Fatih Gezer

Review of George Mason Review

I attended the GMU as a PhD student but ended up w...

I attended the GMU as a PhD student but ended up with transferring to another school. My conclusion is, GMU is a boutique school which is trying to be a good university.

First, I would like to criticize the management system of the university. As an international student, I did not find their international office's work very efficient. They have inexperienced staff and they are not able to solve problems quickly. Same thing for the HR, library services, health services, payment services.

GMU has a very small endowment and budget, comparing with other schools with similar ranking. This causes the lack of the facilities. For instance, their library, student centers, gym or labs just meet the minimum requirements and did not give a WOW at all. There are computers at the library, but they are very slow, and does not have essential software for students, not even adobe pro. Their library database is not good at all. I usually used my previous university's library database to find articles or books because GMU library database did not have them. Library closes at 12 am, during weekdays and it is a big disadvantage. It is hard to find quiet spaces.There are three gyms in the Fairfax campus. All of them are very small. Their equipment are old. Not clean. Student centers do not have cool spots to spend time. Not enough numbers of restaurants or coffee shops. There are a lot of blind spots of WiFi. Restrooms are very dirty. I have never seen a dirtier restroom in the US. They really need a good cleaning staff revision. Parking is expensive. General parking for 9 months is $390. There is no parking next to buildings. There is big parking areas. You should park and walk wherever your building is. Usually parking lots are full because they sell more parking permits than their maximum capacity. You hardly find available places far from buildings. Average walking from parking will be 15 minutes plus the time you spend until you find a spot. Keep in mind to arrive way early than you supposed to be.

I also had personal problems with my department. However, I skip to mention it here because it is not about the university's overall review.

Since it is not a college town, there is nothing next to campus on walking distance. Also, as a graduate student you likely to live off campus and housing is very expensive. For instance a one bedroom apartment in 15 mins driving distance is around $1,500 per month. You may reduce this price by living with more people. Also be aware of their high penalty fees. I was forced to switch two courses after the drop add period by my adviser and penalty fee is 33% of the tuition after the 3rd week, and %66 after the 5th week.

To sum up, there are not enough things on campus which attracts and motivates students. Not many events. Events that I attended were very unprofessional. School does not offer you things which will make you happy or happier. Sometimes even printing something becomes a problem. Please come, visit, spend time in your building, labs, offices, student centers, gyms, library and ask previous students about the school before applying. For me, it was a disappointment.