by our College Data Analytics Team
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
George Mason University was awarded 451 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is criminal justice & corrections.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, GMU is ranked #117 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when GMU held the #133 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 63 colleges in Virginia, GMU is ranked at #5.
With an acceptance rate of 91%, George Mason University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.
About 37% of students accepted to GMU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 670. Math scores were between 560 and 680.
With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, George Mason University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at George Mason University is 53%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
George Mason University has a freshmen retention rate of 84%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At GMU the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 50%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at George Mason University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 27,104 undergraduates at GMU with 21,603 being full-time and 5,501 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14,781 | $15,979 | $19,066 | $22,013 | $24,730 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of GMU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At GMU, approximately 44% of students took out student loans averaging $7,606 a year. That adds up to $30,424 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at GMU is 2.5%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
See which majors at George Mason University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of George Mason University.
Contact details for GMU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 4400 University Dr, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 |
| Phone: | 703-993-1000 |
| Website: | https://www2.gmu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Information Systems | 706 | $69,322 |
| Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods | 428 | $57,420 |
| General Psychology | 371 | $32,267 |
| Criminal Justice & Corrections | 363 | $40,661 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 357 | $34,587 |
| General Biology | 307 | $29,849 |
| Business Administration & Management | 263 | $49,321 |
| Accounting | 237 | $56,805 |
| Political Science & Government | 207 | $42,975 |
| Public Health | 195 | $32,071 |
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2020-2021, 30,238 students took at least one online class at George Mason University. This is a decrease from the 36,902 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 30,238 | 8,748 |
| 2019-2020 | 36,902 | 27,235 |
| 2018-2019 | 12,614 | 2,582 |
| 2017-2018 | 12,753 | 2,164 |
| 2016-2017 | 10,199 | 1,631 |
Learn more about online learning at George Mason University.
If you’re considering George Mason University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against GMU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.