Admissions and Financial Aid

Admissions Update: Successes of the 2023-24 Events Cycle

Jonathan Nichols — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:08:38 +0000

Admissions Update: Successes of the 2023-24 Events Cycle Jonathan Nichols Fri, 04/26/2024 - 12:08

This is part of a monthly series that informs George Mason University’s faculty and staff how the Office of Admissions and its collaborators are working to build and support a diverse student body that reflects our world and future.

For the 2023-24 admissions cycle, the Admissions Events team saw a record number of admitted students participate in its spring events. Across its eight largest events, including a newly revamped Spring Preview, more than 4,300 students registered to connect with the students, faculty, and staff of the George Mason community.

Getting a chance to see what life is like on campus, meeting with faculty, and learning how students come together and express themselves in hundreds of organizations has an incredibly positive effect on students’ decisions to enroll. Data from the spring 2023 cycle shows that 75% of the 1401 students who registered for Spring Preview submitted an enrollment deposit, which accounts for nearly one-third of the incoming freshman class of for that academic year.

Students and family members meet with faculty and staff tabling in the Johnson Center during 2024's Spring Preview.

These events are one of the best ways units can connect with prospective students to answer their questions about programs and help them feel a sense of belonging, and the Admissions Events team provides a couple ways to get involved.

To leverage the central marketing and outreach for large events, it is recommended units request an add-on; a specialized period during these events where students can interact with units directly. Units may also set up stand-alone events, which are supported by a small set of communications. Before submitting a stand-alone event request, your college’s Recruitment Action Council (RAC) representative must connect with their admissions liaison to determine the student population you are looking to invite.

The admissions events calendar for 2024-25 academic year will become available in June. The deadlines to request add-ons or standalone events are August 1 for fall events and November 1 for spring events. Units will receive additional communications about events and opportunities over the summer and as these dates approach.

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Admissions and Financial Aid

Admissions Update: Mason Continues Expanding Access to a College Education

Jonathan Nichols — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 14:22:42 +0000

Admissions Update: Mason Continues Expanding Access to a College Education Jonathan Nichols Fri, 03/29/2024 - 10:22

This is part of a monthly series that informs George Mason University's faculty and staff about how the Office of Admissions and its collaborators are working to build and support a diverse student body that reflects our world and future.

The Office of Admissions has seen increases in freshman and transfer applications for Virginia residents and out-of-state and international students for the second year in a row. This freshman cohort has the highest yield of applications from Virginia high school seniors in the university's history.

Fall 2024 Freshman Application Comparison
Mason continues to grow its number of freshman applications across all populations.

Crucially, Mason’s efforts to expand access to a college education has resulted in increased applications from historically underrepresented student populations for the 2024 freshman class. This includes double-digit percentage increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students applying to Mason and a more than 20 percent increase in the number of first-generation applicants.

Freshman Application Comparison by Race/Ethnicity
The diversity of freshman students applying to Mason continues to increase.

Mason’s recruitment efforts have been supported this year by the piloting of two new direct admissions programs. These are an expanded Common Application Direct Admissions Pilot and a new set of High School Direct Admissions (HSDA) partnerships with Virginia schools. The HSDA pilot increased the percentage of students applying from these schools by 30% and, as of March 1, 646 (52%) students in the program had claimed their offer of admission.

Application Yield for Virginia High School Seniors
At more than 17%, this year marks Mason's highest application yield for the state of Virginia.

Recently, Mason received $1.2 million in funding as part of the state of Virginia’s efforts to enhance the recruitment and retention of Pell-eligible students. The investment will be used to fund positions and programming to support these efforts, including Access to Excellence Seminars that help students and families with college planning, financial literacy, and FAFSA/VASA completion. The first of these seminars was hosted on February 10 and had nearly 100 high school juniors and seniors in attendance.

In the graduate space, Mason has seen an increase in applications from Virginia and the broader United States.

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Admissions and Financial Aid

Strategic Direction

How Admissions is Reaching New Students

Jonathan Nichols — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 18:45:54 +0000

How Admissions is Reaching New Students Jonathan Nichols Thu, 10/26/2023 - 14:45

Every year, Mason’s Office of Admissions sets out to expand access to education for prospective students across Virginia, our country, and the world. Only a few months into the current recruitment cycle, they’ve already achieved some incredible things.

Freshman Recruitment

Building on past success, the admissions staff have increased their outreach. Over just the past three months, they’ve...

Visited 26 states and Washington, D.C.
Attended over 1,100 individual recruitment events, including high school visits, college fairs, and individual meetings with students and families
Hosted six large-scale, on-campus events since the start of the semester, including a fall premiere open house with over 1,300 attendees
Offered virtual and in-person Information sessions in Spanish for the first time, with more planned for the spring

Transfer Recruitment

Each year, more than one-third of new Mason students transfer here from another institution. Since the start of the semester, our Office of Transfer Services has...

Visited every branch campus of Northern Virginia Community College, along with the three new MVP ADVANCE partner-institutions from the Virginia Community College System
Embedded a dedicated transfer representative at Northern Virginia Community College once a week to meet with prospective students
Expanded recruitment in Maryland with visits to four additional community colleges

International Recruitment

International students make up almost ten percent of Mason’s enrollment and come to our campus from 130 countries. Many of these students learn about Mason from our international admissions representatives, who have...

Visited 12 countries in the past three months, including the office’s first trips to Ghana and Nigeria
Met with prospective students in 18 cities

Here’s where our international counselors have touched down in the past few months:

Countries	Cities
Argentina	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Uruguay	Montevideo, Uruguay
Brazil	Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Campinas
Peru	Lima
Ecuador	Quito
Qatar	Doha
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh, Jeddah
Jordan	Amman, Madaba
United Arab Emirates	Dubai, Abu Dhabi
Vietnam	Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi
Ghana	Accra
Nigeria	Lagos

Learn More about the Office of Admissions

Interested in learning more? Reach out to your college’s Recruitment Action Council (RAC) representative.

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Admissions and Financial Aid

Provost Newsletter

Strategic Direction

The FAFSA Is Changing. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Jonathan Nichols — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 14:47:15 +0000

The FAFSA Is Changing. Here’s What You Need to Know. Jonathan Nichols Thu, 09/28/2023 - 10:47

The FAFSA Simplification Act passed by Congress is introducing several changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in the 2024-25 aid year. These changes affect all current and prospective students.

The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) and Integrated Enrollment Marketing (IEM) are working together with several other departments to provide details about these changes to students, faculty, and staff as they become available.

What's Changing?

The extent of these changes is still being determined but are known to include:

Updates to how aid is calculated
The implementation of a revised, streamlined application
The introduction of the “contributor” role

As a result of these updates, the 2024-25 FAFSA will not open on October 1, as it usually does. It is projected to become available in December 2023.

Additionally, due to the changes in aid calculations, more students will gain access to Pell funding, while some will lose it.

How Can I Help Students and Stakeholders Prepare?

Encourage students to create the necessary FSA ID(s) for their FAFSA

Although the FAFSA will not be available until December 2023, students can start the process by creating their FSA ID today.

Importantly, all those who qualify as a “contributor” to a student’s FAFSA must create an FSA ID as well. This can include:

The student
Parents and co-parents (if the student is dependent)
Spouse (if the student is independent and filed separate tax returns)

FSA IDs are created on the Federal Student Aid website.

Staying Up to Date

OSFA and IEM will communicate consistently about these changes throughout the 2024-25 aid year via the FAFSA Simplification page and additional outreach, including email campaigns to prospective and current students, faculty, and staff. This is the biggest change to the FAFSA in 40 years, and we appreciate your attention and support as we guide our students through the process.

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Admissions and Financial Aid

Provost Newsletter

Alethia Shipman named director of financial aid

Lauren Reuscher — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 17:40:48 +0000

Alethia Shipman named director of financial aid Lauren Reuscher Fri, 07/14/2023 - 13:40

In This Story

David Burge, MSE

Alethia Shipman, director of Student Financial Aid. Photo provided

Alethia Shipman was recently appointed as director of student financial aid at George Mason University. Shipman, who has been with Mason for more than a year serving as associate director of financial aid, assumes the position following the retirement of Sandy Tarbox.

“Alethia assumes this new role with a breadth of financial aid experience across a number of institutional types,” said David Burge, vice president for enrollment management. “She’s worked as a financial aid advisor, a certifying official, an analyst, and as an associate director at two different institutions. Words that consistently come up to describe her are thorough, approachable, knowledgeable, and full of positive energy.”

Previous roles provided Shipman with hands-on experiences throughout multiple layers of financial aid and afforded her the opportunity to use technical, analytical, and customer service skills in a leadership capacity, enhancing her approach to managing staff from diverse backgrounds. She plans to use her knowledge, passion, and expertise to make a difference in students’ lives.

“My favorite part of working with students is knowing that I played a part in reaching their goals by assisting them throughout their educational journey through counseling, mentoring, or educating them along the way,” Shipman said.

Those skills will undoubtedly assist the entire Office of Student Financial Aid as big changes are coming. In 2020, Congress passed legislation to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application while also adjusting the formula to determine who will qualify for aid and how much they will receive. As FAFSA alters focus from cash flow to a slightly greater emphasis on wealth, this shift translates into a fairer treatment across the board but could mean decreases in aid eligibility for middle- and high-income families.

Since these developments could result in fear or reluctance for applicants, Shipman knows that communication is key and plans to visit local high schools as well as hold workshops and open forums for students and families to help navigate the FAFSA changes.

“Because the changes can be overwhelming, it will be important to provide FAFSA workshops to assist with completing the application,” she said. “Having open forums for students and families to have all of their questions answered will have a positive impact.”

Beyond FAFSA, Shipman knows that repaying student loans is just as much of a priority for recent graduates as securing a job. She also knows that financial literacy education—understanding financial concepts such as interest rates, student loans, credit scores, budgeting, and how personal finances work—is the best way to help new and current students understand how to wisely manage their personal resources, especially when it comes to spending on their education.

“It is important to provide financial literacy resources to students,” she said, emphasizing the need to provide financial aid counseling to help students understand the options available to them.

Having a college degree increases job opportunities and career stability, and Shipman knows that financial aid plays a strong role in allowing students that opportunity. Moving forward in her new role, Shipman will no doubt have a big impact on the student population by providing outstanding student financial aid service and choice.

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Admissions and Financial Aid

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