Is George Mason Univsity NA/RA/ or what??

Does anyone know if Greoge mason university accredited? has anyone ever gone there? thier certificate programs looks interesting to me. I just want some input or feedback.

 

George Mason University is regionally accredited.

You can verify this with the link below.

http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.aspx

 

Accredited and high quality

GMU is the former branch campus of the University of Virginia, and went independent (although still part of the State system) roughly a quarter century ago. They are very highly regarded.

 

Thank you very much.

 

George Mason is a big enough school to field championship caliber basketball teams. They reached the Final Four in the 2006 NCAA tournament.

 

Commonwealth of Virgina Public Universities

Virginia has several public universities with names that almost sound millish, which helps confuse those not willing or able to do good research:

Christopher Newport University www.cnu.edu
College of William and Mary www.wm.edu
George Mason University www.gmu.edu
James Madison University www.jmu.edu
Longwood University www.longwood.edu
Norfolk State University www.nsu.edu
Old Dominion University www.odu.edu
Radford University www.radford.edu
University of Mary Washington www.umw.edu

Then there are the ones that do sound legite:

University of Virginia www.virginia.edu
University of Virginia's College at Wise www.wise.virginia.edu
Virginia Commonwealth University www.vcu.edu
Virginia Military Institute www.vmi.edu
Virginia State University www.vsu.edu
Virginia Tech www.vt.edu


Note as to Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia does not class itself as a state but rather it's offical title is: The Commonwealth of Virginia http://www.virginia.gov/cmsportal3/

 

As a VA native two of the "millish" schools you listed...William & Mary and JMU...are better than all the ones you put in the second category except UVa. W & M is on par with UVa for quality/tough admissions.

Mason has a good reputation in the state...it's in Northern VA and isn't considered on par with George Washington or Georgetown just up the road in D.C., but it's good. Really more of a "commuter" school...kind of has the rep of catering to Northern VA kids who couldn't get in to UVa or W & M.

 

The College of William and Mary sounds ultra-legitimate to me. In fact it's the second oldest higher education institution in the United States behind Harvard, dating back to 1693. (It really was chartered by William and Mary, British monarchs after the revolution of 1688.) It has a very picturesque campus in Williamsburg with its old buildings adjoining the restored section of Virginia's old colonial capital.

William and Mary is about as close to the ivy-league as state universities can get, with the elite tone, median SATs in the 1300's and 83% of its students in the top 10% of their high-school class. Thomas Jefferson is a W&M alum, though he hasn't shown up at reunions for some time.

 

And let's not forget that the Old Dominion womens basketball team (the Lady Monarchs) has an impressive history that includes an NCAA finals appearance.

 

READ WHAT I WROTE! I did not, nor did I even intimate that any of these schools where anything but great schools. My point was, and still is, that NO ONE can tell by name alone the quality of the school with out other information.

You MUST research the school. Some of the best schools have names, that to the uninformed can be confusing.

 

"Championship Caliber" is somewhat debatable...

 

Greoge Mason is not accredited... George Mason is.. and it's a VERY well known state school.

 

George Mason IS accredited. It has SACS accreditation.

 

Many of these schools are named after historical individuals relating to Virginia. Christopher Newport, my alma mater, is named for Captain Christopher Newport, one of the leaders of the Jamestown expedition. He was essentially John Smith's boss. CNU actually began as a two-year branch of the College of William and Mary. If anyone is stupid enough to think that the College of William and Mary is a degree mill, they don't deserve a degree. That school is amazing. (My wife earned her MAED there.) On a trivia note, the school is actually a university, but the school's charter says it shall always be known as the College of William and Mary.

George Mason and James Madison are obviously named for 2 of the country's founding fathers. Longwood was formerly Longwood College and was started as a teacher's school. Obviously it has grown quite a bit since then and has many new programs. It became a university about 2 years ago.

Norfolk State is an HBCU (Historically Black College or University). It has a good reputation, and a decent amount of programs, although practically anyone with a pulse can get in. I've had some students go there who were lucky to be able to write their name.

Old Dominion is named for Virginia, whose nickname is the "Old Dominion". My sister earned her BS from there. I had enrolled in their MA in History program, but had to drop out due to financial reasons. It's a great school though. They have a booming education program. They started PHD's in education a few years ago and the department has been growing since.

Radford University is considered a party school, mostly because it has one of the highest rates of STDs in the country. I have a colleague who went there, which doesn't surprise me because I'm almost positive he's a pot head. I know others who have gone there and loved it though, and not for the parties.

Finally the University of Mary Washington, formerly Mary Washington College, is named for the mother of George Washington. Mary Ball Washington was actually born across the street from the high school where I work.

Virginia is full of history, and it's because of that history that many of our colleges and universities bear names related to historical people or places.

Sorry... I'm a Virginian... and a history nerd!

-Matt

 

Go back and read the quoted sentence closely - much more closely.

 

Gotcha... classic case of the brain reading and correcting other people's typos.

 

Before there was the Ivy League, there were the nine colonial colleges, whose modern names are: Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Rutgers University, the College of William & Mary, and Yale University. The two colonial colleges not in the Ivy League, Rutgers and William & Mary, are both state universities nowadays, with Cornell University (founded 1854) having been added to the Ivies, even though it was not one of the colonial colleges.

 

Why does a state university's name "sound millish" if it does not have the state's name in it?

 

From my vantage point a continent away, it looks like Virginia has one of America's most interesting and impressive state university systems.

George Mason University is one of the newer ones, but it's growing very rapidly along with the whole northern Virginia region. Satellite campuses all over, new programs appearing all the time and a growing national reputation.

Here's its current lineup of programs:

http://www.gmu.edu/acadexcel/

Perhaps because of its proximity to Washington DC, GMU seems to be active in Homeland Security-type stuff. For example, they offer a unique Ph.D. program in Biodefense.

Getting back to William and Mary, I think that of all the university campuses that I've visited over the years, W&M might be the one that I like the best.

It has the oldest college building still in use in the United States, constructed in 1695. The campus has a slightly Oxbridgian feel, but with (in the summer at least) a lush green subtropical tidewater effect that makes it kind of unique.

The Phi Beta Kappa honor society was started at W&M in 1776. George Washington got his surveyor's license there and later returned as the college's Chancellor. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler and James Monroe did undergraduate degrees at W&M and the college was the site of America's first law school.

http://www.wm.edu/about/history/index.php

As you might predict, William and Mary's Ph.D. program in History is a national leader in American colonial history. The town of Williamsburg itself is a fascinating living museum of 18'th century colonial life and Colonal National Historical Park with Jamestown and Yorktown are associated with it.

But W&M isn't just living in the past. The college hosts the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and its Ph.D. programs in Physics and Applied Science are tight with the nearby Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory and NASA Langley Research Center. And for what it's worth, the CIA's secretive rural base ("the farm") is right outside of Williamsburg.

 

W&M, archaeology, and candy

Bill,

We visited the campus every time we were in Williamsburg. My wife and I enjoy exploring college campuses around the country. UVA and Washington & Lee are great campuses too, but W&M was our favorite in Virginia. It has a unique character, and it's well integrated into the architecture of the surrounding town.

One of the best experiences we had was when we came upon some students participating in an archaeological dig on the campus, trying to ascertain the layout and materials of the original gardens destroyed in a fire. I believe their long-term plan is to restore the landscaping in parts to its original 17th/early 18th C. format. Our daughter (6 at the time) was home schooling and very interested, so she got a complete tour and explanation. Now in addition to her long-established plans to run a candy store when she grows up, she plans to be an archaeologist as well.