Why hasn't GMU surpassed UVA, W&M, VT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid there.

The issues are:

A) No football
B) Fairfax is too wealthy and snooty. Anything that remotely indicates college town fun gets a big side eye from the community
C) No college town, dive bar fun area anywhere around (see B)
And
D) Fairfax is a big urbanish wealthy suburb with no community spirit for the school, none, nada, zip. Unlike the small towns of Charlottesville, Williamsburg, etc where the college is the main hub of the town.


The campus is nice, the programs are very good, there are so many opportunities based on proximity to DC. The dorms are nice and campus is full.

The main issues are no football and no support/spirit from Fairfax.

To me GMU is the scrappy guy who works their way up the food chain. Solid education but not as much of the typical college experience.

Academically, I think it's better than JMU.

I agree that academically GMU is better than JMU.

GMU lacks the college football fun and community college town support, so it will always be less desirable to a significant portion of kids, until those 2 things change.

Do they not have a competitive football team? It's already known for other sport and is Division 1.

GMU, ODU, and VCU are similar in that they are the largest schools in the largest metropolitan areas. ODU went all in for football, but I don't really think that has changed much. The reality is, even a lot of Power 4 schools have a lot of attendees masquerading as seats and it is extraordinarily expensive to compete if you do not have a big TV contract. Only the SEC and Big 10 have that really. Even ACC schools are losing money on football these days when you factor in the cost of paying players. Anyway, I don't think ODU has gained any advantage over GMU and VCU by going in on football. JMU spends a huge amount of money subsidizing athletics. I think GMU is smart to stay away from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid there.

The issues are:

A) No football
B) Fairfax is too wealthy and snooty. Anything that remotely indicates college town fun gets a big side eye from the community
C) No college town, dive bar fun area anywhere around (see B)
And
D) Fairfax is a big urbanish wealthy suburb with no community spirit for the school, none, nada, zip. Unlike the small towns of Charlottesville, Williamsburg, etc where the college is the main hub of the town.


The campus is nice, the programs are very good, there are so many opportunities based on proximity to DC. The dorms are nice and campus is full.

The main issues are no football and no support/spirit from Fairfax.

To me GMU is the scrappy guy who works their way up the food chain. Solid education but not as much of the typical college experience.

Academically, I think it's better than JMU.

I agree that academically GMU is better than JMU.

GMU lacks the college football fun and community college town support, so it will always be less desirable to a significant portion of kids, until those 2 things change.

Do they not have a competitive football team? It's already known for other sport and is Division 1.

No.

Just basketball, softball, baseball, wrestling, swim, dive, cross country, tennis, golf, volleyball and track/field.

They have club hockey which is quite spirited, and I think club football which is just not the same as college football.

I think adding a real football program would help immensely with the popularity of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a NOVA family, GMU holds zero appeal to my HSers. They would rather go to a lower tier school and get the "real" college experience than stay up here. I can't say I blame them.

That's a wealthy person's view. For the rest of us, college is more about career outcomes rather than the college "experience", which is just a bonus.

My very high stats DC said they'd go to whichever college with the best program in their field that accepted them. That happened to be our in state, about 30min away. They got merit and doing very well there - going on their second internship this summer paying pretty well.

We don't have family money.

What do you mean no family money? How much is your real estate portfolio worth? Less than $1m?

[Anonymous]

OP, people have covered the main reasons. W&M, UVA and VT have varying degrees of history on their side, and are much nicer campuses as well. These contribute to higher perceived and real value.

GMU has a history of being a commuter school and although that is changing is a stigma that must be overcome. Like it or not they will continue to battle JMU and VCU for 4th place in the VA university rankings for some time to come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a NOVA family, GMU holds zero appeal to my HSers. They would rather go to a lower tier school and get the "real" college experience than stay up here. I can't say I blame them.

That's a wealthy person's view. For the rest of us, college is more about career outcomes rather than the college "experience", which is just a bonus.

My very high stats DC said they'd go to whichever college with the best program in their field that accepted them. That happened to be our in state, about 30min away. They got merit and doing very well there - going on their second internship this summer paying pretty well.

We don't have family money.

What do you mean no family money? How much is your real estate portfolio worth? Less than $1m?

No family money meaning our retirement is just us, and no reliance on family money. DH is 60, and "retired" due to ageism. I'm nearing 60 myself and working is taking a toll on my health. I am going to quit when DC goes to college.

What does my real estate have to do with it? We still need a place to live. DC would not want us to sell our house just so that they can go to a lesser but more expensive school just for the "college experience". DC would want to come back home to this area during their break.

I also help my aging parents. ACA insurance is really expensive, and we'd have to get coverage for four people. So, we live in a hcol area, plus ACA insurance, plus college costs and helping aging parents = don't have money to send DCs to oos lesser college just for the experience. They can get a job in another state if they really want to experience some other state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering the fact that its location is so much better than any of the three in the title of this post?

The location is at the intersection of two four lane highways across the street from a Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bamba.

Taco Bamba is solid… Hasn’t their law school already passed W&M?

Taco Bamba doesn't have a law school. You're thinking of Catholic University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, people have covered the main reasons. W&M, UVA and VT have varying degrees of history on their side, and are much nicer campuses as well. These contribute to higher perceived and real value.

GMU has a history of being a commuter school and although that is changing is a stigma that must be overcome. Like it or not they will continue to battle JMU and VCU for 4th place in the VA university rankings for some time to come.

UCLA only passed 100 years old a few years ago. It is ranked higher than any other school. Things can and do change over time. If you look at privates, Duke was a nothing from nowhere (named Trinity College) until a tobacco baron dumped a bunch of money on it about 100 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, people have covered the main reasons. W&M, UVA and VT have varying degrees of history on their side, and are much nicer campuses as well. These contribute to higher perceived and real value.

GMU has a history of being a commuter school and although that is changing is a stigma that must be overcome. Like it or not they will continue to battle JMU and VCU for 4th place in the VA university rankings for some time to come.

UCLA only passed 100 years old a few years ago. It is ranked higher than any other school. Things can and do change over time. If you look at privates, Duke was a nothing from nowhere (named Trinity College) until a tobacco baron dumped a bunch of money on it about 100 years ago.

^I meant UCLA ranked higher in USNWR undergraduate than any other public

[Anonymous]

I agree with a PP’s suggestion that GMU could benefit from using merit to draw in good OOS kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We go to swim meets there. It seems squished into the space it has.

Biggest reason though that it will struggle to reach on par with JMU is that it suffers from being right next door for all the brightest kids in NOVA. People do not want to go to school so super close to home.

US News & World Report Ranks GMU higher than JMU. Just because it’s in our backyard doesn’t make it an inferior school at all. Some kids will want to go to JMU for parties and football and whatnot, but some don’t care about that and prefer proximity to employers.

DP. You know people go to JMU for academics too, right? And internships are almost always done in the summer, so school location is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering the fact that its location is so much better than any of the three in the title of this post?

As much as anything else, its age. GMU was a spin-out from UVa. It is much younger, so has not had as much time to get established. Separately, it has taken time for GMU to be considered more seriously by the VA Legislature, which funds some of the public university improvements.

These days it is much less of a commuter school than it was 20-25 years ago. Many, not all, posting at DCUM crave "prestige" rather than quality, so GMU does not get much love here.

Well said!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with a PP’s suggestion that GMU could benefit from using merit to draw in good OOS kids.

They have no money. Despite being the largest university by enrollment their endowment/student is extremely low. Something like 5k when the usual for good schools is 150k+ with some exceptions like NYU (but they have to pay for Manhattan real estate and have grown a lot so it make sense there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at the number of Nobel prizes it won - it's more than the rest of the State combined. It's a world class university for blue collar workers .

GMU has won zero Nobel prizes. Buchanan won when he was at UVA and years later became GMU professor. Smith received the award while he was at George Mason, but it was for work He had done at Arizona.

DP. I have no affiliation with any of these schools, but your post is so petty, I had to respond.

Out of curiosity, I looked up your claims. Buchanan won the Nobel in 1986 - when he was a GMU professor. He left UVA in 1968. He was a distinguished professor of Economics at Virginia Tech for many years. He certainly didn't win the Nobel while at UVA.

Nobel winners are considered affiliated with the university at which the recipient wins the award. Thus, GMU can indeed claim both Buchanan and Smith as their Nobel winners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering the fact that its location is so much better than any of the three in the title of this post?

The location is at the intersection of two four lane highways across the street from a Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bamba.

Like every other American university?

Right? This comment was so clueless it made me laugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing holding GMU back is the quality of its teaching staff. Most undergrads dont care about research - they go to learn coding, accounting, business etc.

For business, I know GMU hires random folks who teach part time at GMU. Just does not inspire confidence.

Its location/size is not an issues - most colleges in Europe, Asia are similar in that regards.

Well, that's BS. There was a thread about that a few months ago and someone produced the staff directory/bios of GMU professors. The list of prestigious universities most had attended was impressive - and shut up people like you claiming there is any issue with their "teaching staff."