Admissions and Onboarding
Admissions and Onboarding
The ADVANCE Declaration is how students “raise their hand” to be screened for Program eligibility. Any prospective student with an active NOVA student record is encouraged to apply, however we do encourage students to review the ADVANCE eligibility requirements prior to submitting a Declaration. Please note that while the ADVANCE Declaration is absolutely free to submit, a student will need to have activated their MyNOVA account to log into the e-form. Students can access the ADVANCE Declaration by clicking on the green “Sign Up” box on NOVA's ADVANCE website. ADVANCE eligibility is determined by Mason’s Office of Admissions.
Once a prospective ADVANCE student is identified as eligible for the Program, they will receive a follow-up communication to their VCCS e-mail account containing information on the last two “steps” of the ADVANCE onboarding process: the pre-orientation video and the ADVANCE Agreement. The pre-orientation video provides a prospective student with detailed information on ADVANCE requirements and benefits. Once completed, the student will then review, electronically sign, and upload their ADVANCE Agreement into an e-form provided in the e-mail communication. For any questions and/or assistance with this process, please contact ADVANCE Admissions at advance@nvcc.edu.
The ADVANCE Agreement is the student’s ADVANCE “contract,” which outlines general program policies, resources, the pre-defined 4-year curricular pathway, and all program-specific ADVANCE milestones. The ADVANCE Agreement also “locks” a student by their admit term into a catalog year, ensuring the transferability of their coursework as indicated in their curricular pathway at time of transition to Mason.
If a student is identified as ineligible for ADVANCE, they will receive a follow-up communication to their VCCS e-mail account containing information on transfer admission to Mason and referral to Mason’s Office of Transfer Services (OTS) for additional support.
ADVANCE welcomes declarations for Fall and Spring enrollment. The following priority dates will assist a student in planning to submit their ADVANCE Declaration:
Fall 2020 Declaration Deadline: July 15, 2020
Spring 2021 Declaration Deadline: December 01, 2020
ADVANCE students receive a transfer credit evaluation similar to all admitted Mason transfer students. Prior to matriculation, students are encouraged to review NOVA's Transfer Credit Evaluation Policies and Mason's Transfer Credit Policies and to contact their assigned Success Coach to discuss the applicability of prior external transfer as well as test credit. Please note that both NOVA and Mason have the right to accept or not accept external or test credit. Consequently, external transfer or test credit may count towards fulfilling a degree requirement at one institution, but not the other. Please direct the student to their assigned Success Coach for questions and academic planning as needed.
Yes, the student can still be considered for ADVANCE. Please note that international credit will be reviewed and may possibly count toward the maximum 30 credit hours permitted at time of Declaration into ADVANCE. An official evaluation of international credit must be completed by an international transcript evaluation agency (e.g. AACRAO or WES) prior to ADVANCE eligibility review.
Yes, some ADVANCE curricular pathways can be completed entirely online. If a student has any questions regarding the availability of online ADVANCE programs or online classes at either institution, please refer them to their assigned Success Coach.
You can view the ADVANCE Events Calendar here.
The ADVANCE Team monitors student progression through universal and program-specific milestones and notifies the student via their VCCS e-mail account. The student’s assigned Success Coach follows up with the student to offer resources, support, and intervention.
Students can change major within ADVANCE and remain part of the program, as long it is a curricular pathway currently offered by ADVANCE. However, please note that this change might affect the student’s graduation timeline and/or scholarship eligibility (if applicable). To do so, they will need to meet with their Success Coach and sign a revised ADVANCE Agreement for the new pathway. If a student wishes to pursue a major that is not a current ADVANCE offering, they will be advised to withdraw from ADVANCE and pursue either the Guaranteed Admission Agreement (GAA) or regular transfer admission to Mason.
While all ADVANCE students are required to complete a minimum of 6 credits each consecutive fall and spring semester at NOVA towards their chosen curricular pathway, if a student is planning an absence during the course of their studies at NOVA, they must submit a formal request or Leave of Absence (LOA) to the ADVANCE Program.
· Prior approval is required. LOA deadlines are: August 1 for fall LOA or December 15 for spring LOA. Students do not need a LOA for summer semesters.
· Students may request a one semester LOA or up to the maximum time allowed, a total of one academic year. This can be taken as two consecutive semesters, fall to spring or spring to fall or two separate semesters during the course of their ADVANCE enrollment at NOVA.
· ADVANCE students are not permitted to study elsewhere while on approved LOA. No transfer credit earned while on an approved LOA will be applied to their NOVA or Mason degree program.
· If a student is on an approved LOA, they will not be considered for matriculation to Mason. Upon return to NOVA and completion of the required milestones to earn their associate’s degree, their Success Coach will assist them in transitioning to Mason.
· Each ADVANCE LOA request requires you to contact your assigned Success Coach and submit a new LOA Form
· If a student’s request for an ADVANCE LOA is denied, the student continues be held to the milestone progression requirements outlined in the ADVANCE agreement.
For more information, please see here.
No. If the student has requested matriculation or holds degree-seeking status at Mason, they are ineligible for an ADVANCE LOA. Please refer them to the Office of the University Registrar LOA Form, which can be found here, and to their appropriate Mason academic advising unit for review and approval. If you have additional questions, please refer them to their assigned Success Coach.
The ADVANCE Success Coach serves as the student’s primary point of contact throughout their participation in the program, assisting with: academic planning, especially as it pertains to how previous and current credit counts towards their ADVANCE curricular pathway, making direct referrals for services/resources at both institutions as needed, milestone monitoring, helping students with the co-enrollment processes, accessing dual institutional resources, and transition to Mason.
Success Coaches are co-located at Mason and their respective NOVA campuses. A Success Coach has assigned Mason and NOVA days and can meet with students at either location. The Success Coaching Team is also available via phone or WebEx if a student cannot meet at a given location for an appointment.
The Success Coach should always be a student’s first point of contact regarding specific curricular pathway requirements and/or questions. Success Coaches can refer students to NOVA frontline staff (e.g. First Year Advising/GPS, Pathway to the Baccalaureate (PtB), and Mason programs as needed.
ADVANCE students work with their assigned Success Coach, who serves as the primary point of contact throughout the student’s participation in the program. The Success Coach provides personalized advising, coaching, and direct referrals as needed for ADVANCE students at NOVA and Mason to meet each student’s individual and holistic needs throughout their educational journey. Expectations regarding this level of interaction and intervention is communicated by the Success Coach to the student at entry into ADVANCE.
If a student wishes to withdraw from ADVANCE, they need to notify and work with their assigned Success Coach to complete this process.
Students can change their major once they have successfully transitioned to degree-seeking status at Mason and this change can be into a major not currently offered in ADVANCE. However, please note that this change might affect the student’s graduation timeline and/or scholarship eligibility (if applicable). Students will follow the same major change process as all other degree-seeking students at Mason.
The ADVANCE Team encourages faculty and staff to work with students to determine the personal and/or educational factors underpinning their desire to transfer prior to NOVA degree completion and to reiterate the benefits of remaining in the program in relation to cost savings on coursework and their similar access to Mason opportunities and resources as degree-seeking students. However, if a student wishes to withdraw from ADVANCE, they need to notify and work with their assigned Success Coach to complete this process. Once the student has withdrawn from ADVANCE, their Success Coach will encourage them to reach out to NOVA transfer advising resources or Mason’s Office of Transfer Services (OTS) for questions and/or information about transfer eligibility requirements and applying to Mason as a Guaranteed Admission Agreement (GAA) or regular transfer applicant.
If a student wishes to withdraw from ADVANCE, they need to notify and work with their assigned Success Coach to complete this process. Once the student has withdrawn from ADVANCE, their Success Coach will encourage them to reach out to NOVA transfer advising resources for questions and/or information about transfer eligibility requirements and applying to another college or university.
If an ADVANCE student has been officially transitioned into degree-seeking status at Mason and wants to take a course at NOVA, the student is subject to the study elsewhere policies of the University and their respective Mason College, School, and or Program. However, ADVANCE students with one (1) course remaining at NOVA in order to earn their associate’s degree are eligible to complete their final ADVANCE requirement through the ADVANCE study elsewhere process and memo.
Currently, ADVANCE student transfer credit evaluations occur at point of matriculation, specifically after their transition into degree-seeking status has been approved by their assigned Success Coach and Mason’s Office of Admissions. Depending upon the semester of transition, when a given ADVANCE student’s matriculation is fully approved, and when certain documents are received (e.g. official transcripts), this could create variance on the timing of their transfer credit evaluations.
NOVA electronic transcripts are $10 and the student requests these through their NOVA Dashboard using their MyNOVA login credentials. Please note that Mason only accepts electronic transcripts from NOVA. For instructions on how to request an official transcript from NOVA, please see here. Please note the student may have to request an additional transcript upon the completion of additional coursework and/or after the posted conferral of their associate’s degree.
Also, if the student has not done so already, they will want to request their official transcripts from any other colleges and/or universities they have attended as well as any test credit to be sent to Mason’s Office of Admissions for evaluation of transfer credit. Again, all transfer credit evaluations for ADVANCE students are completed after their transition to degree-seeking status at Mason has been approved. For more information on Mason’s transfer credit policies and processes, please see here.
For students who are currently on probation, will they definitely be terminated if they fail to meet the minimum GPA at the end of the spring 21 semester?
Yes, students who were on probation this past semester (fall 2020) and still do not meet the required GPA for their ADVANCE pathway at the end of the spring 21 semester will be terminated. ADVANCE is still working on the internal logistics of how this will work, but likely students will get a new SIS code (ADV 5) to indicate they have been terminated from ADVANCE.
For students who were on warning last semester (spring 20) and were again on warning this semester (fall 2020), will they be terminated at the end of spring 21 semester?
Students must be on probation at least once before they are terminated from ADVANCE. If a student has been on warning several times but was not previously on probation, they will not be terminated at the end of the spring 21. However, they may be placed on warning (if 45 credits or below + not meeting GPA/not meeting enrollment minimum/not meeting program-specific milestones) or probation (if over 45 credits + not meeting GPA).
Is there a limit to how many semesters a student is on warning before they move onto probation, or is it strictly based on the 45 credits limit and required GPA for their ADVANCE pathway?
A student may be put on probation if they a) do not meet the required GPA for their ADVANCE pathway, and b) have over 45 credits. Therefore, students who are part-time may be on warning multiple times before they ever reach probation status.
For spring 21 milestone review, will probation be strictly based on GPA again, or do we think enrollment/program-specific might be added in?
Unfortunately, we do not know at this time. We are currently discussing how the different milestone requirements will be included in the milestone review for spring 21 and beyond.
If a student believes they were mistakenly given a warning or probation letter, what should they do?
Contact their Success Coach, and ADVANCE will review. If a correction is needed, notes will be added to the student’s record on Salesforce and Navigate.
What is the escalation protocol if a student wants to escalate their concerns about ADVANCE’s warning/probation/termination or a Success Coach wants to escalate concerns about a student’s unwillingness to comply with milestones?
Success Coach can only communicate the ADVANCE milestone warning/probation/termination policies and explain the consequences to students. If students want to further escalate an issue, please direct the student to Krystal Wiley.
Co-enrollment is one benefit of the ADVANCE Program, which allows students, depending upon their chosen curricular pathway, to take up to 9 credits at Mason while in degree-seeking status at NOVA. To ensure ADVANCE students maximize their time and money by taking the right class the first time, this is an option for students with co-enrollment built into their curricular pathway. These are select classes identified by both institutions as either not having a direct equivalent at NOVA and/or completion of the course during the student’s first two years of study at NOVA will benefit their overall degree progress at Mason upon transition (e.g. fulfills a pre-requisite for upper-level Mason coursework). All co-enrollment coursework is indicated in green on a given ADVANCE curricular pathway. For questions regarding co-enrollment, please contact the ADVANCE Operations at advops@gmu.edu.
A student is able to take courses at Mason if/when they complete one of the following:
1. Are enrolled in an ADVANCE curricular pathway containing co-enrollment coursework and meet the co-enrollment eligibility requirements
2. Officially transition to Mason as a degree-seeking student
3. Qualify for and pursue the ADVANCE Study Abroad and Experiential Learning policy and process
If a student has any questions regarding their eligibility to take Mason courses, please refer the student to their assigned Success Coach or to the ADVANCE Team (advance@nvcc.edu).
Currently, students with no co-enrollment built into their curricular pathway are not able to take Mason courses while in degree-seeking status at NOVA. In other words, ADVANCE does not support “elective co-enrollment.”
ADVANCE students with co-enrollment built into their curricular pathway are required to complete these courses at Mason. However, some students may have extenuating circumstances, limiting their ability to take a co-enrollment course at Mason. Some of these extenuating circumstances include, but are not limited to:
Student has already completed the NOVA degree requirement intended for co-enrollment and is on financial aid
Student is not eligible for financial aid, but completing co-enrollment requirement at Mason is financially prohibitive
Student is on a visa and completing the co-enrollment requirement for one reason or another (e.g. paying out-of-pocket for student health insurance at Mason for the semester of co-enrollment at Mason) is financially prohibitive
If a student has co-enrollment in their ADVANCE curricular pathway and is expressing these concerns, please refer them to their assigned Success Coach or to the ADVANCE Team (advance@nvcc.edu) immediately.
The student’s ADVANCE curricular pathway outlines which courses are taken as a degree-seeking student first at NOVA and later at Mason and which ones are taken as co-enrollment at Mason during a student’s time at NOVA.
Yes. If a student is taking co-enrollment or is in their first semester of degree-seeking status at Mason and taking a course at NOVA as a study elsewhere student, then the student can take courses at both NOVA and Mason simultaneously.
ADVANCE students need to work with their assigned Success Coach to complete the co-enrollment process. Students must be screened for eligibility and fill out paperwork to have their co-enrollment request processed and approved. If a student is looking to co-enroll at any point, please refer them to their assigned Success Coach.
ADVANCE students can register for co-enrollment in a given Fall, Spring, and Summer semester and will given a time ticket/priority registration date coinciding with either degree-seeking Freshman or Sophomore status depending upon their academic standing at NOVA (i.e. the total number of credits completed at NOVA in the prior semester). ADVANCE students with 0-29 credits earned at time of co-enrollment registration will have a degree-seeking Freshman time ticket and students with 30-59 credits earned at time of co-enrollment registration will have a degree-seeking Sophomore time ticket. ADVANCE students with 60 or more credits earned at time of co-enrollment registration will also have a degree-seeking time ticket and will not receive Junior academic standing until matriculation.
ADVANCE students (like other Mason students) will be assessed Mason tuition and fees for all co-enrollment courses. ADVANCE students using financial aid at NOVA may be able to use their aid to cover their Mason co-enrollment, so long as the course covers a course requirement at the degree-seeking institution (i.e. NOVA). The student’s assigned Success Coach will connect the student with NOVA’s Financial Aid Office as appropriate. It is important to note that ADVANCE students will also have to pay additional fees associated with their co-enrollment in a given semester such as parking or student health insurance coverage if an F-1 or J-1 student.
All ADVANCE students must earn a “C” or better in their co-enrollment course in order for the class to “reverse transfer” back to NOVA and complete a degree requirement. If a student earns below a “C,” the student will need to re-take the class at Mason. Students on financial aid will want to consult with NOVA’s Financial Aid Office for more information on how retaking a course impacts their financial aid eligibility.
The ADVANCE Team at both NOVA and Mason work together to ensure all students’ co-enrollment coursework “reverse transfers” to NOVA and applied to the corresponding NOVA degree requirement.