

But once you get out of that small cadre of highly selective colleges, a graduate’s job prospects are actually driven as much by where their college is located as they are by which college it is. There are a few schools with truly nationwide brands like Yale, Stanford, or Northwestern that place graduates all over the country. The vast majority of employees are hired within a 50-75 mile radius of the office. The reason this matters in the context of George Mason is that despite the rise of globalization, the vast majority of hiring is still done in a company or organization’s local market. The great thing about the DC-area economic story is that it also isn’t dominated by a few industries in the same way that cities like San Francisco or Boston are, and there are ample jobs for students pursuing nearly every major. The federal government is obviously a huge part of that, but there is also a much larger ecosystem of private government contractors, non profits, and even other private companies that have a massive presence. After New York City and Los Angeles, Washington DC is probably the strongest metro area in the country in terms of job prospects and the broader economy. The proximity to the DC metro area is incredibly valuable. And George Mason is more generous with financial aid for out of state students.
That’s where George Mason and the University of Maryland step in – they are both reasonable options for a large number of students with good financial aid and scholarships. Howard is another great school in the city, but it is a smaller and selective private that is more expensive than public colleges (~$48,000 cost of attendance). George Washington, American University, and Catholic University of America are all expensive private colleges. Johns Hopkins and Georgetown are both excellent colleges, but they are highly selective and extremely difficult for students to get into. But along with the University of Maryland at College Park, it is one of only two public colleges in the region that hits the sweet spot of accessibility and affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students in the DC region. After all, there are 10 colleges in the city of DC itself, and more than 50 colleges across DC, Northern Virginia, and Southern Maryland (including Baltimore).

One of the main things that distinguishes George Mason is its location on the doorstep of Washington D.C., which many students may find counterintuitive.

The things that make George Mason unique from many of its peer institutions.This profile is a blend of both of those sources. To put this profile together, we spoke with the George Mason admissions office and conducted our own independent research. Your college experience isn’t just a set of stats, and we want to make sure that you have a better understanding of the experience and holistic payoff of attending George Mason. On most college websites, you’ll find a list of statistics that are meant to help you answer this question, but we want to dig a bit deeper and provide qualitative information to help you make that decision. The primary campus sits on 677-acre suburban location 15 miles from Washington D.C. Four of those campuses, Arlington, Fairfax, Front Royal, and Prince William, are in Virginia and the fifth is located in Songdo, South Korea (about 20 miles southwest of Seoul). Today George Mason (GMU) serves more than 36,000 students (~25,000 of whom are undergrads) across five campuses. Founded in 1956 as the Northern Virginia branch of the University of Virginia, it only became an independent university in 1972, and has since grown into the largest public university in the entire state. In its current format, George Mason is actually one of the youngest universities in the United States. College Lists George Mason: Here’s why you should attend
