George Mason University

 

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George Mason University


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School Location

  
George Mason University
4400 University Dr
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444		 General information
 (703) 993-1000

Type of institution: Public, 4-year or above
Federal Aid: Institution has a Program Participation Agreement with the US Department of Education for eligible students to receive Pell Grants and other federal aid.
Degrees offered: Bachelor degrees, Certificates/Postbaccalaureate Certificates, Masters degrees, Certificates/Post-Master's Certificates, Doctor's degrees, First-Professional degrees
Carnegie classification: Research Universities (high research activity)
Number of students: 30,276 (2007)
2009-2008 Undergraduate application fee:$ 70

Mission
George Mason University will be an institution of international academic reputation providing superior education for students to develop critical, analytical, and imaginative thinking and to make well-founded ethical decisions. It will respond to the call for interdisciplinary research and teaching, not simply by adding programs but by rethinking the traditional structure of the academy. The university will prepare students to address the complex issues facing them in society and to discover meaning in their own lives. It will encourage diversity in its student body and will meet the needs of students by providing them with interdisciplinary and innovative undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses. The university will energetically seek ways to interact with and serve the needs of the student body. The university will nurture and support a faculty that is diverse, innovative, excellent in teaching, active in pure and applied research, and responsive to the needs of students and the community. The faculty will embody the university's interactive approach to change both in the academy and in the world. The university will be a resource of the Commonwealth of Virginia serving private and public sectors. It will be an intellectual and cultural nexus between Northern Virginia, the nation, and the world. (Adopted January 1991)
 
About this School
George Mason University, GMU, or Mason is a Public University in the United States. It is located in the suburbs of Washington, DC, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It currently operates campuses in Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William, with another campus in Loudoun County set to open in 2009. The university was founded in 1957 and named after American revolutionary, patriot and founding father George Mason.
 
History
George Mason University can trace its roots back to the 1950s when the Virginia state legislature passed a resolution, in January of 1956, to establish a branch college of the University of Virginia in Northern Virginia. In September of 1957 the new college opened its doors to seventeen students, all of whom enrolled as freshmen in a renovated elementary school building at Bailey's Crossroads. John Norville Gibson Finley served as Director of the new branch, which was known as University College. The City of Fairfax, Virginia, then the Town of Fairfax, purchased and donated 150 acres of land to the University of Virginia for the college's new location, which was referred to as the Fairfax Campus. In 1959 the Board of Visitors of UVa selected a permanent name for the college: George Mason College of the University of Virginia. The Fairfax campus construction planning that began in early 1960 showed visible results when the development of the first forty acres of Fairfax Campus began in 1962. In the Fall of 1964 the new campus welcomed 356 students. Local jurisdictions of Fairfax County, Arlington County, and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church agreed to appropriate $3 million to purchase land adjacent to GMC to provide for a 600 acre Fairfax Campus in 1966 with the intention that the institution would expand into a regional university of major proportions, including the granting of graduate degrees. On April 7, 1972 the Virginia General Assembly enacted legislation which separated George Mason College from its parent institution, the University of Virginia. Renamed that day by the legislation, GMC became George Mason University. In 1979 GMU opened its law school in Arlington by acquiring the International School of Law, which was a private institution that had recently attained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA). By 1981 the law school, now known as the George Mason University School of Law (GMUSL), gained full ABA accreditation. Also, in 1979, the university moved all of its athletic programs to NCAA Division I. Enrollment that year passed 11,000. The university opened its Arlington campus in 1982, two blocks from the Virginia Square-GMU station in Arlington. In 1986 the university's governing body, the Board of Visitors, approved a new master plan for the year based on an enrollment of 20,000 full-time students with housing for 5,000 students by 1995. That same year university housing opened to bring the total number of residential students to 700. Through a bequest of Russian immigrant Shelley Krasnow the University established the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study in 1991. The Institute was created to further the understanding of the mind and intelligence by combining the fields of cognitive psychology, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence. In 1992, GMU's new Prince William Institute began classes in a temporary site in Manassas, Virginia. The Institute moved to a permanent 124-acre site located on the Rt. 234 bypass, ten miles south of Manassas, by the year 1997, and is now known as the Prince William Campus. The university graduated more than 5,000 students that following spring. While George Mason University is relatively young, particularly compared to established research universities in Virginia, it has grown rapidly, reaching an enrollment of 29,728 students in 2005, and has become the largest public university in the state of Virginia. The University's stated goal is to become the major public research university of the U.S. national capital area. According to a 2005 report issued by the university, enrollment is expected to reach 35,000 students by 2011 with more than 7,000 resident students. The university currently suffers from traffic and parking problems due to the large number of students who commute to attend classes. In Iota XI Chapter v. George Mason University, 993 F.2d 386 (1993), the Fourth Circuit held that George Mason University, a state university, had violated the Sigma Chi Fraternity's First Amendment rights by suspending its privileges as a university organization. Sigma Chi is a leading appellate precedent in favor of expansive speech protection for free speech on campus. In 2002 Mason celebrated its 30th anniversary of independence from the University of Virginia and launched its first capital campaign with a goal to raise $110 million. It concluded by raising $142 million, $32 million more than their goal. The George Mason University logo, originally designed in 1982, was updated in 2004.
 
Academic year prices for full-time, first-time undergraduate students
Tuition and Fees2009-20082008-20072007-2006
In-State$ 7,512$ 6,840$ 6,408
Out of State$ 22,476$ 19,728$ 18,552
Books and Supplies$ 900$ 850$ 810
On-Campus
Room and board$ 7,360$ 7,020$ 6,750
Other Expenses$ 2,704$ 2,664$ 2,551
Off Campus
Room and board$ 10,290$ 9,900$ 7,920
Other Expenses$ 3,440$ 3,390$ 3,266
Off Campus w/ family
Other Expenses$ 2,980$ 2,940$ 2,818

Financial aid 2006-2007

Financial aid to full-time, first-time undergraduate students

Type of AidPercentage of students receiving aidAverage amount of aid they received
Federal Grants (scholarship/fellowship) 15% $ 3,668
State/Local grants (scholarship/fellowship) 27% $ 3,599
Institutional grants (scholarship/fellowship) 13% $ 7,102
Loans to students 38% $ 4,628
 
End of file for George Mason University.