George Mason Review Review

Very Progressive University. Large campus with a homey feeling. My daughter is loving it there!

I just work on site (new building in the middle of campus) but the outside looks nice

Back to school is a wonderful time for parents and their young adults. Even the face masks cannot hide the full range of rations from anxiety, excitement, and pride in starting a new chapter of life. Although fewer people are loading up to the dorms, the activity is still deliberate and intense. GMU is transformed from a metropolitan unuverdity to a small-town college campus. Be patient and call ahead to arrange appointments for most things; everything is virtual interactions. Library sign states 450 max capacity. How is that going to look like?

Currently attending for Criminology, the campus is usually clean and busy, the staff are usually helpful if you're talking to the correct people, and the classes are usually well structured.

Worst University Ever. This university is literally for losers and retards.

I transferred from VA Tech and I really love this school. Sooo much better than Tech. The population is very diverse and have never seen racism or treatment of students unequally based upon age, gender, race. The wonderful professors truly CARE about your education and the business school is bomb. If you're looking for a good education with small classes and amazing professors, come here!! I wish they would stop raising the prices on parking though, it's getting obnoxious.

Great University!

Excellent Professors and Beautiful Campus!

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.

Our family has no complaints. Our student is on campus and is thriving in the community there. Campus amenities seem more that sufficient for whatever we need.

Great school. Don't listen to those that rate the school below average.

As a military veteran, I see so many students in class that whine and expect to be handed As. College is what you make of it. If you put in the time and effort, you will receive a good grades. This college has a lot to offer if you study, attend class, seek internships and use your education to further yourself in your career and life.

Ignore this university. It is just a disappointment.

Very huge parking lots and easy to access routes and sign boards inside the campus

I attend GMU. I am sorely disappointed with how Student Accounts mishandled my loan by not accepting full amount. When I asked for clarification, I didnt receive any straight answers.

Parents/students should be wary of how there are certain departments on campus that dont effectively do their tasks in a timely and satisfactory level. And instead of trying to meet the customers that attend GMU they give very distasteful attitudes.

Highly recommend going to any other main 4 year college, i.e UVA, VA Tech, etc to acquire a higher level of thats needed so students dont stress over poor choices made by underequppied bureacries.

My son attends very happy dorm extra clean and neat alot space for the children to relax and do work and study..

Great Location near Town, good faculty and course choices.

Great school paying 50k a year for my biology degree I'm gonna be rich who needs scholarships

Such a great, diversified school with tons of connections to DC and global businesses. So many different, amazing cultures and we all feel the Patriot Pride.

Went to GMU for grad school, and loved my time there! The location and campus are great, and the connections Mason has to a wide variety of programs and agencies is a wonderful advantage!

Have been an international student here. Degree is worthless and employers will treat as any other university from the area. Doesnt pay off in the end for the premium one pays in fees. If you end up in an issue administration will try to bring you down to their terms instead of giving a fair resolution. They list various concentrations in catalog but promote a few and others are never offered.

No placement services for international students. Careers service host numerous career fairs where mostly students are outlined because most of employers need citizens. Official platform for job application offers jobs of dog walkers and all other odd jobs instead of any for entry level for graduating students. In the end you will end up with consulting firms who rip you off taking 70 or 65% of your pay.

Great school and campus right outside DC. They've successfully kept the students from getting and spreading the virus. Our daughter is a freshman, is on-campus and loves it.

Really excited to see my family member graduate. The campus seems conservative but modest.

I would love to study master of accounting in GMU. But I found better city to complete my future. Bye bye GMU

Great experience. I graduated many years ago and still keep in touch with some of my course professors.

George Mason has grown so much over the years, becoming a nationally recognized university!

Great day with the Green!! Spring Preview day had the chance to do a small tour of campus, wish we could have seen more of housing. Very large crowd of freshmen and family. Diana was our favorite Mason Ambassador! Helped my daughter loosen up and I actually thought I saw a smile, she even signed up for a couple of things!

Parking is overpriced, half the professors teach worse than High School teachers, and the administrative departments here are run by incompetent morons. Spend your money on a better education elsewhere

I love this place. Largest research university in Virginia, one of the most diverse in the nation, youngest school to reach top tier research status in the Carnegie classification, no disparity of outcomes among ethnic or socioeconomic groups, home of first Nobel Prize winners in DC or Virginia, in a perfect location!

If I could give zero stars I would. The transfer process is horrid and rigged with unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. Mrs Foltz replies to maybe 1 of every 3 emails, the admissions office claims to never receive transcripts even though FEDEX sent and gave confirmation. NO ONE will reply to the previous colleges email for 5 1/2 calendar days in order for me to 1. Received transcrilts 2. start school this spring. I've been trying to register since 3 NOV 2020. This was the worst transfer experience and I will not be wasting my hard earned money here.

I think this place has a very safe and welcoming environment that can have anyone call home.

Good universities with good sports and fitness facilities. Most of the professors and staff are friendly and helpful. Some of them however are not very good at teaching and conveying their ideas. But that some is a very small segment. Good school overall.

Nice area with some great professors. Also some bad ones but that's to be expected anywhere I guess.

Wonderful campus, wonderful facilities, wonderful experience as far as campus cleanliness/resources are concerned
As far as the party scene goes if that's what you're looking for I might not advise you attend mason.
So in light what matters (dormitories, food, facilities, financial aid, on campus programs) this school is an A+

The (accelerated) nursing program here is absolutely atrocious. Not because of the subject matter or work load but because the women who administer the program and a large number of the instructors they have hired are vicious, toxic, evil and/or incompetent.

Our advisor is a pompous, incompetent buffoon who, despite her doctoral degree, probably has IQ of about 90, bullies students regularly, and yet has been there for 25 years. Most students avoid her like the plague. One classmate told me, "She has too much power over me. It is very scary." Others have talked about how very unhelpful she consistently is and how almost all of her communications contain wrong or inadequate information. She hires the clinical instructors and then apparently encourages them to be harsh and punitive toward students. Together, they create a terrible, hostile clinical atmosphere in which it is hard to focus on learning.

The head of the department is a complacent Pollyanna who sweeps problems under the carpet and lacks moral discernment and backbone to stop the bullying by firing bad eggs and properly training instructors. She seems to automatically side with the instructor or administrator even when they are obviously engaged in abuse of students (How convenient for her! Rocking the boat would make unpleasant waves! Who cares if mere students suffer!).

Many of the clinical instructors, who are given absolute power over students, are extremely petty as well as moral and intellectual mediocrities who lack conscience and who bully and mistreat students, using unnecessary threats, fear and intimidation. Some of them lie and make false accusations to hurt students. They threaten to fail you in the class based on very minor or inflated errors simply because they can--even though this would put a student in extreme jeopardy and could destroy his or her life because it would force the student to wait a whole year to continue in the program and meanwhile, the loans are ticking away or could be lost, with no job on hand...And yet the administrators never question the mindset or stop the aggressive actions of clinical instructors before they go too far in their abuse of students--this even though bullying by nurses is a widespread and known problem.

Only one out of four of my clinical instructors so far has been a normal, decent human being. The others are very nasty pieces of work indeed.

Make no mistake. I am not kidding when I say that a great many of these women are deeply evil. They are not normal human beings but demonic freaks of nature.

This nursing school is a nightmare. Go elsewhere! Or better yet, choose a different career because nursing is chock-full of truly nasty, vicious individuals.

Addition: Try to comprehend the depth of their hypocrisy: They close the links for evaluating classes and instructors BEFORE final grades are posted. Think about that for a minute: You have been bullied and abused all semester and now when you have the chance to express your disgust, they time the availability of the evaluation link so that you fear a bad grade in retaliation for honesty. They make students feel powerless. They thus intentionally discourage really honest criticism, anything that reflects badly on them. So, they have no sincere interest in improving things. The quality of instruction ranges from mediocre to disastrous.

Addition: If you are a person with any spiritual or noble sensibility, stay away from GMU. A preponderance of administrators and instructors are evil people--deeply vicious, emotionally disconnected, hypocritical, insincere, lazy, nasty and morally repugnant. I call them evil.

I attended George Mason University for the Washington Journalism and Media Conference in July 2016 and it was amazing! The door rooms were great; the people were incredible; and the experience overall was one I will never forget. I'm so happy to be applying here this fall, though I am disappointed it's so far away from my home in Florida.

"Advisors", "Counselors" and 99% of staff are worthless. The whole group of them could be replaced by a single parrot trained to say "visit our website for that information".
If you're interested in enrolling in GMU and have questions, the only response you get is "We can't help you because you're not a student."
So you enroll and get accepted. You go back again to ask your questions and get "We can't answer your questions because you haven't paid your enrollment fee."
You pay the fee to become a student and from that point outward, any question you may have will be answered with "You have to go to the website to find that information." Completely useless people that can't or won't do their jobs.

Mason is very diverse, which is pretty much the major crowning achievement it has as a university. Tons if international students, the Mason LIFE program, etc. They allow a lot of individuals to have an inclusive college experience.

However, there is little school spirit among the students, and many
departments are incredibly disjointed and disorganized. There's a phenomenon at this university called the "Mason Shuffle" where someone will get passed from department to department, office to office, just to have one simple question answered, form signed, etc. As someone who used to be employed here, I can say that this doesn't affect students, but also staff members. The university grew so fast, but its infrastructure didn't quite grow to the same level, and as a result it's hard to get essential things done.

It's still largely a commuter school, which is great for locals who want to live at home and not have to pay for an [expensive] room on campus, but this further contributes to the feeling of the lack of community on campus.

Mason talks about how they're right up there with Virginia Tech and UVA, but they still have a very long way to go to be at the same level of academia and recognition. They frequently tout that they made the Final Four for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament...in 2006! Over a decade ago! If that isn't living off old glory I don't know what is.

I attended GMU about 15 years ago. Looking back, GMU offers great benefit to the students for being close to great companies where the students can have Internship or CoOps. Something that other universities such as Virginia Tech and UVA cannot offer even their brightest students. My recommendation would be to go to GMU and get internships and CoOps so when you get out of the university you are ahead of VT and UVA students that have good-university degrees but almost no experience.

Love the campus, facilities and best of all, the academics. Its just getting better with time. Has a diversified student population and decent private housing near the university. Close to Washington DC and located in the heart of the 'pretty' Fairfax city which makes it accessible to some good places to hangout for the weekend. Bike-friendly campus. Very safe. Great infrastructure. Plenty of on-campus jobs.

The fee being a bit pricey for non-residents is a con I see next to pricey car parking across the campus. A complaint many students share is some of their good courses are offered infrequently.

frnds im planning for spring anyone applying to this univ?

Great professors and facilities. The Patriot Center hosts tons of different events and concerts all year round. Even though GMU is considered a "commuter school" the student community is still ever present.

Campus approach roads are narrow and crammed with shuttle busses and students cross walking anywhere on the roads. There are no exceptions for VIP visits ,road blocks and gas leaks. Students are thrown out of class for not making in time to classes. Its an amazing campus with maze like approach hope it gets better.

Excellent University. The school's response to managing Covid-19 and the safe return of students to campus has exceeded our expectations!

I am applying as a transfer student from Northern Virginia Community College, and it has been nothing but me chasing down administration to make sure all of the paperwork has been processed properly. Every email I have sent the admissions office so far has taken at LEAST two weeks response time, even when I send follow-up emails. They say that their response time is 48 hours, but obviously my experience is nowhere close. It's not the beginning of a semester, it's almost October, so to me it makes no sense that it should be taking so long for a response. I called on the phone, and while the lady was nice, she couldn't provide me any specific information pertaining to MY application. Going in person is horrible because I have to pay for parking, receptionists are rude and act like I'm inconveniencing them, and my questions have been turned away before because I am not a George Mason student. Well, obviously I WANT to be a Mason student, that's why I'm here in the first place! I'm not even going to school here yet and it's already been a nightmare dealing with the administration side of the school. I feel unimportant, not prioritized in the slightest, and a nuisance for wanting to be sure.

UPDATE: Tried to call several times because I was not receiving email responses. Twice, I was on hold for OVER an hour and my phone either died or I had to hang up the phone because I had other things I had to do. Going in person is not convenient for me in any capacity, but I finally went. All I was told was that my transfer application was complete and went through the system... It's also been a week since admissions said they would begin notifying transfer applicants of admission, as Mason students are already registering for classes and I want to secure my spot, too. Radio silence from the admission team. Only email I have received is that my application was received... Which was almost three weeks after I submitted it, by the way.

Currently on hold so I can ask when the admission letters will be administered.

UPDATE #2:
I was finally accepted into the university after I insisted I speak to someone in charge who could actually fix an issue that was never my fault in the first place. So a literal WEEK before classes start, I finally get my damned acceptance. After pulling my hair out, having to call late into work only to be given a shoulder shrug and "there's nothing I can do". I'm going here because it is the most cost effective school for me, so I had no choice but to chase people all over creation. If I had other schools on my lost, I would've turned around long ago because of the absolute nightmare the admissions office has been. I did my part by submitting my application the day that submissions were opened, and I had to wait 3 months for a decision I was told would take 3 weeks. I will get my degree and I sure as hell will not be giving them my money for grad school. All you are is money to them. Another $100k in their pocket. They don't care about you at all.

Low quality education, and campus is dangerous. Campus cops have a reputation for incompetence.

GMU wasn't my first choice. But I now know that choosing to attend Mason is one of rhe best decisions of my life. Lots of programs and activities. Great art program (my major is graphic design). All the instructors ans staff I have encountered have been helpful in every way possible. The facilities are beautiful wirh lotsof great amenities. Love the access to fitness centers with classes at no additional cost. Great food. The only things i would change is that they dont publicize all the activities well to off campus students and tranfer students as well as non traditional students can feel a little left out. And I wish we had football! I tell everyone that I love my school and it's true -- I really do!

I like how open the school is there are many things to do on campus and I like the reasonable class sizes and I love the food! I'm a freshman here getting ready for my spring semester and so far everything is going good! #GMUPRIDE

GMU is a great university! Students are extremely friendly, the professors are great, and the facilities are modern. Yes, you will get a well-rounded college experience, but you come here to get: Jobs High-Paying Jobs! The students that attend this school are very career-focused, and take full advantage of being located near DC and Northern Virginia. Mason students are very driven people, and you will be motivated by your peers who get local internships at the Pentagon, FBI, Capitol Hill, Ernst & Young, World Bank, and the Smithsonian Museum among others.

Give credit where credit is due: Mason is a very young university, founded in 1972, that has grown so much in reputation. In 2016, GMU was the newest member of an elite group: "R1" which is a group of 115 US research universities that perform research at the highest level, ranked by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. I m also amazed to see it climb up the US News rankings so quickly, with many graduate programs in the Top-50. When I started in 2005, GMU was barely a Tier-3 school. For 2016, Mason is a Tier-1 school ranked at #135 (up from #138 in 2015) among all national-level universities, and is #68 among public national-level universities.

So the take-away point is that compared to the expensive private colleges in downtown DC, GMU is the best value school when factoring tuition, quality of life & education, and job prospects. GMU is 19 miles/30 kilometers west of DC in a very safe and wealthy suburban setting in Fairfax County --the #5 wealthiest county in the USA (Forbes, 2015). You have metro/subway access to get to DC, Uber & Lyft options, and a car-friendly campus if you own a vehicle. You get everything good about the DC region for half the price ---or less if you are a Virginia resident.

I am a consultant at a major DC-area technology consulting firm.

-JH

B.S. Public Administration (2011), George Mason University
Master of Business Administration, MBA (2015), University of Maryland

Studying in GMU is better than studying in UVA or other universities in Virginia because of its proximity to NOVA. Students in GMU have access to internships and coops that university students from other more farther universities do not have. I think this is a major major factor that students overlook. Having an internship gives a significant head start to students that graduate early.

One of the Best Schools in the Metropolitan area of Washington D.C....where Innovation is Traditions.

Nice Dorms, Nice Campus, Campus-Cops are chasing cars in the parking lots that don't have the permit - lol.

Worst school ever, nobody knows anything. Things constantly change and they will suck your blood if they can. Offices hours are very inconvenient; they open there office while students are in classes and open closes while students are in break time.

Mason is exactly what its reputation says it is, a great commuter school. If you are planning on living on campus, be prepared to have a lot of headaches. Students in the residence halls are generally rude and lack manners/common courtesy. As far as the housing directors go, they come across as disingenuous as well as incompetent at their jobs. Dont go here unless you are commuting from home or living off campus on your own.

Great Mathematics and Education Departments. Great student clubs. Great people. Go here!

Non-ADA compliant. No acculturation services available. Apathetic Faculty & Staff.

Great faculty who care about your learning, excellent food options, and many ways to be fully involved in the university' culture through sports, clubs, organizations, and fraternities. The career department and job placement is especially exceptional with many opportunities.

Proud to be a patriot! Definitely give the campus a tour.

Very nice atmosphere here. I spent a week here in the summer holiday. Everything is clean and well structured. They have a very good facilities.

Very concerned about rising seniors who were guaranteed 4 years of housing and have worked extremely hard and done very well

Very wonderful campus.
Under construction at the moment at some places on campus but very great experience.
Try to be active in the activities that the university places.
Be careful which professor to choose.