Overview Tab On Program Page

This group contains five fields, all of which can appear on the program's overview page.

Program Blurb

This is a short bit of promotional text highlighting a core aspect of the program. If present, it will appear prominently at the top of the overview. Long, complicated texts will look terrible in this space.

Program Overview

The Overview field is a punchy and promotional description of the academic program. It should be a maximum of 2-3 short paragraphs. It gives some brief information about the program, what students might expect if they choose the program, and something that is special about the program to differentiate it from similar programs in other institutions.

Opportunities

The Opportunities field describes special opportunities available for students in the academic program. These may include, among other things, assistantships, honors in the major, internships, study abroad, student organizations, etc. The Opportunities text appears at the end of the Overview under the heading "Opportunities".

The Opportunities text is repeated at the top of the Student Profile List page.

For undergraduate programs, there is a generic Opportunities text. The generic text appears unless the program has provided program-specific information. The program-specific information replaces the generic information. The generic text promotes the four major hallmarks of college undergraduate programs: research, global-engagement, public service, and career preparation. We urge all programs to follow this way of presenting opportunities for their programs, where it makes sense, in order to reinforce these four themes.

For graduate programs, there is no generic Opportunities text. Opportunities will appear on the Overview page only if the program enters program-specific information. The program-specific information is repeated at the top of the Student Profile List page.

Careers

The Programs Application provides a way to promote the kinds of careers that graduates of the program pursue. Promotional information about careers appears at the top of the Alumni List page (a page with profiles of alumni). If there are no published alumni profiles, there won't be an Alumni List page, and the promotional text about careers will not appear.

There are two ways for a viewer to access the Careers text and the Alumni List page:

• From the "Meet an Alum" link in the top tab of the program pages.
• From a link to "Careers" in the right sidebar.

These links appear only if there is at least one published profile of an alumnus.

Programs are encouraged to write a short text about careers, to describe the kinds of careers that alumni from the degree program pursue. 

Examples:

• BA in Communication: https://communication.gmu.edu/programs/la-ba-com/meet-an-alum
• BIS: https://bis.gmu.edu/programs/la-bis-indv/meet-an-alum

There is no generic Careers text. Careers are extremely program specific so the college has not provided a generic text for this field. If the program has not entered a Careers text, the field will not appear.

Why Mason