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George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) offers two residential learning communities (RLCs)—sometimes called living learning communities—providing a place for students in the major to find support and connection in an environment with their academic peers.
RLCs emerged in higher education in the late 20th century as universities sought to better integrate academic and residential life. Traditional dorms offer social bonding, but students may still feel disconnected from faculty, academic support, and peers in their major. Research shows that students living alongside others studying similar subjects and with structured faculty interaction, built-in mentoring, and programming tied to academic interests, are more likely to persist and succeed academically. This is particularly important in STEM subjects, which suffer from high drop-out rates.
“It’s a smart way for students who choose to live in a space with common interests that they've identified to find community,” said Christi Wilcox, director of programs and research and deputy Title IX coordinator in CEC's Office of Outreach, Student Success, and Engagement (OSSE). “Research shows those students in those communities are less likely to have social anxieties and less likely to struggle in school because they've found a community. They’re more likely to finish within a four-to-six-year period.”
From experiments in the 1980s to wide implementation on university campuses by the late 2000s, RLCs evolved, becoming more than themed housing. DaFran Ware, director of undergraduate academic advising for the college, was tasked with overseeing the community when she joined George Mason in 2015. She recalls how the students immediately found a home there.
“The group of first-year students in 2016 loved their experience so much and they really bonded. They said that they wanted to live together the next year, since there’s nothing for upper-level students.” she said. “We asked if they wanted to pilot one and we found them space in Eastern Shore, with just only maybe 20 students at that time.” Eastern Shore remains home to the upper-level RLC, while the first-year student RLC is in Taylor Hall.
RLCs are now immersive academic ecosystems. Faculty and staff visit the communities to run tutoring sessions and mentoring events and industry partners visit for talks or project nights. Students can accessdiscipline-specific activities, like coding sprints, makerspace nights, or engineering design challenges. These opportunities help bring classroom concepts into daily life, reinforcing natural low-pressure learning..For first-year students in particular, this kind of structured support can make the transition into demanding engineering coursework far smoother.
“I tell the students if one of them is really good at coding and their friend is really good at calculus, they can just naturally help each other,” said Ware. “They're not as afraid to go down the hall and ask someone for help, rather than walking to a tutoring center and having to expose that you don't know how to do something. And through that they become social and they become friends.”
Another benefit of RLCs for engineering and computing students is professional identity formation. Living among peers who share the same aspirations fosters motivation and confidence. Students also are more likely to learn about internships, research opportunities, and leadership roles sooner because information flows more freely within the community. Wilcox said, “They get to draw down on what OSSE does really early in a way that a student who is commuting or who is part time or who is just not in an RLC may not.” This early engagement often leads to stronger resumes and clearer academic pathways by the time students reach their sophomore or junior years.
There are no barriers to admission for first-year students after completing the application process other than being a CEC student; application for the upper-level RLC also requires completing a questionnaire.