JMU recognized by Time Magazine for excellence in science, technology, engineering and math programs

By: Bjorn Johnson | The contributing writer for The Breeze

Time MONEY recently named JMU to its top 25 list of accessible colleges for aspiring scientists and engineers, with the list's criteria including early-career median salary for science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors and also admissions rates.

"These are schools that accept at least two-thirds of their applicants, have good graduation rates and have science graduates who report to PayScale.com that they earn at least $50,000 within five years of graduation," Kim Clark, the author of MONEY's list, said. "We then ranked the schools according to MONEY's overall value ranking, which balances quality, affordability and outcomes."

Bob Kolvoord, the dean of JMU's College of Integrated Science and Technology, has kept ISAT focused on combining strong technical skills with practical applications as well as learning about key technologies and the social context that they are a part of.

"Some folks have studied energy and have created wind energy firms," Kolvoord said, adding that other students have studied topics like the environment or biotechnology and now work at places such as the National Park Service or firms in the laboratory.

Andrew Hawley, a 2013 JMU alumnus who graduated with an ISAT degree, is an example of just one of the many career paths available to ISAT majors. Employed as a government contractor in Northrop Grumman's federal aviation division, Hawley is currently working on an application that houses the Federal Aviation Administration's aeronautical information, making it readily available to pilots, the Department of Defense, airlines and the public.

According to Hawley, JMU's ISAT program prepared him well for his job because of the hands-on labs he participated in. Read more