ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603040041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
High school seniors have applied to James Madison University in record numbers for admission next fall.
School admission officials said Friday they had received applications from 13,612 students, 8.3 percent more than the 12,573 who applied for admission to the current freshman class. That's also more than the previous high - the 13,550 who sought a place in the class that entered in the fall of 1988.
Alan Cerveny, associate vice president for admissions and enrollment services, said breaking the 1988-89 record is significant in that statistics show there were 10 percent more high school graduates in Virginia in 1988 - 66,731 - than there are today - 60,000.
Those figures indicate that almost 12 percent of Virginia graduating seniors have applied to JMU.
JMU received nearly 8,000 in-state applications and more than 5,000 from students out of state, Cerveny said Friday. That's the second highest total of out-of-state applications ever - again behind the peak entering class of 1988.
Cerveny noted that only about one-fifth of those applicants will get in.
JMU expects to enroll 2,850 students, a class that will be the largest entering group in JMU's history. Just over 2,500 were enrolled in the freshman class last fall.
The university anticipates its total enrollment will rise from the current 12,000 to some 15,000 over the next 10 years.
Cerveny attributed the overall increase in JMU applications - and the rapid rise in the number of out-of-state applicants - to the university's growing regional and national reputation.
``JMU continues to receive considerable national attention in a variety of respected publications and studies on quality of colleges and universities,'' Cerveny said. ``Students across the country are taking notice.''
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