<p>I graduated from JMU 25 years ago, but even back then there were a lot of NY and NJ kids. I fact, I would say I had 8 good friends from NY just in my dorm. There are also a lot of kids from Northern Virginia ( basically the DC suburbs). That part of Virginia is not really what you would consider as “southern” in culture.
I don’t know if that is still the case, but I live outside of Philadelphia now and there a a good number of kids from here that attend JMU.
Didn’t seem to be any problem with kids fitting in. Good luck!</p>