College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
       Unbiased Factual Guarantee

George Mason University Data & Information Overview

451 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
91% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how George Mason University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is George Mason University Ranked?

#117 Best Colleges in Nation
#5 Best Colleges in VA
Criminal Justice & Corrections Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

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 Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

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.

See all of the rankings for George Mason University.

Is It Hard to Get Into GMU?

91% Acceptance Rate
56% Of Accepted Are Women
37% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

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.

Average Test Scores

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.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for George Mason University  ( 580 to 670 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for George Mason University  ( 560 to 680 )
200
800
GMU received ACT scores from 3% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 25 and 30.

ACT Composite Scores for George Mason University  ( 25 to 30 )
1
36

Learn more about George Mason University admissions.

George Mason University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
53% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

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.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  53 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at George Mason University

84% Freshmen Retention
50% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

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.

Freshmen Retention Rate  84 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

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%

On-Time Graduation Rate  50 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at George Mason University.

George Mason University Undergraduate Student Diversity

21,603 Full-Time Undergraduates
54.2% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
50.2% Percent Women

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.

How Much Does George Mason University Cost?

$19,551 Net Price
44% Take Out Loans
$30,424 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of GMU is $19,551. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for GMU

$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.

Student Loan Debt

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.

Get more details about paying for George Mason University.

How Much Money Do GMU Graduates Make?

$66,148 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from GMU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $66,148 in their early years. That's great news for GMU students since it is 56% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

undefined

See which majors at George Mason University make the most money.

Location of George Mason University

Virginia State
21,603 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
George Mason University is a public institution located in Fairfax, Virginia. Fairfax is considered a suburb and offers tranquility and safety near the excitement of a city center.

Get more details about the location of George Mason University.

undefined

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/

George Mason University Majors

100 Majors With Completions
6,352 Undergraduate Degrees
3,476 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 100 majors graduated from George Mason University. Of these students, 6,352 received undergraduate degrees and 3,476 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

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

Learn more about the majors offered at George Mason University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at GMU

78% Take At Least One Class Online
23% Take All Classes Online

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!

Notes and References

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.

Popular Reports

College Rankings
Best by Location
Degree Guides by Major
Graduate Programs

Compare Your School Options