George Mason: ugliest campus ever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commuter college.

most schools technically are commuter schools base don the % of people living off campus.

Not for first years tho. GMU only has 64% of first years living on campus, while many of the other VA state schools are in the 95%+ range

Enter GMU “ALL FRESHMEN ARE REQUIRED TO LIVE ON CAMPUS” mom.

I'm not that person, but they are. Duh.

Lol. If 36% of freshmen aren’t living on campus it’s not much of a requriement IMO

Current US news summary says that 75% of freshman live on campus. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/gmu-3749
That's a pretty big difference and in my view fairly surprising given the density of the population around the school. Other VA state schools are in the middle of nowhere so less likely to have parents living nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is GMU’s graduation rate only 67%?

Yikes. That’s atrocious.

I dunno--I think lowish graduation rates can be a good thing. It tells you a school is not a diploma mill, not just handing out degrees for showing up (or sometimes showing up).
GMU's rate is actually 69.2% for the most recent cohort (kids who started in 2012--they do it by 6 year rates) which is the average for VA schools. But it's the largest VA public and an R1 university. It has a large traditional entering freshman student cohorts--what is reflected in this data, but also even more transfer students, non-traditional age students and graduate students. GMU accepts a wide range of students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds --but it's also a rigorous, major research institution. If all those students were able to graduate I'd worry that it was rubber stamping degrees. There are many states that have public colleges that essentially do that--sometimes even the flagship.

Christopher Newport strikes me as interesting here -it's devoted to undergraduates and much smaller in scale. Just 10 years earlier it used to have graduation rates lower than GMUs --58% (which is somewhat damning since it ONLY serves undergrads and a much smaller population ) but it has really been growing them over the years in this regard so it's latest number is 76%--not as high as the highest (Washington & Lee at 94%, UVA at 93%) but edging in on JMU and VT who are at 81%. An interesting number also is College of William & Mary at 88.6%. I wonder if it's telling of W&M of being significantly harder than UVA--they attract similarly qualified students but have a lower graduation rate.
http://research.schev.edu/gradrates/grs10.asp

So then you’re worried about the rise in graduation rates as that indicates more rubber-stamping? Don’t twist yourself in a knot defending the crappy grad rate. It’s not a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is GMU’s graduation rate only 67%?

Yikes. That’s atrocious.

I dunno--I think lowish graduation rates can be a good thing. It tells you a school is not a diploma mill, not just handing out degrees for showing up (or sometimes showing up).
GMU's rate is actually 69.2% for the most recent cohort (kids who started in 2012--they do it by 6 year rates) which is the average for VA schools. But it's the largest VA public and an R1 university. It has a large traditional entering freshman student cohorts--what is reflected in this data, but also even more transfer students, non-traditional age students and graduate students. GMU accepts a wide range of students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds --but it's also a rigorous, major research institution. If all those students were able to graduate I'd worry that it was rubber stamping degrees. There are many states that have public colleges that essentially do that--sometimes even the flagship.

Christopher Newport strikes me as interesting here -it's devoted to undergraduates and much smaller in scale. Just 10 years earlier it used to have graduation rates lower than GMUs --58% (which is somewhat damning since it ONLY serves undergrads and a much smaller population ) but it has really been growing them over the years in this regard so it's latest number is 76%--not as high as the highest (Washington & Lee at 94%, UVA at 93%) but edging in on JMU and VT who are at 81%. An interesting number also is College of William & Mary at 88.6%. I wonder if it's telling of W&M of being significantly harder than UVA--they attract similarly qualified students but have a lower graduation rate.
http://research.schev.edu/gradrates/grs10.asp

So then you’re worried about the rise in graduation rates as that indicates more rubber-stamping? Don’t twist yourself in a knot defending the crappy grad rate. It’s not a good thing.

No, I'm actually just unsure about the use of graduation rates as a great measure of school quality--especially when entering populations vary so much. I don't have a stake in the game re GMU--no one in my family is going/went there --I'm just vaguely interested in how we measure the quality of institutions. I worry that schools concerned about rankings/accountability measures that focus on grad rates will pressure rubber stamping--high stakes measures do tend to distort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commuter college.

most schools technically are commuter schools base don the % of people living off campus.

Not for first years tho. GMU only has 64% of first years living on campus, while many of the other VA state schools are in the 95%+ range

Enter GMU “ALL FRESHMEN ARE REQUIRED TO LIVE ON CAMPUS” mom.

I'm not that person, but they are. Duh.

Lol. If 36% of freshmen aren’t living on campus it’s not much of a requriement IMO

Current US news summary says that 75% of freshman live on campus. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/gmu-3749
That's a pretty big difference and in my view fairly surprising given the density of the population around the school. Other VA state schools are in the middle of nowhere so less likely to have parents living nearby.

That's not what GMU's common data set says:
https://irr2.gmu.edu/cds/cds_new/sec_action.cfm?year=2018-19&sec_id=A

Percent of first-year first-time freshman who live on campus
64%

[Anonymous]

It’s an interesting point and you might be on to something. But good schools tend to have high rates and lesser ones lower rates. Hard to ignore the correlation. Either way, GMU failing to educate 1/3 of its students isn’t a great credential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commuter college.

most schools technically are commuter schools base don the % of people living off campus.

Not for first years tho. GMU only has 64% of first years living on campus, while many of the other VA state schools are in the 95%+ range

Enter GMU “ALL FRESHMEN ARE REQUIRED TO LIVE ON CAMPUS” mom.

I'm not that person, but they are. Duh.

Lol. If 36% of freshmen aren’t living on campus it’s not much of a requriement IMO

Current US news summary says that 75% of freshman live on campus. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/gmu-3749
That's a pretty big difference and in my view fairly surprising given the density of the population around the school. Other VA state schools are in the middle of nowhere so less likely to have parents living nearby.

That's not what GMU's common data set says:
https://irr2.gmu.edu/cds/cds_new/sec_action.cfm?year=2018-19&sec_id=A

Percent of first-year first-time freshman who live on campus
64%

Maybe because the cds excludes international students? GMU changed their on-campus hotel to be a residence hall/center for international students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commuter college.

most schools technically are commuter schools base don the % of people living off campus.

Not for first years tho. GMU only has 64% of first years living on campus, while many of the other VA state schools are in the 95%+ range

Enter GMU “ALL FRESHMEN ARE REQUIRED TO LIVE ON CAMPUS” mom.

I'm not that person, but they are. Duh.

Lol. If 36% of freshmen aren’t living on campus it’s not much of a requriement IMO

Where are you getting that figure? 75% of freshmen live on campus.
https://www2.gmu.edu/student-life/housing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commuter college.

most schools technically are commuter schools base don the % of people living off campus.

Not for first years tho. GMU only has 64% of first years living on campus, while many of the other VA state schools are in the 95%+ range

Enter GMU “ALL FRESHMEN ARE REQUIRED TO LIVE ON CAMPUS” mom.

I'm not that person, but they are. Duh.

Lol. If 36% of freshmen aren’t living on campus it’s not much of a requriement IMO

Where are you getting that figure? 75% of freshmen live on campus.
https://www2.gmu.edu/student-life/housing

Their 2018-2019 common data set.

Regardless of whether it’s 75 or 64, it’s still *well* below most of the other VA state schools which are in the 90%+ range

[Anonymous]

Percent of freshman who live off campus per CDS:
GMU - 36%
JMU - 2%
UVA - 0%
VT - 1%
William & Mary - 0%
CNU - 2%
Longwood - 4%
Mary Washington - 12%
Radford - 5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Percent of freshman who live off campus per CDS:
GMU - 36%
JMU - 2%
UVA - 0%
VT - 1%
William & Mary - 0%
CNU - 2%
Longwood - 4%
Mary Washington - 12%
Radford - 5%

University of Virginia - 62%

!!

Per 2018-2019 CDS

[Anonymous]

^^

https://ias.virginia.edu/cds-2018-19

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Percent of freshman who live off campus per CDS:
GMU - 36%
JMU - 2%
UVA - 0%
VT - 1%
William & Mary - 0%
CNU - 2%
Longwood - 4%
Mary Washington - 12%
Radford - 5%

University of Virginia - 62%

!!

Per 2018-2019 CDS

That is for ALL Undegrads. The % noted above are only for Freshman. Using the Freshman only % gives a better indication of how many commuters there may be, a majority kids will eventually move off campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Percent of freshman who live off campus per CDS:
GMU - 36%
JMU - 2%
UVA - 0%
VT - 1%
William & Mary - 0%
CNU - 2%
Longwood - 4%
Mary Washington - 12%
Radford - 5%

University of Virginia - 62%

!!

Per 2018-2019 CDS

Sigh. What college did you attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is GMU’s graduation rate only 67%?

Yikes. That’s atrocious.

I dunno--I think lowish graduation rates can be a good thing. It tells you a school is not a diploma mill, not just handing out degrees for showing up (or sometimes showing up).
GMU's rate is actually 69.2% for the most recent cohort (kids who started in 2012--they do it by 6 year rates) which is the average for VA schools. But it's the largest VA public and an R1 university. It has a large traditional entering freshman student cohorts--what is reflected in this data, but also even more transfer students, non-traditional age students and graduate students. GMU accepts a wide range of students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds --but it's also a rigorous, major research institution. If all those students were able to graduate I'd worry that it was rubber stamping degrees. There are many states that have public colleges that essentially do that--sometimes even the flagship.

Christopher Newport strikes me as interesting here -it's devoted to undergraduates and much smaller in scale. Just 10 years earlier it used to have graduation rates lower than GMUs --58% (which is somewhat damning since it ONLY serves undergrads and a much smaller population ) but it has really been growing them over the years in this regard so it's latest number is 76%--not as high as the highest (Washington & Lee at 94%, UVA at 93%) but edging in on JMU and VT who are at 81%. An interesting number also is College of William & Mary at 88.6%. I wonder if it's telling of W&M of being significantly harder than UVA--they attract similarly qualified students but have a lower graduation rate.
http://research.schev.edu/gradrates/grs10.asp

So then you’re worried about the rise in graduation rates as that indicates more rubber-stamping? Don’t twist yourself in a knot defending the crappy grad rate. It’s not a good thing.

The hard tech schools tend to have somewhat lower graduation rates. It is just harder to finish engineering in 4 years. MIT 4 year graduation rate is below UVA and W&M, but it has much higher standardized test scores. 5 and 6 years rise quite a bit. https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/massachusetts-institute-of-technology/academic-life/graduation-and-retention/

UVA's biggest strength in USNews rating has been graduation rate. It has helped them in rankings and for years kept them even or above Berkeley and others. W&M, while slightly lower than UVA, is 3rd highest for 4 years for public schools, I believe.

Regarding GMU, one thing that I believe has been shown is that schools that have more commuter students and a lower percentage living on or near campus have lower graduation rates. This is why starting 15 years or so ago, a lot of schools started to work to increase on campus housing.

[Anonymous]

Great point about the impact of living on campus.