GMU Engineering is really, really bad. In general, the professors teach you nothing and expect a lot in return. They claim that they are against cheating but turn a blind eye when half the class cheats - so that the students that actually care to learn are punished for being honorable when the professor curves and all the cheating imbeciles pass through the classes. Basic rule of thumb: if you graduate from GMU Engineering: you probably cheated.
The university itself is a pretty nice place but if you actually want to learn something from a good, encouraging professor, I strongly recommend to not come here. You will only spend lots of money retaking classes unless you work very, very hard and have lots of free time to kill. How do I know GMU engineering is bad? I did well in all my other classes [including levels of advanced physics and calculus (I, II, III, and IV)] but as soon as I enrolled in the uppers levels of ECE courses, I started having trouble in class.
Best of luck to all students unfortunate enough to be enrolled in GMU engineering, and warnings to those that are considering it!!!

  Glorified community college trying to make strides in the competitive academic market that serves DC.  Solid law and policy programs that are trying to elbow into more local and established schools (Georgetown, Maryland)  The cost versus available programs is the real plus- there is value for the dollar here.  Another plus is the proximity to the cultural opportunities of DC.  The biggest minus is the inablity of the campus and leaders of the school to accept a certain reality- GMU is a commuter-school meant to help the careers of DC natives and less for the traditional 18-23 year-olds. . .but the young pups resent this reality.  The result is a crunched campus that's so culturally and demographically splintered it has no real identity outside of being a non-traditional school with benefits.  GMU has come a long way since its inception and it's competing against more established schools- but it would save itself grief and effort if it was more forthright about its paying customers and academic mission.  And Fairfax (Va.) isn't anything close to a college town or environment.

And I have attended, partied, visited my share of schools in my day but no campus has worse parking or worse logistics with parking issues. The website is also clunky. Like I said, GMU has come a long way- but its leaders have an inflated opinion of the place.

Students are (overall): arrogant, ignorant failures
Tuition: higher than UVA, W&M, JMU, and other tier 1 schools
Quality of academics: currently considered 3rd tier, verging on 4th tier

Mason just shut down one of only 4 campuses. If it doesn't lose accreditation this year, it will be closed by 2012. NOVA, a community college, is widely, rightly considered to be more prestigious.

STAY AWAY!!!!

I love GMU. I wish people would stop calling it a community college, it's a great school with challenging classes and great professors like any other college. Sure it's not W&M or UVa, but at least it's not Radford. I'm a neuroscience major here, which is fantastic they are the only school in VA that offers neurosci as an undergraduate major other than W&M! Not even UVa has it. And the profs for it are amazing. I turned down Virginia Tech for a reason, and I'm glad I made this decision.

After switching around from various schools and landing a GMU I can tell you that everyone is wrong about this school. Not only are we kicking it in basketball this season. But academically we are growing at an exponential rate. Having a nobel prize winning economics teacher gives a boost to our already high standards in the economics department not to mention all the research and national funding coming in, even a grant from NASA for some research and study. We are definately not a glorified community college and are the second largest school in Virginia soon to be first, although the location could be better, it's close enough to D.C. and if you look hard enough there's plenty to occupy your time.

I hear they do the elephant walk.

Perhaps the best economics department in the country. Sure, Fairfax is a little sleepy but proximity to DC is nice, Colonial League athletics are decent -- seems like a good school.

I had always thought of GMU as a glorified community college. Since leaving nova I have occasionally heard some pretty good things about GMU in the academic circles I now find myself in. However, I would never consider attending there because of its location--the heart of Fairfax, suburbia hell.