<p>bump on the basketball comment! Basketball is great at mason, great student spirit. JMU is a good school, but if you are looking for a good job go to GMU and do internships. You can live on-campus for a low price compared to the off-campus price and then for your junior and senior years, intern in dc or northern va and you will have a great job when you leave. If this were 10 years ago I would choose JMU, but GMU has changed dramatically over the last few years and is growing and the facilities are amazing. I really think you would like GMU better. For public schools either go UVA, VT or GMU for virginia.</p>
<p>I’d rank the big in state schools in a few levels.
Level 1: UVA, William & Mary, Richmond
Level 2: Va. Tech, JMU
Level 3: ODU, VCU, GMU
Level 4: Radford, Liberty</p>
<p>Really, all of those schools are good in certain areas and I’ve known people who have been very happy at almost all of them. Think about what programs you may want to major in and see what is good at each school. For example, Engineering is really good at Va. Tech, UVA and ODU while Political Science and Economics are good at GMU. JMU has a good liberal arts and education program and VCU is good for art. VCU, UVA and ODU have good pre-med programs. Richmond and GMU are good in law. Liberty… well, religious studies I guess. 
VCU, ODU & GMU have the best basketball programs, while obviously VT has the best football, followed by UVA, Richmond, JMU, WM & ODU. Good luck.</p>
<p>@zatoony</p>
<p>Univ of Richmond and Liberty are not state schools.</p>
<p>Other state schools are CNU, UMW, Norfolk state, Longwood, Virgina state.</p>
<p>US NEWS RANKINGS OF VIRGINIA SCHOOLS 2010 (This is a national ranking)</p>
<h1>25 UVA</h1>
<h1>31 William and Mary</h1>
<h1>69 Virginia Tech</h1>
<h1>143 George Mason University</h1>
<h1>167 Virginia Commonwealth University</h1>
<p>Tier 2- Old Dominion University</p>
<p>Unless you know exactly what your career plan is school is about where you’ll thrive. If you don’t know your professional path yet then go with where you think you’ll be most engaged, not necessarily where you’ll feel the most comfortable.</p>
<p>Comment #3: That was rude. How about just “thanks.” Sorry, I’m in a persnickity mood.</p>
<p>Don’t believe everything you read in USNWR, as has been debated ad naseum for years. I wasn’t impressed with the caliber of students when I had ocassion to be on the JMU campus years ago. However, some years later I met a very intelligent JMU alumni varsity athlete originally from New York City. He was very positive about his undergraduate days at JMU.</p>
<p>As for GMU, I agree that “up and coming” is a good description for a school that already has a couple of very strong departments, Economics being one. Overall, I estimate that GMU is stronger than some non-Virginians realize. And it seems that the school has done just about all it can to enhance campus life. Reputedly the new Residence Halls are great places to live. The administration can’t help it if a lot of students make their way back home or to Washington and Baltimore on the weekends. I imagine the admissions office could make an additional effort to attract extroverted students who might make campus life more lively. But that’s obviously the luck of the draw. This is one instance where a football team at the school might make a difference. Don’t look for one at GMU anytime soon.</p>
<p>I’d pick JMU</p>
<p>JMU all the way. These are both very popular schools for kids at my HS, being in-state, and I’ve known several to go to GMU and hate it/ transfer, but everyone who goes to JMU loves it.</p>
<p>Plus, the mountains around JMU are gorgeous, and GMU is in a pretty grimy area.</p>
<p>I think GMU is a pretty weak school overall, but in radical libertarian circles (think anarcho-capitalism, not Milton Friedman) their economics program is well regarded. GMU is home to the Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies, which are both very important organizations in the libertarian movement. I have to imagine that this would provide good opportunities for a driven and intelligent undergraduate. </p>
<p>[Mercatus</a> Center - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center]Mercatus”>Mercatus Center - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[Institute</a> for Humane Studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Humane_Studies]Institute”>Institute for Humane Studies - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Facing this exact dilemna with my daughter. She’s rejected the NY SUNY offers (including Binghamton - ouch!) in favor of a southern school since she’s laid back. She wants strong school spirit (like her brother’s school - Syracuse). She wants Int’l relations with a view to the State Dept and grad school at Georgetown.</p>
<p>So far GMU has offered her honors program and $27K in annual scholarships/grants; JMU has yet to make a financial offer (other than acceptance), should be any day now.</p>
<p>We did the pros/cons - GMU gives her internship/career opportunities, JMU suits her easy going personality. However, she is definitely not the sorority type and wants a diversified school (coming from the NYC area, she has friends of all races, religions, and sexual orientations and would be uncomfortable around anyone who discriminates, hence her choice of career - to help people!).</p>
<p>She loves skiing, so JMU is a plus there. But she loves football, so GMU has the Redskins nearby. </p>
<p>Can anyone offer advice before I go completely grey! Thanks!</p>
<p>LOL - that’s sweet WilPowerMom. I’m sure that by now your daughter has probably already made a decision, however I’d gladly like to share with you some of my knowledge on the two schools. I (from the NYC area, so can relate) live here in Northern Virginia close to gmu and I have to say that it is VERY diverse, and full of school pride, and respectably known in this DC METRO area, but the campus activity is not very engaging. Most students are commuters and the ones on campus spend their time in DC for fun stuff. JMU, from what I have been hearing, is very social on campus. Lots of parties, awesome food, just about everything is student-run on that campus. So hopefully that helps, and I hope that your daughter enjoys where ever she decides to go. (I agree with you on the “ouch” about Binghamton) :P</p>
<p>George Mason is definitely more prestigious and more internationally renonwned due to its strong academics, however James Madison is located in Harrisonburg which is a “college town” so it does have a better party scene.</p>
<p>GMU>JMU </p>
<p>JMU attracts a lot of rednecks due to its rural area. GMU attracts international students and thus it is very diverse. GMU is no longer a commuter school because as of today it has more than 6000 students living on campus so it is truly a residential university.</p>
<p>For anything international gmu is the best bet. Arguably better than UVA due to internship opportunities and professors. Jmu is not an option for her areas of interest.</p>
<p>GMU ranked 112th in North America while JMU 463rd. See [James</a> Madison University | Ranking & Review](<a href=“http://www.4icu.org/reviews/6781.htm]James”>James Madison University Ranking & Review 2003 [uniRank])</p>
<p>It seems to me that GMU has a much better name recognition as well, and I would guess that Most college professors in America wouldhave heard of GMU, while most would not have heard of JMU.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at JMU and loves it. He feels that it is the perfect college experience – high quality academics focused on undergraduates (no teaching assistants, and all but one of his five classes each semester has had under 50 students), a balanced social life, a vibrant, residential campus with lots of activities, lots of school spirit, and an extremely friendly student body. From the parent perspective and talking to parents who have students at GMU; JMU is less bureaucratic and is one of the best run colleges in the state. JMU also has fantastic outreach to parents, which GMU does not in particular. It is also much more residential than GMU – most kids stay on campus for weekends, and the town of Harrisonburg is a quaint, fun college town that is a lot less expensive for students to enjoy than Fairfax is. GMU still has a commuter flavor, despite trying hard to get students to live on campus. JMU has a much greater level of school spirit in the traditional college sense – big football stadium with lots of tailgating, picnics and other events surrounding the games. The JMU campus is beautiful, and the opportunities for outdoor activities are phenomenal, partially due to its location in the Shenandoah Valley and partially due to the fabulous, well-run University Rec Center (UREC). JMU is much more concerned about the undergrad experience, while GMU has a huge graduate component so undergrads at GMU sometimes end up being taught by teaching assistants. They are both great schools but quite different in some quality of life aspects. The freshman experience at JMU is one of the best in the state (the other is W&M). You have to consider what atmosphere you want – traditional college (JMU), big city (GMU), spirited campus (JMU), more diversity (GMU), more residential (JMU), closer to DC (GMU), more outdoorsy(JMU), or more social (JMU). Those are just some things to consider to help you make up your mind.</p>
<p>Georgetown is the better school. Then UVA.</p>
<p>I don’t know what rankings you are looking at, but generally JMU is ranked more highly for undergraduate education, which presumably this person is interested in. Rankings are a joke anyway though, because every ranking comes out differently depending on how that particular ranker manipulates the statistics. The admissions standards for undergrads at JMU are higher than those of GMU (i.e. JMU average entering student GPA is 3.8 while GMU is about a 3.5 or 3.6. The GMU SAT averages are slightly lower, and only 58% of the students were in the top quarter of their high school class in contrast to about 75% who were in the top quarter at JMU). Part of this is because many top students in Northern Virginia high schools (which are some of the best in the country) want to get outside of the NOVA area for college – the pecking order is generally UVA and W&M top tier, Va Tech and JMU second tier, Mary Wash and GMU next tier, and on down…at least among state schools. And VA schools have such strong student bodies that even their bottom tiers equal the normal, flagship schools in many states. They also attract lots of out-of-state students. About 30% of the students at JMU are from out of state, so that shows that many people beyond VA have heard of it; while only 10-15% of students at GMU are from out of state. JMU is still better known outside of VA than GMU. JMU students have great luck with getting jobs and into graduate school, mostly because employers and grad schools know their main focus is undergraduate students who get to participate in research and aren’t taught by teaching assistants. A young lady in my neighborhood graduated last year with a degree in Chemistry from JMU and was accepted into Yale medical school, which she said was because of the small classes and personal attention from professors she got while at JMU, and she also had lots of great research experience – a key getting into med school. At Mason, where the focus is heavily graduate level, undergrads do not have nearly as small classes or face time with professors, and they don’t have the research opportunities that JMU students have, at least not to as great an extent. Also, at JMU, the professors all live right near campus and are easy to reach for help, whereas many GMU undergrad professors are adjunct and commute home in rush hour just like all the other stressed DC area workers. Some GMU profs are hard for students to connect with, because they often only teach one class and/or are part-time and commute long distances. JMU is a class-act, well run university that focuses on undergraduates, and the quality of the student body is only a tad less competitive than UVA and W&M.</p>
<p>I think the large contingent of students from Northern VA, VA Beach, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and further away would not like being referred to as “rednecks.” The country folk who live around that area of Virginia (and who may or may not be rednecks), generally do not attend the university. And among the kids at my son’s high schools, across the board, the stronger students consistently choose JMU over GMU. There are exceptions of course, but as a general rule, GMU is not usually a first choice among top students coming out of NOVA high schools, unless for some reason they need or want to be close to home. The very top students choose UVA or W&M, closely followed by VA Tech and JMU. Many also choose Mary Washington and GMU – but it is inaccurate to say that GMU has such a world renowned reputation – that’s more Georgetown or GW. It’s a fine school, but there are shortcomings to its commuter type campus for a student who wants a traditional college atmoshphere and highly school spirited experience. It is true that GMU is much more diverse, with a high concentration of recent immigrant students from all over the world; but just because JMU isn’t as diverse, doesn’t mean it has no diversity and that everyone is a “redneck.” Nothing could be further from the truth. And there is a Greek scene at JMU, but it is very chill and doesn’t dominate everything. Nobody feels any pressure to join it.</p>