Mar 26 2006

Go Patriots!

Published by at 11:02 am under All General Discussions

George Mason University, where my wife and I graduated, is heading into the final 8 of the NCAA finals.  This has been an amazing run for a school still establishing itself as a national force on all levels.  When I went to Mason 20+ years ago it had just recently transitioned from a small satellite campus for one of the main state universities onto its own.  Through the years it has been making marks and producing some surprises in many fields and is now home to a lot of nationally reknowned names in many fields.

Every discipline in college has a weeding out class where those not really suited for the field find they cannot get past this one topic and head for greener pastures in some other discipline.  In the field of electrical engineering that class is Electromagnetic Field Theory.  All the EE’s I know struggled with that class at Mason, and many had to take it twice.  I was proud to take it once, but I had been a math major for a while and was ahead of the curve there.  My class was still warned they would not pass if they did not get at least one answer 100% correct on a test!

I was stunned to find years later that the same course at the University of Maryland – an education powerhouse in the DC area – taught the same subject in two semesters verses the one semester at upstart Mason.  Needless to say Mason grads tended to be a little sharper in the math than most, we had to be.

My gut tells me Mason is still demanding more from its students than the larger more established schools.  It is probably a safe bet given were GMU finds itself today, taking on this years expected champions.  So the concept of higher expectations achieving higher results has probably been proven once again.  The only question is, how high will it go?
Go Patriots!  You have already won in my eyes.

6 responses so far

6 Responses to “Go Patriots!”

  1. Tacitus says:

    Dear AJ–

    I am not a new poster, but my computer is being fixed and all that information is on the broken computer.

    I will be myself again in a few days–hopefully!

    Is your e-mail posted somewhere on this site?

    It is great you are covering the NSA stuff, the Lodi arrests, and the captured Iraqi documents.

    I have missed posting. Your site is the best.

    I am Tacitus right now because he was opposed to vicious dictators.

  2. Tacitus says:

    Dear AJ–

    I am posting as Tacitus because my computer is being fixed and the information is on that computer.

    Do you have an e-mail posted on your site?

    Hopefully I will be myself again soon.

    Heep posting about the NSA, Able Danger, and the captured documents.

  3. Tacitus says:

    Dear AJ–

    I had to sign up as Tacitus. My computer is being repaired and I don’t have access to my old password.

    Soon I will be myself again.

    Keep writing about the NSA, Able Danger, and the captured documents.

    Do you have an e-mail for yourself on this site?

  4. Tacitus says:

    Opps!

    Sorry. My posts didn’t seem to be working. So I kept trying. I guess they did work but with a delay. Sorry.

  5. It’s a long road back here in the second half – I’ll be rooting for you guys. In any event, a great season (and a great tournament so far!)…

  6. streeter says:

    I went to UCLA. OUT. Streeter