Is GMU a good school

[KittyTwoShoes]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

This study is worse than useless, because of two astounding flaws.

1. It doesn't control for majors. UVA and Wm & Mary have a lot of liberal arts majors--but most of them go on to law, medical, business school, a master's in public policy. They will out-earn the folks from the other schools in 5-10 years but not in the immediate future. OK, so even if you omitted everyone going on to grad school, you still have different majors that earn more in the work force. Of course an IT major from JMU will earn more than a philosophy major from UVA. (Know what you call a philosphy major 10 years into their career? Barista.)

Dumb study.

I agree. Let's take someone who received a degree in Early Childhood education from each of those universities and they all managed to get hired by Fairfax County Public Schools. They're salary will be exactly the same coming in fresh without any previous experience. However, if they all get hired by different counties or even in different States- there would be a discrepancy in salaries.

I have a friend who graduated from William & Mary, but with a degree in Religion and Philosophy, there is a limited working field out there for his chosen major. Then again, I know people who graduated from EPCI in Manassas and makes almost double what the Engineering graduate from UVA or VA Tech makes because his skills in computer programming are in high demand.

[gomason]

The study is not worse than useless. If anything it highlights what a great value GMU is.

What schools graduates are most likely to work in high paying jobs in DC? Probably the school that is closest.

Secondly, GMU is not known for its engineering school like VT or have a medical school at all like UVA and VCU, which means that UVA and VCU are going to obviously have a lot of highly paid doctor and engineer graduates unlike GMU.

You're right that this study has its faults but saying it's useless is an exaggeration.

Also, there are reports out there that break down graduate salaries by schools in VA but I don't feel like finding that for you.

[scimitar12]

I work for a contractor in support of several initiatives including homeland security and energy. Mason is very active collaborating with Federal agencies in these areas.

Originally Posted by Megadell

Northern VA is a commuter school, people go, and leave, or they do it online.

That said, it's a good school, doesn't carry the prestige as some other schools, as it's not very old, but in the DMV area it's plenty well known.

And fortunately, it's very close to DC, which means if you wanna hang out and have fun, just go to DC, more than enough bars, restaurants, museums, the zoo, whatever, you name it.

At the company I work at, half the employees are from GMU. Any place in the area that does hiring in the area, is going to hit GMU, it's the biggest school in VA and features pretty much every program you can imagine, save for a medical school.

Also from what I've read, they are considering expanding greatly down at the Manassas area, as they have so much undeveloped land.

It's a good school, that's only on it's way up. Location location location. DC is doing very well, so too will GMU.