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As we approach the final weeks of 2022, I want to formally thank you all for your extraordinary efforts this fall. This has been an extremely challenging semester in college admissions for various reasons, but we continue to move forward as a unit and make solid progress toward our goals. Based on our current application volume and website traffic, prospective student interest in Mason is at an all-time high. We have generated a record number of applications to date for both spring 2023 and fall 2023, and we have once again positioned ourselves to meet or exceed the new student enrollment goals of the university. We still have some important work ahead of us to finish the job, but I commend all of you for your hard work and dedication that continue to drive our success.
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This is a hectic time of year as we enter our final push to process spring applications and send out early action decisions and scholarship notifications for the fall. Please make sure that you continue to prioritize your self-care during this high-stress period. We are all extremely busy with a million things to do every day, but it is important to balance our workloads with people, activities, and events that we love and enjoy to avoid burnout. We have a great opportunity to come together and decompress after a busy semester on Sunday, December 11. Please feel free to join us for the Enchant Holiday Celebration at National’s Park from 6:30-7:30 pm. This will be my family’s first time attending this event, and we look forward to sharing this experience with our Mason family.
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Have you seen the enrollment targets in the new All Together Different Strategic Plan? We have been charged with increasing on-campus enrollment by 5,000 students and adding another 5,000 students online. While this is an ambitious strategic plan with very aggressive goals, it will provide opportunities for our team to grow and evolve in several areas. I encourage you all to read the strategic plan and become familiar with the new initiatives for enrollment, DEI, and partnerships for economic and social impact. We will be leading the way in developing and executing the tactics in these strategic areas, and these efforts will require your insight and participation.
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I hope you are ready for a well-deserved Winter Break. Thanks again for all that you do to assist prospective students in their journey to Mason! It is a pleasure to work with you each and every day, and I wish you and your families the best for the upcoming holiday season.
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: September 6, 2022
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Started: September 7, 2022
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Graduate Admissions Specialist
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Location: SUB1 Admissions
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Started: September 20, 2022
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Maryland Senior Regional Admissions Counselor
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: October 17, 2022
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Senior Transfer Credit Coordinator
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Location: SUB1 Admissions
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Started: November 14, 2022
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: September 6, 2022
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Honors College Admissions Counselor
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: September 12, 2022
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Admissions Counselor and Student Support
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: September 26, 2022
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Junior Database Developer
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Team: Admissions Technology
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Started: November 7, 2022
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Location: SUB1 Admissions
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Started: November 16, 2022
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Team: Relationship Management
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Started: December 5, 2022
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COMING SOON
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Team: Outreach & Partnerships
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Starting: December 12, 2022
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Associate Director, International Admissions
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Special Features in this Edition
OneTeam Spotlight on Tammy Lu and Eriko Palmer
COMING IN JANUARY! NEW Admissions Office Employee Recognition Awards
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Join the Patriot Pantry Challenge!
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The Challenge is ON! From December until February, help stock the Patriot Pantry with 5,000 pounds of non-perishable food and hygiene items. Donations support our Mason Patriots who are facing food insecurity. Items can be dropped off in person in SUB1, Room 3011 or you can also order popular items through the Pantry's Amazon Wish List. Monetary donations to the Student Food and Housing Insecurity Fund can be made at giving.gmu.edu.
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Coming in January!
NEW Admissions Office Employee Recognition Awards
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Out with the old and in with the NEW! The new year is approaching, and it is a good time to share that big changes are coming to the Office of Admissions internal employee recognition awards.
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We are excited to announce that beginning in January 2023, we say so long to the old Patriot Pride Awards and hello to the:
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Excellence in Service Patriot Award
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The Excellence in Service Patriot Award is available to all student wage, non-student wage, staff and admin faculty, who: Establish and maintain positive and effective working relationships with co-workers, faculty, students and internal/external customers; are dedicated to continuously improving customer satisfaction; and exceed expectations to ensure customer satisfaction.
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All eligible Excellence in Service Patriot Award recipients are automatically
considered for the Quarterly Excellence in Service Patriot Award.
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The Office of Admissions Emerging Leader, bi-annual award, will recognize and celebrate employees who: Rally and inspire; see obstacles as a challenge, rather than a roadblock; apply learning, are attentive and curious, are not content with “good enough;” and cultivate relationships and focus on the growth of others.
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Office of Admissions Rising Star Award
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Supervisors will have the opportunity to nominate eligible NEW staff members, who have gone above and beyond what is expected of them, for the bi-annual Office of Admissions Rising Star award.
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More award eligibility details, the nominating process and nomination criteria will be coming out after winter break!
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ONETEAM UNIT UPDATES
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HR & Finance
The official start to winter is just around the corner and that means the possibility of inclement weather. Here are some key things to know:
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- Stay updated about university closings, class cancellations, late openings, and other weather-related changes in the operating schedule through Mason Alert, on Mason’s homepage and the switchboard (703-993-1000), as well as on local media outlets.
- To receive Mason Alerts on your mobile device, register at alert.gmu.edu
Teleworkers and/or remote workers continue to work even if classes are canceled and administrative offices are closed, or on a modified schedule. However, teleworkers or remote workers do not have to work if the weather or emergency impacts the alternate location, for example there is a regional power outage. The official university policy and more information on inclement weather and emergency guidance is here Inclement Weather/Emergency Closing Policy.
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This year has been an intense year for searches: We posted 25 classified, 6 admin/prof faculty, and 6 non-student wage positions in 2023. We worked with many stellar search committee participants and appreciated all the work that they did. Let’s all celebrate the 25 new employees we hired this year!
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I would like to thank Debra Coleman and Jennifer Flammia for the dedication demonstrated to helping our office through each one of these searches. They did a fantastic job keeping them moving and providing a huge amount of support to the committees.
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Relationship Management
After a productive fall travel season, the Relationship Management team has been busy reading thousands of Early Action applications for Fall 2023 from across the country. We are releasing thousands of Early Action admission decisions on Monday, December 12. Not only are we excited to create more future Mason Patriots, but we are eagerly anticipating bringing the entire team to campus from near and far for decision release day. Our regionals from across the country will be visiting our Fairfax campus, and there will be lots of hugs and fun to share together as a team! We hope you will join us in celebrating each other and the holiday season on Sunday, December 11 from 6:30 - 7:30 pm for Enchant at Nats Park. Tickets for this event may be purchased at this site: https://enchantchristmas.com/washington-dc-nationals-park/. Feel free to bring a friend or family members.
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Shortly after Early Action decisions release, we are holding a virtual event for our admitted students to welcome them to the Mason family. In mid-January, financial aid packages will be going out in the mail and electronically to our admitted Early Action students who have already received their admission decisions.
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Once the dust settles from Early Action, we will begin reviewing and decisioning Regular Decision applications. We will release out-of-state decisions first for Regular Decision on a rolling basis after our initial decision drop sometime in early to mid-January, and in-state will release in chunks in February. This leads us into what will be a busy and very important yield season, and before we know it, May 1st will be here! I certainly cannot wait until that exciting day, and the return to warmer weather!
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And speaking of the spring, we are on track to bring in record enrollment this spring. We are doing all that we can to both process Spring 2023 freshmen applications and to yield these admitted students.
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I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has had a part in the incredible teamwork that once again is leading into to the biggest admission decision release we have EVER done. From ATT, RM, IEM, International, AOP, Operations, Dean's Suite, Military Services, and Dan Fisher - WOW!!! Amazing work!
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I thank you all and wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
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Admissions Outreach & Partnerships
WSP - Registrations for WYSE & WJMC 2023 are coming in strong. Phones, emails, and social media are busy with people inquiring about their invitations! We are distributing scholarships next week and the registration deadline is December 16. Programs are expected to fill on or before the deadline! We have already started planning curriculum and logistics for 2023, including partnerships, venues, etc. Follow us on Instagram at @wyse_mason and @wjmc_mason.
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Events - The fall cycle has one event left on December 14. We are planning for the spring cycle and even looking forward to 2024. Our new Event Coordinator, Courtney Knapp, starts on December 12.
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Access/K12 - Rachel, Sydney, Olga, and Eva just returned from the Virginia College Access Network (VCAN) annual conference where we presented at two different sessions. We are planning for K12 tours in the spring and already have many booked.
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Honors - We are busy processing apps and numbers look really good! Eva is also identifying University Scholar candidates. The Honors Research Symposium was held last Friday and the student work was incredible!
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Operations
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Greetings from Operations!
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We hope you're wrapping up the fall semester well and are ready for a much-deserved winter break! Although many of the Operational teams will be working a bit over break, I know we can't wait for some time away!
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Some exciting projects have launched this fall and some incredible work continues to happen in the Operational space on behalf of our teams. A celebratory cheer for successfully launching the Undergraduate Review Tool! ATT and Operations could not have accomplished this without the amazing support of our ITS partners, EM, and mostly all of you for your testing and feedback along the way to make this tool meet your needs. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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We launched our largest volume of annual updates in recent years. We are hopeful, after the past two years of attempting to streamline undergraduate and graduate processes, that our annual updates will become less and less. Luckily, we are seeing some rewards with these changes with improved processing times and an increased volume of freshman and graduate applications.
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The graduate and INTO Mason teams have adjusted our international document requirements with the support of graduate council and have adapted our international evaluation process saving significant time and cost in the graduate space for students and the University alike. Additionally, a graduate enrollment deposit with an opt-out option for our academic partners launched for fall 2023 with the hopes of improving our yield predictions. Finally, the spring 2023 graduate application volume has significantly increased for another consecutive semester. Our processors are doing a fantastic job overcoming the volume and maintaining our emails!
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After some hiccups with launching the new review tool, the transfer team did incredible work catching up processing their applications getting students decisions in time for the spring 2023 semester! The fall 2023 application launched on December 1 and they will begin processing on-time! Orientation has begun and their (in congruence with the credit evaluation team) support for our students through Mason’s Orientation is pertinent.
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The credit evaluation team has done amazing work scrubbing our transfer equivalencies to launch the new transfer credit matrix through the Transfer Evaluation System (TES). We are hoping to have the new tool launched early in the Spring 2023 semester with our ITS partners’ support. A small working group reviewed Mason’s credit evaluation and prioritized a review of specific policies that are currently in progress.
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Domicile continues to do amazing work as laws are ever changing and their volume is ever growing. The domicile team is exceptionally talented at providing explanations to our partners for their reasoning for specific complicated decisions. Keep educating us, Domicile!
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The Doc Center continues to do remarkable work updating processes, finding additional efficiencies, and taking on new work for other teams. We could not do what we do without you!
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Finally, we are completing the final requirements for the audit that took place in the fall 2021 term and looking very forward to wrapping that up. Documentation for new projects is ramping up and we are looking forward to continuing to build out new efficiencies for the Office of Admissions.
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International
I am so proud of how hard everyone is working to get the Early Action decisions done! I am excited to see that the number of international applications increased again this year. Hopefully that trend continues throughout the cycle, just like last year.
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We had a successful fall recruitment season! We were finally able to attend in-person international trips this fall. It was so great to be back on the road and able to speak to students face-to-face. For many of the high schools we visited it was the first time they were able to speak to an admissions recruiter in-person. We were able to visit, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Vietnam, India, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, and UAE. We also continued to participate in virtual fairs around the world and even some virtual high school visits.
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We are also working with our incoming Spring 2023 students. We are actively issuing I-20s for both our undergraduate and graduate admitted students. Unfortunately, not all Embassies around the world have open appointments available yet. For students in those countries, they need to contact the Embassy and ask for an emergency appointment for the I-20. That is working for some students, but not all. Therefore, we will still have students that may need to request to defer due to not getting their visa in time for the start of classes.
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Keep sending us your international transcript questions! I have heard from many of you and enjoy working with everyone to help get those GPAs calculated appropriately. Please remember that if an applicant attended an international high school and there are international grades on the U.S. high school transcript, we will still need to see the original international transcript to compare the grade evaluation. Please reach out to the high school counselor or student for this information.
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December 15th is our deadline for the You Are Welcome Here Scholarship for Fall 2023 freshmen. Any applicant that is not a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident is eligible to apply for this scholarship. They should have received emails on how to apply, but if anyone has questions, let us know. If any applicant misses the deadline and are still interested in applying, have them contact us at [email protected]. I will start reviewing the applications in mid-January to mid-February and send decisions by March 1.
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Keep an eye out for the official announcement of our new Associate Director of International Admissions who will be starting January! A huge thank you to the many of you that participated in this search over the last year.
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Military Services
The Office of Military Services finally has an extended period of time for orientation sessions beginning in January 2023 with the incoming class. In addition, we are testing a VA education supplemental orientation in December following the registration days on December 14th. These events are for newly enrolled students, and we are hopeful the information shared will eliminate many of the problems our VA students experience throughout the year.
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As a reminder, we continually have issues with applicants and admitted students misunderstanding issues like domicile, out-of-state waivers under section 702 and the required actions for VA beneficiaries well in advance of enrolling. Please direct questions to our office via telephone 703-993-1316 or email at [email protected]. Ryan and Jennifer are also available for 1 on 1 appointments with perspective students. The booking tool is available on our website or feel free to do a soft hand off via email.
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Happy holidays and enjoy the winter break!
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Admissions Technology
A reminder if you have not yet completed your annual IT security awareness training in Mason LEAPS: ITS has already started disabling user accounts in small groups and will continue to expand this approach to ensure that everyone is in compliance with University and Commonwealth requirements.
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We are shining the spotlight on two amazing colleagues!
Check out these fun facts about Tammy Lu and Eriko Palmer.
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The Office of Admissions publishes a quarterly newsletter. An archive of past newsletters can be found at Admissions Newsletters. If you have questions, comments, complaints or would like to unsubscribe, email the Editor at [email protected].
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