George Mason University

It's not really that the students at mason go out of their way to be rude, it's just that most of them want to kind of be "come and go friends" to you. They'll participate in small talk during, and just before and after class, but if you try to ask anyone what they're doing on the weekends, if they've heard of any parties, or if they want to hang out, most of them are like "Whooah, dude, we're not really friends like that". Face it: This is the high school extension of cliquey, upscale suburban fairfax-area northern virginia. People don't want to hang out with you because they're already got their own thing going. It's not really that personal. A lot of kids are from the northern virginia area, and Mason has an okay, name, which, of course, means it's going to be full of lots of local people. If mason had a crappy name or northern virginia wasn't the suburb of DC, it might be a different story. It's just the nature of the area being ethnically diverse and all of that as well that makes mason the way it is, and word to the wise: it's not going to change. I know people that went to mason in the late 1970's and they said it was the same way, and even then, people were saying, "Mason's up and coming, it's going to soon be a great school that people will kill to get in here". Take it for what it's worth. If any of these apply, you should seriously consider transferring out: 1. If you're not from the area, 2. or you just don't know anyone here, and 3. you can't get into on campus housing (like most people), 4. You're not too far into your program. You'll save yourself a whole lot of nerve-wreck, and may even find an enjoyable college experience.

4th Year Female -- Class 2004

I just think it's funny how all the sales literature and brochures that go out about the school show lots of young, college-aged people (mainly white too) hanging out, having a good time, playing games and studying together in their dorms.

And they boast the student population as "30,000 strong" or however many go there now, but this is clearly dishonest. Those kids that live on campus and hang out are such a small fraction of the student body, because of the housing problem and commuter culture. Most of that 30,000 or so are actually older people, housewives, going-back-to-college to get their degrees, etc. and commuters who don't take part in that "hanging out" on-campus culture (mainly because they can't)

The population is also largely ethnic minorities. There is of course, nothing wrong with this, but they need to be more honest in showing what the environment is like. The brochures show people of diverse background all hanging out together, when we all know full-well that the closely knit ethnic circles only hang out with their own.

When I enrolled, I was told to forget about living in the dorms. On campus housing is extremely scarce, and there's this system rigged so that people already on campus get priority in applying, so they get on campus, year-to-year, and you can never get in.All-in-al, don't base your decision to go to Mason off of the college literature, or these partial "positive", sales-reviews. I bet some of these people are either on the Mason staff or are paid to say this stuff. You need to go to the actual campus and check it out before deciding. And when you see nothing but people rushing around, not looking at or talking to anyone around them, talking on their cell phones or hanging out in their little exclusive cliques, it's pretty clear what you'll decide.

4th Year Female -- Class 2004

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Education Quality: F