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I am currently in the process of finalising a US university to go on exchange to for the academic year starting next August/September 2014. I applied to: Georgetown, Richmond, George Mason, Goucher and Roanoke. Unfortunately Georgetown only had 2 places available and these went to the two highest-achieving students in the School of American Studies and Richmond only offered 1 place which was awarded to the first person to apply to it. I can either go to George Mason in Fairfax, VA, Goucher in Baltimore, MD or Roanoke in Salem, VA. I know little about these schools and they were only in my top 5 due to the close proximity to DC.
I have heard that George Mason has the best history department so as an American studies student focusing on history this is important. Goucher and Roanoke seem fairly mediocre liberal arts colleges - am I right in thinking this? The actual exchange is called "Dissertation Year" and wherever we go we are supposed to collect research on a topic of our choice to write our dissertation on. I am hoping to write mine on the Civil War or perhaps US foreign policy and how it has changed. All of these universities offer me a great opportunity to research it, however, the reputation of each institution is alarming. I wish to go to law school after I graduate and the university I study abroad at must look good on my CV.
If anyone knows anything about George Mason, Goucher or Roanoke could you please comment on this thread. I prefer the first two because George Mason is not far away from the Vienna metro stop which is on the same line to the Smithsonian stop in DC and Goucher is just north of Baltimore which allows me to travel into DC easily via light rail. Again, this decision is going to be based on both the reputation and vibe of the school. I'd imagine it will boil down to whether I want to go to a large school, like GMU, or a smaller LAC like Goucher and Roanoke. I have heard GMU is a commuter campus and this is worrying me because if I were to go to the US, I'd like to make some good friends and I doubt this would be possible with 75% of students being commuters. Goucher and Roanoke offer more of a community from what I've read on College Prowler and College Confidential, and it's likely I will make good friends here. However, from rankings, GMU surpasses them in history rankings. I'd imagine reputation between these isn't particularly important. It's unlikely UK employers have heard anything about any US universities aside from the Ivies, NYU, Georgetown, Stanford, etc.
In short: I am stuck between choosing from GMU, Goucher and Roanoke. Each university has its pros and cons, but Goucher and Roanoke - although not as good as GMU (which I have inferred from rankings) - has more students on-campus and is more of a community.
What do you advise me to do?
NB: I must make a decision in the first week I return to my home university (Week starting: 30 Sept 2013).
I don't know anything about Goucher (I think it's tiny), but I'd say George Mason over Roanoke. Roanoke is in a beautiful area, but it's far removed from DC (3.5-4 hours by car, and I don't think there are many other options for travel. Amtrak doesn't run to Roanoke, and I'd imagine a bus trip would take at least 5 hours), and pretty removed from everything else, for that matter.
George Mason, meanwhile, is in a DC suburb. You can take public transit or a university connector to the Metro, and from there access all of DC. You can take buses or trains throughout the northeast from there, up to NYC, Philly, Boston, etc. MUCH better airport access, too. I don't know about campus community, though. Goucher and Roanoke might be better places to get the full college feel. Based on location only, however, it's probably GMU.
I don't know anything about Goucher (I think it's tiny), but I'd say George Mason over Roanoke. Roanoke is in a beautiful area, but it's far removed from DC (3.5-4 hours by car, and I don't think there are many other options for travel. Amtrak doesn't run to Roanoke, and I'd imagine a bus trip would take at least 5 hours), and pretty removed from everything else, for that matter.
George Mason, meanwhile, is in a DC suburb. You can take public transit or a university connector to the Metro, and from there access all of DC. You can take buses or trains throughout the northeast from there, up to NYC, Philly, Boston, etc. MUCH better airport access, too. I don't know about campus community, though. Goucher and Roanoke might be better places to get the full college feel. Based on location only, however, it's probably GMU.
Ah, yeah. Just checked Greyhound and it's 5hrs to DC from Roanoke, VA
George Mason has a national reputation and is in one of the greatest cities in the world in terms of architecture and art/culture. Where's the conflict???
George Mason has a national reputation and is in one of the greatest cities in the world in terms of architecture and art/culture. Where's the conflict???
It is indeed a great place (from what I've seen on the net), however, I am concerned about 1) the reputation and 2) it's "commuter school" status. How is it regarded in the US (Re: Reputation)?
I don't know much about any of these three, but George Mason is definitely more well known (i'd never heard of the other two before now), and looks like it has the better location. From wikipedia:
Quote:
Fairfax is the only campus of George Mason University with on-campus student housing. The campus is divided up into three neighborhoods, which combined house approximately 5,400 students.
So you'd definitely want to live on the main campus, but that would be the case for any school. The 5,400 students living there is more than twice the entire enrollment of Goucher or Roanoke. And that's just the people living on campus, I'm sure there are many students living nearby in off-campus housing.
Quite a number of US colleges/universities have the students live on campus for a year or two, but there is a lot of off-campus housing adjacent to campus where most of the rest of the students live. I attended a very large university and found that the buildings I went to regularly were closer to a bunch of off-campus housing than the on-campus dorms, and actually felt more like I was part of the community when I move to the off-campus housing. Also, George Mason is not all that far from Bull Run and Antietam.
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