Why Pick JMU if GMU is Ranked Higher and Easier to Get Into?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's not a real college experience. It's basically a community college experience with 4 year degrees and good placement.

What does this mean? We are in MD and my kid is considering GMU over JMU for poli sci. The poli sci courses offered at GMU make those at JMU, UMBC and Towson look like high school.

By “real college experience” the PP means “white.”

By “basically a community college degree with 4 year degrees and good placement” the PP means majority-minority.

Welcome to DCUM!

Welcome back, race-baiting troll. Thought we were all rid of you but I guess not.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good friend has a son at GMU. The kid’s grandparents live two blocks from campus. My friend said on five occasions first semester freshman year he went to his son’s dorm room on a Saturday afternoon he said campus was a ghost town and he didn’t see another kid in his son’s dorm. Not in the common rooms. Not hanging out outside. It was abandoned. Maybe kids who live close go home on Saturdays. But it sounds like a depressing college experience.

Why on earth would a student be sitting inside his/her dorm room on a Saturday afternoon? Do you even hear yourself?

[Anonymous]

Football, fraternity life, on-campus weekend activities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's not a real college experience. It's basically a community college experience with 4 year degrees and good placement.

What does this mean? We are in MD and my kid is considering GMU over JMU for poli sci. The poli sci courses offered at GMU make those at JMU, UMBC and Towson look like high school.

By “real college experience” the PP means “white.”

By “basically a community college degree with 4 year degrees and good placement” the PP means majority-minority.

Welcome to DCUM!

That’s actually not at all what I meant. Nice try.

+1
Someone must have an enormous chip on their shoulder to read that post and come away with some kind of racial slant. Report the race-baiting troll.

[Anonymous]

Wow this thread has some of the nastiest posters Ive seen on DCUM. For what? Bunch of bozos trying to discredit a school because it wasn’t right for their kid??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GMU does have a lot going for it, but the "college experience" is honestly not one of them. For a kid who would like the traditional college experience of moving away from home, more social activities, more rah-rah school spirit, football games, frats and sororities, an older or more historic campus, a college town, etc., JMU has all that. GMU was founded in 1957 and for a very long time was considered to be a "commuter school." They've come a long way since then but the commuter school vibe is still there. A lot of students are NoVA locals and go home on the weekends, or commute daily.

For you UVA-haters/boosters

In 1957, Mason was started as a branch campus of the University of Virginia. The school consisted of a single building and 17 students. Fifteen years later, on April 7, 1972, then-Governor A. Linwood Holton signed legislation to separate George Mason College from the University of Virginia.

https://www.gmu.edu/about/legacy/history#:~:text=In%201957%2C%20Mason%20was%20started,from%20the%20University%20of%20Virginia.

actually, GMU was started as a branch of UVA in 1949 and continued to be until 1966.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think over 75% of freshmen at GMU live on campus. After that, a lot of upperclassmen move into off-campus apartments with friends but that’s no different than a lot of other universities.

Freshman are required to live on campus at GMU unless they get a waiver. My kid was in the dorms all four years and loved it - she was actually concerned about not getting a dorm room (and GMU's dorms are nice suites) but in the end was able to stay with friends in dorms for all four years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's not a real college experience. It's basically a community college experience with 4 year degrees and good placement.

+1 That’s it, that’s why

Are the classes at GMU comparable to or harder than community college classes?

Much more difficult. I had one in a community college course and one in the same subject at GMU at the same time. Huge difference. Of course you can always pull a bad prof but generally I was impressed with GMU faculty. NOT impressed with the adjuncts at NVCC at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it's not a real college experience. It's basically a community college experience with 4 year degrees and good placement.

+1 That’s it, that’s why

Are the classes at GMU comparable to or harder than community college classes?

I’ve gone to both recently to earn a second degree. NVCC online classes were superior to my regular classes at GMU. The online system to conduct business (e.g. register for classes) was also better.

I have heard the same.

Opposite happened to my kid. He took a NVCC summer course (as a rising senior in high school) in chemistry and pulled a terrible prof who just didnt give a d@mn. Meanwhile other child had chem at GMU. It was night and day. i still regret we didnt register the high school kid for the chem course (you apply as a non-degree student) at GMU. NVCC was a waste of time

Oooo.... My HS student had a similar experience with a Chem prof. at NVCC during the summer. She was like the Soup Nazi (Seinfeld). It was kind of crushing. My other kid is at UMW and took Chem 1 and 2 there -- the profs were SOOO much more helpful/kind/accomodating. You still had to do well on the exams and labs. They weren't giving away good grades just for pleasantries. But the profs at UMW weren't trying to screw you over as a student left and right. They understood that you were a freshman and might not know what to do for the first lab. At NVCC, the female prof. was brutally tough about the smallest things -- which meant you couldn't do the lab or you couldn't get ANY points for X if you didn't do something right. It seemed that the NVCC prof was burned too many times by students trying to get one over on her, so she was SUPER strict. At UMW, the prof's mindset was to work with the students toward success. At NVCC the mindset seemed to be "how can we fail you in this class?" (a mindset that students are not to be trusted).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Football, fraternity life, on-campus weekend activities

It's true that football does create a common focal point for school spirit -- I'll give you that. But, "fraternity life" is NOT a positive. I was in a sorority. I know what goes on. For the most part, fraternities are toxic male culture. Not a selling point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good friend has a son at GMU. The kid’s grandparents live two blocks from campus. My friend said on five occasions first semester freshman year he went to his son’s dorm room on a Saturday afternoon he said campus was a ghost town and he didn’t see another kid in his son’s dorm. Not in the common rooms. Not hanging out outside. It was abandoned. Maybe kids who live close go home on Saturdays. But it sounds like a depressing college experience.

Why on earth would a student be sitting inside his/her dorm room on a Saturday afternoon? Do you even hear yourself?

Right! They are either asleep, in the library, or out exploring the community. They aren't going to be sitting around in the lounge watching tv on a Sat. afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football, fraternity life, on-campus weekend activities

It's true that football does create a common focal point for school spirit -- I'll give you that. But, "fraternity life" is NOT a positive. I was in a sorority. I know what goes on. For the most part, fraternities are toxic male culture. Not a selling point.

I wasn’t in a sorority but I loved going to frat parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football, fraternity life, on-campus weekend activities

It's true that football does create a common focal point for school spirit -- I'll give you that. But, "fraternity life" is NOT a positive. I was in a sorority. I know what goes on. For the most part, fraternities are toxic male culture. Not a selling point.

I agree completely and I was Prez of my sorority. huge mistake. But, for the recird, GMU has 40 national and international soririties and frats. They met on Sunday nights when DS was at GMU. No houses back then. That mayhave changed

[Anonymous]

GMU also has a club football team that plays against other schools. It’s not DI, but there are, in fact, home football games you can attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football, fraternity life, on-campus weekend activities

It's true that football does create a common focal point for school spirit -- I'll give you that. But, "fraternity life" is NOT a positive. I was in a sorority. I know what goes on. For the most part, fraternities are toxic male culture. Not a selling point.

DP. JMU Greek life is only about 20% of the student population - there’s a lot of over things to do there. I have two kids at JMU who aren’t Greek and are having a great time in their various activities.