Fall Admissions Webinar (November 2021)

Good morning from sunny and cold.

Connecticut.

Please go ahead and use the chat so I know you can hear me and that this is working and a great way to do that is to tell me where you're logging up from. Love to see how far and wide these go. I am obviously in New Haven, CT and again very sunny today, but it was our first puffy coat day here in winter is coming so we'll.

Hang out for a minute for people to get connected.

The chat here great ah jealous of Shannon and Tampa, FL must be nice down there. Greetings from Pakistan, India down the road in New York City. Shout out to Poland, Singapore, London. This is great.

Chilly, chilly and Spokane great.

Ah, Cairo, I was there a couple years ago pre COVID. That was an amazing trip.

Hello Mexico.

Great to have everybody. My name is Melissa McGinnis and I am the assistant director of admissions here at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University.

So we promoted this webinar a little bit differently than our usual webinars.

And I am happy to talk about Jackson and what makes it great and unique. But because we are coming up on our first application fee waiver deadline which is December 1st and we are already sort of moving into Thanksgiving recess and our final deadline is January 2nd, I wanted to put this webinar in your hands to start with.

We tried it this way last year and it was very very well received. So if you are brand new here and know nothing about Yale Jackson, please stay on the line. I'm happy to talk a little bit about Jackson later and I think who we are will come out and answering some of the questions. But because of the impending deadlines because.

We really don't necessarily have time to answer all of your individual questions about your applications that I presume many of you are in progress that I'd like to turn this over to you and really start this with answering whatever questions you might have about the application process. I'll talk about a couple things about the specifics of the application, so basically going in reverse here.

What we how we normally might do a webinar.

So I mentioned or any other deadlines are our impending. We do not have rolling admissions, so anybody who wants to submit their application by December 1st please know that it does not improve your chances of admission. Your decision does not go out earlier. All decisions go out in the middle of March and we do have a final application deadline of January 2nd where your application must be submitted by then or it's too late. So keep in mind.

Those of you who are ambitious and early and want to get that in and save the $105 that things that are a little bit outside of your control like your jeries and your test scores can come in by the January 2nd deadline. So no pressure there. It's really your components of the application that needs to come in by December 1st in order to get that fee waiver. So do keep that in mind and I will say to that test scores and letters of REC can also come in within a week or so of that January.

Second deadline there's no lockout for the recommenders off the record, but this is being recorded right. Many applicants still tell their recommenders that their deadline is December 2nd, 'cause then maybe we will have them by January 2nd so we know they're all very busy and we don't want to penalize you.

By those coming in a little bit later, and test scores usually take about 10 to 14 days and there's humans on the other end who have to load those and match those. So if you take your tests by the end of December, that's usually sufficient to get them into your application in time to be considered.

So yes, I'm talking about test scores. Those of you who are applying to the two year MPP, we are still requiring the general GRE test that is no longer a requirement for anybody who might be on here who are applying to the one year mid career program.

And before we get into some of your questions, there are a few things that I wanted to mention because as many of you hopefully know that Jackson is slated to become Yale's next professional school, the Jackson Institute has been the Jackson Institute for almost a dozen years now. We are the iteration of the 40 plus year Old International relations program at Yale, but now we are slated to become another professional school here.

He also said that is expected to launch in fall 2022, so this year because we are still part of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, we are still using their application. So there are some confusing pieces to that, so I want to really quickly answer or address.

Three things that are the most common issues with our application being part of the graduate schools application. Something to keep in mind is.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale is majority of PhD program, so as you're poking around within the application form, you will probably notice that it's very very PhD focused. So Jackson is a professional program we consider our sell our Masters degrees terminal degrees that you can receive these degrees and go out and do international policy and get on the get in the field and go make a difference in the world.

There are a small handful of students who might go on to get pH D's most of their career paths might be more into research. Think tank type policy things. I'm sure there are people who have gone into higher Ed, but you will notice a majority of the Jesus Department's are very academic, focused, and that's part of the reason for their change from an MA to an MPP. We wanted to signal that we are professional program, not an.

Academic program or a stepping stone to a PhD? So because we are still part of the grad school, as I mentioned, the one most confusing thing that's in the application that I've highlighted here on this slide is that you cannot choose the MPP in the application form, so there's a little disclaimer that hopefully everybody has found. Please don't worry about that, it get changed, it will get changed in the back end for enrolling students when the launch happens next year, so.

Don't need to worry about that, don't need to worry about the MA references not matching the MPP. References in your application. You can definitely talk about the MPP and anybody here who's interested in the mass. No worries, there was no change to that degree name, so you don't have to worry about that. So that's one major component that I wanted to point out. The second is the Graduate School this year changed their their statement of purpose to be titled Statement of academic purpose I will.

I don't need to reiterate what I just talked about with the whole PhD focus. Clearly you will see that they are.

Are looking for PhD research dissertations your academic plan.

We are an academic institution. We are part of an academic institution and we still do want to know what your academic plan is, but that really shouldn't be the primary focus of your statement of purpose. So when you are compiling your application and all of its components, and especially your statement of purpose, think traditional statement of purpose. We want to know, yes, your academic background, but really also your internships, your work experience. Most of our MPP students have.

Three to five years of work experience so that signals to that it's a very important aspect of your application, so those pieces think about that. Think about how Jackson, which is a very, very, very flexible, very interdisciplinary program where you can take classes not just at Jackson, your 4 core, or any of your other classes that you want to take a tax. And you can also take them at the rest of yields professional schools.

So very flexible, very interdisciplinary. We want to know what you want to do here, because you can do just about anything and we don't have prescribed areas of study. You need to tell us that. And you also need to tell us what your long term career goals are. So we're very, very interested in how you want to use this Jackson degree to achieve those goals. Hopefully in the big picture of global affairs. And that's going to look different for everybody, so please keep those.

Philosophical things in mind when you're building out your application and 3rd is the same idea. Recommendations, there's a lot of focus in the GS application about academic references. We do still want at least one academic reference for your Jackson application, and then if you're out there and you have many, many years of work experience or even applying to the MAS, and you're cringing at that thought, it is still ideal and recommended. So please keep that in mind.

And then we also want at least one professional recommendation. Jacksons requirement is 3 recommendations, the third is really your choice.

There are five letters permitted. We don't necessarily recommend that you submit 5 UM. There might be unique experiences where you want to submit four. Maybe in the case with those who have a lot of.

Extra work experience and have.

You know?

Not kept in touch with faculty members or or academic mentors.

And can't get a strong substantive letter. Maybe just throwing in a mediocre type academic letter as a 4th letter could still be helpful to your application. There's a lot of subjectivity to that, and that can answer questions about if that's about that going forward, if that's helpful.

But think about the balance in your application. Please be sure to focus on your professional experience while touching on your academic plans. I'm actually going to go back a little bit and have this slide open.

Because it talks about the application requirements and I will stop talking now and see if you have any questions because again I would like you to drive this and as you can see here your.

Your comments, your chat posts, are your first name and last name initials, so there's confidentiality in here for this being recorded for other people, so please don't be shy.

And I will.

Hopefully pause there some questions. All right, let me see. Thank you, Dima Damon, probably apologize if I don't pronounce your names right. I hope that's a blanket apology for the rest of this webinar. You're welcome and what kind of responses are expected for the program? Specific question sections of the application? That's a great question. There's lots of different ones, and maybe I should have opened up my test application to double check what those are. There are a lot of little questions.

In there, I think that Jesus keeps in, keeps track of for statistical purposes and also things that are important to your application. There used to be a diversity statement and they've replaced that with a. They are calling it a statement of drawing a blank. It is.

The optional personal narrative. That's what it is. It's the personal narrative.

If you are doing your statement of purpose more traditionally.

We're assuming you're touching on your personal narrative.

But at the same time, because you're telling us your story. So Jackson, what we're really looking for is a unique story. So we have a very, very small cohort 30 to 35 in our MPP, sometimes as few as two to 8:00 or so in the MAS. So it's a really unique story that we're looking for, so feel free to enhance that personal story in the personal narrative section. There's otherwise there's really no prescribed answers that that we are looking.

For the language for the MP's and I and I if there are mass on here.

Isn't the same language requirement for mass, so don't worry about that question so much. But we do like to know what your language background is. It's very important to the application review, but the idea that we do have a language proficiency requirement for the MPP, it's really helpful to know your levels, but don't stress too much about that piece because we're not going to refer back to that when you are doing maybe proficiency exams or when the the the Academic Affairs Office.

Jackson is determining what your levels are and to where to place you, so don't worry too much about that, but we it is very good for us to know what your academic levels are. If you have no non English language prior to applying, that can be a difficult sell for the program. For various reasons. We're very global internationally focused program and it can be difficult to meet the proficiency requirement in your 2.

Years, even though Yale has an amazingly robust.

Language and let me before I forget posts that in so you have a link. So this is the course database and you can do a keyword search on there from whether it's your area studies or when I talked about you or building out your curriculum you can use that as a resource, but it also does go into. You can check out the languages that are offered.

And there's many, many many. But if you want to have a really robust IR global affairs curriculum.

You don't necessarily want to be taking oodles of language classes, so and there are caps to that too. And there are people who meet the proficiency and do take different languages, 'cause that's what they want to build on, so there there are. All of those possibilities, but so that's sort of what the language pushing is. I'm trying to think maybe go ahead and follow up. Dima on if there's a specific question within there, but we just want to know how you heard about us and different things like that, so hopefully that helps.

I'll keep moving. Shannon is asking in some graduate programs. Applicants benefit from a recommendation from a current or former university students. Is that true for Yale? Jackson would direct from Yale student or alum even a different program be beneficial to include. That is a great question.

Yes and no. We are very, very happy to have alumni, current students.

Even maybe professors who aren't your official recommenders to endorse you as an applicant. So it's very, very informal. It's not a requirement. It's not like undergrad admissions legacy sort of stuff, but how it helps is.

Some of those people are presumably going to be much more familiar with us.

And you and be able to tell how those things work well together so they're going to know you and they're going to know the Jackson program, and that will mean that while your recommenders probably know a little bit about Yale, maybe they do know a little bit about the graduate program. Maybe you're coaching them on those kinds of things, and presumably, and hopefully they know you that these these all these sort of extras just can corroborate their story.

Uhm, so it doesn't necessarily advantage your application in that it would be like a make or break piece of your application meaning.

If this is going to sound terrible, but if your application.

Isn't seeming to go through like it might not go through the process and there's a current student who sends an outstanding message. That's not necessarily going to save you if you will. I can't think of a better way to describe that, but hopefully that makes sense. But if it really can help us know if this is a good fit for you and if this is a program that would make sense, and I think I, you know, I hate to use the overused the word fit we admissions people use that all the time because it.

Really is you know there's?

A lot of great programs out there. There's not many bad choices, and you're positive you're here. You're presumably going to get into one of these top IR programs, whether within the OPCION network or the Little Ivies or whatever you want to call them.

And there are no bad choices. They all have different nuances. There's going to be different sort of focus on the curriculum or the student life, or the location or whatnot. So it's really going to be about what community you want to be a part of, and are you getting the academic rigor that you're looking for? And in those little recommenders, the.

Unofficial recommendations can be helpful when we actually do reach out to our current students and say hey if you know anybody, feel free to email us will add that to the application so it's kind of a long answer for potentially quick question, but again I'm hoping at the same time I'm giving you a little bit of a feel about who Jackson is and what Jackson is as we answer the questions. OK Kayla, I'm going to take a quick drink while I read your question.

Alright, question about all of the questions. OK Kayla, great so kind of a follow up to the all the miscellaneous questions.

Yes, though well, are they seen by the there's faculty, readers and administrative readers and whatnot? I believe we see all of them. Oh, you know, we don't see.

Uhm?

The questions about I think there's like felony questions and things like that. I think we might not see those or might be like academic probation. I think those kinds of questions the readers don't see. We can eventually see them, but I think those are the only ones. Otherwise we do see them all. Do keep in mind, and this may not be what you're asking.

But as far as the funding piece, don't worry too much about that. You're requesting funding does not affect our admissions decision, we just need to know that because we go through that very quickly. So once we make admissions decisions, we hope to within 2448 seventy two hours make the funding offers as well. So we we need that piece up front. But don't worry about those questions.

They won't affect your admissions decision.

Except indirectly in that if they're tide to fellowships, there's a lot of named fellowships that are.

Something that we consider I mean like Pickering and Rangel's or big? That's that's direct into the foreign service allowed for U.S. citizens. Those are typically are younger applicants because they are on the fast track to foreign service. The fellowship requires them to go into grad school right away, so money is obviously tide to those, but it's not the money that's the issue. It's that those fellowships are in alignment with the mission.

Of Jackson, so yeah, so really quickly. If it's not clear, all you have to do is check that box to request funding from Jackson and we will consider you for funding everyone who asks for it gets something. And historically that has been about half tuition. So 22 semi $1000 and then we do use the other components of your application to do what is our merit based funding so.

It's it's pretty decent funding, and with us slated to become a school, we're hoping that maybe funding will be able to increase but can't make any promises with that as you're enrolling. But this past year we were able to move some things around and everybody who enrolled this past fall or did receive full tuition. And then there was a bunch of people who did receive full funding as well. All right, I hope that helps, Josh. What are the major changes that are going to happen? Oh, look at that.

I think I've answered one of those. The funding piece. I think that is what we're hoping the second piece would be, really our faculty.

So we have an amazing array of faculty and senior fellows. I'm going to try and find that link for you. There is no change to the senior fellows which I will paste in so you don't lose those, especially if anybody is here and sort of new to Jackson and want to learn about Jackson and so the senior fellows. But we also have.

Where we've been building out what we call our ladder faculty, so the actual Global affairs faculty that we will have more control over and be able to have more of those and more control over the tenure process and all of that. So those are really the two major differences in a few years, we'll be acquiring a couple more of the mansions across the street because we have been acquiring centers.

International Security studies and International Leadership center so things like that are growing, but otherwise who we are is not intending to change. We're not intending to change the size.

Maybe the MASA little bit, because we've been introducing some fellowships. The park, which I'm happy to talk about. If anybody is on here, it's an international military partnership for our one year program, and programs like that partnerships. Maybe with there's a working partnership with German military, and there's all sorts of things in the works, so those might be growing out the mass a little bit, but otherwise.

Sort of. We've already increased our our core, went from three to four. We added a policy class requirement to make sure people took that with the change to the MPP degree. The Masters in public policy. So that would be guaranteed. Many people took that anyway, but we added that component as a requirement. We're adding an ethics and leadership, not a class. It's more of an orientation for second years. That'll happen a week in in the fall semester.

Before the fall semester for second year. So things like that are already happening, but otherwise.

We intend to remain as flexible and interdisciplinary as we are with the MPP. Remaining small in that sort of 30 to 35, so I hope that answers your question. Let's see major changes. I answered that Rachel is asking about expectations for the resume. Yes, resume a beautiful challenge. Ideally, we'd love that typical one to two page resume at the same time. We would love to know not just your.

Career history but also you know your employment history but also your internships, your your extracurriculars, your volunteerism, your community service. All of that is important to us, so it is sort of magic. How you can try to fit that into the one to two page resume without gaps and what not. So yeah, it's just it's a component of the application that's required. We don't want a CV with all of the publications that's not necessary, so traditional type resume.

And if you feel like there's something, because maybe you've been out for a while and and we're not going to, you're not going to be dinged.

If your resume is 3 to 4 pages, but keep in mind where looking at hundreds and hundreds of applications and similar to the job process, you know we need to have that big picture, which if there are gaps in your resume and I'll even add now, even though it digresses a little bit.

Weaknesses in your transcripts and test scores or whatnot.

Feel free to address those elsewhere in your application. There's plenty of room for what I think they call additional information or supplement. I think it's additional information where you can add documents, and that's where you want to explain things that might appear missing, or what you perceive as weaknesses, so it's pretty common that people do that. Don't do it just to do it again. Clear and concise are usually the stronger applications, but you also don't want.

US filling in the gaps if there are certain gaps or questions or concerns will will see lower scores. Will see you know those terrible first semester grades in college where you were leaving home for the first time and you went and had too much fun like will notice all of that address those things. Don't let us make up the story so that hopefully answers the resume question and other component questions.

All right, uh Maria Jose yes, does the NPV at P application require a writing sample? No, it does not. Again, that's sort of that PhD focus that they're looking for. What you how your writing is for future dissertations and whatnot.

I will say.

If there is any sort of concern about your writing, or maybe going back to that weakness in your application, maybe you or somebody who has less work experience. Maybe you do want to go into to research, and maybe that is your maybe policy. Think tanks are your goal or you know if it's relevant to your application and your long term goals. There's no harm. Feel free.

We can't read them all 'cause some of them are. Many many many many many pages so. But on the surface is really really not required again and less it's related to what your career goals are. So you don't have to worry about that. It is an optional Jesus piece of the application.

Alright, Irene Copeland. Jerry should be sitting and received by Yale before the deadline of the application, so I think I mentioned that a little bit the beginning. UM, they ideally should be here by January 2nd, UM?

It's OK if they come a little bit after that, because we can't read all of the applications all at the same time in like a day. So are reading. Even though admissions decisions are not rolling, our reading has to be rolling. We have a large admissions committee, a lot of applications, and so we obviously can't read them all at the same time. So that means.

We do read the complete applications first, so anybody who's missing letters or test scores.

Kind of hang out in a separate pool if you will. Don't worry too much that again, if we're reading your application at the last minute, that doesn't mean your chances are less, but it becomes a problem if the entire applicant pool doesn't submit their scores until January 6th or something like that, like that's.

That becomes the problem 'cause we have to be. We have to be reviewing applications as we go or we'll never get it done and you won't get your decisions by the middle of March. So there is some flexibility there. Do have them sent to Jesus. Be mindful that as soon as you hit request.

It still takes about a week or more and then, like I mentioned before, a human has to be.

Matching them up in the back end of your application so we get a lot of emails like Oh my scores aren't I had my scores sent yesterday and they're not showing up in my portal and my checklist and it's still incomplete. 'cause it's going to take awhile for those things to roll out. OK, so keep an eye on your portal if it gets too late we might start reaching out and saying hey, where is this so? But keep an eye on your portals and it ping your recommenders.

Uhm, don't worry too much about the test scores. If ETS said they sent them, they're probably just working on getting matched up. I will say if your name is unusual or if you're applying using a different name than when you took the test.

That could be an issue and that could be something that's preventing your scores. The official scores from matching up with your application, so if you're sensing that might be a problem, you can email the Graduate School, not Jackson, not this year. If you're interested in the future year, that's a different case, but because this year Jesus is handling all of the application and the technical issues.

It's the graduate and I should have written down their their email address, but you should have it in any of your. Probably your app start confirmations and whatnot. I mean, is graduate admissions or graduate graduate admissions.

Graduate School admissions at yield ittiam. Terribly sorry, I should have looked that up. I can try to find that, but it's on. It's on their website and hopefully it's in your communications from them. So hopefully hopefully these longer answers are answering a lot of questions through people, and I hope this is going OK so far.

We're good on time. It's only 830 here, so keep moving. Do you highly recommend the personal narrative question?

It's the first year that they've added it, so I'm not quite sure how it's going to be used by applicants. So to be honest, I don't necessarily know how to answer that question, I think.

Again, it depends on how you write your personal statement and what can be added, what in your mind, what?

What can be additional in the personal narrative that would be helpful to your application if you feel like you've got this solid gold personal statement that incorporates what you would want to say in your personal narrative, I think that's fine. There's also a question, I think in the application that says. Is there anything additional you'd like us to know about your application? I would say that's maybe more.

Practical technical stuff. Basic things. I don't know that you'd want to use that for any substantive like gaps and weaknesses. Addressing that we talked about a little bit before, so it's really when we say optional, optional optional, right? So feel free to use it or not, but think about it in light of will this improve your application? OK, I hope that makes sense all right. Do a you're welcome. Is there a preference for academic letters?

More recent instructors compared to freshman sophomore year, I would say no. It's really who knows you best, so if you managed to connect with and a mentor in your freshman year who has stayed in touch with you and has followed your path and your passions and your career and knows what you want to do, I don't think it, Matt, that's not what matters. It matters. What matters is how well they know you and little side Note 2 the academic letter doesn't even necessarily have to be from a faculty.

Member if there was.

An academic Dean or somebody who who is familiar with your academic strengths. Your analytical skills, all of those types of things. That's fine as well, so don't get hung up on academic means faculty.

We definitely want a substantive letter. I always say like an academic reference from somebody who says yes, I remember them. They are nice person. They showed up on time. That's not a good letter for your application, so.

Talk to your recommenders. Keep that in mind and if anybody is here just learning about Jackson and are currently very young, not ready to apply yet, maybe not out of undergrad and are thinking far into the future. Get to know those people because Jackson. Most of our peers, no matter how long you've been out in the workforce, will want an academic letter, because even though we're all professional programs, presumably were professional programs.

That you're looking at we're all at.

Strong solid academic institutions and here at Yale, I mean you have the ability to take. You don't have to be a law student to take a class at the law school, which is the number one law school in the country. You've got the School of Management. You've got all these. These top institutions within an institution, and we need to be sure that you would do well there. And also another side note, which gives you a little bit of a peek into the Jackson community is that we want you to succeed.

And because we're such a small program.

If we have too many people with academic concerns, which might mean we need too many tutors or too many assistants to help with that, or it can become a burden on the entire class. So we look at it in that big holistic approach. So we are very happy to take chances on people who bombed their jeries. Or you know, 'cause they presumably have a rock star career and amazing.

Story and what they'll contribute to the program. We can see as invaluable, so we are willing very willing to take, take risks on those you know who who might not seem as academically strong as as as many, but like I mentioned, we can't have too many of those. Otherwise it could tackle problem. I mean, I've been in this. I've been at Jackson for a little over just about three years now. I spent 22 years at an institution.

L'institution down in New Jersey. And so I've been in this public and international affairs. Graduate admission space for many years, and.

You know this is something that we we sort of always think about, and it's it's common among among all of us so.

Yeah so.

I hope that helps more keep rambling is I. I always get nervous around this time as it looks like the time is running out and I think there's a lot more questions and I got to. I want to get to them all right? Diana you're welcome. Can a Pickering fellow apply to the program in the following year? Will be waiting to hear back on the status of my security clearance. That's a great question.

So we currently do not offer funding for mass candidates, so we would not be topping up or contributing addition. Additional funds for pickerings or angles if they're applying to the one year mid career program, so that's a little bit different and and maybe.

That maybe that goes back to the the Jackson School change. Will we be able to provide funding for the mass in the future?

Sure, we love to. Currently, if you look at the student BIOS, we should probably post those in as well and that a majority of the mass students are externally funded.

There you'll see there.

US international military there. International governments there, and that's because they they come with funding so.

Yes, it's possible, but just keep in mind that it's something and I don't know that the Pickering Fellowship.

You might have to be doing a two year degree. Feel free to ping US or ping them about that, but they may be requiring a two year degree for that, but I apologize if I'm wrong in that. Happy to look into that for you so and the security clearance issue. Yes, that's been an issue we we normally so for our two year MPP we normally do not allow deferrals because of the size of the program we allowed them during COVID and it also meant.

That

it affected a security clearance for somebody and that person ended up having to decline the offer from Jackson, after all, because there was no guarantee that their security clearance was going to come through. We didn't know when.

And it gets it gets really tricky in this year. Hopefully things are normalizing a little bit better, but if you can sort of plan accordingly, we're willing to work with people on a case by case basis. When it comes to issues like security clearances or in other news like.

Military deployments and things like that, but in general we don't offer deferrals and the like for that. I hope that helps. UM, alright good, I got a name pronounced right. Yay, now I can't remember which I pressed it Claudia. Would such an endorsement by Yellam be through the letter recommendation process?

Not if they are not one of your three official recommendations, so you have to register 3 recommenders to submit your application. Obviously the Graduate School application will take up to five. I don't want to reiterate that that we'd rather three if possible, only three if possible, so these little extras.

They can email the Jackson admissions address if they can find.

You know myself or my boss, or they usually find us, so they should definitely be through the recommendation process if you want them to be one of your three official. But if they're just an endorsement, then just email US jets and dotted missions and will make sure that's matched up with your application. All right, do a disappointing for aid as international students reduce chances of acceptance. Sort of like a need aware policy. No, I think I I addressed that.

So I I think international domestic the same.

There's no shame or harm and asking for it. We're assuming most people will. There's handful that don't because they're externally funded or independently wealthy, which is kind of nice, so hopefully that helps. I'll keep plowing through these, 'cause I think some of these came in before I answered questions related to them. Irene is asking if there's a font size format space suggested for the essays.

Not formally, we should probably have one out there. I would think your standard.

One is like 11-12 point. Double spaced is ideal because they're easier to read.

We say approximately 2 to 4 pages Mr their personal space statement specifically, so just think about us having to read hundreds and hundreds thousands of documents really of all the affiliated documents with the applicants. Nothing formal, but if you like.

Can't make it long enough and start using really really wide margins and really weird things will notice, so just sort of your standard is fine, but there's no hard pastoral.

Alright, abdessamad about language skills, conditions of student took a degree conducted totally in English. Would that be acceptable to meet your requirements? Yeah, these so it has to be the undergrad degree though, so for non native English speakers.

Uhm?

As long as you did your undergraduate education in an English speaking format, that's fine. That becomes a problem for or concern or and I get it. But that's sort of the role. There is an FA Q. Actually, I do have that link open, so we have a few FA cues on our website.

Which presumably you found a. That's the application process, but the FA Q is there, specifically MPP, but there's a lot of similarities and overlaps to the mass, but make sure you, especially if hopefully you're here and getting all of your questions answered now, because again, with recess and holidays, we could be very, very, very slow to respond. And if we get too many individual questions, we're not going to be able to get to them all.

So the GS asks are pretty robust, so I put that link in there, bookmark that as you're working on your application. Don't wait until the last few hours before 1159 on this on January 2nd 2.

To submit your application, and inevitably there's technical issues, Internet issues, Wi-Fi, whatever, so it's not forgetting that obviously, January one is a holiday, so let's see. I think January and January 2nd is a Sunday this year, so.

Again, I know typical applicants to program like this are very tight. A wanting to, you know?

Be very detailed and perfect and that's great, but.

You know, if you can get your application submitted with enough time to spare so you can relax and enjoy the new year, that might be best. So again, a little digression, but hopefully that helps.

All right, uh? Shreya? Are there any STEM designated clarifications that we can earn? While Ideal Jackson, you're not gonna ask that question often that's that's really an A&OSS that you know the visa related questions. I doubt that Jackson can be stem classified 'cause we're global affairs. Yes, there are students who pursue the big data classes. And obviously because you can do just about anything you want.

You might end up with a lot of especially people that take a lot of econ or high level quant classes at the School of Management. You might be able to work it in, but I that's that's like a government research question. I think I I'm not sure that we've really ever been able to be designated as STEM. 'cause I think the rules are pretty specific. I've tried to Google some of the government websites to to confirm that and I'm not seeing anything that could just sort of make that.

Works so sorry Kayla. Curious if my Coverdell fellowship and language proficiencies will be used as part of the comprehensive picture of my application. Oh absolutely yes. I mean, the cover nail fellowship again.

We have a complicated process with the Coverdell. We don't necessarily award all RPCV peace. Returning Peace Corps volunteers for anybody on here who don't know what that means.

That just because fund it's not a funding piece 'cause we already provide more funding than the Coverdale, then we would have to for the cover Dell. So for us it's really important to know what you want to do with your covered up internship requirement because of the complication that it has to be for a U S. Community. Whereas most people do their intern Jackson internship requirement globally for the global community.

So.

Uhm, I think it becomes important for the fellowship. It is part will see it as part of your application, but I think as part of your application review I don't want to say it's not as important because you're it's your peace core letter at your Peace Corps service. Those are the kinds of things that I think are relevant to Jackson and general and the mission of Jackson.

Annual reiterate that presumably in your Coverdale memo, but it's really to actually receive the code covered up Fellowship will will be looking more at like your internship plans for that so.

Yes and no. That's probably not the answer you wanted to hear, right?

So, but it all of anything that you submit obviously becomes a part of the big picture of your applications, so.

We've had people who don't get the Coverdell Award, but they're still amazing applicants and are admitted to the program because obviously the peace core thing is, is is great.

Ulia excuse me, I'm gonna silently read this one to get some drink.

All right, Jerry, yes. So you've taken the scores have been sent. You retaking the test. If you haven't submitted your application yet.

You can indicate that in your application anywhere. I think that the dates where you self report Jerry's, you or even in like.

And additional information section. Or maybe that question something I want you to know. I'm retaking the GRE so they'll you know will get all the scores once they come in from ETS. So if you haven't submitted, definitely great to indicate that because if if you're not a fan of your first scores, we do report on. I mean we have access to all of them, but we report on the highest section regardless of the test date, so.

You know, if we know that they're coming. If there's concerns in your test scores and we know new ones are coming depending on when they come, we might be able to wait for those to see what those look like, so.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Julika, thank you. You're welcome. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. I'm glad. Hopefully this is working out and if there are people on here or brand new we are running out of time. But this is exactly why I wanted to do this. 'cause these questions are very, very relevant and very, very timely. So if anybody is here new to Jackson, I certainly hope that you are getting something from these questions and there will be more webinars over the summer and next fall. If you're interested for the future, so thank you to those brand new people.

Here, forbearing with all these lovely applicants who are here and making my life easier so I can answer one question for many and cut down on calls and emails in the next few weeks.

So I have to say yes, you're welcome. Is there a place in the application where I can indicate, for example, if I will receive a Fulbright Scholarship or other outside funding, not me. I'm saying there's actually questions about that, and the questions are like I have applied for this fellowship. You indicate what the fellowship is, and it says if you have been awarded the fellowship yet or not, so definitely include that there. For those of you already have it, the documentation is.

Is really really important, so submit those.

You know, if you're Fulbright Pickering Rangel. I know the Pickering and Rangel's, or you're just in final stages, but include your finalist stuff. Update your portal later if you are awarded those PPI fellows. All of these kinds of things documentation.

Is really really helpful if you've already been awarded the fellowship? Yeah, there's there's. It's a section in funding. There's a funding piece, I think in there. I think it should be pretty clear.

Otis, you're welcome if you haven't taken a Nikon classes in the past but have registered for college level class in the spring. Should that be included in resume or included somewhere else in the application? If you have space in your resume, that's fine, but will want.

If you're registered, it means you don't have a grade, but if you actually have the registration, you could submit that as additional information because it's not a degree I wouldn't recommend including it in the transcript section, but we want transcripts from all of your where you've taken all of your classes, whether it's community colleges, Coursera, that study abroad that might not be reflected on your undergrad transcripts, masters, anything you've done. We want all of those transcripts, so definitely put them in the degree section.

If you have it, but I think additional information is fine if it's just a registration without a grade.

Feel free to make a note that.

You know when it's coming, but I think that should be as long as it's clear in the registration meaning like. Here's like your unofficial transcript without the grade on it. That just shows you register. For course something like that is fine, or just indicating it and letting us know if you don't have access to something like that.

About how many applications does Jackson received for the mass and the MPP? Let's when changing up.

Let's see the mass. We what were we to the end? I asked? It's about I think.

We are up to.

Got 100 I think for the two to five spots so smaller applicant pool but smaller cohort so still just as competitive and the MP's have been in around the four hundreds so no way to know if the degree name change will increase that.

You know, maybe next year it'll be even more with the actual school name, so it's such a unique time it's hard to sort of predict if those words mean the same, so hopefully that helps answer your question.

Claudia, what's the difference between the personal narrative and the prior diversity essay?

That's a philosophical question for the Deans of the Graduate School. We found out about it this summer, UM?

I don't know if there's necessarily any difference, or it's just how you would like to address it. I mean, obviously, diversity issues are extremely important to us and so.

That can be addressed. I'm assuming it'll come out in a lot of people's personal statements, or could be the personal narrative there.

I think the Graduate School is in the process of trying to find the best way to to.

Have applicants addressed these things so I wouldn't get too hung up on the on the title.

But I'm not sure if there are. You all might know better than me, even though I did a test application, I don't know if there's diversity a diversity question this year, and I was actually required the last two years, so I'm thinking this is sort of another like nuance of how they're trying to capture stories from people. So that was a bad answer or anything. 'cause I don't actually know the answer. 'cause it was a.

A little bit of a surprise to us in the department.

So I would say.

For us seeing what people do with the components of the application is.

It's just as important, I think is what you're actually saying because I think it contributes to who you are and and what's important to you and what makes you unique. So it is amazing that with.

Different questions the same questions I should say for hundreds of applicants. How differently people approach them. So I, you know, I don't really have an answer because I think we want to see what how you're going to address that. So how's that? How's that for me for an answer?

Oh Josh, thanks for confirming that the two year degree thing Kushboo for the December 1st deadline to the letters of Recommendation has also have to come in. I addressed that before. No, they do not. They should be invite the January 2nd deadline or very very very soon after.

I think there's a second question and I got to the bottom of the questions and we have 4 minutes to spare.

So.

Here's some of our contact information.

Make sure you have that and yeah so.

Who this is a whirlwind I I'm very thankful that you were willing to to sign on for this. Normally I'll spend 1520 minutes or so talking about Jackson and I feel like rushing like we rushed through the questions and don't get to them. And because of the timing of this, I heard it was really really very important to make sure that your questions get answered first. Because again, anybody is interested in the future. Will always have webinars. We've had webinars. This is not a COVID thing. We've always done these.

Hopefully we'll see people on the road in person sometime soon.

But it's I'm getting a lot of thank yous and no new questions, so I'm guessing I addressed most of your urgent issues and.

Yeah, uh, we look forward to your applications. This doesn't mean you can't ask additional questions, but please be gracious with us as we try to answer them. Please do refer to the FA cues that are available.

There's no advantage to talking to a human. It's not going to improve your chances of admission, so please use the resources that are available to you. But if there are urgent questions, feel free to ping us with graciousness that it could be a good week or more before we're able to respond. It's a very, very busy season with.

All of these people asking all of these questions and throwing in holidays and whatnot, and recess, and.

So please bear with us and again, I'll reiterate.

Don't wait till the very last minute to submit your application. Then if there's technical issues, hopefully they can be resolved with that I think will end lots of thank yous. Thank you. Thanks for joining and and anybody here in the states. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving and good luck on all of your applications and happy holidays that are coming up. All various ones that hopefully many of you are celebrating and getting some breaks.

From school or work and stay safe. We're still not out of this stupid pandemic, so be safe out there and be well and.

We look forward to your application alright. Thanks so much. Take care bye.