George Mason University will honor more than 4,600 summer and fall graduates on Thursday, Dec. 16, in two Winter Graduation ceremonies at EagleBank Arena, marking Mason’s first indoor graduation ceremonies in two years.
The ceremonies are set for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. A conferral ceremony for doctoral graduates will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Concert Hall at the Center for the Arts on the Fairfax Campus.
All three events will be livestreamed on Mason’s YouTube channel. Shaza Andersen, BA Area Studies ’89, and founder and CEO of Trustar Bank, is the featured speaker at the two graduation ceremonies.
The 5,052 degree and certificate earners who graduated during the summer or have filed an intent to graduate are from 59 countries, 43 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and foreign military installations. Twenty-eight percent of bachelor’s degree earners report they are first-generation college graduates.
The 10 a.m. ceremony honors bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Schar School of Policy and Government, the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Center for Visual and Performing Arts, and the Scalia Law School.
The 2 p.m. ceremony honors bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates from the School of Business, the College of Engineering and Computing, the College of Health and Human Services, the College of Education and Human Development, and the College of Science.
Thirty-seven percent of the 3,027 bachelor’s degree earners and 27% of the 1,617 graduate degree earners are in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, bolstering Mason’s standing as the leading producer of tech talent in Virginia.
The top five undergraduate majors are information systems and operations management; psychology; information technology; computer science; and criminology, law and society.
For the 1,465 students earning master’s degrees, the top five majors are special education, curriculum and instruction, data analytics engineering, accounting, and business administration.
The top majors for the 152 students earning doctoral degrees are education, psychology, economics, computer science, and electrical and computer engineering.
There also are five law school graduates.