James Madison University

Date: Oct 01 2018
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm going to try and give as honest and thorough of a review as I can. I must say that I am very disappointed with my experience here. I have met some great people and I'm glad to have met them, but overall, the college dream that I had coming here was absolutely crushed by the dynamics of the social life here.

Academically and as far as the professors go, I don't think JMU is too bad, however, you may find the social life so depressing that you struggle to find the motivation to do your work.

In high school this was my dream school. I write a negative review but trust me when I say, nobody wanted to like this place more than I did. I struggled to explain my depression and unsatisfactory experience for a long time and was even convinced that the problem was me for awhile. The reason I stopped believing this was because of the people I've met who don't go to this school. The propaganda surrounding this school is insane. Every alumni presents the place as a heaven on Earth and some of the students here continue trying to perpetuate that outside of the school. The truth is, this school and the people who go or used to go here are cult-like in their desire to present an excessively positive image of the school.

My first complaint about the social life here is that a lot of people here are really intolerant and closed minded towards people who are different from them. Its not just about race, most people here don't want to be around people they disagree with and the campus is very cliquey because most people hang out with people who are so similar to themselves its kind of creepy. Finding people who are interested in having an intellectually stimulating conversation with you is very difficult as most of the students aren't interested in that, and a lot of people just seem kind of empty. A lot of them act like walking stereotypes of college students with no depth to their personalities. They BS their way through everything including their classes and their appetite for boring fluffy conversations is endless.

Another thing, this campus will be an absolute hell for introverts. Even if you are mildly extroverted, you will be shocked at just how social people here are. Some people here legitimately do not seem to spend an hour alone where they aren't surrounded by a dozen people. At lunch, while studying, while hanging around their apartment/dorm, in class. How they've made so many friends I have no idea, if you find the secret, let me know.

Another frustrating part of this school is the area. There's absolutely nothing to do in Harrisonburg except drink, and oh my god, do people drink here. I'm saying this as a former high school wild child who never believed he could criticize people for drinking, sleeping around, or partying too much. I personally do like to party a bit, I like to drink in moderation, and I like sex quite a lot. I'm by no means a prude, but the behavior here is so extreme that even I couldn't condone what happens at this school. You have people literally blacking out at pregames, getting destroyed multiple times per week. For some people, even getting destroyed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday isn't enough and they have to get destroyed on one of the weekdays as well. What's even more disturbing is that the student body here seems to worship the bottle so much that there's no level at which people will tell someone they've gone too far. The message here is… The more you drink the cooler you are, so people intentionally build their tolerances to terrifying levels so they can drink 15, 16 or 18 drinks at parties. I've even heard of several people pushing their drink counts into the 20s.

As far as sex goes, the one night stand culture here completely and utterly dominates campus. People here are so noncommittal you can't even find a friend with benefits type arrangement. Any of the girls who want boyfriends are quickly snatched up because of how much of a diamond in the rough they are. Before you start thinking you might still get a lot of one night stands, keep in mind even those are reserved only for the jocks and preppy rich guys who are 80% of the dudes walking around here and are extremely condescending towards anybody who doesn't sleep with as many girls as they do. If you do not dress and act like every other student at this school, you will find yourself in a sexual desert that puts the Sahara to shame. Ok maybe that part was a tiny bit of an exaggeration for comedic effect. However, its worth noting that the one night only culture here is actually so extreme it makes it very difficult to have a fulfilling love/sex life whether you want a committed relationship or if you just want sex. It is also quite nauseating to spend time around so many guys who's ego is tied to how many girls they can sleep with per semester.

All in all, here are the people who will absolutely love this place until their blood turns into unnatural shades of purple and gold: Jocks or preppy rich guys with no appetite for intelligent conversation looking to sleep with obscene numbers of girls and consider the label of alcoholism to be a badge of honor. And stereotypical white girl sorority types who all dress exactly the same, can't get enough of inappropriately aggressive guys, and like to engage in weird cultlike rituals with their "sisters" that apparently involve screaming or reciting creepy chants for hours on end. If you don't fall into these categories, you will probably hate it here and possibly contemplate suicide until you finally find a way to cope with the situation you've found yourself in.