Submitted by: Gretchen and son, Stefan G.
We were the only ones who showed up for a 1:30 scheduled tour at George Mason U so we got a private meeting with one of the admissions officers and a campus tour by 2 wonderful students, one a junior from Richmond, VA majoring in government and a freshman from NY majoring in Russian studies. These boys could not say enough good things about GMU and said they loved the diversity of GMU and the fact that it was so close to DC. They mentioned a free shuttle to the metro, free laundry in the dorms and some amazing technologies such as being able to tell from your computer that a washing machine was free so you wouldn’t have to haul your dirty laundry across the campus only to find there were no washing machines available (only a mother would remember this).
Both Stefan and I were really impressed with GMU and we learned that dorms are guaranteed when you are accepted and that they are building more on the ~700 acre campus as well as a new science and engineering building. Stefan got to see the dorms, the wonderful main student union called Johnson Center and a lot of the other buildings on campus. There was a campus feeling, which Stefan noticed in comparison to NOVA and he really liked it.
The Director said total enrollment is now 30,000 including graduate students and other campuses and that they didn’t intend to grow any more. There are about 2300 freshman accepted every year. Of freshmen that apply about 52% were accepted last year with an average grade of “B” –which he carefully explained– means that some were lower and some were higher. They will accept activities statements and an extra essay in lieu of SATS or ACTS. He said their essay is easy in comparison to some of the strange ones other schools ask for.
Good point about average GPAs. Too often students get scared away from applying to a school because their GPA is just a little below the average. If George Mason has an average GPA of 3.0, that means that for every 4.0 they accept, they accept a 2.0!! Of course, the real statistics break down a bit differently than that — there’s a lot of students who are close to the average, but GPA by itself is rarely a disqualifying factor if there are other circumstances.
If you are interested in the “real statistics” for a particular college they can be found in The College Board College Handbook- – 2008., 45th Edition.(it has over 2000 pages)
For GMU -Freshman Class Profile -
GPA 3.5 or higher – 37%
GPA 3.0-3.49 55%
GPA 2.0 – 2.99 8%
SAT and ACT scores and much more can also be found in this book.
It is a great resource.