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First Quarter Edition - March 2025
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Spring is officially here and the Cherry Blossoms have started to bloom. This also represents a time of year when we will have thousands of admitted students visiting campus over the next few weeks to make a final decision about where they will attend college in the fall. We have worked extremely hard all year to generate interest, answer questions, and process applications in a timely fashion. As a result of your extraordinary efforts, we are well positioned to meet our enrollment goals for fall 2025. Now it is time for us to make a final push to make our class.
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Our intent to enroll deposits are up 10% for undergrads year to date, so our spring events, yield outreach, and financial aid packages are all performing well. We also continue to make solid progress with our direct admission initiatives. We made direct admission offers to approximately 11,500 high school seniors for fall 2025, and nearly 4,000 have claimed their offers to date. We currently have one of the highest application yields in the country for the Common Application Direct Admissions Program, and the Mason High School Direct Admissions (HSDA) program has generated a record number of applications and deposits from our partner schools for the second consecutive year. These programs have helped us increase our market share of Virginia high school applicants to an all-time high this cycle, and we will be meeting with several school districts in April to expand the HSDA program for fall 2026.
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We had a very productive first year as a participant in the Pell Initiative for Virginia (PIV). This SCHEV sponsored initiative has provided us with a total of $4.7 million over the next three years to support our efforts to recruit, retain, and graduate more Pell-eligible Virginians. These resources have allowed us to expand our Access to Excellence Initiative, which includes group tours, outreach presentations, and FAFSA/VASA completion workshops for local schools. As a result of these efforts, we enrolled our largest class of Pell Grant recipients to date in fall 2024. Our 15% increase in Pell enrollment represented the largest gain in the state. This progress ensures that GMU will continue to be the number one university in the Commonwealth for social mobility and change countless lives in the process. We will find out if the PIV will fund need-based housing grants for our incoming Pell-eligible students on April 30th.
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Overall, we are on pace to bring in another record-breaking class in fall 2025. I want to thank all of you for continuing to excel in your respective roles in Admissions. We could not achieve this level of productivity or success without your dedication and commitment to this work. We have a great team, and we will continue to accomplish amazing things together.
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Special Features in this Edition
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Congratulations Roser Boltes Beard and Jenny Chism!
OneTeam SPOTLIGHT on Sofia Cochis and Cameron Maxwell
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HR & Finance
Congratulations to our Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA) Winners:
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Patricia Granberg - Martha J. Reiner Award for Quality Customer Service
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Rose Aubery - Wage Employee Service Award
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Tammy Lu - Campus Culture Champion Award
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The awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, April 15 from 10 – 11:30 am in the Johnson Center, Dewberry Hall, or you can watch the livestream on the OAA website.
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A quick reminder that P-Card and Travel Card training has launched for our cardholders and must be completed by May 1.
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Operations
Thank you for all of your support as we request and gather documentation for R2 Discovery for Patriot Connect!
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April 10: Submit Catalog Updates, Submit all UG Annual Updates
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May 1: Admissions Calendar Approval
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June 27: Complete Common Application Testing
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June 30: 2026 Program Offerings Available
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July 15: Complete all TargetX Application Testing
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End of July: 2025 Common Application Closes
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August 1: 2026 Common Application Launches, 2025-2026 UG TargetX Application Launches
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The transfer credit team just completed the final transcript audit for current students, placing registration holds on 232 students. Since then, we have seen an influx of transcripts as students are eager to have their hold removed and register for summer classes. While we continue to evaluate current student transcripts, we are deep into evaluating documents for IE’d freshman and admitted transfer students for the fall 2025 term. In February, the team evaluated more than 1300 documents, 946 of which were fall 2025 transfer students. The team is on track to do the same for March.
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The Document Center has had an incredibly busy quarter, and you may have noticed document processing delays as a result. I am happy to report that we are now almost completely back on track with our regular processing timelines. We greatly appreciate everyone's patience and communication over the past few months.
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A big thanks to the Graduate Admissions team for their help with a large document renaming task and to the Domicile team for stepping up in a big way and helping us work through a large amount of documents in Dynamic Forms!
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We are actively exploring ways to mitigate document volume (such as automation possibilities), which will allow us to keep things moving quickly and smoothly over here as the school continues to grow.
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If you haven’t had a chance to watch the domicile training video from last summer yet, please check it out at your convenience to learn more about the domicile process. A special shout out to Tammy and Lavanya for creating an amazing Domicile Training Video.
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Our most recent data shows our process improvements over the past year have led to over a 70% median improvement in turnaround time for processing applications! Currently, we are coordinating with graduate admissions to improve our graduate cascades process.
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Transfer and Non-Degree Processing
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Our Transfer Team is working diligently to process the high volume of applications received by the priority deadline for fall 2025—a huge thank you to our Transfer Recruitment Team for their support with cases during this busy time! Your teamwork is truly appreciated.
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For Non-Degree, Summer registration opens on March 28th, and applications are coming in steadily. Looking ahead, the Fall Non-Degree Undergraduate application will open on April 1st - spread the word!
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Transfer Recruitment
Has spring sprung? I am not too sure despite the calendar saying we are in late March! While the days have more sunlight, which is a welcome change, we have been soaking it up with lots of transfer recruitment travel. After our historic Spring 2025 transfer enrollment, we continue building on that momentum as we travel to many community colleges in Maryland and Virginia for tabling, college fairs and one-on-one appointments. We are meeting a lot of great students that are hoping to transfer to us. Our Office of Transfer Services has also been very busy.
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The Fall 2025 Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) ADVANCE declaration opened on March 1st. We are working with our amazing tech team to clone our non-degree NOVA ADVANCE declarations for students who will be ready to matriculate to George Mason this fall. We expect over 400 students to be part of this initial cloning process, which will boost our transfer application numbers. Transfer yield looks very strong, and we continue to engage in outreach activities to enroll this class.
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We are excited for the launch of Fall 2025 Orientation registration, which should occur on April 15th. At the same time, the housing application will open. Time tickets will open May 1st for Pre-Orientation Advising.
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In partnership with our Office of Community College Partnerships, we have begun discussions to plan an Advising Staff Workshop for NOVA advisors to visit the George Mason campus. This event will be on Friday, June 6, 2025.
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Graduate Admissions
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Happy Spring Semester! We are off to a running start with our usual increase of applications that happen this time of year. Fingers crossed that the units do some last-minute marketing to help increase our applications! Additionally, on March 27th we added holds to student accounts for Spring 2025 applicants who have not submitted official transcripts per the catalog requirements. If you have any questions about that process, please let us know. Other than that, we are in the process of cleaning up some processes and communications to prepare for our move into Patriot Connect. We are looking forward to the day that we are all in the same system to allow our teams to collaborate better!
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Freshman Recruitment
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It is that time of year where we are all wearing jackets to work in the morning and leaving at the end of the day to gorgeous weather (and pollen, and allergies, and traffic on Braddock Road or 66 depending on which way people commute). It is also the heart of our freshmen class yield season and the race to May 1st is on!
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The spring is extra busy time for RM because we are working with the Fall 2025 applicant pool and helping them navigate next steps while we also begin to work with high schools around the country as they introduce college prep programming for the class of 2026. It is better to be busy than bored, but to highlight a few of the things we are doing to close out the spring semester:
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- 11 yield events (1 in Virginia Beach, 10 in primary OOS markets) at Top Golf or a bowling alley. Two staff members, an academic unit rep when possible and alums attend each event.
- Phone calls, text message campaigns, and virtual meeting outreach to all admitted FR students.
- Over 60 college fairs around the country (January-April time frame).
- Liaison work with our 24 HSDA partner schools (we work closely with the individual schools as well as the point of contacts at the central county offices).
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RM is constantly collaborating with AOP/Events and the International team, and it feels like we are covering some sort of event on or off campus almost every day of the week for March and April. Many of us say it takes a village to make this Mason machine go, so a huge kudos and my sincere thanks go out to ALL the teams that help make this race to May 1st a reality.
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Outreach & Partnerships
WSP: We've registered 970 students for WYSE/WJMC this summer! Now we are working on booking speakers, designing curriculum, hiring, and finalizing program logistics.
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Envision: We are in the final stages of the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) negotiations which will add college credit to all students who attend an Envision program. Great for our inquiry pool and great for revenue!
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Outreach: Middle school and high school tours are in full swing. Thanks to the RM team for helping out with information sessions!
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Honors: Olga is working closely with HCRT as they help us yield the incoming class. Honors numbers look great IS and OOS.
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Events: - Spring Preview is Sunday, April 13. We look forward to seeing you all at the pre-event meeting on Friday, April 11.
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Military Services
Despite recent administrative changes and efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to streamline operations, VA education benefits have remained unaffected. Additionally, veterans are excluded from initiatives targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. So far, we have seen a lag in VA processing of payments so families need to be aware that timeliness may be an issue. We do have policies in place protecting students from delays in tuition and fees payments made directly to school. The commitment to providing educational support to veterans continues to be a top priority at George Mason University.
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In addition to federal benefits, state benefits under the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP) remain unchanged and the popularity of the program continues to grow. VMSDEP provides 8 terms of tuition and fee waivers to spouses and children of qualifying veterans who have been rated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as totally and permanently disabled or at least 90 percent permanently disabled as a result of military service. While Governor Youngkin has yet to sign the state budget, the VMSDEP program continues to operate as usual. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please contact the Office of Military Services. There are many rumors circulating in the community, and the Office of Military Services can provide accurate and up-to-date information.
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International
Happy Spring from the International Team!
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In February, I spent a week in Colombia recruiting high school students and attending a Counselor Fly-In. This was my third year on this tour, and it was a great success. So many students actively sought us out at the fairs! I hope these trips continue to boost interest in George Mason. Meanwhile, Kushala, our India recruiter, has been busy visiting high schools and meeting admitted students across India. She also joined an EducationUSA tour in Sri Lanka—our first visit there in recent years—hopefully connecting with future Patriots.
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We are excited for our South Asia yield event on April 10th, where admitted students will learn about our next steps and other insights into George Mason. This marks our fifth year running this valuable event.
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Our Immigration Specialists, Eriko, Addy, Ben, and Austin are working hard to issue I-20s for Fall 2025 admits. Our goal is to get as many I-20s out by May 15th to give students as much time as possible to get their visa before the start of classes. Of course, we can only issue the I-20 if we have all of the documents so it is important that students get us the required immigration documents as soon as possible. We are keeping a close eye on how any Executive Orders may directly affect international student enrollment this year.
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As always, any questions from undergraduate international students feel free to send them to [email protected] and we would be happy to work with the students. If you are seeing graduate I-20 questions those can be sent to [email protected].
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What are your job duties in the office?
I assist in the planning of recruitment events for prospective and admitted students to learn more about the university. I manage the digital and physical inventory for the events team, while supporting event websites, surveys, and other administrative tasks. I communicate with vendors and guests while troubleshooting conflicts at the large-scale events.
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
I value the sense of community at George Mason. Team members are supportive and tight-knit, which provides an inclusive and positive work environment. I feel valued and recognized for my work contributions and receive insightful feedback.
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What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Devoted. Imaginative. Proactive.
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Where is your hometown?
What was your first job?
Youth Track Coach for kids 4-14 years old, I ran cross country and track in high school.
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Do you have any Pets?
Tell us about them!
My dog Leo, is a 10-year-old Shih Tzu and diva! My family rescued him 6 years ago from a foster home long after he was a puppy, so we now spoil him. We named him after the astrological sign because he resembles a small lion and is the center of attention!
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
Cooking, hiking, puzzling, cycling, thrifting, watching college basketball and playing trivia.
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
Favorite Food and Beverage
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Breakfast Sandwich and Iced Vanilla Latte
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Favorite Restaurant
Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
Any sitcom - Modern Family, New Girl, The Office and Schitt's Creek
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Favorite Quote or Movie Line
"The worst thing about prison was the Dementors." Michael Scott
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Favorite Holiday
Favorite Vacation Spot
Favorite Sports Team
Virginia Tech Basketball and Football
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Favorite Superhero
Favorite Band or Musician
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What are your job duties in the office?
I manage the team that evaluates applicants of the INTO Mason grad, undergrad, transfer, and bridge pathways. I also manage document collection and assist with student records for those student populations.
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
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The people here are great! I love working in an environment where people have high goals, interesting stories, and are always willing to lift each other up.
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Tell us more about you!
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Where is your hometown?
What was your first job?
I was a Junior Docent at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and did informational presentations to visitors, including one that involved holding tarantulas.
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Do you have any Pets?
Tell us about them!
I have a senior cat named Max, an almost-senior dog named Josie (Queensland Heeler mix) and a younger Blue Heeler mix who loves to drive the other two crazy.
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
I love to write fiction and research niche
topics for my writing projects.
Ask me about Viking-Age Scandinavia sometime if you really want to get me going :)
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
I can quote an extremely high
percentage of Disney's The Emperor's
New Groove from memory.
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Favorite Food and Beverage
Food: Enchiladas. Drink: Earl Grey Tea
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfus
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Favorite Holiday
Favorite Vacation Spot
Favorite Band or Musician
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Generally anything from Broadway
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