The Other Virginia Colleges: VCU, ODU, GMU, CNU, UMW . . . .

[Anonymous]

VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

JMU is probably a notch above the rest in overall selectivity (GPA/SAT) though.

[Anonymous]

I started GMU a week ago, and I transferred in from NOVA.

I am very impressed with how GMU communicates with their students. I have dealt with financial aid and the IT department over e-mail and I have got a response every single time. The financial aid process at GMU is much quicker and smoother than it is at NOVA. I got my refund within a week (and this was in normal mail, you can do direct deposit though, my form didn't make the cut off time, but I am in the system now). At NOVA, it would take a month for a refund to it.

I think GMU needs to add signage though, there are some scattered throughout, but until you memorize a map, you can get turned around easily. Some buildings are not marked on all sides, which can be annoying. The orientation did offer a tour but the day I had it, there was a 2 hour delay, and I was waiting on a friend to register for classes (something I had done ahead of time) and we missed the tour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I started GMU a week ago, and I transferred in from NOVA.

I am very impressed with how GMU communicates with their students. I have dealt with financial aid and the IT department over e-mail and I have got a response every single time. The financial aid process at GMU is much quicker and smoother than it is at NOVA. I got my refund within a week (and this was in normal mail, you can do direct deposit though, my form didn't make the cut off time, but I am in the system now). At NOVA, it would take a month for a refund to it.

I think GMU needs to add signage though, there are some scattered throughout, but until you memorize a map, you can get turned around easily. Some buildings are not marked on all sides, which can be annoying. The orientation did offer a tour but the day I had it, there was a 2 hour delay, and I was waiting on a friend to register for classes (something I had done ahead of time) and we missed the tour.

It is hard to find one's way around there. Dizzying even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

Nice try to make your opinions sound relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU has 30 programs ranked in the top 100 in the country, including:

#1 nurse anesthetist, #1 public arts school (tied with UCLA)
5th in graphic design and health services administration
11th in social work
21st school of pharmacy
15th in occupational and 19th in physical therapy

Despite their engineering school being less than 10 years old, there are top 100 programs there as well.

At this point, they are improving in a lot of ways faster than their reputation, as many people still think of it as nothing more than a safety. However, we live in a very white collar area just outside of Richmond and many of the kids at my DC's school chose VCU Honors College for particular highly ranked programs at VCU over other "top" schools in Virginia because of significant merit. Each year the number of kids from DC's school choosing VCU has risen and some of those lower ranked students were actually rejected at VCU. It is still not at the level of even JMU or GMU, at least in some areas, but I think in some areas it surpasses these schools and certainly deserves a rank on the top 10 list of schools in Virginia.

The issue VCU has is that they let anyone in.

Not into their medical related schools. very competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

Nice try to make your opinions sound relevant.

The rankings provide objective evidence that these schools are irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

Nice try to make your opinions sound relevant.

The rankings provide objective evidence that these schools are irrelevant.

I hope you can blame your ignorance on youth. But really, there's no excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

Nice try to make your opinions sound relevant.

The rankings provide objective evidence that these schools are irrelevant.

Rankings? USNWR? LOL, you must be joking. Clearly have no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

You can throw VT into the mix as well. Same type of student. Same selectivity as GMU or UMW, even higher acceptance rate.

UVA and W&M are definitely above these.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VCU is great for pre-med.
JMU has a very reputable program: Masters in Accounting in 5 years.
Radford has a strong nursing program.
UMW - smaller, lower-key W&M clone.

It really depends on what your kid needs.

Good spin to make these lame schools sound relevant!

You can throw VT into the mix as well. Same type of student. Same selectivity as GMU or UMW, even higher acceptance rate.

UVA and W&M are definitely above these.

No one argues that, but even a "lesser" school can have a good program with a good reputation among local employers. VTech Computer Science, anyone?

[Anonymous]

VT is a national university. It is a completely different kind of experience than a regional school. It serves a different purpose.

Folks in San Diego or Seattle know Virginia Tech on a resume. Like a Clemson or FSU or Kansas U or an A&M. They don't know the others.

[Anonymous]

If you are not involved in academics, you have no idea how successful VCU has been managed. By combining with the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), VCU has become an extremely attractive research school because it is able to compete for and win large government research grants. This has brought in impressive professors and grad. students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are not involved in academics, you have no idea how successful VCU has been managed. By combining with the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), VCU has become an extremely attractive research school because it is able to compete for and win large government research grants. This has brought in impressive professors and grad. students.

Good hoops too.