Student Success Blog

Month: September 2020

COVID Guidance Charts for Those On Campus Now

In conjunction with Mason’s COVID Outbreak Mitigation and Management Team as well as Safety, Emergency, & Enterprise Risk Management, the Instructional Continuity Working Group has created three charts outlining COVID-19 guidance for faculty, staff, and students who are coming to campus this semester. The charts provide step-by-step instructions on what to do should individuals feel sick or come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. To download and print all three charts, click here. If you have questions about the guidance, send an email to [email protected].

COVID Guidance for Students
COVID guidance for staff
COVID Guidance for instructors

Understanding Course Withdrawal Policy

Today (September 15) marks the last day a student may drop a class from their fall 2020 full semester schedule. If you drop a class today, you will receive a 50% refund on the tuition for that course and the course will not appear on your transcript. But what if you realize a class isn’t going to work for you after today? 

That’s where Mason’s course withdrawal policy can help. Withdrawing from a course can help save your GPA or make a challenging semester more manageable, but there are also some repercussions to choosing this option. Read on to learn more about withdrawal options and their pros and cons.

Unrestricted Withdrawal

The Upside:  Withdrawing from a class results in a W on your transcript.  This can be much better than an F.  The W has no impact on your overall GPA.

The Downside:  No tuition is refunded when you withdraw from a course.  A withdrawal also counts toward the number of credits attempted on your academic record.  This is probably not a big deal if you only withdraw from one or two courses over the span of your entire degree, but students must successfully complete at least 67% of the credits they have attempted across all institutions attended to maintain the Satisfactory Academic Progress needed to qualify for financial aid and to maintain good academic standing.  Also, all students must complete their programs of study by attempting no more than 150% of the hours normally required for completion.  That’s usually 180 credit hours for undergraduates.

The Deadline:  All students may withdraw from a class via Patriot Web from September 16 – 28, 2020

Selective Withdrawal

The Upside:  The benefits are the same as Unrestricted Withdrawal but with the added bonus of more time to try to ace the midterm and boost your grade.  Undergraduates may use a maximum of three selective withdrawals for any reason over the entire course of their degree.

The Downside:  Sorry graduate students, Selective Withdrawals are ONLY FOR UNDERGRADUATES.  Like Unrestricted Withdrawals, Selective Withdrawals don’t come with tuition refunds and the course still counts toward your attempted credit hours.

The Deadline: Undergraduates can execute a Selective Withdrawal from September 29 – October 28, 2020.

Students can execute the withdrawals mentioned above online via Patriot Web.  However – and we cannot say this too much – if you’re making significant changes to your schedule, make an appointment to see your advisor!  This semester, CEHD academic advisors are available for appointments via video conference and may also be able to find time to give a little guidance via email.  A conversation with an advisor can help ensure that your course changes won’t have a negative impact on your degree path, financial aid, or housing status.  The Office of the University Registrar suggests you always see your advisor before withdrawing from a course.

Other Types of Withdrawals

The two methods of course withdrawal listed above allow eligible students to withdraw for any reason, and without needing to share that reason with Mason. There are some cases where, after these withdrawal periods have expired, a student may still need to request a withdrawal. Course withdrawals are sometimes granted for exceptional circumstances, such as a serious personal illness. These types of withdrawals cannot be made via Patriot Web, and are handled on a case-by-case basis. They also require extensive documentation of your reasons for making the request and require approval and processing by the college. Reach out to the CEHD Office of Student and Academic Affairs to initiate this type of withdrawal.

Do you still have questions about course withdrawal policy?  The College of Education and Human Development Office of Student and Academic Affairs is here to help.  Contact us at [email protected] or call 703-993-2080.

How Are We Spending Our COVID Time?

Everything disappointing in life has the power to teach us something if we’re paying attention.

Growing up, I had an aunt who was inspirational to me. She was a banking executive in a time when not many women reached that level in the corporate world. She had no children of her own, so she would often share bits of wisdom with her nieces and nephews, and I can report that most of it was good and has stuck with me over the years.

She was fond of saying “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” I’m sure the expression was not her own, but it was true to her no-nonsense, “no-whiners” ethos. The point behind the saying: everything disappointing in life has the power to teach us something if we’re paying attention.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely did not want the COVID pandemic. Over the past five and a half months, I would have much rather kept to my work routine, socialized IN-PERSON with friends and loved ones, planned trips and celebrations, and used much less hand sanitizer. I think we can safely say that most of us are not really getting exactly what we want right now. This begs the question: Are we getting experience? Are we learning anything from living through coronavirus? When this is over will we have anything to show for it beyond wasted time?

The lives lost every day to COVID-19 should be sending us a message: life is short; don’t waste it. In the beginning of the quarantine, many of us chose to just put things off until this was all over. Many months in, it is becoming obvious that “over” could still be some time in arriving. So, do we continue to focus on not getting what we want, or do we turn that disappointment into an experience we can grow from?

We can’t travel, but we can learn a new language so we’re ready for the day that we can. We’re having a hard time finding employment, but we could be honing new career skills while we’re waiting for this economy to improve. We can’t gather in large groups, but we can still connect through a video conference or just a daily text check-in. We can’t all go to class in-person, but we are learning handy new technologies to get the job done. In a time when there is so much pain in our country, we could make the time to join a cause or be an ear to listen to a friend on the front lines. We can say “no” to living in constant anxiety and say “yes” to yoga, meditation, painting, or just dancing in our kitchens with our kids, partners, or parents.

Hopefully, steady progress toward your degree will be one of those growth experiences that comes out of this time. Chances are, you did not hope for COVID-style instruction or campus life but, if you’re smart, you won’t let it stand in your way. After all, when you dreamed of coming to Mason, was it just because you just wanted to spend a lot of time within 6 feet of your peers? No. You wanted to learn, meet new people, explore ideas, have your assumptions challenged, and build for your future. All of that is still possible and, if those things are really worth it to you, no mask, no webcam, and no amount of required social distance can stop you.

For those of us fortunate enough to have escaped the disease thus far, and who are able to continue to safely isolate, the pandemic is a call to define ourselves and our own happiness and to choose how we wish to grow, or even if we wish to grow at all. Nearly six months into COVID-19, one thing seems clear to me: It is time to stop thinking about what we do not have and start making sure we have something to show for this moment in our lives. If experience is truly what we get when we don’t get what we want, what experiences will we choose to create for ourselves?

Meg Yoder

Meg Yoder is living the dream as CEHD’s Student Communications Coordinator. If she’s not trying to entice you to read your Mason email, she’s probably crafting or gardening.

Sources for Graduate Student Support and Funding

In addition to the numerous awards, grants, and fellowships that may be accessed through the Provost’s Office of Graduate Education, the CEHD Office of  Student and Academic Affairs is pleased to be able to share some additional sources of graduate student funding and support. Many thanks to CEHD Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Eamonn Kelly for compiling these resources.

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Since 1888, AAUW has been one of the largest funders of women’s graduate education.

Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs

Through its program of fellowships, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Minority Graduate Scholarship Programs

The purpose of the Alfred P. Sloan Graduate Scholarship Programs is to assist efforts to diversify the U.S. Ph.D. degree-holding workforce by increasing the recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented doctoral students in sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), especially in fields where national trends document persistent underrepresentation. A secondary aim is to change the demographics of STEM faculty in U.S. colleges and universities by paying special attention to the preparation of doctoral students from underrepresented minorities (URM) for careers in academia.

National Academy of Education Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program

The Dissertation Fellowship Program seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $27,500 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, analysis, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Special Funding for Graduate Students

Programs providing either direct (i.e., from NSF) or indirect (i.e., from an awardee institution) funding for students at this level or identify programs that focus on educational developments for this group such as curricula development, training, or retention.

Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)

AGEP alliances consist of institutions dedicated to supporting underrepresented minority students, women, and students with disabilities to complete advanced degrees in the STEM fields. Alliances provide a variety of support programs including research support, professional development, and mentoring, as well as cultural and social activities.

Science.Gov Internships

Follow the link and type “internships” into the Full Record field to locate U.S. government-related science internship opportunities.

Pathways and Presidential Management Fellows Programs

The Pathways Program offers federal internship and employment opportunities for current students, recent graduates, and those with an advanced degree.

GEM Fellowships

GEM is a network of leading corporations, government laboratories, top universities, and top research institutions that enables qualified students from underrepresented communities to pursue graduate education in applied science and engineering.

McNair Scholars Funding Links

The following links come from the McNairs Scholars website.  These sources are from private and public organizations that have ties to higher education but are not degree-granting entities.

Arts & Humanities:

Business:

Diversity:

General Graduate/Scholar:

Life and Health Sciences:

Social Sciences: