(09-14-2019 02:17 PM)Dukeman2 Wrote:  The freshman acceptance rate at JMU has increased from 31% in 1980's to 73% in 2018 and Longhorn tells us this is misleading because our graduation rate is actually increasing.

While I don't discount the acceptance rate as a bad trend, I actually think the graduation rate growth is an important counterweight to that bad trend.

No, I don't think this robot will reply to me. This post was for everyone else.

(09-14-2019 02:17 PM)Dukeman2 Wrote:  The freshman acceptance rate at JMU has increased from 31% in 1980's to 73% in 2018 and Longhorn tells us this is misleading because our graduation rate is actually increasing.

Looking at the top 3 Regionals from each region - Rollins, Calvin University, Witworth University, Bentley University, Portland, etc..... Is this consistent with our branding strategy?

But Longhorn...we ARE trying to do more research at JMU...again showing that we are with the wrong set of peers / big fish little pond.

Our approach is more balanced (civic engagement plus low student:teacher) - making it a tougher challenge - and we should give Alger and team a ton of credit for this as it points us to National, without sacrificing what makes JMU so special.

That said ..cmon JMU let's do this..

(09-13-2019 12:12 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(09-13-2019 12:07 AM)Dukes1992! Wrote:  

(09-12-2019 05:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 11:05 PM)Dukes1992! Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 12:53 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Okay, let's see what has happened at JMU over the past 20 years or so.

1. The size of the student body has nearly doubled, from 11.5k to 22k+

2. The size of the campus has nearly tripled in size, from 240 acres to over 700 acres.

3. New facilities abound, both academic and sports related. The values of the physical plant has tripled.

4. The university budget has grown by a factor of 4...from around $160 mil to over $600 mil.

5. The Student to faculty ratio has remained relatively steady, actually going down a bit to 16-1.

6. The 6 year graduation rate has actually gone up by 1 to 1.5% (now at around 81%+).

7. Retention rates have remained steady at well over 90%.

8. The endowment has increased by a factor of five...maybe more once the dust styles on the current capital giving plan.

9. Athletics have won 3 national championships, and have hosted 2 game days, and have the most alums playing professionally in JMU's history.

10. JMU has initiated programs in Engineering, Industrial Design, Cyber Security, and an Honors College and College of Visual and Performing Arts.

No doubt there is much left for JMU to accomplish (like seeing MBB and baseball return to relevance!) and the continued growth in professional programs, but rankings like the one this thread are concerned about don't really amount to a pitcher of warm spit. Other universities (outside the elite of elites) envy JMU and the momentum that's rolling, and I know that as a fact.

All of this and kicking up Elon and Samford to National categories and we are back to #3 Regional in the South. We do not operate in a vacuum...other schools have list of improvements too. JMU is so worried about making the “wrong” decision on sports, that we have made no decision. We do less with more and are the National Model of the Engaged University.

Please point out the number of universities (that over the past 20 years) who have doubled their enrollment, tripled the size of their campuses and the value of their physical plants, maintained a 16-1 student to faculty teaching ratio all while improving their graduation rates and I will agree with you that “other schools have a list of improvements too.” But pardon me if I don’t hold my breath while I wait for your response. There is a reason JMU is seen as an exemplary university. Your effort to dismiss the significant signs of progress as something easily replicated is just plain silly.

I would add that all of the changes that have occurred at JMU over the past 20 years happened in spite of the fact JMU had (still has) one of the smallest endowments in the nation. And yet alumni like you (I assume 1992 based on your moniker) think JMU does “less with more.” Quite the opposite is the factual truth. I’m sorry you don’t “get lt” and instead want to ***** about multiple NCs and take for granted some of the best athletic facilities in the country for a non-P5 university. JMU is not resting on its laurels. Of course there’s always room for improvement, but rest assured progress is still being made, and planning for additional improvements are being conceptualized.

I guess it’s true that it’s easy for some people to take things for granted under the “what have you done for me lately” mindset. By any objective measure, however, JMU is operating at light-speed.

PS: To help your research in answering my challenge, there are no mid-to-large public universities who have made comparable progress to JMU, but there is a private institution down the road you might cite. Of course I don’t think many JMU alums would want to switch places with Liberty U.

I knew ol’horny would go all out essay in response while holding his breath the whole time. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoda...p/38064683
Knock yourself out. University of Alabama has gone from just over 18,000 in 1997 to 38,000 in 2018. And that only took like 10 minutes of research.
Given the tremendous college enrollment demographic growth over the last 2 decades, students had to go somewhere and JMU chose to double in size...others became more selective and grew at smaller rate. No one is saying that JMU has not done a good job, but the choice was to become more selective and stay small or grow. If you grow to be on national stage, then go ahead and be on the national stage for everything...rankings and athletics included. Staying regional for rankings and athletics with rapid growth at a point where college enrollment demographics will be declining is a massive strategic error if not corrected.
This is not a “what have you done for me lately”, but instead, when is JMU going to quit straddling between the regional and national worlds....finally.


And the measure of all of this is distilled in the rankings....so when you are finally back to being the 3rd best regional university in the South after all of the great things you list, then either the investment and strategy pays off with a measurable return, or it is a failed strategy and malinvestment. I am hopeful of the former, but time waits for no one and our moments in the sun either springboard or fade.

As far as endowments go, many on here have pledged to certain endeavors, but you do not give serious amounts of hard earned money to situations where you disagree with the strategy. Given the low growth and size of the endowment, many must not also agree with direction. With soon to be 140,000 alumni pledging less than a dollar a day for 10 years would increase the endowment by350m + market rate of return.

You don’t have a clue about what you’re talking about. Succinct enough for you?

Longhorn- “When I don’t like your facts or you don’t agree with my opinion, you are wrong and have no clue. There is only one perspective that matters and it has is mine.” Great attitude professor Longhorn....but not surprising....

(09-14-2019 05:07 PM)Dukes1992! Wrote:  Longhorn- “When I don’t like your facts or you don’t agree with my opinion, you are wrong and have no clue. There is only one perspective that matters and it has is mine.” Great attitude professor Longhorn....but not surprising....

Sorry you don’t like being called out for being wrong, but it doesn’t change anything. You’re entitled to your opinion, even if it’s wrong. It’s just makes you uneducable. That’s not my “attitude” that changes the facts in play.

(09-14-2019 02:39 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  

(09-14-2019 02:17 PM)Dukeman2 Wrote:  The freshman acceptance rate at JMU has increased from 31% in 1980's to 73% in 2018 and Longhorn tells us this is misleading because our graduation rate is actually increasing.

While I don't discount the acceptance rate as a bad trend, I actually think the graduation rate growth is an important counterweight to that bad trend.

No, I don't think this robot will reply to me. This post was for everyone else.

The robot likely won’t respond, but the acceptance rate would only be a bad trend if JMU was admitting students who weren’t capable of doing college level work. The solid graduation rate is verification that the admitted students reflect well on the continuing quality of JMU.

The question nobody on the board has asked, however, or that is being buried in all the misdirected concern over the rising number of students being offered admission is why the increase in acceptance rates?

The answer rests in meeting JMU’s annual enrollment and budgetary targets. While JMU is not going to admit an unqualified student, today’s JMU needs a large pool of qualified students from which to meet those targets. Missing those targets would wreck havoc all across the institution, from filling dorm rooms, paying bonds for athletic facilities, and most importantly, having a negative impact on academic units and the delivery of their instructional mission.

As JMU has grown to around 22k the percentage of students who accept their offer of admission to JMU has declined. Why? There are a number of reasons in play. One reason is (lack of) scholarship money. Another is excellent students are applying to multiple schools. JMU is in competition with other excellent schools for their pool of preferred admits, and the larger pool of admits means JMU is hedging it’s bets with the goal of meeting enrollment targets. This may mean JMU’s composite standardized test scores have experienced a modest decline, but the larger pool of admitted applicants are still good students.

Back around 1997-98 JMU experienced a spike in the cull rate of admits, and JMU had to hustle putting the extra students up in a rented (and now demolished) motel and building a half-assed dorm structure on the edge of campus. This Fall (2019), Virginia Tech experienced the same kind of surge in freshman admits, and while VT has had to hustle to deal with the extra students just as JMU did, the VT surge has played havoc with the enrollment targets and budgets at other public VA colleges. JMU made its 2019 freshmen in-state enrollments targets...just barely, in part because JMU had a large pool of qualified applicants to pull from.

Everyone on this thread is rightfully proud of their connection to JMU. I believe we all want it to get better too. That said, improvement is not going to happen via simplistic solutions (like adding a few doctoral programs to help meet some meaningless reclassification). Just like any future move to FBS, it’s going to take resources and patience.

(09-14-2019 02:38 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Are you sure Longhorn hasn't retired? For some reason, I thought he had.

I honestly don't know or care. But if he did retire, I could see them creating one of those cushy consulting positions specifically for him.

(09-14-2019 07:57 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(09-14-2019 05:07 PM)Dukes1992! Wrote:  Longhorn- “When I don’t like your facts or you don’t agree with my opinion, you are wrong and have no clue. There is only one perspective that matters and it has is mine.” Great attitude professor Longhorn....but not surprising....

Sorry you don’t like being called out for being wrong, but it doesn’t change anything. You’re entitled to your opinion, even if it’s wrong. It’s just makes you uneducable. That’s not my “attitude” that changes the facts in play.

Longhorn- I will ignore all facts presented by “not me” and instead just tell you that you have been “called out” as being wrong...again by me...and because of that fact, you are hereby deemed uneducable.”

Apparently only if you agree with Longhorn, or can be persuaded by him, one does not have the capacity to be educated....despite the JMU diploma? conundrum that I am sure “Sorry...not sorry” Longhorn can sort out with another “my opinions are facts” and “your opinions are merely opinions” logical syllogism.