Virtual Open House Master of Professional Studies in Applied Industrial and Organizational Psychology Transcript

George Mason Online Admissions: So everyone welcome to the virtual open house for the online masters of professional studies and applied industrial and organizational psychology. I am an admissions representative on ha! On behalf of George Mason. And we have

George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Amon and Dr. Staggle, who kindly are joining us tonight. To do the presentation. So we thank everyone for taking the time. We have a good crowd here. 32 people. Right now. So we thank you for taking the time out of your night to join us.

Afra Ahmad: Alright!

Afra Ahmad: Well, welcome everyone. We’re really excited to have you here with us tonight. Thank you all so much again for joining we really want to utilize tonight for you all to share some information about the program. But we really want to give you guys an opportunity to ask us questions live. So if you can put it in the chat and

Afra Ahmad: the everyone feature should hopefully be available. So both Dr. Staggle and I can see those questions, and he’ll be answering some of them through chat or out loud. We just also have to keep an eye on the clock. But, we will be sharing the information about the program, and we also have an alarm, not as well as the current student who’ll be speaking to you all at the end. So that you get student perspectives from a recent graduate as well as someone currently still in the program.

Afra Ahmad: And Dr. Staggle remind us that we actually had several alumni join in the spring open house. So if you haven’t already, please do check out that video, because

Afra Ahmad: really it’s best to hear from the students directly word them. You know about their experiences and where they’re at and what they’re doing with the knowledge and skills that they gain from this program. So again, tonight, we’re here for you to answer your questions. But, please continue to learn. Grow learning about the field, learning about the program, and hear from different students and make sure you get access to that video as well.

Afra Ahmad: Alright, with that we’ll go ahead and get started. We do have a full agenda where you’re gonna get to hear a little bit more from us up here about our history. The program like the actual Nps program. And you know, student testimonials and some quick reminders about admissions and some QA.

Afra Ahmad: So my name is Dr. Opposite. That month I am a long time patriot I was. I’m a native of Woodbridge, Virginia. So if anyone here from Northern Virginia raise your hands, there’s so is a couple from Virginia. But I went to Mason for undergrad masters and Phd. And then I was abroad a few times once on a full bride, and then wants to work in a business school in Dubai.

Afra Ahmad: And then I’m back here, you know, as a program director, and I teach the research methods and practicum courses in the program

Afra Ahmad: and my research interests are in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. And if you join the class, you get to learn a lot more about some of my projects and work that I do.

Afra Ahmad: and with that I’ll turn it over to Dr. Stagl.

Kevin Stagl: Well, we already have 2 questions about your background. So that’s awesome. Protis, go ahead, and then I guess Joyce was next.

Protus Ambe: Oh, no, it wasn’t the question I I put my hand up. Cause, she said. Put your hand up. If you’re from Virginia.

Kevin Stagl: We have Virginia, November.

Afra Ahmad: Representatives, great.

Kevin Stagl: Okay. Virginia.

Joyce Davis: Right, and this is the same reason why my hand is up. I’m active right across the street from George Greyson.

Afra Ahmad: Oh!

Kevin Stagl: Oh, wow!

Joyce Davis: Yeah, I can walk right into the campus across the street.

Kevin Stagl: That’s cool.

Afra Ahmad: Well, you’re closer, Joyce. You’re closer than I am. I’m about 25 min away, but you’re walk away. That’s awesome.

Kevin Stagl: Okay, so I am. The Assistant director assistant professor here. At 1st Masons, Iowa Mps program, and most much of my information is already in the chat.

Kevin Stagl: But I will add that I started my career about 29 years ago.

Kevin Stagl: 28 years ago at boutique assessment consultancies and

Kevin Stagl: working a lot of assessment center work and test administration and some some for Developmental assessment center work, but mostly for selection

Kevin Stagl: and studied thereafter. At graduate school, at a research institute at Ucf.

Kevin Stagl: And Research Park under the great Eduardo Telus

Kevin Stagl: And then, later, I transitioned into a series of R&D incubators primarily for the Dod

Kevin Stagl: and now I’m here in Academia, in in Mason. So I hope to share a lot of the practical wisdom I have for

Kevin Stagl: working for 115 different clients. half dozen or so in the fortune. 100 are close to it, and and I I look forward to meeting each of you sharing that so welcome. And thank you for joining us this evening. Oh, I study team performance team, member team and Multi team system performance.

Kevin Stagl: And I I lead a couple of your courses. So I’m I’m looking forward, including the 1st one. So I’m looking forward to getting to meet each of you

Kevin Stagl: and connecting with you during that course. Welcome.

Afra Ahmad: And again you have a great opportunity. Dr. Seagull is the one that sort of helps onboard you into the program and the field, and so, and share that wealth of expertise with you all.

Afra Ahmad: Alright. So not to spend too much time about this. But maybe Joyce knows, since she’s been around Mason. But you know Mason has a long history. We are you know we’re established in 1,956 as Northern Virginia branch of Uva. So for those of you are native to Virginia may or may not have known that we became our own independent institution in 1972. We’re the largest public university, and we have a lot of accolades, especially you know, in the Carnegie system, as our one doctoral Research University

Afra Ahmad: and we have 3 campuses. So for those of you that might come to town, which many of you do at graduation time. We have the main campus, which is the Fairfax Virginia campus, but we also have one in Prince William and Arlington. You don’t want to go there for graduation

Afra Ahmad: but we also have one in South Korea and several online programs just like this one. So sometimes students ask me, do I need to come to campus? And no, you don’t need to come to campus during your tenure in this program, but you’re welcome to. And if, like, if you’re like Joyce, it might just need to walk over to library and study. You’re welcome to the faculty are around their students around. But we are, you know, obviously focused on being online and supporting you fully online, since our students are from all over the country and sometimes all over the world.

Afra Ahmad: So an introduction to I/O psychology. So for those of you that may or may not know. But we have a professional association called Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. And

Afra Ahmad: there’s a short video that you know we’d like to share with you all, to give you a introduction to the bill. Hopefully, you all have been doing your research, and when learning about, I see it being nodding our head. And, Frida, that’s great. We love to see those nods, but you all have been learning about the field a little bit more. But we’re going to spend a minute to do that. Anything else you’d like to add, Dr. Stable before I show the video.

Kevin Stagl: I would just add that we we pride ourselves on having almost a hybrid fully hybrid experience where there are live interactions that you can walk across street and enjoy like picnic in the park, and there are events on campus, and there are meet and greets, and there there are ways to meet masters and Phd students. It’s not required, but it’s it’s very very healthy and interaction, and and very educational in in live conferences and other events that you can attend face to face and get to connect with people personally.

Afra Ahmad: Absolutely so. We have a fall picnic. And you know, students are. Everyone gets the invitation, and some, you know, even some that are in Richmond, or maybe 2, 3 h away, or Maryland. They come down to enjoy those interactions. And then we have another meeting greet in the spring, and then we have the Siup Conference, where everyone’s invited, and to the reception and get an opportunity to connect so lots of opportunities. And obviously, as you cross the finish line at graduation. That’s always a lot of fun.

Afra Ahmad: We hear comments in the

Afra Ahmad: news or from coworkers or friends. The workplace is changing businesses have to work smarter to compete in the global economy. Technology is altering the way

Afra Ahmad: and pace at which we work. We need to find and prepare employees for the jobs of tomorrow

Afra Ahmad: to meet these challenges. Organizations are increasingly relying on experts in workplace science. These professionals known as industrial organizational psychologists. Or I/O psychologists, work to improve organizations, productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness while striving to make the workplace better for

Afra Ahmad: both employers and employees

Afra Ahmad: alright. So these slides and the video and so forth will be sent out. So we’re not going to spend the whole time doing that. But hopefully, you all joining tonight, know what the I/O psychology is.

Afra Ahmad: and the video and other resources will provide additional information as to what industrial, organizational psychologist or related. Job descript. You know, title sort of does to help the workplace. But again, there’s a ton to learn, and even if you know it already, or are exposed to a little bit of it in the application process. Know that it’s going to be something that you’re gonna sort of accumulate through your time with us in the program. So it’s okay if you don’t have it all figured out.

Afra Ahmad: Now, Mason’s industrial organizational psychology program. That’s on ground was established in 1,972. So that’s the Phd and Ma program. We’ve had professors and faculty members from the field of academics and practitioners. And we’ve actually had 5 members, you know, from our program that have been presidents of our professional association sigh up.

Afra Ahmad: And so we have our students, you know, graduate, go work for top organizations or in academia, and we have several. We’re the largest I/O program in the country. And so that’s just a little bit history about our, you know Phd and Ma program that’s been established and running. And now, 5 years ago. I can’t believe it’s already been 5 years. But in the summer of 2019, we

Afra Ahmad: launch the fully online masters program. So that’s what you all are applying to. So the masters of professional studies and applied industrial Organizational Psychology program.

Afra Ahmad: Now we recognize the need

Afra Ahmad: for the prior to the pandemic, the need for access for students, right all over the country, and not everybody could quit their full time jobs and move to Fairfax, Virginia, and, you know, be in the master’s program, and there’s limited seats in the master’s program

Afra Ahmad: and so we were trying to make the program, the knowledge of the field, the skills of the field, you know, sort of accessible to a variety of individuals. And so we do take students in the spring, summer, and fall cohorts. Many of you are probably looking at potentially a fall start date. But if that doesn’t suit you, and please be aware that we also take students.

Afra Ahmad: In this, you know, next spring, if that’s better summer, you know we work with you? And so forth. So we are sort of based and founded on the scientist practitioner model, which is sort of the heart of I/O, and we prepare you for a wide variety of fields. So as you take the 1st course with Dr. Stable, you’ll realize that you’re not looking at just job descriptions. Let’s say, industrial, organizational psychologist. There’s a ton of job titles that sort of reach, the training that we’re providing.

Afra Ahmad: You take courses for about a year and a half, and we follow an 8 week. Modular calendar schedule. So if you were to join in the fall, you’re taking 2 classes with us 8 weeks at a time. So you’re not taking them at the same time, we want you to dive deeply and focus on one class at a time, especially since you are balancing work life demands.

Afra Ahmad: and so you’ll take one pause at a time again in the spring and the fall, and then in the summer we have 7. It’s a little shorter. It’s a little more condensed into 7 weeks, but we do make sure we allow for some break in between the semesters, which is something that always didn’t exist in the 1st couple of years of the program, and it was very challenging.

Afra Ahmad: But, we do have that built in, and every course you take with us. We have applied projects and assessments. So you know, for those underground undergrads who dreaded those cumulative finals. That’s not sort of our teaching philosophy. We want you to be able to apply what you’re learning into the work that you’re doing now in ways that are possible.

Afra Ahmad: and that we can talk about briefly. But, we really want you to be able to apply that information into these real life scenarios. So, for example, you know, Dr. Stapleton talked about a number of ways that he incorporates, that in his course and the research methods and practic. Of course, you have students identifying workplace problems and trying to collect data from their organizations and addressing those

Afra Ahmad: problems.

Afra Ahmad: Anything else that you’d like to add

Afra Ahmad: any questions, thoughts, or comments.

Kevin Stagl: You. You can add questions to the chat room, and I’ll I’ll monitor that if you’re

Kevin Stagl: you don’t want to answer or ask out loud.

Afra Ahmad: Alright, no questions. Yet.

Afra Ahmad: So what makes our program unique? So one thing is that all of the faculty in our program bring their wealth of expertise. So we have all of the tenure track faculty who are teaching the doctoral and master students.

Afra Ahmad: They, I have either developed and or teach in the program as well. So you’re getting access to their expertise and maybe Alex can share this a little later when she’s speaking. But I don’t think you realize how neat that is. I don’t think I realize how neat that is when, until I sat and Dr. Sees a car leadership class and realized half of the articles I was reading was written by him. And so it’s really a unique opportunity to be able to get access

Afra Ahmad: to the folks that have actually written book textbooks and books and articles about the topic, and be learning directly from them. And similarly, our alumni cadre is, or excuse me. Our adjunct cadre is made up of people who are alumni of the program and outside, and working in amazing applied experiences and bringing that wealth of expertise and experience into the classroom, and a lot of times these office hours which I like to put that in quotes because they’re not like undergrad office hours where you only attend if you have questions.

Afra Ahmad: Students are highly encouraged to attend, and those that are strong and bright. Students regularly attend each week. But not only do we, you know, support you, and addressing questions you may have about the course, materials and deliverables and expectations, but you know, faculty make themselves available to you about, you know, professional growth and development. I think

Afra Ahmad: Dr. Staggle and I, even just today, we get ton of emails, this con constantly about professional growth. I’m looking for internships. What do you think I should do about this? Can you review my resume? Can you give me some advice about this and we’re always trying to find ways to support you, whether it’s in the classroom or outside the classroom and giving you access to different talks that are available again to doctoral master students as well as tailor, just for you in the monthly call. So lots of access to faculty and their experiences and expertise.

Afra Ahmad: We actually have done a benchmark survey. We are competitively priced for, you know, respectable master’s degrees. And again, you want to do your research when you’re out there. One of the things that I they get very worried about. And I have an article coming out this summer about it, but there are predatory programs out there, and it’s very important that you understand and distinguish the 2. There are many out there who are willing to take your money, but you will not walk away

Afra Ahmad: with the skill set that you need to be successful in the market. So it is essential that you understand?

Afra Ahmad: what sign up even they they put out. Do the research there? The professional Association has an education training guidelines.

Afra Ahmad: and you’re welcome to take a look at the course offerings we have and the, you know, expectations we have, and you’ll see that they match those guidelines that are set by the professional association.

Afra Ahmad: We aim to be flexible. And so that, as mentioned, while we have many hybrid opportunities and live opportunities, we really strive to be flexible to meet the needs that you have with your work. Life demands.

Afra Ahmad: and we again, we understand. So you know the courses pre sort of pre set, and it’s asynchronous. And you can facilitate your way to the program. Using that format. But again, those who are most successful are tuning in to as many of these live interactions and sessions as possible, and are highly encouraged to do so. And Dr. Sego and I can tell you now doing this for 4 or 5 years that we could tell the difference between the students who are taking advantage of those opportunities. And and you’ll be able to

Afra Ahmad: have that competitive edge. When you are doing your interviews and seeking employment opportunities outside the program.

Afra Ahmad: And finally, you can reach out to our the admissions team who’ll connect you to the Financial Aid Office

Afra Ahmad: and to talk about some programs and support systems through there, as well as several career services. Several of our students not only get their resume and so forth, looked at by us, but they do seek the services of the University career services. You know, through resume reviews and interviewing

Afra Ahmad: any questions, thoughts, or comments. It’s a quiet group, or sometimes I keep looking at my chat and thinking. The chat feature is not working.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on. My, I I’m getting some direct messages. Oops. Go ahead.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, yeah, just.

Frida Moreno: I’m from Arizona. I’m Frida, and I am actually going to be moving to Oregon with a couple of friends. I’m looking for live change right now. And I’m excited to be applying. So you mentioned that

Frida Moreno: we can do this

Frida Moreno: program asynchronously and obviously would love to join for live classes or interactions.

Frida Moreno: What would those times be, or does that differ? Dated like week, week by week, or something? Cause? Obviously, there’s that time zone difference. I just wanna

Frida Moreno: make sure that that’s still in line, obviously.

Frida Moreno: with everything.

Afra Ahmad: Okay. So you wanna take that one bye.

Kevin Stagl: I can take that one this week. We hosted. I hosted 2 h 2 meetings of office hours. One was for an East Coast contingent, and actually for anybody who wants to come to both.

Kevin Stagl: And and the second one was offset. So we

Kevin Stagl: we start at 7 on Monday because of the way the summer works. We had to start early in this in this particular semester. But

Kevin Stagl: we started 7 on Monday, Eastern, and then 8 30 on Tuesday, Eastern.

Kevin Stagl: And and so this week we did about 5 h of office hours. It’s the toughest week of the course, and that’s why we’re there’s so much of the course. Now, that’s not everyone attends that. But

Kevin Stagl: we review the module with you each week and answer your questions. And we also post videos in case you can’t make it to office hours, you’re able to access those videos and review them.

Kevin Stagl: Their overview and the assignments and and what other people might be asking on camera.

Kevin Stagl: But we also have a, we have multiple components, elements of this off camera.

Kevin Stagl: So we are hosting some of this presentations

Kevin Stagl: and guest speakers learning games and and ser, what we call serious games. Activities like. Last night we did a midterm review as well as self test.

Kevin Stagl: Several presentations. The night before we had a guest speaker from the Department of State. And so there’s multiple activities that aren’t on camera for you to review. And that’s that’s the extra bonus. If you’re actually in office hours and you’re welcome to attend both events, if you’d like, or just one. And it’s it’s really flexible to

Kevin Stagl: what you want to accomplish and how. And but the videos will overview

Kevin Stagl: the the major assignments and and activities for the week. So just just in case you can’t make it, you’re you’re always covered.

Kevin Stagl: and we’re going to encourage you and help you cede study study groups based on your research interest and

Kevin Stagl: that that pure learning component is also very valuable to this experience.

Kevin Stagl: I see. I see we hear a couple of questions. Finally, Jasmine, go ahead, please.

Jasmine Locke: Hi, I just had a clarifying question. I know you said like 7 or 8 30. Do you mean am or Pm.

Kevin Stagl: Oh, they’re in the Evening Post Post. This. The program is generally designed for working professionals.

Kevin Stagl: And so even when we host at 7, you know, we I give a few minutes to warm up and people to chat amongst themselves. So they’re not

Kevin Stagl: racing out of parking lots. And we’re, you know I’m there for a couple of hours. We’re typically there for an extended period of time. So even if you couldn’t make it at the beginning, it’s not, it’s not, it’s optional. You can come in later during the the event and still ask your question.

Kevin Stagl: and even if I’m doing a presentation, I would stop and answer your your weekly question. So it’s it’s not rigid, as in the sense you have to check in and check out. You’re you’re gonna be working this around your professional schedule, and we encourage you to work. So you can generalize and reinforce your lessons from the program.

Jasmine Locke: Okay. Thank you.

Kevin Stagl: You’re welcome, Laurie.

Laurie Heinzelman: Alright.

Laurie Heinzelman: so my question is related to those of us who are currently working or not working. I re I retired from my business, I or my company. I just got tired of it and started my own business and I decided to go back to school, because this is what I’m interested in, right. This is really what I should have been doing. Will I be left behind, or

Laurie Heinzelman: kind of be in a space where I’m not able to do some of the work, because I’m my own business, like, it’s just me like I don’t have an organization to maybe follow up with anymore. Or to look at how, how we’re working, because it’s just me.

Kevin Stagl: So we will have to stay in tighter coordination and and work through a few of the projects, particularly during the second course.

Kevin Stagl: But I assume, as you have ample work experience, you have business contacts elsewhere.

Kevin Stagl: And some of the basic studies that we would do during the second course would rely on some of those business contacts. But

Kevin Stagl: no and we have sole proprietors and other executives that are in similar positions, small business leaders and

Kevin Stagl: or a large business leaders. And so we would work with you and flexibly tailor an approach that you would be able to accomplish, based on your current situation.

Laurie Heinzelman: Okay. Alright, thank you. And you’re right. I I know a ton of people. So I can just always go back to them, too, if needed. So thank you.

Afra Ahmad: Sorry. I just wanna remind you that it really does take a village. And one of the my favorite memories of the program is

Afra Ahmad: we graduated soon, 3 times a year, and we have a virtual graduation celebration as well as the in person graduation, celebration

Afra Ahmad: and then virtual one. We always do, because it’s more intimate. We get to invite the graduates, their family, their friends, and the professors, and every single semester. You have

Afra Ahmad: friends and family members that are like.

Afra Ahmad: I’m so glad this person is graduating. And now I will have to go out another survey again, or or give another example again. But no, they really do enjoy it, though they do talk about how much they learn through those interactions. And so you do have a community of people who are still working that you can tap into. And you have your peers.

Afra Ahmad: So in the research methods practicum course, you are not asked to do the practicum project by yourself. You’re in groups of, you know, 3. And so that way, if you are trying to collect data, say, like 150 participants. Everyone’s just doing 50 each or so. Because we do talk about getting enough power and having what power analysis looks like and things like that. But you know we do try to facilitate ways for you not to just be obtaining when, like Dr. Stagl said, lots of coordination. But it’s not impossible. It’s done by many others.

Laurie Heinzelman: Okay. Alright, that was my main concern. Okay, thank you.

Kevin Stagl: I’ll just add to that that the inverse is true as well. We have students our mobile students. A little bit more

Kevin Stagl: experienced work experience, typical graduate student. I think we’re 7 plus years on average. But there are students with no work experience who come straight from undergrad. And we also craft the plan, you know, an individualized learning sequence for them, and then we address their project concerns and

Kevin Stagl: we work with them to find, you know, ample sandboxes to work in, and we team them with more experienced people. And so you shouldn’t feel concerned if you have less experience, and you’re coming from right right from undergrad.

Kevin Stagl: Here.

Afra Ahmad: I think I saw Abina’s hand next.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Hi, yes, my name is Abena. And so I had a quick question. And essentially, we’re going around. How do the projects and assignments tend to look like.

Afra Ahmad: So that’s a great question. To kind of come back to what Frido was asking earlier. So every week in our learning management system. You’ll actually have the whole course laid out in the very 1st day. So you you know how like you’ll have to wait until what’s coming up in week, 3 week 4. We do want you to obviously take it week by week, because material builds on each other. But you’ll have the entire course pre-built and developed for you on the very 1st day.

Afra Ahmad: and every single week in a given week you’ll have an introduction message. You’ll have an well, you know introduction video, it’ll talk about the weekly objectives. And then it’s broken through where you’ll have your learning resources, which are often your textbook readings, journal articles, videos, supplemental learning. This is how you’re learning the information. And then some practice exercises. That’s not graded. So if you want to be like, do I really understand what I’m doing. Let me take this self, graded Squiz, to see if I get what I’m doing. But we don’t look at that at all.

Afra Ahmad: and then you have some application assignments, and these application assignments could be short writing assignments or short parts of make, larger deliverables, like projects and things like that. And then finally, we have

Afra Ahmad: a knowledge check quiz, that is like, you know, short, multiple choice. Quiz, that you all are taking. That’s like timed. And it’s like, do we? Do you understand what we’re? You know, we were covering that week.

Afra Ahmad: But the projects, you know, every class does have different types of projects. But like, for example, in the selection class, you’ll do a job analysis project right where you really need to create up a job description for an individual can, you know, can do some research conducted, collect some data, do some interviews, and then write up that job analysis? Then other projects. You know, there’s also validation project in there. And then the I talked a little bit about the research methods practicum. So there’s a ton of ways, some of them aren’t you do by yourself

Afra Ahmad: and others, you doing in small teams

Afra Ahmad: and and just be aware that whatever you’re doing, the all the directions, instructions, everything’s laid out. So I know Freda was really concerned like, what if you can’t join the one office hour? You’re not gonna be left hanging dry? Everything you need to know and be successful is already built into the learning management system. But of course, to help your UN. Enhance your understanding, and you learn with each other, you coming to office hours. You’re talking to the faculty member and so forth.

Afra Ahmad: Does that help provide some more clarity on how the class is set up.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Yes, that’s perfect, especially with it being online and still being able to get relationships. That’s amazing.

Afra Ahmad: Okay, great. And then I think I saw Tony next, and then Jared, and then we’ll try to.

Tony Labib: Yeah, so.

Afra Ahmad: No question.

Tony Labib: As far as like admissions go, I just wanted to confirm. So is it a possibility like

Tony Labib: I can apply for the fall semester, which I’m not mistaken. The deadline is July first.st

Tony Labib: Is it a possibility like if I apply for the fall semester? And I’m like I change my mind. I want to start in the spring, and like, say, just say, I get in like, is it possible that I defer to the spring, or would I have to reapply for the spring semester.

Afra Ahmad: Casey, correct me if I’m wrong, but you can defer.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, and also the deadline, for our fall term is August 15.th

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? Oh, God.

Kevin Stagl: Learn.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, I’m always. I was shaking my head. No, so.

Tony Labib: Yeah, I thought, it’s on July first, st somewhere.

George Mason Online Admissions: No. So, August the website sometimes has the wrong.

Kevin Stagl: It’s not your.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. So August 15, th start date August 26.th But we work on a rolling admission. So the sooner that you apply the sooner you can get a decision. If you get admitted to the fall, you can defer your enrollment for an entire year, so you can defer till fall 2025

George Mason Online Admissions: or the spring or the summer, but you can only defer once

George Mason Online Admissions: And again you have the ability to defer for an entire year so.

George Mason Online Admissions: and again, August 15.th

Afra Ahmad: August. Yeah, that’s what I was looking. I think Dr. Stagg and I were looking at each other. That’s early. We we.

Tony Labib: Yeah.

Afra Ahmad: Which is all the way up till the end.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

Afra Ahmad: But, Tony, we’d love to have you earlier, if possible. But we do understand like circumstances. We want you to be best set up for success. So whatever that looks like personally and professionally for you and your you know, Timeline, we’re we’re here, and we’re love to support you. Jared.

Jared Dorsey: Hey? Good evening. This is Jared coming out of northwest Florida.

Jared Dorsey: I said a couple of questions. The the 1st one is

Jared Dorsey: kind of where do you see a majority of students? Kind of geared toward after the program as far as like where they tend to to work, etc. And then in regard to like systems that you guys utilize in the program for like data analytics.

Afra Ahmad: Don’t you say, go! You wanna take that.

Kevin Stagl: Yes, so I was just gonna pull the actual last cohort as did as you were answering. But

Kevin Stagl: we have 3 people from the Pentagon in the current cohort one. It’s just retired.

Kevin Stagl: 2 more that are in the Dod, 3 that are in a high end, private sector positions.

Kevin Stagl: and some that are in nonprofits are there, and then, I would say a handful that

Kevin Stagl: have relatively less experience. But are, you know, learning as they go. And and you know, I work with all students and their vocational guidance. And and so

Kevin Stagl: it’s not just instruction. We’re gonna we’re gonna take a personal interest in your development attract trajectory. So where’d you go? There you are. So you you’ll send me a resume. We’ll work on that and we’ll talk about. You know where the the fit is and where you’re you can think about a a broad trichotomization right now as you know, the Federal Government is a major employer of Ios

Kevin Stagl: large private sector entities and midsize private sector entities. And I would put, you know, research institutes slash nonprofits.

Kevin Stagl: And and there are quite a few of those. Mason has a stellar reputation. And their Phc students have been, you know, for the last 4 decades have been going out

Kevin Stagl: and and securing position. So they’re they’re globally situated right now all over the world.

Kevin Stagl: and and we have our own 300 plus alums are are approaching that. And so

Kevin Stagl: and many of our students are working. So

Kevin Stagl: we’re gonna try to introduce you. As many of those students as possible connect you. We, we serve as an intermediaries to make those initial links. But eventually we’re gonna be able to get you to various events and communities of practice that we built. There’s a brand new community practice. I know you were mentioning about the Dod. There’s a brand new community practice. For military members here, led by one of our new adjuncts who who is at the Pentagon right now?

Kevin Stagl: And and so he leads that

Kevin Stagl: it’s a very large group of 30 plus people that have already joined it. They’ve just had their 1st meeting, and it’s expanding rapidly. It just got started. So it’s gonna expand rapidly. So we will talk about all the different potential prototypical or typical career paths.

Kevin Stagl: As well as the 1st assignment during the 1st course is about exploring different work opportunities, and it comparing yourself

Kevin Stagl: benchmarking to actual job requirements in these different opportunities and developing an individual deal development plan

Kevin Stagl: and including how the courses will help you close the gap to get to where you want to be at work, and you’ll you’ll study a career lattice and and different levels and different heart levels of positions and and not just positions at where you’re at now. But where you want to go.

Afra Ahmad: And, Jared. One thing I want to share with you, and everyone is I told the folks like don’t just take it for us from our mouth. One place to look at is, we actually have an I/O newsletter and so if you go to the I/O the ion, I put the link in there, you can click the spring, the latest edition, and we go back years and years. So if you want to even look at the last 5 years where Venice is going.

Afra Ahmad: So you’ll see, you know. Welcome. And this is again. We’ll include information about the Nps program. We welcome our cohorts. But where you want to go is you want to scroll all the way down?

Afra Ahmad: Well, it’s in different spots. Where is it? Where’s my good news corner. There we go our good news corner.

Afra Ahmad: So here you have where folks are getting jobs, and so you’ll if it says Mps cohort, you know, that’s when you know they’re graduating from this specific program. There’s also Phd, ma, but we really encourage our folks to tell us where they’re going, where they’re working what they’re doing. And so this is a great place to look at and like, I said, you’ll have years and years of data to learn where folks are working at.

Afra Ahmad: so I encourage you to check it out.

Kevin Stagl: We just updated the website as well. So you should be able to see a list of employers that our students are currently at or at least a subset, and then I will share a much more extensive list during week one, and you’ll see some of the major names and what they’re you know where what their titles are, and we want to connect with you. But we want you to connect with them. And we were. Gonna

Kevin Stagl: we’re gonna make those introductions for you make make it easier for you. And and people from different cohorts are gonna come in and speak each week.

Kevin Stagl: and they’re gonna introduce you to what they’re thinking is and where they work at and so you’re gonna get to meet people from the prior cohorts that are currently active as well.

Afra Ahmad: Alright. So I wanna get to a couple of the questions in the chat real quick, and then we’ll start wrapping up our portion, so that you guys can hear from the students and alumna? So some questions in the chat, does the campus programs have the option for concentration and psychology as well. I’m not in Anissa. I don’t know if you can say anything a lot. I’m not sure if I understand, because.

George Mason Online Admissions: I think the she private, direct message. I think that she meant that if there was a campus program for Mps and I/O psychology. And if there isn’t, is there like a I/O psych or a psychology?

George Mason Online Admissions: Campus similar to.

Afra Ahmad: If there, if someone’s looking for in person options, we do have the ma, the masters of arts, and you know you can look into that and on the website, and maybe something you can share. Casey is, we do have a table that we’ve worked on creating so that folks can learn about the similarities and differences between the Ma and Mps program, so that might be a good resource.

Afra Ahmad: The difference between a full time and part time schedule. So this is a great question, Melanie. If you are taking so, students will typically take 2 classes, a semester. You are not taking more than that because again, it’s 1. It’s very

Afra Ahmad: remember. I said it was 8 weeks long for one class, and if you guys can put your thinking caps on and remember, back in undergrad classes were 15 weeks. So now we have about 130. You know, there’s requirements that need to be met so 135 h. Of course, requirements in 8 weeks means you’re spending about 20 HA week on, you know, coursework. So we really do not have students taking 2 classes at the same time. You are taking one class at a time, and they are built in a sequential order on purpose.

Afra Ahmad: And so you’ll 1st take, you know, the introduction to the to the you know, aisle psychology. Then you’ll take work set like there’s a way in pattern that we have it built out. So you’re not taking 4, 5 classes or 3 classes, or anything like that. Part time. It gets a little tricky if you try to take one class a semester because

Afra Ahmad: you would miss the next 8 weeks, plus the 1st 8 weeks to get back, or you know, you’d have to play around with the schedule because the classes again are offered in a way, you know, fall session, one fall session, 2. So if you skip, fall session 2. You’re coming back in spring session 2, because that’s when the class is gonna be offered again. So it gets a little tricky. But do we work with folks we absolutely do. If they’re only able to take one class. But it’s really not gonna be great for your learning curve, and just sort of keeping up the momentum.

Afra Ahmad: the flexibility within each 8 week. Rotation. So you are not typically seeing folks do 2, 3 weeks of work on a go. I mean, we sure some people might work ahead if they have a big work trip or something like that coming up. But, as I mentioned, you know, information build on each other. There’s flexibility within a given week, and then you have a deliverable due Sunday. But I’m gonna once we get to the student time. I’m gonna have Alex and others

Afra Ahmad: speak a little bit more about that and sort of their strategies as they planned. Maybe around there are people that take vacations and work trips and things like that. There’s a lot of coordination and planning that goes into that but it’s not impossible.

Afra Ahmad: Alright, with that, and let me

Afra Ahmad: make sure. Here’s a little bit about the.

Afra Ahmad: you know curriculum. So, as I mentioned those, you know, we have a required set of courses that you’re taking in a particular order, and then you have a set of electives that you’re taking at the end. And they are built in a certain way. Right they are, you know, following a certain sequence. So it’s very important that you follow that sequence a lot of times we get information about the practicum course. So the practicum course is built in with the research methods course. So it’s

Afra Ahmad: of course, that’ll take 16 weeks if you’re in the fall or spring or 14 weeks, if you’re in the summer. But you’re building a research proposal and identifying a workplace problem building a research proposal, collecting some data

Afra Ahmad: analyzing, and your final deliverables are a full academic paper, white paper and presentation. But I just wanted to show this a little bit so that folks don’t get all worried, because sometimes they hear the word practicum, and they think, do I need to quit my job and do a internship or a practicum. And the answer is, no, you are doing what you’re doing in the workplace, and you know, sort of combining with the learning and the program.

Afra Ahmad: We talked briefly a little bit about the career outcomes already, and that was a great question that was posed. And I again, I showed you guys the newsletter. But that’s a great place to check out.

Afra Ahmad: Some professional development opportunities. We’ve already alluded to. You have your course work, and you’re gonna take advantage of those office hours and engagement with your peers and faculty. We have monthly calls where you get to connect with Dr. Staggle and I. Because this isn’t the only time we’re gonna answer questions from you. We are there for you in our office hours, but also monthly. We make ourselves available to you all to answer questions, provide support. I had someone, as I mentioned, asking for some

Afra Ahmad: professional, you know, guidance, and I said, Come to the monthly call. I’m leaving the June Monthly call, and I can. I’m happy to share it, not just with you, but everyone on the call, because these are going to be great tips for everybody.

Afra Ahmad: We invite guests a lot of times. We’ll invite recruiters to come. Speak we have learning series that are featured during the academic year in the fall and spring. And those are talks that

Afra Ahmad: are open to all faculty alumni, current students and the Phd. Ma. And Mps programs. They’re during lunch hour. Typically. So we encourage you all if you’re able to to take a lunch break. But you get to hear from amazing thought leaders of the field that get invited. I’m talking about cutting edge research. They do not record this because they don’t want some of those research information getting taken before it’s getting published. But you really they’re setting up some great panels this summer. I know I was. I just sent out an email to alumni list. Serve and

Afra Ahmad: Some great folks are already responding and signing up for those panels. You know. What is it like starting your own consulting business and things like that.

Afra Ahmad: Then you have university career services, and we and we connect you to external opportunities. We’re constantly all the faculty will send you job opportunities, internship opportunities.

Afra Ahmad: opportunities for consulting competitions. If I mean, sometimes we internally think we send too many emails. But my take is that, hey? We get you all the information opportunities out there. It’s up to you. If you want to take advantage of them, are available. It works for some and not for others, and that’s your choice.

Afra Ahmad: But you have a ton of opportunities when you’re in the program with us.

Afra Ahmad: Anything else, Dr. Siegel.

Kevin Stagl: Yes, ma’am, I would just add that this is not just this is the major benefit. And I I wanna, I wanna emphasize it.

Kevin Stagl: This isn’t a 1 off. Why, why, you’re here at Mason.

Kevin Stagl: We have alums even from the Phd. The 20 years ago. Come back and be at these top talks by by the top consultants and and top academicians all around the world.

Kevin Stagl: And you. You have access to this and and the career services for the rest of your career. So this isn’t a 1 off thing you. These talks will be directly beneficial to some subset to wherever you work at

Kevin Stagl: and literally you can. You can tap into this and and and benefit from it. Leverage this expertise the rest of your career.

Afra Ahmad: Alright. So with that, instead of just sharing a quote, we’d like to turn it over to some of our speakers here for the last 15 min, so that you all have the opportunity to ask your questions. Thoughts, or comments, and Casey will sort of, you know, wrap up, remind you all that in the admissions process you wanna make sure you get your information in if you’re considering the program. But

Afra Ahmad: when we turn it over to the student guest speakers. Dr. Staggle and I pop off so that you guys can ask any questions freely without being worried that we’re gonna remember your name when we’re reviewing applications. Any of that. But no, seriously, we want you to ask all your questions that you have to our alumni students. Because we want you to get that information. But before we hop off I know we have some good questions going. Is there anything else that Dr. Stable and I can answer before we leave

Afra Ahmad: now.

Kevin Stagl: And and you have some top people in this room today to answer.

Frida Moreno: Mission.

Afra Ahmad: Yeah.

Kevin Stagl: Please!

Frida Moreno: Sorry. Can you hear me?

Afra Ahmad: Yup. We can.

Frida Moreno: Okay? I guess. One question that I have is.

Frida Moreno: what

Frida Moreno: made you both come into this field, or what has been your favorite particip remain in it, and actually, like, teach other people like us to learn to locate.

Afra Ahmad: You’re gonna get me all emotional.

Afra Ahmad: Do you want me to start on your schedule

Afra Ahmad: for me like a lot of people who declare their major psychology. I was like, Oh, the cliche word! I wanna help people. I thought that I was limited to clinical and counseling, and when I learned about industrial organizational psychology, I was blown away that I could have an impact at such a larger scale. I’m like, it’s not gonna be just the one walking into the office seeking clinical or counseling services. It’s everybody everybody has to work, or your partner has to work. Somebody has to work in your household to support you, and I can make a difference

Afra Ahmad: in organizations and in people’s lives and their work matters. They spend 40 or more hours with, you know, people in in their organizations, and that definitely bleeds over into their personal lives. And it just matters so much. And I was really excited about the field of industrial organizational psychology because I knew about the impact.

Afra Ahmad: And I’ll tell you that in terms of being an academic program director professor. It’s really being able to see that impact through you all. It’s, you know, teaching. It’s seeing those Aha moments in the office hours, seeing those curious questions and cameras on.

Afra Ahmad: but then also seeing the journey, and then seeing you across the finish line, you know, at graduation. But then that’s not it. We get to again. I was at the Siup Conference, and I have so many people that were along 9 from the program running up and telling me about all the amazing things that they’re doing now in organizations. And we get blown away like that. All this impact just continues in the circular, you know, circular way, and it’s just it makes it very meaningful. And that’s sort of why we do. I do what I do.

Kevin Stagl: I I have the same story, I I and I think most Ios probably do. It’s it’s it’s watching you all grow and and develop

Kevin Stagl: I was fascinated by assessment, and I was an undergrad. And I I wanted to be a psychiatrist.

Kevin Stagl: So I interned at an acute stabilization center. And it was there about 6 months. And I realized I wasn’t having the impact. I thought I was gonna have. You know, these facilities are often not as funded as well as they should be for the communities. And

Kevin Stagl: you see the same people sometimes, repeatedly, and you’re trying your very best to help children or adults with severe problems. And

Kevin Stagl: it’s very difficult sometimes. And so

Kevin Stagl: I transitioned into a more general assessment based position.

Kevin Stagl: And immediately was hooked on the power of I/O. And what it could do for people

Kevin Stagl: who are invested in their own development and change. And so

Kevin Stagl: that was 30 years ago. And and here it is, you know, almost. And here it is now. And it’s still about.

Kevin Stagl: It’s still about students and and the relationships that you’re gonna that you’re gonna connect and make here in the program.

Kevin Stagl: And that’ll bond you and form teams and groups that are just. You can amplify your effects

Kevin Stagl: through the power of those collectives. And and that’s why I study team performance. And and and

Kevin Stagl: that’s why I’m I’m an I/O.

Afra Ahmad: Frida. Thank you so much for that question, because.

Kevin Stagl: Was. That was a tricky one. I didn’t.

Afra Ahmad: No, but I really appreciate it, because you’re sort of ending us before we log off on the note that it’s all about community and the people, and that’s why we encourage you all to turn on the cameras. We will have our cameras on. We are make ourselves available, I mean Dr. Staggle and I. We some give out our numbers. We’re texting with our students. Not that we’re expecting that from you, but we are. We are invested in you all like it is not like you’re in this online program and don’t

Afra Ahmad: see the people and hear the people and feel the people. You will be you. You’re valued here. You’re part of this community and you know, Alex, I think, got all my text message graduation pictures, and she was able to distribute it to the cohort because I was like, it’s on my phone. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to email it out to everybody. And it’s just it really is a community. And I hope that you’re able to pick up on a little bit of it tonight. And if not, continue reading the Ion Newsletter, and you’ll see a ton of pictures.

Afra Ahmad: I take a lot of pictures, and you’ll hear it from yourself, from Alex and Hannah. So with that Alex and Hannah, I turn the group over to you all. So please. While Dr. Stale and I, you know, log off, introduce yourselves, and I know you guys are in great hands with Hannah and Alex.

George Mason Online Admissions: Armada. Thank you, Dr. Staggle, for joining us tonight.

Afra Ahmad: Thank.

George Mason Online Admissions: Appreciate it. Thank you. Bye.

Alex Ditursi: Bye, Dr. Sego, bye, Dr. Amad, it was good to see you.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: See it. I’m just taking.

Kevin Stagl: And Alex.

Afra Ahmad: I’ll see you on Monday, I know bye.

Alex Ditursi: Hi, guys, this is really, really exciting. I actually just graduated. So I know that right now, you’re like about to embark on this really exciting adventure. You’re probably maybe a little nervous. You’re probably wondering. What am I getting myself into? But you thank you. Sureita, am I saying that right?

Alex Ditursi: You guys are gonna love it. It’s a fantastic program. I can’t even.

Alex Ditursi: I probably can’t describe in words how much I I took from this program. You learn a lot about yourself. You grow and learn as a team member. Really lean on your cohort. You’re gonna make friends forever. And then you’re really gonna be well prepared to go out and make real change in the world. So I’m excited for you guys.

Alex Ditursi: Hannah, you want to go next.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah, I’m still in the program. So I’m Covid 13. I’m actually in the Proc. I started last, I guess, summer, really. And I’m in the practicum now, or research methods and then practicing sets in couple of weeks. But there.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: can they go together?

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: and yeah, I it’s been an and really incredible experience so far, and is continuing to be you really can get.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I mean, like any kind of school. I think it. What you get out of it is correlated to what you put into it. But you can get. There’s there’s so many opportunities

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: to get out just so much like more opportunity than you can reasonably

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: take advantage of, which is great. Even if you know you’re you’re able to take advantage of of a lot of things, and that is coming also, even for me. I’m I know someone mentioned that they’re they’re on the West Coast, moving up to Oregon, and I’m in California. So

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: happy to talk more about that if you want

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: for me, it was really, you know, I have a stem background, my undergrad, and it was important to me to

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: find a program that was rigorous and as you know, some accredited and and rigorous in that same way, and, you know, had me kind of working with some data, too. And so that was also Co, you know, vice president in the program. So yeah, all sorts of stuff. There’s just been so many things, you know. Alex and I have met. We know each other. We, you know.

Alex Ditursi: We do. I love her.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: You know, we’re not missing forward, you know. We managed to connect that way because, you know, through calls like our monthly call, and then, you know, we both went to Sia, and then we’re able to connect that way. So kind, I didn’t know she was gonna be here for now. So just to give you an idea.

George Mason Online Admissions: That’s awesome!

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Happy to answer whatever questions you know that I’ll have.

Alex Ditursi: Ask away not everyone at once. Please.

George Mason Online Admissions: Someone raised their hand. Jared.

Alex Ditursi: Hey, Jared.

Jared Dorsey: Hey? Good evening.

Jared Dorsey: Oh, I wanted to ask about kind of like the data and the data methods used in the curriculum like, what what systems? Do you guys typically use.

Alex Ditursi: So for like data analytics is that, yeah? So you’ll learn all about spss, so Ibm.

Alex Ditursi: and then your second course of data analytics will be mainly focused on r, which I know whenever I was 1st taking both those courses. That was something I was really nervous about I love statistics, but you know it. I knew it was going to be very challenging, right, especially in a truncated, you know, 8 week class, but

Alex Ditursi: the materials. That the professors use the way that they lay out the course. It’s really manageable. You really can die like if you spend some time with the materials you’re going to do, really? Well.

Alex Ditursi: so yeah, that’s that’s the the 2 programs that you’ll mainly be using. You do a little bit of excel, too, but.

Jared Dorsey: Thank you.

Alex Ditursi: Course!

Frida Moreno: I haven’t actually.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: That would be nice. Okay.

Frida Moreno: Atlanta.

Alex Ditursi: Yeah.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Yes, yeah. Hi, everyone. My name is Abna. So I had a question for the both of you. Also. What do you all plan on doing with I/O after, since you just graduated congratulations. And then.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Anna as well, what do you plan on doing.

Alex Ditursi: Kenna you wanna take this 1 1st and then I’ll go.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Sure. So

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: currently I work as the administrative director and chief of Dei for a small traffic engineering consulting firm. So some of you know, I/O stuff

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I do. Now, you know, I that’s not. My role isn’t like an I/O practitioner, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: role necessarily like, entitled necessarily. But there’s, you know, things that I was already doing and things that I have done through, you know, while working, you know, in this program, like, there’s definitely been things that are applicable. Whether that comes, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you know, doing a little bit more robust job analysis, you know, before you write or review, you know, job descriptions to

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: So you know, setting up

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: hoping, you know, I’m a huge fan of structured interviews, so like I’ve always used those. But you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: in a recent round, like version, like went a little further in terms of the materials we use, and, like the rubrics we use for those.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you, you know, using certain behavior. We include scales stuff like that that you’ll learn about

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: or even, you know, developing. You know, we’re a small firm. So there’s a lot of things that like don’t work for

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: for us like that, we can’t, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: really plug and play things that you know, are developed, or or you know. So there’s there’s a lot of opportunity that said

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I am really interested in kind of the organizational, you know effectiveness, and then also transformation spheres. And so that’s the area I, I, personally would like to be able to

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: work more fully in that sphere rather than only a part of my! My pay job, you know. As it were. So if that answers your question.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Yeah, that’s super cool. Thank you.

Alex Ditursi: I I can’t type and talk at the same time, so give me one second.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: No problem.

Alex Ditursi: Putting my email in the chat for anybody who feels like they don’t have enough time tonight.

Alex Ditursi: If you wanna connect it at any point, please feel free to reach out. But so the question was, what do I plan to do now with I/O? Okay.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Yes. Yeah.

Alex Ditursi: I currently work in training and development at a nonprofit organization here in Northern Virginia. So I think that I/O definitely lends itself well to training and development. That is something that almost every organization across all you know, all kinds of organizations are really beefing up right because training is so important for literally everything that an employee does throughout their life. Cycle.

Alex Ditursi: That being said, I have been kind of doing a little bit of job crafting and

Alex Ditursi: taking a little bit of a brave step to kind of advocate for a higher position with a little bit more responsibility, just because I’m ready to kind of flex these new skills and get those working. So I am actually moving into a manager of employee engagement at my nonprofit organization. So I’m really excited about that. Thank you.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Congratulations.

Alex Ditursi: Thank you. Yeah, it’s it’s super cool. You really get to see the fruits of your labor. I know that there are a lot of jobs out there that

Alex Ditursi: you know you’re you’re grinding day in and day out, and you might not be able to see that, you know, tangibly. But with I/OI really feel like you get to actually see the difference that you make in. You know the the experience of the employees around you and I feel like that’s really valuable.

Alex Ditursi: Like, Dr. Moss said. We spend way too much time at work for it to be terrible and and you know, I think that it’s just a really great opportunity that you guys are all embarking on. And I’m really excited for you.

Abena Fredua-Agyeman: Thank you so much.

Alex Ditursi: Course.

Alex Ditursi: questions galore. Who’s next?

George Mason Online Admissions: Think, Tony, go ahead, Tony.

Tony Labib: Hey? I just had a question. So I’m interested in both, like industrial, organizational psychology and like human resources management. So like Hr, so I was wondering, do you guys know what the main like distinguishes and similarities are between the 2? And like, how do they

Tony Labib: like

Tony Labib: like, what’s the overall like view on both of them, like, what’s your advice on both of them?

Alex Ditursi: So alright. Here’s kind of my take on that. And, Hannah, I hope that you can chime in as well.

Alex Ditursi: I feel like they’re not all that different, especially in today’s age. We’re really moving towards science-based, the, you know, evidence-based

Alex Ditursi: work solutions. So you’re gonna see that in Hr, you’re gonna see that as an I/O

Alex Ditursi: you’re gonna be set up well for both, I would say, Go, I/O. I’m might be a little biased. I’m actually very biased. But definitely go I/O and that’ll set you up really well for any kind of Hr position right? And then you can also lean on that. And maybe really use that kind of research and your ability to take complex information and make it accessible to a larger audience. That’s really what you’re going to be doing in Hr, anyways. So you’ll get a little bit of both, I think, Hannah, what do you think.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah, I’m i i get. I’m this, I have the same bias. You know. I think there’s there’s a lot of overlap. There’s gonna be a lot of people, you know, in the poor, like in my program, my cohort, and I think other cohorts who are in Hr or Hr. Managers, you know. There’s there’s a lot of

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: of overlap. I would just does come from that kind of evidence. Base.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Kind of stem more stem approach, and which I think is

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you know, hopefully, a growing trend, you know, and I in the Hr. Spirit seems certainly seems like it, you know. And then it’s also gonna have. There’s certain things that are, gonna you know, pro

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: prepare you, you know, if you are going into like Hr management. You know, it’s nice to be able to feel comfortable.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: understanding

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: data and understanding. You know the kind of what where that data is coming from what it means, and and being able to, you know, talk with analysts or talk with senior leaders.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: being able to come from this kind of perspective. I think we’re definitely, I think you know, helps with all that strategically.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: And just to jump in on that I know, as in from an admission standpoint, a lot of students like you mentioned either going into the program or coming out of the program. Get into Hr management. And things like that as well. So it is definitely a merge of the 2.

Alex Ditursi: Go. I know.

George Mason Online Admissions: Go ahead, Kirsty.

Christie Huter: I? I don’t know if this personally applies to either one of you, or maybe you. If not, if you have been in the cohort with someone

Christie Huter: where it does. But I’m trying to get a pro, an honest perspective about the program from someone who works full time and has children.

Christie Huter: I know it’s a huge time commitment, and you know, don’t hold back. I’m 1 of those types who thinks like I can do it all, all the things all at the same time, and still stay married. And so

Christie Huter: please be honest. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s feasible, or, if I, you know, should back off a little bit with the big dreams, for now you know, I’ve got kids of all several age ranges. So just looking for that perspective from a parent.

Alex Ditursi: I will take this one. I actually had a baby while in this program. Yes, so I brought my daughter into the world during this program, and then I also have a 6 year old. Son, so they keep me plenty busy. And you know what I will never tell you to reel your dreams back end like that’s please do it.

Alex Ditursi: The thing about this program that I found it. It feels natural. You have seen the types of things that you’re gonna learn in here. You have experienced it, likely and other, you know, jobs that you’ve held. It just really gives you kind of the science behind it, and a vocabulary to describe the things that you are already seeing.

Alex Ditursi: So I feel like it’s absolutely manageable. What I would do is try my best to plan out my weeks ahead of time.

Alex Ditursi: really focus on the reading in the 1st half of the week. Because there is, I’m gonna tell you guys, it’s a lot of reading. There’s a lot and don’t skip out on that because it’s really important. You’ll you’ll take so much more away from the program if you just buckle down and do the reading so I would do like Monday through Wednesday or Thursday, if I was feeling a little lazy that week. Reading, and try to start in on my assignments through the weekend. But

Alex Ditursi: I know plenty of other people from my cohort who were rocking out their assignments in the beginning of the week, and they had children as well, so I think it just depends on how quickly you take in information, how much time you need to process, what your schedule looks like, how long it takes you to write up things. But I mean if you you’ll find your groove and

Alex Ditursi: it’s gonna be lovely.

Christie Huter: Thank you.

Alex Ditursi: Absolutely.

George Mason Online Admissions: Great question.

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright, Melanie, I’m just going by. Who’s on my top here.

Melanie Jalim: Yeah. Thank you all so much for like particip. Like having this time space for us. To be asking these questions, I do have a question, though, when it comes to like the practicum and or an internship, whichever one you all chose to do. How was it like during your program. And how do you think it like

Melanie Jalim: well, matriculated into your career as of right now?

Alex Ditursi: Hannah, do you? Wanna well, you’re still in you. Okay?

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Answering someone’s.

Alex Ditursi: No, you’re good. You’re good. So my biggest advice with practicum is.

Alex Ditursi: choose your group wisely. You’ll meet

Alex Ditursi: right? You’re going to really get to know one another. Try your best in the classes that come up to Practicum to really work with a lot of different people that way you can, you know, find who your work style works well with people that you share similar interests with, so that you can really collaborate well on practicum. I will say,

Alex Ditursi: research methods and practicum it is. It’s a tough one. Particularly. I thought the 1st half of research methods was was a doozy because there’s a lot of lit review. And oh, my God! I thought my eyes were gonna start bleeding by the end of that.

Alex Ditursi: I know Hannah. She’ll probably share some in a moment about research methods, so I won’t do a spoiler right now, but definitely choose who you work with wisely. I’m not sure about an internship. I don’t think that that was an option for the Nps program, at least that I know of.

Alex Ditursi: Is that correct?

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I’m not aware. I you know. Maybe it’s something I wasn’t aware of it, I guess. So. You know, the practicums definitely kind of like the research methods and practicums kind of like the capstone

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Project research project. So I you know, I don’t think they would encourage you to do it. But maybe if there was something else you had going on, you’re like, Oh, I have this opportunity. They’d probably work with you, cause they seem to want to do that with, you know, to to really wanna make make it. So, students get the most out of this, you know program as possible.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah, I agree, though. Choosing, choosing a group. And it’s not necessarily I wouldn’t say choosing, based on what necessarily what you want to

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: do. And there’s a there are a lot of constraints given. The timing of of you know how quickly like this isn’t a dissertation as much as you know. You might want it to be, you know, you only have a semester, basically but there are other group projects that happen in the course. There’s at least 2 before then. So, and

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: they involve a team charter. I recommend you do that, you know. So you get in the practice that it sounds kind of when you 1st come across that idea. It sounds kind of like on. Do I really need team charter? Yeah, you do go through, you know, go through that. And so

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Alex’s point about, you know, getting trying to work with people who are similar to you like, who wants similar things from the process, you know, like not everyone wants the same things out of something, or who have a similar working style, or you know, you know, and making sure you you’re just explicit about those types of expectations will

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: really make.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I think the process a lot better, you know, and the whole, you know, the learning, experience and and everything a lot better. Throughout. Because, yeah, there are some, especially in the beginning, I think, from what I understand, I haven’t finished the whole process.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: The more you do in the initial to really line things up and tee things up.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: the the more manageable it becomes later. Because you, you know, if

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: that’s a theory, if you got, you know, underpinning what you’re doing, you do it.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Review, which is just a heavy lift, no matter

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: what the then it I think it. It really pays off. And I’m only in. I’m still in the research method section, which is the 1st 8, or, in my case, 7 weeks.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: The 8 weeks thing is, is

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: condensed by a week, so it’s a little extra sounding in the summer. But

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: it’s already paying off, you know. We’re, you know. My group is already kind of seeing that, you know. Having really done, we started working together a little bit ahead of the course, starting to kind of

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: get into what we wanted to do. So it’s definitely paying off.

George Mason Online Admissions: I know. Charles had a question.

Alex Ditursi: Can I answer one more.

George Mason Online Admissions: Like, oh, yeah. Go ahead.

Alex Ditursi: A second half of that question, how does that apply in the work setting?

Alex Ditursi: I, my group, did

Alex Ditursi: do job demands, predict turnover. So essentially it does the makeup of a job. The way that

Alex Ditursi: the tasks that you have, the autonomy that you have in your work, your ability to be involved in decision making. Do those things predict the level of turnover within the organization? And is it mediated or explained by a level of respect.

Alex Ditursi: And I actually gave that work straight over to my company as soon as we were done with practicum, I was like, Hey, please look at this and and I think that you can do that with any kind of topic that you guys look into in terms of practicum. So I would definitely, you know, lean into your passion as far as what topics really speak to you. What topics you see are most prevalent to you in your workplace now where you’re at, or maybe past workplaces that you’ve been in.

Alex Ditursi: and then you can really see, you know, be able to say, hey? Here is what. Here’s all this research that we’ve done. Here is what we found.

Alex Ditursi: How can we take this and apply it in this workplace now? Or how can we use this to create some new processes? Or you know, whatever

Alex Ditursi: whatever it lends itself to, essentially.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, Charles, go ahead.

Charles Bell: Sorry I can’t find the button anywhere. So my Max winning tonight. My question isn’t yet

Charles Bell: right. Human interaction.

Charles Bell: How much human interaction is in the class. What I mean by that is, if I have a question or I’m stuck on something, or I’m trying to get through something. Is there someone I can

Charles Bell: ask a question to and talk to? I know they talked about office hours I’m not so familiar with that.

Charles Bell: But yeah, that’s my question. So how much human interaction I gonna I need help if I need it from somebody.

Alex Ditursi: Constant human interaction like Constant. My cohort had a group. Me. We had a slack channel. Then we really siloed into the group. Me cause. That’s where everybody was. There’s different channels that people will create for specific classes, especially when you get to your electives, because you might not be all in the same electives. But you really

Alex Ditursi: What you put in is what you get out. You will have other people in your cohort who want to put in the same amount of effort that you do, and you will have ample time to lean on each other. Ask each other questions, brainstorm, think, tank all of those things. It.

Alex Ditursi: The community that that I came away with from here is remarkable.

Alex Ditursi: yeah. And I I owe a lot to them in terms of the success that I had in the program as well. So I think that as long as somebody is brave enough to start the group. Me channel. Then you guys will have you know, that community as well.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah, agree. We we don’t. Our phone is to have grooming. But we you know, I was that person who created the slack channel and so not everybody’s in there, you know. They’re all invited. They I think most of them found it, you know. But you know some people there’s a core number of people.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: usually the same people who show open up Sars who are kind of more, you know, active. And you know you have small group just direct, you know, threads or direct chats that you have to but then, also, when it comes to instructors a office hours.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I definitely think you know going to those is is very, very fruitful. You really get to know

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: your professors and and the other people who you know who. So up there?

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: But then also, there’s like, you know, professors responding emails really fast. There’s also in, you know, within, like the learning system. Their management system. There’s, you know, ask to be instructor, which you know, I think sends them email notification. People are usually responding in less than 24 h. I’m not really sure that

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: All of our professors have the best work, life balance so boundaries like for for themselves. But I they love what they do. So yeah, there’s

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: being, you know, being out here in California. That was definitely a

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: a concern of mine. I was very eager. And yeah, there’s a lot. There’s a lot of opportunity for interaction.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Thanks.

George Mason Online Admissions: And how how many people are usually in a in a cohort? Would you guys say.

Alex Ditursi: I I’m just making a guess here, I think we started with, I wanna say, like 30 or 40, and then maybe ended with about 25.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, that sounds about right, 30, 40.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Ours has been around hovering around

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: 20 you know, 17 to 20, say 18 to 20, probably for the whole time, and you know. Some people, you know, have a cross country move. They drop out into the next cohort. We’ve had some, you know, and then people.

George Mason Online Admissions: Right.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Appear in our cohort doing somewhere. Kind of thing. But yeah, we’ve hovered, or, you know. But again I started in summer, and I believe that cohort tends to be smaller.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, absolutely.

George Mason Online Admissions: Jared, go ahead.

Jared Dorsey: Hey? Sorry did. And this would be my last question.

Jared Dorsey: I wanted to see about the correlations with this program with like executive coaching. If you guys have experience with executive coaching or team coaching and then, if so, how well this program may help, or or what things would you recommend on top of the program?

Jared Dorsey: If executive coaching was something I was interested in.

Alex Ditursi: Good question. I need a minute to think, Hannah, do you have any immediate thoughts.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: My immediate thought is, I mean, I’m not sure what’s tracking that? You know, and admissions, or in the program necessarily within terms of like how many people are are doing executive coaching, I would say there are a number of people. So a lot of the

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I’ll you know. Stay, Professor Segal in his office hours. Sometimes the monthly meetings will have guest speakers, and these are people who like generally are like from the network of the professors, so they might have gone to done their Phds together, or whatever. So there’s a fair amount of consultants who work, who have created their own business, you know, they they might have done something for 20 years, and then decided, you know, I’m just gonna do this myself, and I would say

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: a fair amount of them do executive coaching. So.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: But I couldn’t speak to that myself, you know, like I you know as much as I might do a little bit of coaching like. That’s not what my role is like in a nutshell. But there’s you know you’re gonna be

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: between that between, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Going to if you go to Si OP, or something like that, you know, there’s gonna be sessions talking about like training. I went to a session this this year at Siab Conference in Chicago on that was talking about training

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: teaching leaders how to coach, which is not exactly what you’re talking about, but is related. Really interesting. But then, like, you know, you get, you can get in contact with the people who are actually doing that work also. So

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: it doesn’t directly answer your question, but it’s

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I think.

Alex Ditursi: I’m about to do the same thing here. I’m not in coaching just much like Hannah. I do training which you know. I think that there’s definitely some crossover there.

Alex Ditursi: in terms, of coursework that

Alex Ditursi: may benefit your efforts in coaching. I I think that you could take a lot of the lessons that you’re gonna learn in class, whether it’s group dynamics or scheduling or finding ways that have helped you achieve your goals within the program or ways that you have interacted with your peers and built them up. You can apply all of those kinds of lessons in a coaching environment in terms of executive coaching.

Alex Ditursi: The way that the courses are set up in the projects you do a lot of presentations. Right? So at the end of almost all the courses. You’re going to do some kind of video presentation, and I feel like that was great practice for me, at least. In terms of the way that now I have more confidence in presenting my ideas to to the executives within my organization.

Alex Ditursi: Additionally like Hannah said up this year had a ton of sessions, on coaching one of which I went to and it had some really great nuggets of you know, people’s experience. And it wasn’t just, you know, from one type of organization they have, you know, specialists from all different types of areas. So you guys can make sigh up. Happen I highly recommend it. I wasn’t able to go

Alex Ditursi: the 1st year, but I went this year, and it was amazing. So I I think that additionally, looking into a coaching certification, I mean, that’s that’s not going to hurt right and then you can kind of use this wealth of knowledge that you’ve already built within the program, and then just kind of perfect it with that coaching certification. So that’s that’s what. Maybe I would. That the advice I would give to you?

Alex Ditursi: But I mean, you can learn a ton on Linkedin learning. I mean Google Scholar like you have

Alex Ditursi: information at your fingertips, right? So you can also do a little self study on some executive coaching and go ahead and

Alex Ditursi: get some of those ideas and theories and techniques under your belt.

Jared Dorsey: Awesome. Thank you.

George Mason Online Admissions: Basically.

Jared Dorsey: Nice.

George Mason Online Admissions: Chrissy, your hands up.

Christie Huter: Okay, yeah, I think. I think Sarah asked a similar question in the chat, and I apologize if it was addressed, and I somehow missed it. But were there other

Christie Huter: particularly for me, I’m curious to know if there were other online I/O masters programs that either of you considered

Christie Huter: when applying in addition to gmu, and if so,

Christie Huter: not, I don’t need to necessarily know what they were. But what made you 0 in on Mason.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: How’s that over.

Alex Ditursi: Do? What.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: You wanna go first.st

Alex Ditursi: Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. So I actually whenever I 1st started at Cri, which is where I work. I had a co-worker named Kofer, and we just really got to know each other. I’m very much an open book, so you know, you learn a lot about me within the 1st week that you know me. And she was just like, Hey, I think that you would be a really good fit, for you know, I/O psychology. And I was like, huh! What is that? Did a little research? Came upon gmu, and it was sold like I put in my application that day.

Alex Ditursi: And it was the best decision that I’ve probably ever made.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: David.

Alex Ditursi: Yeah, it. It’s 1 of the top programs, if not the top program for I/O in the country. It is well renowned, well respected. The access that you have to just some spectacular people in the field here at Gmu is is really amazing, like you’ll find yourself Fan, growing a little bit so I think Gmu is the the perfect program. Again, I definitely have some bias. I did not look into any other programs.

Alex Ditursi: But this one is, you know, it checks all the boxes right. It’s got flexibility. It’s got a great curriculum that is rigorous, and and really, truly will set you up for a great lifelong career outside of the program.

Alex Ditursi: Additionally, you have a a beautiful community. Both with the staff members, your teachers and with your cohorts. So yeah, Jim, you all the way.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah, I agree, I did not consider any other online programs. I, I will say, I am. I’ve been interested in I/O for actually a number of years. I was a academic academia for over a decade, you know, to working. I was like, I’m not gonna be competitive on paper, how am I gonna do this like I, you know, and I think someone had said to me, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: look at all my programs. Hello, like. And I’m like, Okay, like, I’ll go and look back. And I looked at who are the top schools for this, and they’re all these, you know, mostly on ground masters and Phd programs, not in California. So I don’t know if you know this, but like, I always like, there’s

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: there’s some awareness, mostly the tech companies. But like, there’s not a lot of awareness otherwise. And there’s not a lot of programs out there.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: And so I was like, okay.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: And I think I found Jimmy to sign up as you know, cause.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you know, trying to find like who’s got a good, who are who’s well ranked. Who’s got, you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: good online program.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: And you know, the more I learned about

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: the Mps program. You know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: I was just

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: okay, like this looks like what I’m looking for attended a virtual house. In fact, I don’t think I I attended. I think I

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: watch the recording later. The the like. I kind of alluded to before the stem. Accreditation and and kind of focus on being, you know, rigorous in that way, was very important to me. So check that box. Hearing about. You know how connected you can be and how accessible faculty is, you know. Not like, you don’t feel like some forgotten

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: little you know other, you know, over here, because you’re in an online program. You know all of that. And I can definitely say that you know.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: that’s been.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Those things that drew me in that were important to me has have been consistent with my experience. And then on top of that. Yeah. But gmu! George Mason’s got a top 5, I hope. Program. People know it.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: you know, we won a bunch of awards at sigh up this year like which you know to absence point about sand rolling. It’s like it’s it’s kind of cool to be a part of that also. So

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: yeah.

Alex Ditursi: We roll, we roll deep at sigh of, for sure.

Alex Ditursi: there, with a bunch of other people.

George Mason Online Admissions: Representing it.

Alex Ditursi: Yeah.

George Mason Online Admissions: And you guys got that right with the top

George Mason Online Admissions: top 10, I/O program in the Nation, so definitely, really, great program. And a lot of times, even the campus program, as we mentioned again, it’s not

George Mason Online Admissions: not the same as our online program. The curriculum is very, very unique, and as everyone Alex and Hannah has attested to. It’s, you know, great.

George Mason Online Admissions: The professors and everyone involved are really spectacular. So that’s what makes it the best. One of the best. So for sure, and anyone else have any other questions, it did really, quickly. I know we’re kind of running over time here. And thank you, Alex and Hannah again for taking the time out of your night. To join us. But regarding the application.

George Mason Online Admissions: our next upcoming terms are fall and spring. Fall starts. August 26.th Deadline is August 15.th We do recommend. Sooner you apply sooner you can get decision. As they mentioned about 30 40 cohort. There was 40 people in this virtual open house tonight, so again sooner that you apply sooner you can get a decision, especially with fall being our higher number of applicants.

George Mason Online Admissions: We do require statistics for our program. As I think, Alex mentioned, there’s Linkedin learning. We actually offer a free Linkedin learning statistics. Course. To take if you do not have that prerequisite from your undergrad. So

George Mason Online Admissions: that’s 1 thing. Research methods is

George Mason Online Admissions: recommend, it’s not required. So if you don’t have a research methods course, don’t stress yourself out.

George Mason Online Admissions: I/o related course, work or work experience. Is not even recommended. It’s just something nice that you can add to your resume or to the application if you have it.

George Mason Online Admissions: We also do like to see a 3 point O Gpa, not a hard requirement, it’s preferred, but if you have a lower than a 3 point O, we would just ask for a Gpa addendum sa in in your application, which is just an essay stating.

George Mason Online Admissions: maybe why, a circumstance your Gpa. Was low, and how you’d be able to maintain

George Mason Online Admissions: in your masters. We also asked for your resume transcripts. We only ask for your unofficials for an app for the application.

George Mason Online Admissions: Officials are required for

George Mason Online Admissions: by the time you’re starting classes, and when you’re registered we asked for 2 recommendations, either professional or academic. At least one of those recommendations should come from a supervisor. I know that some students might, you know, own a business things like that. If you can get a colleague, if you had a past supervisor.

George Mason Online Admissions: Just as do as best as you can with those recommendations. And we don’t.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, as it says here, 2 letters of recommendations not required.

George Mason Online Admissions: We do something very simple and easy. It makes the application process go so much faster, especially because the letters are usually out of your hands. So all you need to do is put down the name and email of the recommendation. We automatically send them out an email from George Mason. With a link to a questionnaire

George Mason Online Admissions: questionnaires about 5 questions

George Mason Online Admissions: really

George Mason Online Admissions: 10 min to complete, I would say probably 5, very simple, very easy. And then, lastly, is a personal statement. Essay.

George Mason Online Admissions: I am an admissions representative here at George Mason. You all. Anyone that’s interested in the online program would work with the admissions representative to help you throughout the application process. So I, myself and my colleagues are here to help you with the application. Make sure that you know nothing’s missing your resumes uploaded correctly. Personal statements not missing word count things like that. So

George Mason Online Admissions: I imp! I put down my contact information at the end. I can add it again.

George Mason Online Admissions: But feel free to

George Mason Online Admissions: Email. Me call me text me, if you are interested in the program or the office number is there as well? Give us a call, and you can speak to one myself or one of my colleagues, and we’d be happy to help you.

George Mason Online Admissions: But the application is pretty simple, pretty easy again. Sooner that you apply sooner you can get a decision.

George Mason Online Admissions: awesome. Thank you all for joining, and again, thank you, Alex and Hannah, for taking the time.

George Mason Online Admissions: Really help me as well as as a representative kind of getting some of your perspective as well.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, yeah, you can add, you can add the letters to the application. There should be a section to upload those

George Mason Online Admissions: great question.

Alex Ditursi: Christy’s on it. Love that.

Charles Bell: Thanks guys.

Alex Ditursi: Thank you guys so much. Please feel free to reach out. I did put my my GM, my email in there as well. So.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Yeah.

Alex Ditursi: Yeah. Happy to chit, chat and answer any additional questions. Give advice, look over. You know anything you guys want.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Guys again.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: Hi.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you all for joining.

Alex Ditursi: Good to see you, Hannah.

Hannah Yung-Boxdell: He’s this.

George Mason Online Admissions: This will also be recorded. As mentioned, there’s some pre recorded virtual open houses, so these will this. These sessions will be the next one. So look out for those alright. Everyone, thanks. Have a great rest of your night.

George Mason Online Admissions: Have some dinner, as you mentioned before. Can I.

Frida Moreno: Night.

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright, bye, bye.