Jacksonville University

The name might sound public, but it’s a private school. You know what that means; they’re test optional. I learned that Jacksonville is the largest city in the continental US based on its area. The city is home to seven professional sports teams, and the school is home to 2650 undergraduates. (My Florida geography isn’t great. They are 2 hours from Savannah and Orlando, 3.5 from Charleston, and 4.5 hours from Miami.) JU has a student to teacher ratio of 13 to 1, and the maximum class size is 25 students. It is a very close-knit community in which the professors have students’ phone numbers and will reach out if they’re not in class. One of the benefits of JU is that it is very easy to double major/minor, and students are not locked in to a certain major. Their mascot is the dolphins, and you will see many dolphin/phin puns across campus. U.S. News and World Report named JU as one of the best regional universities in the south.

The cost of attendance is about $60,000. The EASE grant was just raised to $3000, so everyone can take that off the top. They accept Bright Futures as well as Florida Prepaid plans. If you tour the school, you save another $1000. 95% of students receive financial aid, and they give quite a bit of merit aid ($14K-$33K based on a student’s academic record). If students aren’t applying to a long list of colleges, they can just fill out the JU application rather than the common app. It takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. They have rolling admissions, so students can apply at any time and receive an admissions decision in 3-4 weeks. The middle 50% of the recent incoming class had a GPA of 3.7, SAT score of 1060-1230, and an ACT score of 21-27. Remember, test optional means if you’re below these scores, you don’t have to submit them as part of your application. Go, Phins!