The Other Virginia Colleges: VCU, ODU, GMU, CNU, UMW . . . .
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Anonymous
capital one. not that many dude |
Anonymous
nah, VT has always been a very solid engineering and business school. nothing great, but a top 30ish public university with a connected alumni group. it is what it is. is the name going to blow up a resume? no. is it going to look bad? no. combine VT with a decent grad school and you are fine. |
Anonymous
| Someone asked for comments about other campuses. We toured GMU as a family for DD last spring and were, frankly, blown away, by what it offered her. DD's interests are Japanese, computers, serious game design, civil engineering, and robotics. We had tromped all over campuses that offered Japanese (Gettysburg, Dickinson, Drexell) but most didn't have much in the computer/game design field or robotics field. My own college, Occidental, offered only the Japanese major. My husband had done the research and said that GMU (only 23 minutes from our home) had everything she was looking for. Well, we really were blown away. The legislature is pumping a lot of money into the serious game design program (which ties into the Japanese interest) so much so that the game design head, Dr. Martin, recently established a joint venture project with a hi-tech game design operation in Scotland. The students will be scooting back and forth. Since the University is so young, most of the facilities are new. The computer design building (3 stories) had my computer-crazed son salivating. The engineering school has a robotics division. Dorms were pleasant, new (6,000 students now dorm annually) and clean (unlike two schools we visited). DD is thrilled - it has everything she wants - and it is in our own backyard and finally our property taxes will be put to good use. We're going early decision. If that doesn't work, then it's back to the research books. Here's the current wikipedia blurb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University The law school has also exploded in prestige in the last decade, as you probably know. And should DD's interest in game design wane, she can transfer within the system to another VA university. Even thought we've lived in VA for 22 years, we really had no sense of what GMU offered. Definitely an up and comer (I hope - pray for us!) |
Anonymous
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WaPo piece from earlier this year on GMU being a national up-and-comer:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/five-universities-that-really-are-up-and-comers/2012/03/21/gIQAxrNdTS_blog.html |
Anonymous
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Prays answered! Early Action envelope from GMU came today! What a Christmas surprise. DD is thrilled and accepting immediately. Thank you 1:59 on that WaPo piece. I will print off and give to DD tomorrow.
I'm sorry I can't speak to any of the other VA state Universities - we didn't tour them because they didn't have either Japanese or they didn't have the strong robotics/Game Design college. But I know a lot of kids who enjoyed Christopher Newport (doesn't have either Japanese or Game Design), JMU (no Japanese, if I remember correctly), and of course UVA and William and Mary have superb reputations. I think my husband ruled out VT because, again, no Japanese and didn't have the core liberal arts curriculum, which GMU has in addition to the majors in Japanese and Game Design, but I may not be remembering that correctly. After the sixth or seventh college tour, it all starts to become mush in your brain. |
Anonymous
DH has a History degree from Yale. He did just for *himself* in school. Went right on to law school, no problem. Loves history. Many many smart (and rich) people have degrees in Philosophy, also Art. They know they are going on the professional school and that they will get in. |
Anonymous
Agree with you, but do Ivy League schools even have "communications" majors, as opposed to English or Comparitive Literature majors? |
Anonymous
Congratulations! Just curious, but do you expect your DD will come home on the weekends or visit friends at other universities? GMU seems to have a lot to offer these days, but the campus still seems dead on weekends, even when college students should be awake. Or was this just a non-issue for her? |
Anonymous
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to 11:54. Yes, you are right. We have heard that it can get quiet but I don't know if that is still true. There are 7,000 kids living on campus but that no. is going up to 9,000 soon. Wikipedia has a good piece about the ongoing building plans if you are interested. A lot of thought has gone into the dorms, especially the upper classmen who get to live in "fully furnished" apartments with bathrooms that are professionally cleaned (please come to my house!). I liked the layout for freshmen dorms. Small, cinderblock and compact, as you would expect, but clean, with large windows and set out nicely as a village to give the kids a sense of community. Lots of late night (4 a.m.!) bistros. Incredible food services and gyms. Multiple athletic centers and swimming pools. I didn't know this when I posted last night, but at 32,000 students, GMU is the largest state school in VA now. While we heard it can get quiet on weekends, the entertainment facilities, the athletic centers, and theaters are in almost constant use for big-stage or star events so there is far more singers, dancers, concerts, and athletic stuff going on on a weekend than my college ever could offer. We toured four or five times - there were posters up for every conceivable concert, ballet company, rock group you could imagine. Some big even is always going on at the Patriot Center and the theatrical center. Like everything in life, you would have to just plan ahead and take advantage of what is being offered.
To answer your question, I don't know how often she will want to come home. She's very studious so won't care much for the party or greek scene. We want her to have the dorm experience so are sending in the deposit now because the acceptance letter said GMU had its largest application pool every (yes, I know every school can say that now due to online applications) but first come get the best dorms and they won't guarantee a place in next fall's class if you don't send in your deposit by May lst. There certainly will be lots of freshman to meet. If she pulls a great roommate, terrific. If not, she can always come home and study here. We currently don't have the $$ for a third car so she will have to be there, or here. I like control over my kids  .
The wikipedia piece on the university says it is running shuttle busses to D.C. all the time for internships and trips. Weekends too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University#Schools_and_colleges. I drooled reading it last night - almost sounds like their PR department wrote the wikipedia piece. Do you have a student there now? Do they think it gets quiet on the weekend? I suspect DD will find that comforting and less jarring if it does clear out and she can get to the library and computer center. Thanks! Another thought - not 100% sure on this because it isn't relevant to us now, but I think the transfer opportunities to other VA schools may be as generous at GMU as they are at NOVA. In other words, if you maintain a certain GPA at NOVA in certain core subjects you can transfer to UVA in your jr. year, but I really haven't investigated that because DD wanted the computer game design college. GMU may not want to make it easy to transfer to UVA. But if true, that might make GMU very attractive to students who might not otherwise think of it. I've got several parent friends who are doing the NOVA courses right now to get into UVA. |
Anonymous
UNC is open admission to state residents???? Seriously? UNC-Chapel Hill? You have NO idea what you are talking about. It is incredibly competitive to get into - whether you are in-state or out-of-state. Now, there are other UNC campuses that are easier to get into. But Chapel Hill is very hard. |
Anonymous
| Mason sucks |
Anonymous
Care to elaborate? Are you or were you a student there? Otherwise you just sound like a troll. |
Anonymous
I don't think Mason looks good on a resume. |
Anonymous
new poster here: I think if you are trying to get a job here in Northern VA, people around here will recognize the name and know that you (likely) got a good education. But if you are trying to apply for a job in another state, then no, they wouldn't recognize the school. But then again the same goes for almost any other state school in any state except for the "big name" ones. |
Anonymous
Locally, it's fine. You might have to graduate closer to the top at Mason for some positions than might be the case if you'd attended more prestigious schools. But I've hired many Mason graduates (undergraduate/law) and generally find them practical and hard-working. |