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Third Quarter Edition - September 2025
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Congratulations on another successful recruitment cycle! As we approach the fall 2025 census date, I want to thank all of you for your contributions in 2024-2025. Although we did not break another enrollment record for new students this fall, we had an amazing year. We generated record numbers of applications, admits, and deposits for both freshmen and transfers this cycle, processed applications with optimal efficiency, enhanced several processes and procedures to make them more student-friendly, and enrolled the largest incoming class of Virginia residents in GMU’s history. These are all major accomplishments, and you all should be extremely proud of the role you played in our success.
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We definitely faced our share of recruitment challenges this year. The tightening of federal immigration policies, the uncertainty surrounding financial aid, the growing concern about the value of higher education, the elimination of diversity programs and scholarships, and multiple investigations with the Department of Justice all had a direct impact on our campus. However, we were able to weather the storm and bring in a very impressive class.
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I love this time of year because it always reminds me of why we do this work. I have been fortunate to be able to witness the joy and enthusiasm of our new students at several events this fall. They are so excited to be here and start the next chapter of their lives, and I hope it is gratifying for you to know that you played a major role in them becoming Mason Patriots.
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The work that we do as admission professionals is only going to get harder, but it has never been more important. According to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, the U.S. faces a shortfall of 5.3 million college-educated workers by 2032. The largest critical skills gaps are for teachers, nurses and engineers, which presents a tremendous opportunity for our university. As a result, we will continue to roll up our sleeves to expand college access, enhance affordability, and improve our educational pipeline to provide clear college and career pathways for all the students in our region and beyond.
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I truly appreciate your commitment to this work. Our success is a direct result of your individual efforts, and it is a pleasure to serve as your dean. Every interaction that we have with prospective students is an opportunity to make a positive impact on their educational journey, so let’s keep transforming lives one student at a time.
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WELCOME TO OUR TEAM!
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Ajanta Bauer (Aja)
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Team: Relationship Management
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Oscar Lazo
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Team: Relationship Management
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Wren Badalis
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Senior Regional Admissions Counselor (VA)
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Team: Relationship Management
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Location: Williamsburg, VA
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Baron Vanderburg
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Senior Regional Admissions Counselor (PA)
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Team: Relationship Management
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Special Features in this Edition
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Jacob Brooks is engaged!
It's a BOY! Congratulations Nick Mihaljevic
OneTeam SPOTLIGHT on Sofia Cochis and Olga Diupina
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UNIT UPDATES
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HR & Finance
Personnel Management Team
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Fall Updates to Keep you Healthy, Prepared and Connected
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This season brings important opportunities to support your well-being, growth, and safety at Mason. From getting your flu shot and completing required trainings to reflecting on your professional progress and exploring resources that keep our community secure, be sure to take advantage of what’s available this fall.
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Get your 2025 flu shot at Mason and help protect yourself and our community. Flu clinics will be available on multiple campuses throughout October. Available Clinics & Registration
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The Midcycle Check-in is more than a checkpoint—it’s an opportunity to actively shape your professional journey. Beginning October 1, the Check-in invites you to reflect on progress, celebrate accomplishments, and plan for continued growth. To get ready for a meaningful conversation, visit Performance Evaluation Resources
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Emergency Preparedness at Mason - Stay informed and ready
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- Mason Alert: Register your cell phone to receive timely emergency notifications. You can find guidance on preparing for and responding to campus emergencies at ready.gmu.edu.
- In-Person Training: Programs including Active Threat, Hands-Only CPR, AED, Stop the Bleed, and Revive (opioid overdose response) are available. Training is free for faculty and staff; register online here.
- Public Safety App: Download the free Rave Guardian app for virtual safety escorts, emergency calling, AED/Narcan maps, and anonymous tip reporting. This application is free to all students, faculty and staff through the iTunes store and the Google Play store.
- See Something, Say Something: To report concerning or threatening behavior, or anyone (student or employee) that may become a threat to themselves or others, visit stopviolence.gmu.edu and submit a report.
Reminder: Complete the required annual Emergency Preparedness and Mandatory IT Security Awareness Trainings before their deadlines! You can access these trainings by logging into MasonLEAPS using your NetID and Patriot Password. Review the "Your Action Items" box or the Transcript listing. Be sure to complete the trainings before the due date assigned to you.
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Annual Required Emergency Preparedness Training
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In accordance with the Commonwealth of Virginia Office of the Governor, Executive Order 41 (2019), Emergency Preparedness Training is required annually for all Mason faculty and staff.
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Annual Mandatory IT Security Awareness Training
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To fulfill the annual compliance requirement, the training(s) have been assigned to all George Mason University employees, including contractors, affiliates, and student wage workers. It is designed to equip you with knowledge about how to recognize phishing emails and other cybersecurity risks and provide you with information about online safety and security. The training is required by the university and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Failure to complete this training could result in your account being locked for non-compliance.
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Operations
Greetings from Operations! Like many of you, the Operations team has been hard at work, deep into the R2 implementation of Patriot Connect! In addition to this major initiative, we’re engaged in several other exciting technology projects:
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- OCR Implementation for Parchment Transcripts: We’re aiming for an initial launch in early November for Parchment transcripts with all other transcripts, JSTs, etc. to follow.
- Transfer Course Appeal Form: Currently in testing, with a target launch date also in early November.
- PatriotWeb Credit Evaluation Display: Banner is getting an update, so we are too! In the meantime, we’ve been exploring alternative ways to display applicants’ evaluations in a more user-friendly interface.
- Transfer Credit Matrix: We’ve gone through phase 1 and 2 of the Domain Council approval. We are just waiting on the EDIS team to have resources available to begin the enhancement work.
- Stellic Partnership: We’re in conversations about leveraging Stellic as a more effective credit evaluation tool. Our goal is to also relaunch an updated Patriot Explorer utilizing Stellic as the new platform after several semesters offline. Meetings reconvene next week after our representative retired in July!
Document Center Updates
The Document Center had a productive summer and is now gearing up for the Fall 2026 application cycle by hiring and onboarding additional student workers. In the meantime, the team is supporting the OIEP office with a major data entry project.
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We’re also exploring automation options in document processing that promise to speed up timelines and streamline workflows, an exciting step forward in operational efficiency!
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Transfer Credit Updates
In July and August, the transfer credit team completed new or updated evaluations for nearly 3,800 students. A special thank-you goes out to our broader admissions operations team for helping evaluate over 1,100 AP scores for incoming freshmen.
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This fall, the team is focused on:
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- Ensuring all final transcripts are received for Fall matriculants
- Cleaning up equivalencies and CEEB codes
- Testing new tools, including:
- A refreshed Transfer Credit Matrix
- An updated Transfer Credit Evaluation page in PatriotWeb
- The Parchment Raptor Optical Character Reader (OCR)
Looking ahead to Fall 2026, we’re also reviewing and expanding our transfer credit policies including accepting UK Level 3 programs and up to 30 ACE-recommended credits from a Joint Service Transcript.
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Transfer
The Transfer Team is hard at work processing Fall 2025 deferral requests. The Spring 2026 transfer application is now open, with the priority deadline quickly approaching on October 1.
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A special shout out to Payton Creamer and Patricia Granberg for stepping in to assist with virtual transfer appointments and support recruitment while Nick Mihaljevic has been out—thank you for your flexibility and teamwork!
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Non-Degree Undergraduate
The Spring 2026 non-degree undergraduate application officially opened on September 1.
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Domicile
Over the summer, the Domicile Team lent a hand across multiple areas by supporting document processing and assisting with AP test credit evaluations. Some days it truly takes a village!
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INTO Admissions Updates
Despite continued challenges in international admissions, INTO successfully welcomed a strong Fall 2025 class:
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- 44 Undergraduate Pathway students
- 44 International Direct students
- 9 Undergraduate Transfer Pathway students
- 21 Graduate Pathway students
The team is currently working to defer students unable to arrive this fall and processing new applications for the spring term. They’re also collecting official transcripts, many of which are single-issue, student-held documents requiring careful in-person handling.
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We’re incredibly grateful for the collaboration and hard work of each of you. Thank you for all you do, and we wish you a smooth and successful start to the new academic year!
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Transfer Recruitment
Happy Fall! The summer slipped by quickly, and while each of us took time to get away, we also worked hard to enroll the second largest transfer class ever in university history! This is a big accomplishment, especially at a time full of uncertainty within higher education. We quickly pivoted from a cycle where we completed the most community college visits and had record out-of-state applications, to recruiting our next class. This summer, we started recruitment by attending Orientation sessions at every campus of Northern Virginia Community College multiple times, and NOVA Day at the Annandale campus, which was a great way to kick off the new school year. We have already begun our recruitment travel for the Spring 2026 term, recruiting primarily in-state and in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
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The declaration form for MVP partners opened earlier in September, as did our Northern Virginia Community College declaration, which opened on September 15th. We have begun reading those first declarations, and we anticipate another strong cohort of ADVANCE non-degree and ADVANCE transfer students for Spring 2026. We eagerly await the search for the new Director of ADVANCE, a position that was recently posted to replace the prior leadership in the former Office of Community College Partnerships. Finally, we await word from Vice President Burge regarding whether we will be able to offer scholarships to out-of-state transfer students. This is pending budget but is a high priority for our division.
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As far as other divisional priorities, we will be sharing the updated mission and vision statement for the division soon at an upcoming divisional meeting. This was created based on the feedback you provided via conversations, and the survey our working group sent out earlier this summer. We will also be updating our Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) this fall to encompass not only Admissions, but other key functions within the division. You may be tapped for insights regarding processes. This plan is very important should we ever have an emergency situation; yet, we have to keep core business functions operationalized.
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Upcoming Transfer Events
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Tuesday, September 23, 6:00 - 7:00 PM
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Virtual Prospective Transfer Student Event
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Friday, November 14, Time TBD
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Admitted Transfer Spotlight Day on Campus
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Graduate Admissions
Happy Fall! First, I want to say a big thank you to the events team for organizing our annual graduate fair (also a thank you to IEM). The structure of the event was well thought out and the execution was fantastic.
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On Monday, September 15 we launched new applications; Spring 2026 non-degree, Summer 2026 degree and non-degree, and lastly Fall 2026 degree. Thank you to the tech team for all the changes they built and tested this summer.
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Additionally, OGA is busy with the new year and the transcript audit that keeps us on our toes for the first few months of a new semester! This cycle we will be putting holds on student accounts on October 20, 2025. And per usual, that will increase the volume of visitors we have at the JC, therefore we appreciate your help and patience with these anxious graduate students. Huge thank you to the team for sending out personalized emails to each enrolled student letting them know exactly what they need to submit.
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Freshman Recruitment
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Fall is at the doorstep, and RM is hitting the ground running (and driving, and flying, and hanging out on train rides). The RM team will be hitting 28 states in a 2-month span as we hit every high school visit and college fair that time allows (time to buy stock in Panera, Starbucks, Buc-ees, and apparently the Olive Garden!). The push, as always is to get the good word of Mason out to the masses as we head into our November 1st Early Action deadline.
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As of this newsletter, our first round the high school direct admit offers have hit inboxes for over 4,500 northern Virginia students (not to mention our direct admission program we have going with the Common App). Expanding to 40+ partner schools has gotten off to a great start, and the collaboration between Kelly and IEM have put us in a great position to get ahead of the commonly asked questions we got last year. Not sure you fully grasp what our program is just yet? Have no fear – we have a video you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlx7X35LOC8.
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Fall Premiere is happening on October 19th, but besides that date, most of RM will be running around on the recruitment trails until November 1st. November 2nd will begin application review and then the race to decision release is on (releasing week of December 15th this year). If you need anything from RM, just put up a “free caffeine” signal in the sky….we’ll come running!
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A special shoutout to our all-stars Olga Diupina, Mariel del Castillo, James Carino, Conor Krouse, and Claire Edwards for setting up our student wage and Mason Ambassadors for success! We’re ready to crush the busy season—thanks to you!
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Outreach & Partnerships
WSP - The programs went well over the summer; we welcomed over 900 students for our three conferences. Even though the conferences just ended, we have already launched into marketing for next year. Teacher mailings dropped on Friday, the comm plan is running, and websites have been updated.
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K12 - Middle and High Schools are very excited to set up group visits to George Mason. The calendar is already completely full for the fall! We are excited to be onboarding our new Admissions Outreach Fellows - welcoming back 6 returning Fellows and introducing 11 new ones. We submitted a proposal to renew funding from SCHEV for the Middle School Grant. We actively participated in another year of the SCHEV PIV grant implementation, including the yearlong SCHEV Pell in Virginia Initiative Institution-wide Barrier Review.
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Events - Our event season is heating up! We have already had several events this fall, and we are gearing up for Mason Live, Fall Visit Day, Alcanza and Fall Premiere in October. Reminder: All staff who are not fully remote must attend Fall Premiere - contact Laura Super ([email protected]) ASAP if you cannot attend.
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Honors - We are still working on hiring a new counselor to work in admissions for the Honors College. We have started recruitment for the next cycle.
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Military Services
We are so excited to welcome Jean Paul “JP” to our office this Fall as part of the Mason LIFE internship program! JP brings energy and curiosity, and we’re excited to have him on board. As a Mason LIFE intern, JP will be supporting various office projects while gaining hands-on experience and building professional skills. We’re looking forward to seeing his contributions and growth throughout the semester. JP is accompanied by his attendant; Josh. Josh is a dependent of a 100% disabled veteran and uses education benefits here at Mason. Please join us in giving JP and Josh a warm welcome. They are in our office every Monday until noon.
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Fall 2025 Enrollment Highlights
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This semester, Mason welcomed an impressive incoming military and veteran connected class:
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- 670+ Freshmen
- 600+ Transfer Students
- 600+ Graduate Students
We’re especially proud to share that we had a record number of applicants across both undergraduate and graduate programs who identified a military or service connection. In total, for the 2025–2026 academic year, Mason is supporting over 6,000 students who have a connection to the military—whether as veterans, active-duty service members, or family members. This reflects the growing strength and visibility of our veteran and military-affiliated student community.
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Enhanced Veteran Orientation Experience
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In collaboration with New Student and Family Programs, we added a new component to the standard military services breakout session. After our presentation, we escorted families to a private lunch space where we enjoyed meaningful conversations, built community, and answered more specific and individualized questions. This new format helped deepen connections and provide tailored support to our incoming veteran students and their families.
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Finally, we had our first veteran student meetup of the year at Banditos. Thanks to a grant from University Life, we had plenty of food! It was well attended, and we are excited to see our student veteran group work towards becoming an official student organization.
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We wish everyone a wonderful Fall!
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Welcome JP!
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Veteran Student Meetup at Banditos
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SPECIAL FEATURES
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What are your job duties in the office?
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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?
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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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Youth Track Coach for kids 4-14 years old, I ran cross country and track in high
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Do you have any Pets?
Tell us about them!
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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?
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Cooking, hiking, puzzling, cycling, thrifting, watching college basketball and playing trivia.
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
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Favorite Food and Beverage
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Breakfast Sandwich and Iced Vanilla Latte
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
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Any sitcom - Modern Family, New Girl, The Office and Schitt's Creek
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Favorite Quote or Movie Line
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"The worst thing about prison was the Dementors." Michael Scott
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Virginia Tech Basketball and Football
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Favorite Band or Musician
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What are your job duties in the office?
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Read applications; travel; visit experience; supervising Mason Ambassadors
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
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Helping students find their fit at Mason and seeing them succeed here. And my co-workers!
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What are three words you would use to describe Mason?
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Open-minded. Innovative. Fun.
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Tell us more about you!
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Working in a grocery store deli
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Do you have any Pets?
Nope
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
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Brunching, hanging out with friends, binge watching shows, going on adventures
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
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I lost half of my tooth in Paris
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Favorite Food and Beverage
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Coca cola on the rocks and a good burger
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
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Master and Margarita by Bulgakov
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Favorite quote or movie line
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"Accept who you are; and revel in it"
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Washington Spirit and Seattle Seahawks
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Favorite Band or Musician
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