Higher Ed. Hidden Gems: James Madison

Consider a Business Degree
JMU’s business school is also top-notch. BusinessWeek recently listed JMU’s college of business as a great “return on investment.” Graduates with business degrees earn median salaries of about $50,000 a year.

Top recruiters at JMU include BearingPoint, IBM (Stock Quote: IBM), Accenture (Stock Quote: ACN), KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

One notable young alumni, John-Paul Lee, founder and CEO of Tavalon Tea, remembers getting an exceptional education in finance. “My senior year I was accepted in a business class that only took in 20 students for the year and was taught by real-life professionals in the consulting field.” Everyone in his class, Lee says, received jobs from firms that participated in the course.  For Matt Fineman, a recent business school grad, joining a business fraternity on campus presented access to a great network for internships and full-time jobs.  Today Fineman, who graduated in 2007 with a degree in business management, works as a representative for a top manufacturing firm.

Quick Facts:

• Ratio of in-state to out-of-state students: 70:30
• U.S. News and World Report has ranked JMU as the top public, master's level university in the South for 15 straight years.
• Average SAT (verbal and math only) score: 1,148
• The school boasts the best graduation rate (80%) among both public and private colleges in the South.