What Do You Think About GMU? (Radford, Forest: chapel, loan, school)

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Do we need a fifth tier for Norfolk State and Virginia State? And where does UVA-Wise fit?

When my daughter was applying 2008, UVA-Wise had a very generous acceptance rate (you could have a fairly low GPA). For those purposes, it would be down with Radford and ODU.

As far as the quality of education, I actually don't really have any insight on what "tier" to place each school. My "unofficial" ranking structure is just my perception of competitiveness in the application process.

[michgc]

What about VCU?

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by michgc

What about VCU?

Both CAVA and I have them in our Tier 3.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Both CAVA and I have them in our Tier 3.

But they actually have a good medical school. Just like GMU has a tier-one law school. And GWU is full of low-wattage rich kids for undergrad but has selective grad programs.

[fudgesicko]

Here is a post from the start of this year,

//www.city-data.com/forum/north...ax-go-not.html

more specifically, my post of why I think GMU is a horrible university if you are thinking of pursuing the Biology/Chemistry/Physics

"I can't speak for the graduate programs, but I did graduate from George Mason in 2010 with a BS in Biology. For the COS specifically, the professors were adequate, but I wouldn't say they were the best. GMU is known more for their business and law programs (from what I heard). I guess if your Masters is in one of those fields, than you should be fine, if its a program pertaining to the COS, I would definitely look for a different university.

As an aside, cheating is RAMPANT at GMU while I was there; I have never seen a undergrad student body or a faculty that blatantly looks the other way when it comes to this issue. This always bugged me, since about ~90% of the COS undergrads are "pre-med" yet can't pass an introductory physics course withing typing all their notes on the TI-83 calculators. For anyone thinking of pursuing a medical school acceptance after graduating from GMU, you may want to attend another university. Although its possible, the pre-health community at GMU is horrible and only cater to the brownnoser's of the class.

Sorry about the rant, although I graduated from GMU, it left a bad taste in my mouth."

An update to that, I manage to secure a couple of medical school acceptances back in the Summer and Fall of 2010, but I had to jump through multiple hoops that the pre-med committee there had set up. As for academics, I should further elaborate. Not only were the physics classes taught horribly, the chemistry and organic chemistry classes were horrible, with the averages for exams nearing 50% with 20% curves. The departments are ran by professors who had tenure, and couldn't be fired, even though they were old and senile; although this might be a problem at other universities too. If anyone else wants insight into the COS then feel free to shoot me a PM or reply to this thread.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Both CAVA and I have them in our Tier 3.

Whoops, I'm sorry. I'm running on half empty today.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

But they actually have a good medical school. Just like GMU has a tier-one law school. And GWU is full of low-wattage rich kids for undergrad but has selective grad programs.

That's why I caveated in my post where I gave my personal rankings that, program to program, some of the schools in lower tiers might do better than a higher rated school.

[kevbros]

First off, we Virginians should be proud of the variety and quality of the Commonwealth's higher education system. Beyond that, I think the whole ranking/tier thing is fun to do, but not that useful. Each school is different and there is not a straight line spectrum from top to bottom.

Having gone through the process this year, I was surprised at how competitive all the Virginia state schools have become. UVA is still the brass ring. CWM is a close, but definite second, and a much different kind of school. Not everybody who applies to one applies to the other. Tech used to be the clear third, but that seems to have changed. From our high school, most of the kids waitlisted this year at UVA ended up at JMU, not Tech. Tech, GMU, and JMU are all hard to get into, especially from NoVA.

Some have pointed out that ODU in Radford are in the "4th tier.". This may be true in NoVA, but there are plenty of kids in the other parts of the state that had them as their first choice, hard as that seems to believe from our perch in NoVA. CNU has made great strides lately and it's much smaller than the others, so it appeals to many kids for that reason. Be thankful Virginians, we still have a great system from top to bottom.

[marie5v]

Originally Posted by fudgesicko

Here is a post from the start of this year,

//www.city-data.com/forum/north...ax-go-not.html

more specifically, my post of why I think GMU is a horrible university if you are thinking of pursuing the Biology/Chemistry/Physics

"I can't speak for the graduate programs, but I did graduate from George Mason in 2010 with a BS in Biology. For the COS specifically, the professors were adequate, but I wouldn't say they were the best. GMU is known more for their business and law programs (from what I heard). I guess if your Masters is in one of those fields, than you should be fine, if its a program pertaining to the COS, I would definitely look for a different university.

As an aside, cheating is RAMPANT at GMU while I was there; I have never seen a undergrad student body or a faculty that blatantly looks the other way when it comes to this issue. This always bugged me, since about ~90% of the COS undergrads are "pre-med" yet can't pass an introductory physics course withing typing all their notes on the TI-83 calculators. For anyone thinking of pursuing a medical school acceptance after graduating from GMU, you may want to attend another university. Although its possible, the pre-health community at GMU is horrible and only cater to the brownnoser's of the class.

Sorry about the rant, although I graduated from GMU, it left a bad taste in my mouth."

An update to that, I manage to secure a couple of medical school acceptances back in the Summer and Fall of 2010, but I had to jump through multiple hoops that the pre-med committee there had set up. As for academics, I should further elaborate. Not only were the physics classes taught horribly, the chemistry and organic chemistry classes were horrible, with the averages for exams nearing 50% with 20% curves. The departments are ran by professors who had tenure, and couldn't be fired, even though they were old and senile; although this might be a problem at other universities too. If anyone else wants insight into the COS then feel free to shoot me a PM or reply to this thread.

Interesting, because when I said all those negative things about some departments allowing cheating and handing out degrees to anyone, I was thinking specifically of biology and pre-med. I know that some other programs - like education - are very good. Looks like GMU might have an issue with those particular science departments.

[CAVA1990]

Do many kids from TJ go to GMU?