<p>chazman0426: I’m from the CNU and ODU area, and let me tell you … those schools are flat out boring. Mason is a godsend compared to those schools.</p>
<p>I’ll try to answer some more questions for you.</p>
<p>The social scene isn’t a walk in the park. You can’t just step out of your room, walk down the street, and hit up a row of parties.</p>
<p>Anyone who lives off campus is spread throughout the city (same with fraternities) so basically if you want to go out to a party, you have to get a ride. However, if you get that ride, the parties are typically fun and worth it. I’ve been to some huge non-rush parties with hundreds of people, but the more typical parties are like 30-40 people. </p>
<p>The ITE school is good. I’m a computer security major. Although all the way through your 100 and 200 level courses (except for 221) it’s a breeze. However, it gets more challenging and fun in the upper level courses. My program is part of the information security office here, which is recognized by the NSA as an academic center of excellence. One of only 20 or so colleges recognized for this. </p>
<p>The construction has been crazy. In 2002, the college consisted of about 4 dorm complexes, and like, 7 or so academic buildings. Now the college consists of about 7 dorm complexes (with a big one being built now) and about 10+ academic buildings with many more to come.</p>
<p>I heard they received a 142 million dollar grant. Mason is the up and coming school, since it’s young, it has work to do, but it’s definitely acceptable.</p>
<p>Mason is a huge commuter school, and they are fixing that. I think right now it’s about 75% commuter still. However, 2 years ago it was about 85% commuter. THe reason this will be the 3rd dorm complex in the last 4 years being built is because they just don’t have room for people wanting to live on campus. There are still people living in hotels becasue they can’t get on campus housing. They started moving freshmen into upper class dorms because they didn’t have room. </p>
<p>The professors for the ITE school are very good in my opinion. A lot of them are part time professors who work full time in the field and then teach part time. Therefore, you tend not to get the “out of the book” professors and more of the “this is what you will be doing when you get out of college” professors. So real life experience is always brought into the discussions and make it interesting and in my opinion, you learn more that way.</p>
<p>Meeting people was easy for me, but it’s not for everybody. You can’t walk in to class, sit next to a random person and say “hey, what’s going on this weekend?” … one thing people say is Mason has cliques, and it’s true. However, that’s with every college.</p>
<p>Most people aren’t bad, they tend to be nice. Some are just too high on themselves, yet once again, you’ll find that anywhere you go. </p>
<p>More on the social scene: One thing I like about Mason is that it’s not a huge party school. I like this because I don’t have distractions during the week. Starting Thursday though, there are plenty of places to drink and party (if you know the right people). If you’re a female, and like to party, we have 13 fraternities … any given night one will be having a party. So females should have no problem partying like crazy. Guys is a little harder, either you go Greek, or know them. I know them, I party a lot with them, and it’s really fun. </p>
<p>It just all depends.</p>