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I have great news! Spring is officially here, and we are still on pace to meet or exceed all of our enrollment targets for fall 2023. This is a result of all of you being great at what you do, and the collective impact of your efforts have propelled us to this position. We are currently excelling in all phases of Admissions; marketing, recruitment, processing, events, campus tours, and customer service. As a result, we have record numbers of applications, admits, and deposits as we enter the heart of yield season. The only thing left for us to accomplish this cycle is to enroll the largest class of new students our campus has ever seen.
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I hope you are enjoying the ride on this amazing journey. I was fortunate to be able to attend a few of our regional yield events at TopGolf this month, and it was so refreshing to spend quality time with some of our admitted students and their families. It reminded me how lucky we are to be in such an amazing profession where we get to directly impact peoples’ lives on a daily basis. We should all take great pride in this privilege and strive to make a positive impression on everyone who crosses our path. Afterall, this is the Patriot way.
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We have two new initiatives that will launch in Admissions within the next few weeks. Due to the critical shortage of teachers in the Commonwealth, we are launching the CEHD Pilot Project to expand access for students interested in pursuing undergraduate majors in BSEd degree programs at Mason. We will be offering provisional admission to students in these majors who fall below our minimum admission standards for fall 2023, and CEHD will be providing these students with college-level support services to ensure their success on campus. Additionally, we are close to launching the Direct Admission Pilot with Alexandria City, Manassas Park, and Osbourn high schools. This pilot will offer all the seniors in these schools direct admission to Mason for fall 2024 if they earn a specific grade point average. The final details for the Direct Admissions Pilot are forthcoming, but I wanted to make you aware of this exciting opportunity.
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I know this has been a stressful year with the growing workload that comes with increased interest from prospective students. Just hang in there because we are almost at the finish line. You are doing amazing work, and we are about to accomplish something very special.
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International Credentials Specialist
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Location: SUB1 Admissions
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Transfer Credit Coordinator
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Location: SUB1 Admissions
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Graduate Admissions Coordinator
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Special Features in this Edition
OneTeam Spotlight on Jacob Brooks, Debra Coleman,
Payton Creamer and Courtney Knapp
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HR & Finance
The award deadline for the Emerging Leader and Admissions Rising Star awards is fast approaching. Visit https://gmuedu.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa/adm/default.aspx to see the descriptions of the awards and their criteria featured in the Announcements section. Don't forget that the Excellence in Service Patriot Award is always available, and recipients of that award will automatically be nominated for the Quarterly Excellence in Service Patriot Award.
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Increase your engagement and connection at work through the Employee Resource and Support Groups (https://hr.gmu.edu/support-resources/employee-resource-and-support-groups/ ). There is a wide variety of existing groups, and even instructions on how to create your own. If you attend any of the meetings for the groups featured on this page you can count that as work time - it helps you meet your organizational citizenship/relationship goals which are part of your performance evaluation!
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Did you know that Payroll moved from HR to Fiscal Services? Their new website is available at https://fiscal.gmu.edu/payroll/ .
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If you have questions about any of this information, reach out to anyone on our team or email [email protected].
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Relationship Management
Springtime already? We have already sprung forward with our clocks and have also sprung forward with yielding our Fall 2023 freshman class. It's hard to believe we are almost into April, and just about 40 days from the May 1st National Candidates' Reply Date! We are counting the days, hours and minutes leading into May 1st. It's going to be a BIG day for us!
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Our team is working very hard at conducting yield outreach to our admitted freshmen. We are offering receptions in about 10 or so geographic areas. We are offering 1:1s, further scholarship funding (to out-of-state students), calling and messaging students to assist them with questions, and encouraging them to #ChooseMason. We are on track, at this point, to once again bring in the largest freshman class in university history this fall. I could not be prouder of this team! They are truly incredible, and the kind of team I have always dreamt of leading. It is a true honor to serve as the Director of Undergraduate Admissions.
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We have a few more events this spring that our amazing AOP Team is planning. Spring recruitment travel is also in full swing, and we are finishing up reading those last-minute freshman applications. We will soon transition to planning for the upcoming cycle in late spring/early summer.
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We thank each and every one of you for all you are doing to support our work bringing in our freshman class!
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March 26 - 28 Counselor Fly-In
April 4 Northern VA Regional College Fair
April 5 Junior Visit Day
April 12 First Gen Spotlight Day
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April 26 Welcome2Mason: Admitted Student Webinar
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Admissions Outreach & Partnerships
WSP - Both the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment (WYSE) and the Washington Journalism & Media Conference (WJMC) are beyond full and running long waitlists. We are currently booking speakers and designing the curriculum of the programs. We are also in the midst of hiring the 50 person staff for each week. We rely on the staff in the Office of Admissions to help on the arrival day of each program. We hope that you will consider joining us on Sunday, June 25, July 9 or 16 to greet students and help them get checked in. The hours are 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, and you can work with your supervisor to flex your time. You'll also get a t-shirt and lunch! You can sign up here - https://gmu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cwgP8h7PU7Utpf8
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K12 Outreach - Thank you to all who have helped with group tours this semester! We are implementing the SCHEV grant we were awarded and have seen more than 1,000 students across multiple schools. We are also planning future outreach initiatives pending more grant funding from SCHEV. We are also excited to add an Outreach Advisor to the team. The position closes March 31!
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Events - Spring yield events are in full swing and going well. We have had great attendance and engagement at all events and are excited to launch the inaugural First Gen Spotlight Day in April. Thanks to all who are helping at the Spring Preview on April 23. There's more information to come.
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Honors - We are monitoring Honors numbers closely, both in-state and non-resident. The Celebration of Excellence for admitted Honors students went really well and we received 16 IEs at the event! The Honors College Recruitment team is hard at work writing postcards and chatting with admitted students.
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Operations
I hope you each are well and congratulations on such a successful year thus far. Operations is in full swing. Please see Operations updates and some pertinent announcements below. A big thank you to each of you for being great partners!
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Annual Updates - The annual updates cycle has begun for undergraduate and graduate admissions. Your team leads were notified on March 8. Please submit any application, requirements, or deadline update requests to your team leader by April 1, 2023. To note, we are also hopeful to be able to transition all non-degree applications into the Undergraduate Review Tool in the near future. Stay tuned!
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Document Center - As a result of your hard work, the Document Center has also been hustling to stay on top of document processing due to the increased application volume. They are currently still processing within 24 hours. Although they do a fantastic job, errors do occur on occasion. Please let us know if we can assist you. Excellent work, Doc Center!
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Credit Evaluation - The Credit Evaluation Team is currently processing fall 2023 transfer credits for transfer students and those freshmen who have IE'd. Audit holds have been placed for spring 2023 transfer students who are missing their final transcripts. ITS is currently working through an integration with TES and Banner for an updated transfer credit matrix and updated process for faculty to review potential credit equivalencies, as well as a Banner workflow to support the Transfer Credit Appeal form. We are hopeful both enhancements will launch in June 2023. Finally, the transfer credit policy working group concluded their assessment and sent policy change recommendations to leadership last semester. More policy updates to come once vetted through leadership. Amazing changes coming, great work team!
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Domicile - The Domicile Team has also been hustling to stay on top of domicile decisions due to the increased application volume though we have seen no lag due to excellent prioritization. The Domicile Team is also partnering with the Registrar to improve our reports and review processes to prevent more appeals from being escalated. Keep up the great work!
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Transfer and Non-Degree - The Transfer Team is hard at work processing fall 2023 applications and web cases since the GAA deadline passed on March 1. Transfer numbers are looking good for the fall term, so we are excited to keep getting decisions posted quickly. The Transfer Team is also in the process of transferring the [email protected] email address to case tracking in Salesforce. We are hopeful this will decrease the email volume and provide a more consistent response to applicants. The Transfer Team is also working closely alongside the Relationship Management and ADVANCE teams to streamline and automate undergraduate processes. Amazing work!
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INTO Mason - INTO Mason continues to work-hard through increased application volumes and new initiatives. They are also currently in the process of transitioning their UTP applicants. They too are working through their final document collection for audit purposes and placing holds for missing documents. Keep it up, INTO Mason!
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Graduate - The Graduate Team just passed several major deadlines and are working hard to complete their fall 2023 processing and international evaluation expectations. Applications are up again this year, but the team has done an incredible job staying on top of processing applications, evaluations, and cases. Kudos to each of you! The Graduate Team has also signed on to a new transcript service for Indian applicants called True Copy. We are hopeful this service improves the service and efficiency to our Indian students and our staff alike. The graduate space is also conducting their spring audit and recently placed holds for missing transcripts. Some exciting updates coming to the graduate space during annual updates to continue to decrease processing time, as well as some Wiley and BAM enhancements. More to come!
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We hope each of you are well and looking forward to warmer weather! Come visit us in SUB1!
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International
Happy Spring from the International Team! For our international freshman applications, we are almost 200 applications over last year at this time. Our transfer applications are also up over last year as well. Things in the international world feel like they are getting back to pre-COVID times and it makes us so happy. Students are excited about coming to Mason and they are able to get here.
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In early March, I traveled to Colombia for a week of recruiting high school student and participated in a Counselor fly-in with high school counselors from all over Colombia and Panama. It was a very successful trip where I met many students that were eager to hear more about Mason! I was also able to meet a few admitted students while I was there. I am hoping that this trip (and future trips) helps us to generate some more interest from this area. Kushala, our India recruiter, has also been very busy attending high school visits and meeting with admitted students all over India.
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We are looking forward to our South Asia yield event on April 13th. We will be able to go over next steps and information about Mason with many of our admitted students in that region. This will be the third time running this event and it has always been a great experience for everyone.
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Our Designated School Official (DSO) team, Eriko, Anne, Ben, and Austin are very busy this time of year. Between the four of them, they have already issued almost 500 I-20s for our Fall 2023 admitted students. There will be many, many more over the next couple of months. Our goal is to get as many I-20s out by May 15th because that is when the visa appointments will open for India. India is one of the only countries that hold their visa appointments and release them on the same day. If students already have their I-20 they should be able to make an appointment at some point over the summer to get here on time for 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.
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As a reminder, if you are getting questions from undergraduate Afghan students or Ukrainian students about funding or flexibilities around applying to Mason, please send them to me. We are still using the funding request form for both Afghan and Ukrainian students https://www.gmu.edu/campaigns/refugee-students, but unfortunately there is no extra funding for this year. We are encouraging students that ask about funding to fill out the form to get on the list just in case funding were to open, but we cannot make any promises. We are still able to help them with application flexibilities around unofficial transcripts and connecting them with WES Gateway for a free international transcript evaluation.
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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.
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Admissions Technology
An important reminder to Supervisors: Please let Matt Scott know whenever a wage employee is leaving Admissions. Wages, especially students, typically do not show up in job loss reports the way that full-time staff do, and it is important that access to Admissions' resources be terminated in a timely fashion.
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We are shining the spotlight on these amazing colleagues!
Check out these fun facts about Jacob, Debra, Payton and Courtney.
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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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