5 ms·

It's interesting and rare to see my university in the news. It would be interesting to build language and acoustic models for these accents to improve speech re

It's interesting and rare to see my university in the news. It would be interesting to build language and acoustic models for these accents to improve speech recognition, but there isn't nearly enough data to do that.

bane 13y ago
In the last 10-15 years, GMU has exploded as a regional university in the mid-Atlantic. It's a huge change from the small commuter school it used to be back in the 80's and 90's. I think it's for the best, Northern Virginia has no world class universities despite being one of the largest metro-areas in the U.S. It's geographically in a prime location to assume that mantle. I have relatives as far afield as Arkansas trying desperately to get their kids into it, only to be disappointed when they don't and end up having to send their kids to Georgetown or UMB or something. It's apparently become quite selective. Also, if you want to hear about it in the news, a few of the faculty from literature and a couple other departments are constantly on NPR. Which is interesting because since NPR is in D.C., you'd expect them to have more faculty from GWU and Georgetown. I think I hear "George Mason" on the radio at least once a week these days. I looked up the rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University And apparently it's pretty solidly a Tier-1 school now. Kinda crazy, it used to just be this weird tier-3 local offshoot of UVA.
- techwizrd 13y ago
  As a current student at GMU, I'm not so sure I'd call it a Tier-1 school just yet. It's still got a lot of improvement to do, but it has definitely grown incredibly fast even in the time I've been here. My mother is also a graduate of GMU and my father went to GMU for a short time before completing his degree at College Park, so I've seen Mason grow throughout my childhood and now into my adult life. People in the NoVa area don't really seem to treat GMU the way they treat UVA or VTech or even VCU. I'm glad it's starting to be treated seriously. It's just odd seeing GMU cited more and more often as a serious research school in the same sentence as other more well-known universities when people in the NoVa university don't share that same level of respect. My comments about rarely hearing GMU's name were more targeted towards how much I hear it in the news. I listen to NPR on a daily basis and broadcasters or guests on different shows frequently name studies from universities like Princeton and Yale and Carnegie Mellon but I've only started hearing GMU's name come up on non-University topics within the past month or so. I've heard studies cited by GMU in different fields cited 3-4 times this week already.
  - bane 13y ago
    I wasn't really aware GMU had a major research arm - is this relatively new? I grew up in the D.C. Metro Area and really just remember it as that weird local commuter school with a basketball stadium that the circus came to and the performing arts center. Growing up we had a grad student who rented a room and was in the choir. We used to go to her performances every once in a while. I've been the campus a few times in the last decade or so, and I used to visit the old weird library on the quad to study when I was in High School. If they're growing their research arm, that can have a huge impact on the academic reputation of the school. It'll get them lots of name recognition. But yeah, it definitely doesn't have the local reputation yet because we all remember it for what it used to be, a kind of community college that happened to offer 4-year programs. I was really surprised when my relatives and friend's kids who are college aged started bringing it up in conversation about applications alongside of much more recognizable school name. I guess in the high-school guidance departments it's gotten quite a good name. Times change I guess?

bane 13y ago

In the last 10-15 years, GMU has exploded as a regional university in the mid-Atlantic. It's a huge change from the small commuter school it used to be back in the 80's and 90's. I think it's for the best, Northern Virginia has no world class universities despite being one of the largest metro-areas in the U.S. It's geographically in a prime location to assume that mantle. I have relatives as far afield as Arkansas trying desperately to get their kids into it, only to be disappointed when they don't and end up having to send their kids to Georgetown or UMB or something. It's apparently become quite selective. Also, if you want to hear about it in the news, a few of the faculty from literature and a couple other departments are constantly on NPR. Which is interesting because since NPR is in D.C., you'd expect them to have more faculty from GWU and Georgetown. I think I hear "George Mason" on the radio at least once a week these days. I looked up the rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_University And apparently it's pretty solidly a Tier-1 school now. Kinda crazy, it used to just be this weird tier-3 local offshoot of UVA.

techwizrd 13y ago
As a current student at GMU, I'm not so sure I'd call it a Tier-1 school just yet. It's still got a lot of improvement to do, but it has definitely grown incredibly fast even in the time I've been here. My mother is also a graduate of GMU and my father went to GMU for a short time before completing his degree at College Park, so I've seen Mason grow throughout my childhood and now into my adult life. People in the NoVa area don't really seem to treat GMU the way they treat UVA or VTech or even VCU. I'm glad it's starting to be treated seriously. It's just odd seeing GMU cited more and more often as a serious research school in the same sentence as other more well-known universities when people in the NoVa university don't share that same level of respect. My comments about rarely hearing GMU's name were more targeted towards how much I hear it in the news. I listen to NPR on a daily basis and broadcasters or guests on different shows frequently name studies from universities like Princeton and Yale and Carnegie Mellon but I've only started hearing GMU's name come up on non-University topics within the past month or so. I've heard studies cited by GMU in different fields cited 3-4 times this week already.
- bane 13y ago
  I wasn't really aware GMU had a major research arm - is this relatively new? I grew up in the D.C. Metro Area and really just remember it as that weird local commuter school with a basketball stadium that the circus came to and the performing arts center. Growing up we had a grad student who rented a room and was in the choir. We used to go to her performances every once in a while. I've been the campus a few times in the last decade or so, and I used to visit the old weird library on the quad to study when I was in High School. If they're growing their research arm, that can have a huge impact on the academic reputation of the school. It'll get them lots of name recognition. But yeah, it definitely doesn't have the local reputation yet because we all remember it for what it used to be, a kind of community college that happened to offer 4-year programs. I was really surprised when my relatives and friend's kids who are college aged started bringing it up in conversation about applications alongside of much more recognizable school name. I guess in the high-school guidance departments it's gotten quite a good name. Times change I guess?