you are right, Mason is a public school.Other reputed public Universities in VA are UVA(among the best public schools in USA) , VT ( as swaati mentioned, very very good school of engineering and vet), College of william and mary(which many people mistake it as private school), Mary Washington University, and to certain extent James Madison. All of these are public school. As for mason, it is the biggest school in the state of virginia, considering the number of the students. With easy access to washington there are more commuters than the one who live on campus. As for you pieces, you might want to go mason because it is closest to the place where you live or will live.