spelling – Matthew (52), Ryan (43), Michael (40) and variations of Nicholas (35).

Important fall semester dates for freshmen

Tuesday-Wednesday, Aug. 20-21: Residence halls open for freshmen on assigned days

Wednesday-Sunday, Aug. 21-25: 1787 August Orientation

Friday, Aug. 23: Freshman Assessment Day

Monday, Aug. 26: Fall semester begins and classes meet as scheduled

Monday, Sept. 2 (Labor Day): Classes meet as scheduled

Friday-Sunday, Oct. 4-6: Family Weekend

Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1-3: Homecoming

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Aug. 15, 2013