Jacksonville State is an amazing school in Jacksonville, Alabama. I am just a freshman here, but in my time at Jacksonville I have made the best friends and best memories. I would strongly urge anyone to come to this amazing school and see the opportunities it has for you. This is a brief list of what makes Jacksonville State University such a great place to attend
1. The football
Jacksonville State University has a renowned football team and is currently ranked #2 in the FCS ranking and is seeded #3 for the FCS playoffs. In 2015 the football team went to Frisco, Texas and played in the FCS national championship. The team is part of the Ohio Valley Conference and has won the OVC title 3 years in a row (2014, 2015, 2016). In the past 3 seasons JSU has only lost 3 regular FCS season games. The 3 losses were Michigan state (2014), Auburn (2015), LSU (2016). Burgess-Snow Stadium is a great place to spend your Saturdays with an average attendance of almost 20,000 per game. JSU is ranked 5th in attendance in the FCS and it has a higher average attendance than 24 FBS teams.
2. The Marching Southerners
Jacksonville State University has a world renowned band and is easily one of the best college marching bands in the country. With a record 533 students signed up to march in 2016, The Marching Southerners took on their 2016 show "Heroes Lost And Fallen". The show is based on Pearl Harbor and features acting from fellow band students. Any student at JSU will tell you that the band is a great addition and it makes the atmosphere for football games so much more fun and entertaining. If you ever attend a football game at somewhere like Alabama or Auburn, fans typically leave to go to the restroom or go to the concession stand at halftime, but at JSU when the southerners take the field, all eyes are on them. The southerners also include a world renowned dance line, "The Marching Ballerinas" and color guard.
3. Business School
Jacksonville State is home to one of the best business schools in the country. It holds a spot in the top 5% of business schools in the world and even has the same accreditation as Harvard. Students from everywhere flock to JSU to get the opportunity to study business here.
4. Nursing School
Here at JSU, we have one of the top nursing programs in the state and even in the country. Students often choose JSU nursing because it offers the opportunity to earn a doctorate degree in nursing practice and it just acquired a major for respiratory therapy. The nursing program is also one of the few in the state that offers the chance to learn to be a nurse practitioner. Nursing is among the most popular at JSU and a majority of your friends will probably be nursing majors.
5. Greek Life
Fraternity life and sorority life is among the most popular things to do at JSU. We pride ourselves in a Greek life that will become like your family in your 4 years here. They host lots of events that give opportunities for all students to get involved and they allow you to spend time with them, even if you are not part of a Greek life group. They also do community involvement as well as student involvement and they have much lower costs to join than fraternities at bigger colleges. Greek life at JSU is something that I would personally recommend anyone to try to get into.
6. The community
Jacksonville gives you a small town with a big college feel. The university has almost 10,000 students, but the town altogether is less than 15,000 people. Lot's of students come from small towns and this helps students feel more at home. All of the citizens are very friendly and they love the university. There's also lots of places to eat such as Cooter Browns, Struts, Jeffersons, etc. and there are lots of places to shop and hang out with your friends.
