James Madison University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

James Madison University, a public university in Virginia, reports a 72% acceptance rate and sits in the moderately selective band. In practice that means it admits more applicants than it rejects, so a strong application is judged against an applicant pool that is already self-selected.

Use this page to see what James Madison University weighs, where it ranks among Virginia schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1300, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

James Madison University supplemental essays, 2026-27

What are my chances at James Madison University with a 3.1 GPA and a 1260 SAT?

About 91% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 1260 SAT, the middle of James Madison University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1340 SAT comes out near 98%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/james-madison-university.

There is no formula that guarantees a spot at James Madison University, but the applicants who get in tend to do the same four things. Here is what the numbers say each one looks like.

James Madison University admitted 27,258 of the 35,750 students who applied for fall 2023, which works out to 76.2%. 4,922 enrolled. Only about 18% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. James Madison University enrolls about 20,888 undergraduates in total, 56% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 17 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

The middle 50% of admitted students at James Madison University scored between 1170 and 1340 on the SAT (average 1256). On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 24 to 29. A score above 1340 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1170 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. James Madison University is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

The factors that carry the most weight at James Madison University are rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and standardized test scores. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from James Madison University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

James Madison University's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $31,735 per year. Tuition and fees are $14,250 for VA residents and $31,604 for out-of-state students, a $17,354 gap that makes residency the single biggest lever on cost. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $23,322 a year, and it ranges from $11,444 for families earning under $30,000 to $30,147 for families earning over $110,000. 17% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Ten years after enrolling, the median James Madison University student who received federal aid earns $69,954 a year, up from $57,438 at six years. 80% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 92% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $20,093; 29% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 28 Virginia schools we track, James Madison University ranks #11 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Washington and Lee University (14%) and University of Virginia (17%) sit nearby, which makes Virginia a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list. As a public university, residency matters: in-state applicants generally see meaningfully better odds than the headline rate suggests.

Applicants targeting James Madison University often weigh University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Memphis, and University of Missouri-Kansas City, which sit at a similar level. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.