Summer Admissions Webinar (July 2021)

Hello hello hello.

Give everyone a minute to.

Get logged in.

Take a look at some of the logistics. While we wait for people to join us.

I hope everyone is well this evening.

If you are here to learn about the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale, you are in the right place.

And as the logistics remind you, this is being recorded.

And it will be available at a later date.

And if you it is audio and so there will be a chat box and you can find that to answer your questions.

And I will go through this presentation of blue. You can see my slides OK.

You can use the little arrows at the top right of the screen to make your.

Screen bigger if that's helpful, and there's closed captioning available as well. So I see there's a handful of people joining us.

Give it another minute.

It's evening here. I thought I'd try a different time zone, a time frame in case you were in a different time zone, so.

Uhm well go ahead and get started officially because I want to make sure I leave time for any of your questions.

But thank you again for joining and greetings from just north of New Haven in Connecticut. Put a little map there that shows where we are in case you're not familiar. Depending on where you are and and that is how I love to start, these is to find out where you are. That's one of my favorite things about these webinars. Is having people come from all over the world? So if you can hear me up if you.

Answer my question. I know you can hear me. You can use the chat box and if you could just give a shout out from where you're logging in from that would be great.

Welcome New York City couple New York City great welcome welcome.

Alright, allow Colombia, Mexico great. Our friends up north. I love it. We had a lot of registrants from across the world including you know like places in Azerbaijan and Syria and places that are like 2:00 AM and I'm not sure they when they registered they had the time. The timeframe going so so they're probably going to have to watch it much later. But welcome Nigeria. I think it must be quite late.

There, so we'll get through this so we can get you to bed at a decent time. So thanks again everybody for joining us. My name is Melissa McGinnis and I am the assistant director of admissions at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale, and I have been with Jackson for.

And gosh, it's just over two years now. Everything obviously blends together during a global pandemic, where many of us are still working from home. We are slated to return to work to the office and the end of August. So for those of you who are not far nearby and maybe are hoping to get to campus.

I want to post this link in so you have our COVID visitors policy on hand. That is where we will be at. Yale will be updating weather visitors will be allowed so we will also post on our events calendar if we're going to have in person visit days or flu will have all virtual. I am assuming hybrid is here to stay for some visit days so those of you far and wide will hopefully still be able to participate in any visit dates that we have. But we are really looking forward to getting.

Back to in person and back to our mansion on her house on Hill House Ave and for Chow Hall. So we're hopefully all of you are well and safe.

But everybody usually has a very different broad knowledge of Jackson of Yale's, so I wanted to quickly, I wanted to do this webinar a little bit differently, because we've got some big news that just came down the Pike and maybe you're following. Maybe you're not. Maybe you registered for this webinar before our news broke, but many of you may know that last year, so the board at Yale.

Has approved for the Jackson Institute to become the Jackson School for Global Affairs. Launching in fall 2022, so that's pretty exciting for us and I think for those who are following that, some people feel like oh, so Jackson is pretty new Jackson in the Jackson Institute in name has Bent was established in 2010 by a real generous gift from John and Susan Jackson with the help of wanting to establish.

International policy program at Yale, where there was sort of a gap really left by the School of Management that was founded in 1976 and as over the years as they grew they became more like a traditional Business School. And so there was that policy space that was sort of left behind and and Yale's IR program, which is many decades old, has morphed into the Jackson Institute with that generous gift and and we're just continuing to really strengthen filling that gap.

In in an international policy programming also, we've been really operating sort of unofficially as a school for quite a few years now, and so it's really great to get the name.

You know finally attached to it. The recognition of that and with that. And this is the big news that I wanted to make sure if if some of you are following along July 1st, we announced that the we have it has been approved again by the Provost Office, the Board and the Provost Office. But we can award the MPP degree so RMA or Master of Arts in Global Affairs is going to be changing to a masters of public policy and global affairs.

So anybody applying for this fall will be awarded the MPP instead of the MA, so it's just. It was a really cool announcement. It's based on, you know, quite a lot of research and feedback from staff and students and alumni from the program that this was kind of the best route to take, really to just. I think you know, because we're professional school and you know preparing students for.

Going into international public policy, it seemed important that to have that sort of nomenclature of a degree attached that, and so we're pretty excited about that, and hopefully you are as well. The one tricky disclaimer, and this is a technical disclaimer for those applying this fall to enroll in the fall of 20 two 2022 is we are still part of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences this academic year, so we are application form.

Is still.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. So Jason says application form. So if you're applying this fall, you will log into the application and you will see that it says MA in global affairs and you might be like what I thought I was applying for the MPP. Rest assured you are they are not legally is not the right word, but for lack of a better word. They are not because the Graduate School itself doesn't award MPP degrees. They can't change that on their application.

So rest assured, you still choose the MA, but you will be applying for the MPP. OK, so hopefully that makes sense. That's the that's the most technical transitional issue. Otherwise, everything is really the same. The only other major changes we are adding one more core to our our bucket of core classes and we'll go into those in a little bit more detail, so this is obviously if anybody is a repeat customer on this webinars and some people are even though they're pretty much me.

Saying basically the same things, this one I want to do a little differently because the announcement of all this is so new and I'm still learning it myself too, so bear with me if you do have questions, I may or may not know the detailed answer, but I've been trying to immerse myself in all of this.

So we'll talk a little bit about the curriculum going forward, but as you can see here on this slide, we still have our master of Advanced Studies in Global Affairs, which is our one year mid career program, which requires a minimum of seven years of relevant work experience. There's no change to that program. It is small cohort, two to five students, usually very flexible. It's eight courses over the one year, so anything that we sort of talked about going forward.

With curriculum and requirements will be in relation to the two year MPP degree and we do get a lot of questions about the mass and I'm happy to answer them if anybody on here has questions about that. But it's really, really simple and straightforward, so hopefully that makes sense and keep your eye on our calendar once we get the. Once we know what's happening this fall with return to work and visitors and whatnot, we might schedule a webinar or something geared just towards the MASC students, so.

Keep an eye on our calendar for that.

So many of you may know that we are a very small program, so the the two year program is one of the smallest of our peers. It's about 30 to 35 students per cohort. And as I mentioned, our core is probably one of the most flexible out of all of our peers. I myself spent 22 plus years at RR of our friends down in New Jersey. I was at Princeton for 22 years and.

And I would say they probably have the most robust core right? So and then I think there's a couple other schools out there that have may have less or no core, so we we are one of the more flexible programs out there, and one of the big advantages of that is also you have access to Yale's what we like to call intellectual playground, right? So not only do you only have 4 core that you take attacks and you can take the rest of your classes at Jackson.

Or anywhere across Yale's other. Professional schools really adds to the robust interdisciplinary nature of the program, so I could talk about that a little bit more, but I want to dive into the curriculum a little bit more just to make sure everybody's on the same page with this, and then I can talk about sort of the broader issues of what makes Jackson stand out. So basically, in a nutshell.

We have come again. This is for the two year MPP. We have 16 total courses that are required 4 core and you do need to demonstrate a proficiency in a modern language by graduation and we also have the required summer internship that you do between your first and second year and you have to maintain a certain grade average and Yasiel has a really unique grading system that.

You know, I've never really been able to figure out very well so.

Questions about that you can talk to the registrar. UM, it? They'll make it clear to you on you know, the Student Affairs Office will make it clear to you on what you need to accomplish and what the grade equivalents are. We have also started a leadership and ethics training workshop, which you'll do as second year. So in the week before, sort of like your second year orientation they will have this workshop or the government leadership, ethics and diversity, and while those things will be built into the core curriculum as well, there will be this week long.

Workshop so those are your graduation requirements and.

Then a little bit about the program features. Some of these are new and some of these have been around quite a long time. Again, I'll talk about the flexibility you'll see here that interdisciplinary nature of the program, not just with the core, but also, as I mentioned, being able to classes across Yale, and that is you don't have to be a joint degree student to do that, though we do encourage joint degrees where you apply to the different schools and.

You know which is totally fine, but even as a regular Jackson student MA or MPP Oramas, you have access to that intellectual playground that we talked about. So many students take classes at Jackson. They take classes with our senior fellows and they also take classes at the School of Management or the Law School. So you really are building your own curriculum, right? And we can talk about that a little bit later, but it's it's about.

You knowing what you want to get out of the program? UM, and that's really, I think.

What I'm hearing from alumni and students is that's really what drew them to Jackson is that you could basically do really whatever is you want to do in the big picture of global affairs.

And also we are adding a strong writing component to some of the core classes and we're looking to hire A writing consultant to have an Jackson staff so realizing the importance of that in the world of public policy, that writing component is is being grown, so these are again just kind of exciting times with the shift to becoming a school and changing the green name and and building a lot of this.

Background stuff, if you will, because a lot of the big question that I get is well, what else is changing? You know, you've heard perhaps lots of great things about the culture at Jackson, and that's not changing. We want to keep our cohort small. We actually provide really decent funding already. We have everybody who asks for it, gets something, and historically, the minimum has been about half tuition. And so that's one area of growth that we're hoping with becoming a school.

And having the school name attached is that we will be able to provide additional funding funding and one side note for the mass. We currently do not offer funding for the mid career program. So if you're looking at student BIOS and whatnot, you will see that.

It, that's why often most of those students are military, government, etc. Because they're sponsored, right? They're sponsored by their employers or their governments to to do this one year degree. So whether that changes in the future or not.

Remains to be seen, but the funding for the MPP is is pretty decent and usually it almost ends up about a third of the class gets half tuition, a third of the class gets full tuition and a third of the class gets fully funded and our funding on top of that minimum award funding is merit based, so we do take into account a lot of those traditional data points like GPS, Jerry's test scores, work experience and the like.

And then we also have funding available for any. If you have a. If you find a summer internship that isn't paid there is wondering available for that. So those are sort of the main program features. Most of them are traditional and what we've always had and then a couple new things. So let's see. I want to just show you really quickly about the core classes because this is.

The big shift right? This is with us changing the MPP kind of shifting the core around a little bit. It is on our website. Uhm, so I can find that page for you and paste that in here. So this really just reiterates that a little bit. Maybe makes it a little bit more concise for you to see in one little snapshot to give you an idea.

Uhm, it we are stats classes, same old, same old. It's a very popular class and you know students who are often afraid of stats often come out liking stats. We have a great profession who's been teaching it and he does a great job so stats is remaining the same. Fall for shear and the E con requirement still is available. We're moving that to the spring of the first year. The change with the E con is that we will offer a diagnostic test.

Upon arrival, or maybe it'll be before before you arrive, but.

In the past we have always.

Recommended strongly that enrolling students take a class over the summer before enrolling at Jackson, right? So if you're admitted and choose to enroll in matriculate, you will get you've been getting students have been getting direction about taking a Nikon class, but it's a really, really good idea to have that kind of a refresher before taking the core class. So by shifting the ECON record requirement to the spring semester.

It will now enable people who aren't sure where they land and that they can test to see whether they do need additional econ before taking the core. So if they don't test to the level of the core class, they will come.

They will be able to take any con class in the fall semester. OK, and if you test out if you will, you can't waive the core class in the spring semester, but.

You can choose to take a higher level ECON class.

That may be a prereq. Prerequisite class for future courses that you want to take. So there's that ability. Or you can just take again classes from the intellectual playground. Let me really quickly before I forget paste in the course database. I should have done this before we were talking about the flexibility of the classes because.

You can what you can do with that course databases do a keyword search and whether it's an area study or whether it's different levels of economic classes or languages or whatever the case may be.

You will see that sometimes hundreds of classes come up. You have the ability to you know you might get classes out of anthropology or the history department as well as SOM or School of public health or whatever your interests may be, so it can be a little bit overwhelming, right? So we can talk about that in a little bit. You know how you choose? You get one on one help to help you navigate through the curriculum so you don't have to worry about that. But on the front.

And from an admissions perspective, you do need to have a good idea of what you want to get out of the program so it can be really helpful on the front end too.

To take advantage of that course database to get an idea of what's out there, new classes won't be published until it's too late. It'll be beyond or admission, but it gives you an idea of the offerings that we have so you know what's available to you, and so you can sort of build that there will be in the future. There is feedback that maybe there will be some suggested pathways, so that might be available, so maybe choose a pathway and these are the recommended.

Courses for that, so that that's that might be becoming available as well, because I think while the tremendous amount of freedom is what makes us really unique, there are some people out there who want a little bit more direction and and will be able to provide some of that going forward. So hopefully that makes sense. The we have our history required history class. So I did see a quick question macro micro. Basically there's it's going to be a how do they?

Describe it, the modules there's going to be modules as part of the I think I close that document, UM.

That will be part of the E con class. Three different modules, so I think it's basically covering the policy concepts right of teaching econ from policy perspective, so I'm guessing they're going to be touching on on both of those things, and there's probably a little bit more information detail in the.

On the website that I gave the class with the course website, uh, for Peppermint Arianna. It's really dumb. You know, a lot of people ask what kind of class should I take for? Do I take micro die? Take macro? You know, most people start with micro. There's no real because we don't have an actual prerequisite, right? We don't tell you have to take this this in this if you have some quant skills. Sami Khan skills that can be helpful. They are not required. That's kind of why we're shifting the core a little bit.

Uhm, because

you know we we want you to have those basic skills.

And people might have different directions that they want to go in with their careers and what they need. So it's really about just giving that toolkit that's available to you, so you have the concepts.

I don't know if that answers your question. I want to I'll keep blowing through these and then hopefully I can. If if I didn't answer that properly I can get to it a little bit later and the new class is the comparative politics class. So basically the we're going to allow that to be taken in the fall, but in the 1st or the 2nd year, so I think they'll be, you know again, sort of that if you want to take it as a prerequisite for other classes or if you just want to meet the core requirement, it's going to be have that more of that policy component to it which.

A lot of Jackson students already took right because that's what they want to get out of this program. But now, because we are adding that degree name to that, we're wanting to make sure that people actually do get the the policy skills with through that core class. And there are a couple optional things that we are going to offer. The certificate in program evaluation. So basically for the people who are ******** you know stats. Quant wanting those hard skills?

Will be able to get that optional certificate by taking a specific four set of courses and quantitative methods.

And also an optional thesis we get asked that a lot were professional program, right? So we're very. We consider this a terminal degree and that people can go out and do international policy with this degree and don't need PHD's. But there are people out there who whether it's their career path, there are some people who do go on to do PHD's and may feel like that having that thesis in their pocket might be a good thing, so it'll be an option.

To take with, you know, latter faculty at Jackson or senior lecturers. So I think those are. Those are the really quickly quick overview of the major changes that we've had in the last couple weeks, that I think most of us see is an exciting time and and trying to make sure to get the word out. So I wanted to throw that in there. Normally I don't do webinars. This detailed about the curriculum since you can find it all pretty much on our website.

And again you get the the one on one help, so I think I want to stop there before I go on. Almost backtracking into the big picture about what sort of makes Jackson unique among our peers, most of which I've touched upon a little bit already. But why don't I stop there to see if there are any questions specifically related to maybe the degree name? Maybe the course is the core or anything.

Talked about, why don't I see if there's any questions about that first, before I sort of go over a little bit of the big picture. Does anybody have anything, anyone, anyone? I don't see anything.

In the chat.

Feel free to ask. OK if nobody has any questions, I will just move on to the sort of big picture this I always love to talk about what I call the 5F's.

People it sticks with people, so I keep using it. It feels a little weird in this slide to come later, and I apologize if this seems a little bit disjointed, but hopefully you getting the major changes. I'm excited about it and we just wanted to.

You know, get the get the word out there, so make sure it's all clear, especially for those of you applying. I can't imagine somebody would say, oh, I don't want to do 4 core, it wanted to do 3 so, but you know if that's a concern, you know we want to make sure you have all of the proper information in your pocket before deciding to apply so well. Good Claudia as a question, the course looks amazing. Yes, we think so. How specific should applicants be in applying designing their course focus?

Or is it OK to figure it out during the degree? Uhm, yes.

So this is always a I always end up being pretty philosophical about this because we don't need you to tell us.

These are the what is it? 4 -- 612 right? These are the 12 elective courses that I want to take. You don't need to tell us that in your application, right? We want to know.

Though more than just broadly, I want to do national security period or whatever the case may be. Having a little bit more.

Meet to that will definitely strengthen your application right? Because the program is so flexible.

We want to know why Jackson right so?

There are countless things that you can do with your Jackson degree, and I think one of the most helpful things is and maybe most of you have seen. This already is kind of taking a peek at our student BIOS. I think they haven't been updated with the new students yet. Those will come probably in the next month or so, so this is just the rising second year students.

But I hope even just this cohort gives you a picture of the depth and breadth of background diversity of of all different kinds of touchpoints, to show you that we bring in this Jackson class of people representing all different kinds of policy areas, regional areas, etc. And for such a small cohort, that is, that is a tricky thing, right, and.

It's it's really helpful. Again, I emphasize why Jackson because.

Many, many people apply and they say Oh yeah, was my dream OK? But what what is it about the Jackson experience that you're going to have this cohort of people? That is a tight knit community and that's my first F on this page, right? It's family being so small. Our location and downtown New Haven on this beautiful tree lined St. The picture on this particular slide. Or the two mansions across the street.

That will be acquiring.

Maybe not for a few years, 'cause whoever's in there has to move out. Their building has to be finished, but it's just this really family oriented experience. And if you.

And take your four courses at Jackson and then take all of your other classes scattered throughout Yale. You may have good academic experience, but will you have that that?

You know good Graduate School, uhm?

Yeah, I'm sorry my brain is is not working. I guess maybe an evening webinar Monday isn't so good, but uhm, you know. Hopefully I'm making sense. It's it's.

Again, don't be too broad. You don't need to tell us all of the courses you want to take.

But it seems like people who have worked in the field for a few years and this answers another question that I'm sure somebody is going to ask. Usually average work experience is about three to five years. People coming into Jackson that two to three years seems to be the sweet spot for people who are out in the field doing some sort of global policy, or in some sort of private sector. This or that. Or they're they're doing different things out in the global arena.

And they sort of have this lightbulb moment like oh.

I realize I'm missing this, I am missing. I need these tools. I need these these quant skills. I need these languages. I need this regional study. I need to focus more on this particular region. All aspects of this region. That's really what we want to know, right? Like you have had this academic experience and this hopefully you've had some work experience and you have this dream right? Hopefully to be part of the.

Global good.

And we want to know.

How Jackson fits into that? How do you want to use the the courses and the experience at Jackson and Yale?

To get to where you want to go, I often we often talk about connecting the dots right? So we want to see so.

I'm rambling a little bit, but hopefully it's making sense because there is no hard answer. Everybody is going to do it differently, but the more you know what you want to get out of it usually is what makes us stronger application. So that's really the first part of the application. Your question. The second part is.

You got it. You're going to arrive at Jackson. You're going to meet one on one with student affairs or director of graduate studies, and you're going to have your core set up. Then you're going to have this inner intellectual playground. And there are some sample on the course page that I sent. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see previous sample matrices of classes from different departments that people typically take, and you'll your mind is going to be blown and you're going to meet your 30.

Plus, colleagues in your cohort, and you're going to be like wow. I didn't know I could do this, and you're going to start to want to explore. We're going to bring in lectures. We're going to, you know, your instructors are going to bring in speakers and your mind is going to be actually opened more than you thought, and you might start to think about ah, well, maybe I want to do this, or do that and that can even we can't even talk about how how your summer internship can play into that. So sometimes people choose their summer internship.

To get a little bit more skill in an area that they know they want to go in. Or maybe they're thinking, maybe I want to do this thing instead, right? So you will also meet one on one with the career Development office at Jackson, which we have our own. You also have Yale's resources, but we have our own at Jackson and they meet one on one with you to start planning as soon as you arrive. They start helping you plan your summer internship and get you starting to think about your first job. Even so, right, that's the point of grad school is to get you into the whatever this dream job is.

Uhm, and and in a place like Jackson, it's hopefully to change the world right? And to make it a better place, so uhm.

So, so there was yes to both parts of the question, right? And then hopefully that makes sense, right? So we're not going to make you sign in blood what you said on your application. Like you said, I was gonna do this, you know? Or I said you were gonna do this. And yeah, so we we want we're gonna hold you to that. But it seems the people who are happiest with their Jackson experience are the ones who really know what they want to get out of it and then just enhance it with all of the the other resources that they discover along the way.

Alright, I hope that helps. I will dive into a couple more of the FS. This is great. I think I've even got to answer or talk about a couple of them. We've really already talked about the flexibility. I don't know that I have anything else really to add to the flexibility means we talked about that and in all the new curriculum changes faculty is huge. I.

Will we have? That's the another exciting thing about us becoming a school is having our own sort of ladder faculty our own tenured faculty having more control over that being able to, you know, not just have affiliated faculty but have our own Jackson faculty and.

Having more of those right? So we've already are in the process of building those out, and we also really like to promote our senior fellows. I'm going to paste that link in here as well and keep your eye on that. Usually new ones get announced.

Late summer, I think, uhm?

Excuse me, so some some stay for a year, some stay for two, some some stay for 3, some have been around for a very long time and I'm going to be completely honest and true. I mean, I've been, I promise. I've been completely honest the whole time, but I think some people don't necessarily believe this part, but I've been around the block, right? I mentioned that I've been in this public international affairs space for well over 20 years. Traveled, recruited, you know.

Then the travel circuit with with our app, CIA colleagues. I'm going to put that in the chat too. If you're not familiar with it. If you are interested in IR app, see it is a great resource. They offer webinars, they promote hours they have. There's a virtual fair and a couple weeks I think, and you'll get to, you know, have access to all of the apps, schools or whichever option schools are referenced and and and yeah, so there.

There are great organization to follow.

So, uhm, you know I. But again, having traveled and heard my colleagues and our peers across the world and their stories.

I can, I am confidently say that you know the senior fellows at Jackson are genuinely involved.

And interested in this Jackson student experience, right? You're going to look at these names and these big names are at a lot of these top tier schools right there there and there you have access to them. Maybe they come in for a few days, maybe they do teach a course, but we have such a robust slate of them that are around for awhile and they, you know, obviously everybody has different levels of availability, but they're they're they're there.

To grab coffee with pre and post pandemic obviously and should be mentors and I do know and alum who actually worked for one of the senior fellows as when she was a Jackson student and got her first job with him when she graduated Jackson with his his his center down in DC so they they really are considered them a network as well and and again being a professional program they have.

Tremendous, you know. They've lived it right. Many of them are former ambassadors, their their CEOs, their military generals. I mean there they have had these amazing experiences and they come and they they teach for you know, a semester or two or more and they really do.

They're just around. I run into them pre COVID. Obviously just run into them and horshaw hall and they really are involved. So I I'm saying that from from experience that I've I was pleasantly shocked by how how available they are to the Jackson community and that could be just the beauty of the small size, right? Just like everything else it's.

You know having there's there's no competition right among you and your cohort because you're all doing these different things and.

You know you have. There's fewer of you to have access to all of these senior fellows and our faculty, and have all of these. These sort of 1 on one appointments.

So it's I. I wanted to make sure I mentioned those and I also talk about the World Fellows a little bit because there are super super unique. There are special program I don't have their link up, let me find it really quickly. They are on campus only in the fall semester and they're there to learn, right? They're sort of rising stars in their careers.

And but at the same time they bring in.

Their networks and they have these amazing experiences and you can apply to me elite liaison for the world fellows. They give talks and lectures themselves about their experiences, their student lounge, they're lounges right across the hall from our grad student lounge, and so there's a lot of organic interaction that happens. And so when we talk about whether it's faculty or even student network, like alumni Network, you can count these world fellows as part of your network.

As well, and there's some super unique, there's only 16 of them each year. I think I just remember in previous years having like in the same cohort like a Nigerian, Olympian and Iraqi comedian, and there's just, they're just a tremendous resource to have. So I kind of add them to the faculty F if you will, to sort of give that picture of your sort of learning. And even the faculty themselves will say you're probably going to learn a lot.

More from each other. Even then you do in the classroom and I think that's just goes to show how good we're good. A job we do, and bringing that a diverse class together, even among the small cohort. So I had two more apps, but before that I see another question here, Arthur. How do folks who don't have account background example practice or show competence for the MPP program? Bearing in mind such person is likely having a career change or then it's a great question. One, I'll reiterate, it's not required.

Two, I will also reiterate.

Having some quant experience does strengthen your application.

For better or worse, we are still requiring the GRE for the PP, not for the mass, so I would say those that don't have any quantitative background.

That quant section of your grem will weigh much more heavily. OK, another experience. Another possible thing is.

You could potentially have one of your recommenders attest to your quantitative skill. If you by any chance touch on it at all in your job, you know perhaps maybe one of your recommenders can touch on that, but again, obviously it's pretty important to us to not have that prerequisite. Obviously, we wouldn't sort of change around the curriculum and add the diagnostic tests and and the ability to take a class if if.

You know, if we weren't able to have.

Because we think more broadly right, it isn't just about the quant skills, it's about your work experience. It's about your unique story. Those are also the things that we look at, right we, I think of it as one big portfolio. So it's all of those things together so. But yes, there are. Every applicant has different strengths and weaknesses, and we look at that in each individual candidate. And then we build a class, right? So we just can't have too many people in the class who have no quantitative skills.

Right, because we want to do everything we can to help you succeed. And if that means bringing in tutors or whatnot, we want to do that. But we can't do that for you know 15 people right? We could do it for a couple people, so we're thinking about that when we're building the class, right? So there might be somebody who has no quant experience whatsoever. And but they have had this rock star career right, and so we're willing to take a risk on them having less quantitative skills. 'cause we know we have the diagnostic tests.

And we know that we can offer them a class in the fall that they can take before the core, right? So we're going to have that available, but I will not lie that definitely having some will probably strengthen your application, because we need to have.

A lot of that in the whole cohort, right? 'cause you're all taking that class together, right? So it has to be a nice balance of that.

I could say the same for you didn't ask this, but I could say the same for language, right language is required for graduation. It's not required for admission, but if you have language, uhm, it will definitely strengthen your application. And part of that is because if you don't have language skill, any non native non English language.

It can be really, really, really difficult to meet the L4 requirement by graduation. Plus you'll have to be taking those classes and that will take away from your other electives that you could be taken with senior fellows or at the law school or whatnot, right? So maybe you'll be a little bit stressed, 'cause maybe you'll try to take five classes per semester and audit a class and said you know, so there are ways you can do that, and people do they do it, but it's.

It's a it's a tough thing, right? So having said the quote things, the same idea as a language thing not required, but it will probably better serve you. And I've heard alumni actually say this. We do these series of alumni coffee tax and the alumni themselves have said.

It's really for your benefit. Having language having quant skills is for your benefit. While it does strengthen your application, it's not required, so there could be something else about your application that gets too admitted, right?

But you'll be ahead of the curve, right? You'll be ahead of the game if you have those things in your pocket upon enrollment, right? 'cause then you can you have that intellectual playground where you can take advantage of all of the other things, rather than working on those basic skills. So I hope that makes sense. Wow, I really did talk a lot in long and it's already 746 goodness. I think I see a bunch of questions come in. There's two basic things to talk about.

Funding, which is pretty easy and future which is also pretty easy. But let me see what kind of questions we have. Is it really want to make sure I get to those? Uhm, so you're welcome Maria. I was like I'm glad this is detailed and candid. I hope I hope the reality of that of the candidness shows you exactly this is who we are right where we're here to support you and help you in your individual journeys. Reposting questions will be electives be adjusted.

To suit better than P standard or other of other universities, or will they be solely focused on global affairs? UM, the electives. If you're referring to the electives.

If you mean the other than Encore.

That's again that is going to be whatever you want it to be, right? Like if you you know, many people want to take. As you might say, like standard, you might want to be taking a lot more of those policy classes. We have practicum courses available where you actually get field work. You know in your class.

There are or you some people feel like they want to take more of the theoretical classes, or maybe a PhD level class depending on what their goals are. Maybe they want to work at a think tank in the future. Or again the field. The field classes are going if people want to go in International Development or things like that. So really I would say the electives are suited to what you want it to be.

Right, I hope that makes sense and that kind of goes along with what I was saying before where I was rambling on and on about, huh? Well, you need to tell us what you want it to be. So my answer is, well, you you tell us, right?

'cause you have all you have both or all of those kind of things available to you. OK, hopefully that makes sense. Faye, you're welcome looking for more academic oriented rather than professional degree. Does Yale offer similar degree in that arena? I'm very interested in this field, but might look to pursue academia afterwards. Yeah, absolutely, I think, UM.

Uh, I think there's a program this may not be what you're looking for, but anything within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, you go to the website to look up other programs. One that I know that.

Jackson is very comparative to is a lot of people. There's an international economics program at Yale that a lot of people seem to be interested in because there's a lot of overlap similarities, right? So that might be something you would be interested in. Yale is is a very giant intellectual playground, and I with two and a half years and half of that being on lockdown, I haven't figured out the broader Yale yet. Anything that's non Jackson. So you might have to do some poking around yourself.

But do keep in mind there are some people that do go on to academia from Jackson, and why don't I skip ahead really quickly? Because that is a lot about future right? And I do have the link open for the jobs.

After Jackson, so let's just post that link in there and if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of that page, you'll actually see you have to drill down, but you'll see the actual jobs for the last six years. The positions that it doesn't have, the names of the students because it does it for privacy, but it lists their locations. It lists their titles and their organizations, and gives you an idea of excuse me where people have gone.

And some people do go into research and I would drill down a little bit further back because obviously COVID right? So maybe I think this last year could be skewed a little bit, so I maybe that'll give you a picture, but you're absolutely right, it is only a very small handful that do go into academia.

So definitely I people want to keep their options open. I think I mentioned this already. Those who want to keep their options open. I do know that there are some students who have taken got permission to take as an elective a PhD level class. And now that we are offering the thesis option.

I think because people want to do that right and so that is available to you. But just like the other things we're talking about, whether it's the quant skills, the language.

It's we can't have too many of those either, right? So from an admissions perspective, there's nothing wrong with that, right? But we don't want to have a whole class, so all the people who want to go into academia. We want people to go out into the field and do international policy. Do global affairs right? So it's the same idea of like sort of anything that you're thinking about. Think about how you stand out and how that is unique for you like.

Potentially, that could be your unique story and make you stand out among the class that you're applying with, right so?

That's something to keep in mind, so drill down. Take a look at the curriculum that Yale offers that Jackson offers to see 'cause you're going to get the full Jackson experience right. We have all the the student life stuff and you know, we're very cohort driven so you end up very much.

In the Jackson family and but if you do feel like you want to take all of your other classes elsewhere, it could be helpful to look in that some of the other programs. I don't know if that's helpful, but yes, scale is definitely large and has lots of opportunities to many. I can't keep track of all of it up. Let's see, I think I answered hopefully answered. Face question, Claudia, another question. How is language fluency assessed at graduation?

Uhm, it's well, professional, you didn't ask this, but proficiency on the front end is done through testing rates are student affairs handles that you can show it. There are questions within the application about it, but again, we won't point back to the student affairs. Won't go back to your application. It said you said this in your application. We review it.

And to get a good idea of what your language background is. But it's usually if you're taking your classes at Yale, it's usually done through the levels that you've taken, and you know different through, intermediate or whatever. My CHEAT SHEET on that is still back at the office. I never brought it home, but they'll do testing up front to see if you need to take more and do keep in mind, even if you meet the proficiency, if you want to take additional language, you can come again. That's the reason why some people might choose this program, so hopefully that helps Ariana.

What are you really looking for in a candidate? What is something that makes someone stand out? Uhm, I would say this is going to sound a little bit cheesy.

But I've heard this over and over and over again, and uhm, it's very clear from the community. We have. Number one is commitment to the global good, right? It's wanting to do something to make this world a better place. I would say that's number one what we're looking for number 2 obviously. A little bit of quant skills would be helpful. And and.

On top of it next, I would say is.

I could re reiterate your question, what makes you stand out? Would I said this before? What is your unique story right? We are. If you look back at the student BIOS, you'll see that everybody just has something different, and that's sort of it's a challenge, but it's a goal that we have to bring in. 'cause again, you're going to learn from each other and and if we can help you learn from each other, we want to do that. So you can't really control what your unique story is, whether it's an interesting career path, where you were brought up, you know.

Whatever the case may be, so those are really the three basic things, and I hope that that helps. And then then we have to get down into the nitty gritty and and really look at all of those data points, which I don't think I posted in for you, but they are easily found on our website. This page has the typical.

Some.

Data points, then when you look at this, do keep in mind their medians and averages. The only thing we have a minimum for is the tool for TOEFL or the IELTS for non Native English speakers. So that's a total of 102 minimum. I think the equivalent IELTS is 7.5 I think, but otherwise everything you see on this page is.

Medians and averages right, because, again, if somebody like completely bombed the jury.

But they were had some amazing story, UM, will take that risk, but we can't have a whole class of people who bombed the cherry or have terrible GPS. That sort of makes sense. OK, hopefully that helps. Ariana Kellis high. You're welcome. Do I need to take to diagnostic tests if I already know that I need to take the prerequisite course, you know?

I don't know the answer to that question. It may be something that they do during orientation, uhm?

But yeah, I honestly I might have to double check that and find that one out so you will. You will know before you have to enroll with you had to take that. I'm guessing that everyone will have to take the diagnostic test even though everyone will have to take the core. But if you had actually let me backtrack, if you have zero Y con.

I I'm my guess would be why put yourself through that if you know you have to take the ECON class. But it's it's yeah the if you have zero Y con. I bet you might not have to take it.

But don't please don't quote me on that again, that's all. This is a little bit new and was I was not part of the discussions, so I'm just catching up on it, so I'm sorry that I can't give you a complete answer there. I can try to find out.

Kelsey have a really unique name. I don't know. I have a one on one appointment with you later next week. If I do I can try to find out by then. Again, we're running out of time, so actually, why don't I do that? Offer my calendar to people his. I feel like I.

Was a little rambly tonight, and I rushed through some of the basic things, or the the the the bigger picture things that I usually like to talk about, and I don't think we talked much about admission staff.

So if you feel like I did not answer your questions, feel free to join for a future webinar or.

Feel free to check out my calendar little 15 minute zoom links. I would feel free to wait on that. Don't rush, I'm actually leaving on a vacation a little just a long weekend, but you'll once you click on that, you'll probably see there's not a lot and it's only two weeks out so it's short. So if you wait until.

Sometime next week more times should open up on the calendar, so feel free to ping me there if there's things. If you're if I haven't turned you off by my rambling and you are still interested in Jackson and I would and I would love to answer any questions you might still have. Jarrett the Jackson website mentions the application opening in August. Yes, that is usually around when it is. It's usually mid August. UM, the will probably.

Push that out.

But keep your eye on, it is still, as I mentioned, the Jesus applications, so we're at their mercy until next year. Those are you applying next year. It will be our application. It really won't look all that different. We'll just have to manage it ourselves, so that'll be a little bit crazy, but the deadline, and what am I? Even though I haven't talked about funding really, the here's all the contact stuff too. I don't have the deadline on here. The deadline? The final deadline is January 2nd, but if you apply.

By December 1st you get an automatic fee waiver. Do keep in mind there is no advantage to applying early. No admissions advantage. We don't have rolling admissions decisions. Go out in the middle of March.

So it's really for your advantage to sort of get the fee waiver, and it does help us get an idea of what the applicant pool you know. Size might look like, but rest assured it's there's there's no urgency to get it in early, it doesn't.

Think increase your chances. Uhm, let's see. I don't see any other questions. I have Oakland as a question, great spring sizes there, and acceptance rate that you can share. Yeah, it's usually, uhm. We usually get somewhere in the five hundreds, four 500 applications, and we admit around 50 or so to get our yields of about 30 to 35.

So it is pretty competitive, uhm?

Yeah, we don't. Usually we don't post we. I don't know if we posted it or not, but we don't want people to opt out because of that. UM so.

Because you might be the one with the unique story, right? So any other questions so we have like a minute, uhm?

I feel like I've missed out on so much like I think I hopefully I covered.

Uhm, enough of the broad picture that if you weren't familiar with Jackson that you now have some familiarity with Jackson and that you. It may encourage you to dive in and do some of your own research and and think about that a little bit more.

And again, feel free to ping me with a meeting sometime in the next couple weeks and otherwise. Thank you. Hopefully this was a good time. You ended up a small batch so half the people didn't end up logging on. So then maybe they'll watch this later, but hopefully this was a good size. And there's there's actually come there will be a feedback link. It's completely anonymous. Don't know who you are. Love to hear feedback on if we're providing the right information.

For you and the way you want it, so hopefully some of you will see some of your applications either this year or in the future. And I just want to say thanks again for giving me your evening or your morning wherever you may be. Alright, and I think the person from Nigeria should probably get to bed. Thanks to everybody. Take care. Good luck. Stay safe, bye.