<p>Hey guys, I'm now completing my first semester at GMU. I can remember senior year when I checked this site religiously so I want to give back and answer any questions that any of ya'll have HONESTLY. I am an involved freshman at George Mason University. If you talk to an administrator, they can verify that I used my GMU email address to create this account. So with all that out of the way....ask and you shall receive!</p>
<p>What is your favorit dining hall?</p>
<p>Mason has a lot of dining options but my favorite would have to be Pilot House. It’s a restaurant style place open from 5pm-5am on weekdays and 9pm-5am on weekends. They have great options (my favorite is the bbq pulled pork sliders). They’re known for their pizza, wings, and other sandwich offerings. I hope this provided some good insight on gmu dining!</p>
<p>what dorm do you think is best for freshmen ?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if the deadline has past yet or not but if you can apply to honors…then apply to honors! The students in the honors college have the best dorms for freshmen. They live in Eastern Shore, a suite-style building divided into different pods with large common rooms with a big screen tv, couches, a full kitchen, etc. If you go to the GMU website ([Welcome</a> to George Mason University](<a href=“http://www.gmu.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.gmu.edu/)) the first picture on the scrolling picture is what an Eastern Shore common room looks like.</p>
<p>If you’re not in honors college, there are 2-3 options- President’s Park, University Commons, or Dominion. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different response for which area is better. The Park is farther way from things on campus (only about a 5 minute walk to Southside, our main dining facility) but the dorms are newer. The Commons are adjacent to Southside but the rooms and bathrooms are much older than the park. So when you put your preferences down keep this in mind. I live in the park and love it. The Park houses more freshmen too.</p>
<p>Dominion is a suite-style housing that is right next to University Commons. Although it is also closer to things on campus, the building itself is older. In my opinion, I would select living in the Park or Commons over Dominion. With suite-style housing, you share a bathroom between two double rooms. However, you are responsible for maintaining and cleaning it. If you live in the Park or Commons, nice cleaning people clean the hallway and bathrooms for you (and restock your toilet paper, paper towels, trashbags, etc). If you live in Dominion, be prepared for those extra responsibilities with living in a suite!</p>
<p>I hope this answer and nice and thorough for you!</p>
<p>I’m an out of state student who would not know anyone if I went to Mason, do you think it is easy to get to know people and do you feel that Mason is still a commuter school? I’ve heard both that it is and it isn’t. I know that they are working hard to keep up weekend activities and keeping kids on campus, but has it worked?</p>
<p>S is an out of state freshman at Mason. He has had absolutely no problem meeting people and he met quite a few students from our area - NY. He is very happy at Mason.</p>
<p>@zmvnyy</p>
<p>Meeting people shouldn’t be that big of an issue. I have a few tips just in case though. I’m an in-state student who has plenty of OOS friends.</p>
<p>1) Take advantage of orientation. During summer orientation, you’re divided into small groups where you learn about things from your Patriot Leader. Some of my closest friends are people I met at orientation. Make sure you keep in touch over facebook too!</p>
<p>2) Get involved. Everyone has at least ONE interest and I’m sure Mason has at least ONE organization that caters to it ([Student</a> Involvement :: Recognized Student Organizations @ Mason](<a href=“http://si.gmu.edu/orgs/recognized_orgs.php]Student”>http://si.gmu.edu/orgs/recognized_orgs.php)). If you did something in high school, continue with it in college. George Mason also has numerous club sports that you can walk-on if you want to continue your athletic involvement. You can also try GMU’s Fraternity and Sorority Life. There are over 35 social, multicultural, and academic fraternities and sororities on campus. Finally, Mason is also home to a plethora of religious (and secular) organizations where you can find people with your same beliefs. Being a part of an organization allows you to always have people you can fall back onto if things ever get rough in college. You also get to bond as a group and meet new people!</p>
<p>3) Mutual friends. Mason’s a big school but there are lots of opportunities to meet people. One of my friends is from Colorado but lo and behold someone that lives two floors above her went to her rival school back in Colorado. Someone I met through a friend I made at orientation lives in the county adjacent to mine and two weekends ago, I got a ride back down home with him. Although you might not meet someone who lives EXACTLY where you do, I’m sure you’ll make friends who at least live around where you do back home.</p>
<p>George Mason is located in Fairfax County, a municipality where 1/7 of Virginia’s population lives. Northern Virginia is Virginia’s most populous area. Since you have a school in this vibrant area, you will have quite a few people who come, learn, and leave. These people however most likely won’t be the ones looking for university life or campus involvement. A number of upperclassmen also choose to live off campus. Keeping this in mind, at Mason you get the best of both worlds- a large school and a medium school. You get the academic, organizational, and athletic opportunities of a large, Division 1 school but you still get the close community of the students who live on campus.</p>
<p>85% of the freshman class lives on campus so don’t feel like everyone’s gonna leave you in the afternoon. GMU is always adding on construction. In 2012, the first part of Student Housing VIIIA will be up, eventually adding up to 600 more beds on campus (I don’t have exact numbers so don’t quote me on that). Steps are being taken to increase the number of beds on campus.</p>
<p>Weekends @ Mason (<a href=“http://www.weekends.gmu.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://www.weekends.gmu.edu</a>) plans lots of different things to do to. Who knows? Maybe you can get involved, work for Weekends, and plan things for people to do.</p>
<p>I hope this answered everything for you!</p>
<p>I know when I visited GMU they boasted about the endless opportunities for internships. As a future political science/international relations major do you see the availability of internships as easy as the admissions office made it?</p>
<p>@pantherprance</p>
<p>There are lots of opportunities and most (if not all) majors allow you to get credit for your internship. The Northern VA area is probably one of the few areas not affected by our current economic situation. In fact, Fairfax and Loudoun are head-to-head on which area has the highest income. Tysons Corner, located in Fairfax County, is often called the Silicon Valley of the East Coast due to the high concentration of technology firms in the area. Tysons has 46 million square feet of office and retail space. I’m sure there’s something there!</p>
<p>As for more political things, being in the Washington Metropolitan Area is a great place! Think about it like this, lots of people seek Congressional internships during the summer to work for free in a Congressman’s office. However, during the school year, your only competition for these internships are students in that go to schools in Northern VA, DC, and parts of Maryland. That really cuts down the applicant pool and increases your chances at landing one. </p>
<p>I’m a Government major at Mason and once a month we get an email from someone in our department with pages and pages of internship details and how to apply. The Career Services Office on campus will even help you with your resume, give you a mock job interview, and assist you in other ways with your internship quests. There’s also the HireMason website that’s pretty much like a Snag-A-Job for GMU students.</p>
<p>I hope this addresses everything for you!</p>
<p>I have a quick question…do you know if there is a Mid-year report or anything due to George Mason to show them my first semester grades? I have already been accepted so I don’t know if they want this or just a final report.</p>
<p>Check your online status for items that the Admissions office needs from you.</p>
<p>On the Admissions website ([George</a> Mason University Office of Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.gmu.edu/common/nextSteps.asp]George”>Next Steps for Admitted Students | George Mason University)) there is no mention of a mid-year report but it discusses sending in your final report. I would contact the Admissions Office just to double check though!</p>
<p>How strong is this schools music program? Particularly for it’s price range.</p>
<p>I’m not a music major so i don’t know much about the School of Music or ranking or anything like that but check their website to learn more!</p>
<p>But what I CAN tell you is that lots of different performing arts groups do concerts, recitals, plays, etc on one of the campus’s many venues and that students get tickets to these performances either free or at a large discount. Also, the Kennedy Center is just a heartbeat away in DC.</p>
<p>Sorry I’m not much help here! But go to ([George</a> Mason University School of Music > Student Resources >](<a href=“http://music.gmu.edu/prospective/apply/ugrad.html]George”>http://music.gmu.edu/prospective/apply/ugrad.html)) for audition information.</p>
<p>Hey! I applied before the Dec 1 deadline and I was wondering when to expect to find out if I have been accepted?</p>
<p>And also, how would you describe the social life at Mason?</p>
<p>@LoveKynni: I applied around the same time as you, and just heard back (in email form) today, so, hopefully, you’ll hear from them soon.</p>
<p>@LoveKynni.</p>
<p>I was accepted and heard back today. Good luck!</p>
<p>@LoveKynni</p>
<p>Well I hope the above replies gave you some sort of idea. If not, contact the Office of Admissions for an update.</p>
<p>GMU is what you make of it. Being such a big and diverse campus, there’s a little bit of everything and there’s every type of person/scene you can get involved with. For example, Fraternity and Sorority Life exists on campus but it isn’t the main/only thing around. Or if you’re a gamer, there are people like you out there. Mason is truly balanced.</p>
<p>The people who attend Mason are also generally nice and friendly.</p>
<p>I hope that answers your question!</p>
<p>@Virginiaangel93 and theFrap congrats on your acceptance! You guys must be stoked! And when did you guys send in your applications? I sent mine in towards the end of Nov.</p>
<p>@GMUWHAT14 I emailed them yesterday and haven’t gotten a reply yet, but hopefully I will soon! And thanks for that, it was truly helpful! I was worried that the ‘Frat’ scene would rule over the campus, but I am glad to hear that it doesn’t.</p>
<p>I have never been inside a Chesapeake dorm (Piedmont, Blue Ridge, etc). Do you know whether the walls in those are cinder block or dry-wall?</p>
<p>Also, Northern Neck vs. Hampton Roads vs. Chesapeake?</p>
<p>Did you go to a housing info. session? Is it hard to get in Northern as a rising soph? </p>
<p>Just planning for housing app on the 16…</p>