George Mason University Top Questions

I really do enjoy Mason, it is a clean campus and I feel we are provided very nice facilities. However I do feel the burden of sending students to the Prince William campus when they pay out of state to attend GMU fairfax is a litte unfair. I think instead of spening money to build Mason Vale that space could have been better used as a Giant parking lot, and then more classroom buildings built where our current parking is located. Shuttles then could have been provided from this big main lot, so that is one thing I would change. I spend most of my time at the Pool as I am an athlete on the swim team here at Mason. I feel there is pretty good amount of school pride as you can see many students in GMU gear on your regular walks through cmpus. One experience I will always remember will not be one, but many that I have had with my team. The meets, the hangouts, the gruling practices where we had to be in the water at 5 am pushing eachother. I live for that stuff, I will very much miss it when it is over. I feel like one of the biggest complaints about the unvieristy is "there is nothing to do here". College is what you make of it. You have to get out there and make your own fun for you, no one is goign to hold your hand and drag you to the numerous events and social outings. Get up and Go!

Mason Mentors make it a point to discuss the Mason Community in all of their tours. Feeling welcomed into a community and comfortable at George Mason can help students avoid the dread of feeling misplaced, so they can focus on succeeding academically. I am in the Honors college and pursuing a biochem major. I don't have high recommendations for the chemistry and biology department in guiding their students well (inaccurate advising sheets), as well as selecting the best professors to teach, and tutors to work in the chemistry tutoring center. Overall, professors do have office hours and will try to help if you go to office hours, however, I have had a few who aren't great lecturers and appear unapproachable (bad attitude).

Mason is a really big school with lots and lots of students. Its in a great area, Fairfax is a lovely town and DC is very accessible. I think the school administration is quite effective and genuinely cares about their students. At least whenever I've had problems, they have really helped me out.

No school in the country has come as far as fast as George Mason. The professors are outstanding: George Mason's proximity to Washington, D.C. results in a glut of over-qualified faculty. My 100 level government classes, for example, were taught by retired Washingtonians working on their PhD's - bureaucrats, military, political staffers - so although they weren't full professors they had a career of experience to draw from. The campus is new and rapidly expanding: students can expect new housing and state of the art classrooms. The basketball team is getting ridiculously good recruits and will be ranked in the coming years. Games today are the focus of social life. With a 10,000 person capacity, the Patriot Center is a great college venue.

Initially when I got to Mason, I was (a) disappointed with the general intelligence of my peers and (b) thrilled with my classes and professors. Turning inward, I focused on my studies (contrary to my high school experience) and got great grades. Since the student populace here is mostly comprised of either non-exceptional kids or brusque and professional in-and-outers, I got involved with my department and the professors I met were very receptive and friendly, as if they were refreshed to see a student who was actually interested in the material he was studying. Eventually, I obtained a job within the department and I was hanging out with professors and grad students more than I was my undergraduate peers, which was made possible by the fact that there are so few students that go to Mason who approach professors outside of class. The scarcity of excellent students also provides ample opportunity to pick up scholarships from the school, and the metropolitan area begets some high paying job offers. Sure, there's the Greek drawl and some menial on-campus activity outside of academics, but all of that is sort of subpar with a few exceptions. I've been to some really excellent parties and have drank a fair amount of beer while on campus, but in low frequency. Usually, you have to have a connection to get into a good party, but they do exist. Obviously, if you're seeking for a party school, go down the road to JMU. I find the campus quite nice; there's a lot of foliage and it isn't sprawling and empty like other campuses I've visited. The point is, if you don't mind being lonely and you're very serious about your studies, Mason is a great place to be. It's easy for a serious guy to stand out. My only gripe, academically, is that a couple of the classes could be harder. I think some of the faculty dumbs the curriculum down a little because of the average intellectual measure.

When I stepped onto the George Mason Campus for a college visit, it just felt right! Despite the massive amounts of construction that is currently taking place due to the growing school population, the campus is beautiful. Students are out and about, walking from class to class or sitting outside in the grass. GMU is known for its diverse student population, but that is not merely a statistic that the school likes to brag about. Not only is the student body diverse in race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender, but those varying students are usually found socializing with one another. This is most defiantly a school where you can learn just as much on the outside of the classroom as you can on the inside.

GMU is well on there way to being one of the top univirsities in the country. The greek world at mason is pretty big. One of our big falls is no D1 football team. GMU police are a little on the annoying side. We are not a college town... I do think we have alot of pride at mason in almost everything we do. Campus is really nice alot of buldings are brand new, along with all upper classmen dorms.

I like the fact that GMU is right next to DC...you get access to so many different things because of that. The Mason campus is also a great plus...plenty of places to eat..it's pretty huge and modern which is appealing for students. A lot of times the most serious happenings will be students getting busted for drugs or for drinking but other than that nothing too intense. I have to say that Mason Police are horrible...they are most times not helpful when you call them for aid and more often than not they are bored so they give tickets or write people up for random and stupid things.

GMU is conveniently located to Washington, DC, and with its placement in the city of Fairfax, it's perfectly possible to go through your years at Mason without needing a car. At the same time, the campus is self-contained. So, when you're on campus, you are ON campus. In addition, the city of Fairfax in many ways resembles a suburb, so if you don't like "big cities", then Fairfax is a good compromise. Most students that live campus complain about the food options late at night, or early morning. But, the school is rapidly changing that by providing more options.

I can honestly say that George Mason University has become my home away from home. Coming from a small town in New Jersey, not many people have ever heard of GMU (at least not until after our run to the final four!), including myself. It was only by chance that I found out about this university through of friend of the family who attended in the 1970s. Once I set foot on the beautifull Fairfax campus, I fell in love. The first thing that drew me to this campus was its innovative atmosphere. The Johnson Center, our hub of student life, has a very modern design that was unlike any of the other schools I visited. On my campus tour, I started noticing that many of the buildings followed a very similar theme, showing a newer age of campus construction. Now, I watch the new innovation being built right before my eyes. Every day I get to see the progress of new research facilities and arts complexes under construction, making this school any even greater learning space than it already is. Mason's proximity to Washington, D.C. was another factor that drew me to the school. As a Government & International Politics major, being so close to the largest political arena in the country was a priority in choosing where to go to college. I did not, however, want to be directly in the city. I needed a campus that actually felt like a college campus, with grass and trees and a concentrated campus life. I didn't want my college experience to get lost on the busy streets of D.C., tucked away behind government offices and business complexes. However, because Mason is so close to D.C., I can just hop on the metro and head into the city whenever I want, whether it's for an internship, class assignment, or just to walk around the monuments. George Mason University is an amazing place to be. I am proud to be a student here and would not change a thing about my experiences here.