Reply to Insights on Mason for Potential Incoming Freshman

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son will be in that same department at CNU. He really loved the small department that is growing with the new school. He met many professors at the open house on admitted students day, and felt really comfortable there. He loved CNUs campus and vibe, and the location. We are already registered with the disability office. We toured GMU and it’s probably better overall but it is larger and close to home and those were negatives for our son. [/quote]

We attended admitted students day in April and had a chance to speak with the CS department head. Is your son and incoming freshman? What type of HS is he coming from? Anything you can share regarding the disability office and what supports they will provide?[/quote]

The disability office does as much as they can to help if you have had testing done. There is an intro meeting during orientation and they welcome private meetings to discuss. We will see what is approved and how well things work in practice. [/quote]

Interesting. At our admitted students day, one thing that the Dean of students (I believe) made clear was that while the school was committed to and provides support for all students to graduate in 4 years, he was not big on “accommodations), even saying that he was barely even familiar with a 504 Plan. It was an interesting, if revealing comment 🙂[/quote]

You're saying that the Dean of Students, or similar, at a public institution said publicly that he's "not big on accommodations."  You sure about that?[/quote]

100%.

I'm paraphrasing of course, but he essentially said that the school will support all their students and do all they can to make sure they succeed. But in terms of "accommodations", the school wasn't going to set different bars/standards. He did say specifically that growing up and through his early years in education, he didn't even know what a 504 was. He literally struggled to remember what it was called, saying "what's that thing with the numbers??

He didn't say these things callously, but I do believe he was communicating that CNU has a culture where they do everything possible to provide an environment where students can thrive (they said "we didn't admit the entering class of 2024, we admitted the graduating class of 2028"), but that students need to so within the standards that the university sets.

To be clear, while it was a little shocking, especially in this era of bending over backwards to accommodate everyone's needs, it wasn't exactly a turn-ff for us and I appreciated where he was coming from. In fact, for my kid, I thought it might be very helpful in getting him to be self-sufficient while not being thrust into an overwhelming, cutthroat, sink-or-swim environment. That was a big concern about VCU, and something that the supports at GMU's alleviate at least somewhat, despite being a large school

It also seems clear to me that CNU is trying to turn itself into an elite small public university, probably along the lines of W&L or W&M. To be sure, they've come a long way from their days as a two-year W&M extension, and they've (or at least the former President) brought in a lot of private money to grow and enhance the school. The campus itself is like a mini-UVA aesthetically, and they have instituted many traditions, much like UVA as well. When in trying to woo students from NOVA, that's a huge draw. A neighbor's kid graduated from CNU last year and when he entered, I knew nothing about it. Since then, incoming freshman class stats have risen significantly - as has the median income percentages of those students' household. Take that for what its worth. [b]Outside of UVA, VT, W&L and W&M, I believe CNU has the highest SAT range of the Virginia publics[/b]

Again don't quote me, but I think it was this guy...https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-hughes-a0b4864/
[/quote]

The SCHEV data doesn't indicate that [b]CNU has the highest SAT scores in Virginia outside of UVA, VT, W&L, and W&M (W&L is of course private)[/b].  At the 75th percentile SAT for publics it looks like this (https://research.schev.edu//enrollment/B10_FreshmenProfile.asp):

UVA / W&M
VT
VMI
GMU
JMU / UMW
[b]CNU[/b]
ODU
VCU
LU
UVA-Wise
RU
NSU
VSU

VMI through VCU are in a relatively close SAT range and those schools offer a number of options (size, location, environment)[/quote]

uh, no.  Even GMU is way ahead of CNU in terms of SAT scores.  SCHEV reports last year's incoming CNU class at 1240 at the 75th percentile, 1190 at median and 1120 at the bottom 25th percentile.  GMU's was 1330/1240/1160. https://research.schev.edu//enrollment/B10_FreshmenProfile.asp[/quote]

Good point. However, when looking at SCHEV's GPA data, GMU and CNU are pretty much neck-and-neck:

75th/median/25th
CNU:  4.12/3.79/3.44
GMU:  4.0/3.75/3.45

I'm not one who believes in stats of the incoming class as the arbiter of school quality, but for arguments sake, if going by just stats, I'm not sure how one makes the argument that CNU is "at least a tier below GMU."[/quote]

The other thing to compare (which I have not) is the percentage that are submitting SAT/ACT scores.  Some schools report higher scores but have a signifcantly lower percentage submitting.[/quote]

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