 and students take, you know, certain parts and then join the program. But today we are going to focus this webinar mainly on the residential experience. And as I said before, this residential experience is 10 months. And now we are still, you know, working together with the online experience as well due to COVID, as we know, but you know, we are very hopeful that the things, the context is going to change in the future. So to give you also glimpse of the type of research we do at the center, different initiatives and projects that can vary from digital supply chain transformation, freight transportation, food and retail operations, humanitarian supply chain labs. So we actually have plenty of the people that actually are the founders of these concepts, right? The humanitarian supply chain lab started at MIT almost 10 years ago or more. Digital supply chain transformation started just very recently last year or two years ago. The mega city logistics lab working with large urban areas, sustainable logistics initiative and also sustainable supply chains like all the different initiatives we have on sustainability, working, you know, from transparency up to carbon emissions reduction in transportation and different other initiatives. And of course also the visualization lab, the cave lab, we call it, in which also we use an interesting decision theater with top notch technology to help decision makers to make better decisions. And different things, now plenty of work that also Professor Josie Sheffi, the director of the center has done in different topics with his books and recently just launched the abnormal, the new abnormal, the book that deals with a supply chain now in the context of COVID-19. So all of these, the interesting part is that all this research is mainly done with the industry, 95% of the funds are actually coming from the industry. And this is also the way that we validate whether this research is relevant or not. If we have someone that is actually willing to pay for it. Now using these initiatives, we actually offer a very innovative curriculum. And this is how it works in the supply chain management program. So we have plenty of these researchers teaching these courses actually at MIT, which is really something special that at least in my experience I have never seen in any other university that just in a matter of six months, one year that you are developing a new project or a new initiative, you are able to actually create a new course so that the students in our program can actually take it and get what is at this point something that will shape the future of the field in five, 10 years. Now CTL is bigger than just the influence we create with the SEM program and also at the center with the research. Much more, we actually, CTL is the headquarters of something bigger that is the scale network. The scale stands for supply chain and logistics excellence and refers to the most important network of centers of excellence in logistics and supply chain management. And we have centers, of course, MIT CTL is the headquarters, but we have also CLN, Center for Latin American Logistics Innovation in Borota, Colombia. We have a center with University of Luxembourg. We have the Zaragoza Logistics Center. We have NIMBO. We have also Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation. So all these centers are in a way a replica of what CTL does. And they also offer their own research agenda, very much aligned with what are the needs of the region. But at the same time they also have an educational program that also offers the degree of supply chain management. And the students actually come when travel is permitted to MIT to take part of the scale connect and the different scale experiences. And this is something that even though this year we are going to do it in a more innovative and interesting way given the circumstances, you know, in the past students will come and we will have different, sorry, different interesting activities. This is part of some videos that actually the students from this January, last class, they did about the experience they had, you know, sharing with different classmates of different regions, the case studies, challenges and different experiences. Now, of course, this is not allowed to have so many people in the same room, but things may change in the future. And then we will start gathering again and trying to have an interesting experience like this one that I'm showing in these videos. Now, ACM program. As you know, ACM program is being here for over 20 years now, always, you know, at the forefront of the supply chain education. And this is just a very nice gathering, a picture with all the alumni that actually came, some of them to celebrate the 20 year anniversary and was actually the same time that previous director, executive director, Bruce Arnson left. And then this was the time that I also took over. So interesting times that he decided being an expert on resilience, he decided to leave exactly the time that the pandemic just hit. Right. So I always think that this was a very convenient move, but very interesting times, right, with very, very great opportunities. So now let me just hand it to you, Robert, so that you can tell a little bit more how we are handling this response to the COVID-19 with educational program. Yeah, we thought it was timely to at least address the elephant in the room. Obviously, there's been lots of changes with COVID-19 and MIT adapted as well. So we just thought it would be important to highlight a few things that MIT has done as they reopened. They've obviously done a phased approach for reopening, focusing on research. The research ramp up has been pretty steady. I think now they're at 50% capacity. So they've been opening it up over the summer and now into the fall. Obviously, we've invited graduate students back to campus, more limited undergrads. And then we have now staff on campus as well. MIT's testing has been extraordinary. I think they've had over 100,000 tests since August and have kept it very low. So I think even the vice president of research said MIT is probably one of the safest places you can be in Massachusetts just because of our measures in place. But for those classes that we do have, obviously we have a lot of social distancing and mask wearing, but also hybrid classes are offered. So students who weren't able to make it or have other obligations, we have the ability for them to take classes in a hybrid mode. We're expecting to continue that through the spring with classes continuing to be both online and on campus. But again, we're still going to have limited travel options and limited events. But all of you would be applying for 2022. So obviously, we'll see what the next year brings. As also I mentioned, we have to adapt each year to the circumstances. But in terms of MIT, in terms of our SCM students, we thought it would be nice to just show a few pictures of how our students have adapted. Obviously, our orientation was done virtually as MIT had a one week of quarantine as students came to campus. So we had our first gatherings online. And then once we did arrive to campus, we have our own space, a very nicely done lots of space for students to social distance and get that in person experience, which I think some of our guest speakers will mention at the end how things have gone so far. Excellent. Thank you, Robert. Now probably it's a good time to just introduce you very briefly the different staff. Probably it's not the time to introduce everyone personally, right, as we said, but at least you can identify that we have a very large team for the 40 students of the residential and also the 40 students for the blended that joined the program. As I said, I'm in charge of the SCM, but specifically I work very closely with the residential program and the Maria, Dr. Maria Jesus Science, she runs the blended program, the one that I explained goes through the MicroMasters and then later students join for the one semester experience in the spring. We have a Len Morrison who is the expert in career development. So it's our officer or manager that works very closely with the students to get it also with Justin, Justin Snow, to really help create a, you know, build first of the skills that you guys need to really succeed in terms of connecting with the companies, succeeding in the interviews, getting all the networking necessary, different things related to just even writing your resume properly and different things. So Len has been extremely successful and we will show you some of the numbers, but just to let you know, last year, just in December, you know, the first semester already is 70% of the students were already with a job offer, right? And this year we are actually going also very, very good, even though COVID has hit, it seems to still that companies require a lot of supply chain experts. It makes total sense because now people are realizing how important was supply chain when suddenly, you know, they're, they couldn't access to goods, basic goods as just even toilet paper or other things. So we have also plenty of other people, Aaron already, who already texted me, he cannot unmute at this, at this point. If you later can do it during the call, Aaron, you can also introduce yourself. But Aaron is the program manager of both SEM and Scale and helps a lot with the logistics, Robert Cummings, academic administrator of the SEM program. And we have also Borny, the communicator, communications officer, and marketing, Mark Oving, he's the academic manager for all the other scale programs. So you may also hear from him if you are also interested in applying for programs that are in other scale centers. And also we have a group of research staff, mainly postdoctoral researchers that work also supporting teaching activities and also supervising thesis and capstone projects, Dr. Jansu Tayaxi, Dr. Nima Kasemi, and also Dr. Olsen Tosanli. Right. So just to show you, this is the staff for the SEM program. We have a steel, you know, research staff from CTL and instructors that also are part of the group. But this is the one that is part of the SEM and will be closely related with those that are also taking part of the class of the class of 2022. Now let's go for a program overview. And let me just start with this description of the journey. And in the journey, as we said, we start usually an onboarding session that happens in some moment between March and July once we have completed the admission process and the selection of the class. And then we start with orientation. And if again, weather permits and COVID permits, we usually go to an island in Thompson, Thompson Island in Boston, and the students have some team building activities, you know, different things related to also facing their convictions, understanding how to collaborate in a diverse group and things like that. This year, actually, we had a very interesting setting using also Zoom and another tech-based initiatives. And it was very well taken by the students. And still, we got the objective of starting the engagement and helping students to, you know, start collaborating for the kickoff of the program. Now, after we have this, of course, in orientation, the main thing is we want to make sure that you guys are prepared for, you know, the requirements of the master program, mainly taking the exams, you know, being in the classroom, the study. Many of you have actually been in the industry maybe for five years, three years, 11 years. And what happens is that you don't get used to do exams. So we help you with that by applying an exam that creates a little bit of tension. But as you know, if you are actually selecting MIT as part of your education, you know that this is going to be challenging. Nobody comes here just to have a nice vacation. But we are going to be with you to help you. Right? And this is part of the work. We assign you the CAPS and thesis projects you're going to be working on. And we have also other type of activities related also to leadership and etc. Now, after this, then the fall starts. And then we have the fall semester, the classes, with plenty of activities. The recruitment starts very heavily. You start having your sessions with the career officer, land-justing, working with companies, they start coming every week. And then it starts with different dynamics. MIT starts offering plenty of different seminars, webinars, classes become very challenging, but you can actually go more the extra amount. Would you like to take these? And then suddenly you have really plenty of things that it seems, as we say, you are drinking from the firehose. And this is definitely part of the experience. And now, after all of this, then we have the IP scale experience. We do the research expo. This is our main event in which our students and also all the other scale students present their progress in the research projects, CAPS and thesis. And we actually have a large gathering of executives, different companies, media, you know, in the past, we've been having a Wall Street supply chain management review, different important business-oriented and also just general media attending these events to really gather the best innovations the students are developing that will serve and will shape also the field. And this is going to be very interesting. This year we are not going to do it. We actually haven't disclosed how the calendar looks like. We will do it probably very soon. But we definitely are going to work on these, bringing also people from the entrepreneurship center at MIT, helping also our students to develop their ideas and plenty of different things. I shouldn't probably elaborate too much because I believe Michelle and Amun are here. But very soon you guys are going to hear even more that even the setting of the COVID, we still are going to take advantage of that to create even a more impactful event that will really reach out plenty of different people. So now the spring. The spring now again starts with finished January, the IAP, Scale Connect, but then February, May, June, depending on the context, we are going to finalize the semester, plenty of different classes related to machine learning, data analytics, supply chain management, all the different electives from the different labs, sustainable logistics, digital supply chain transformation, procurement, urban logistics, so different topics that are pretty much related to what the researchers at the center are currently doing. So the knowledge you get in those topics are actually at the forefront of the topics of the field that we develop. Anyway, so with this, when you enter to the program, we have two degree options. We still have these options, but we are now honestly disappearing one of the options because this is not the essence of the program even though we still have it. Two options are we offer the Master of Applied Science in supply chain management and we have the Master of Engineering in supply chain management. So what is the difference? Minor differences. The main one is in the Master of Applied Science, you do a CAPSEN project. That CAPSEN is sponsored by the industry. So some of the companies that are working with the center and you know, those companies are PNG or Walmart, Amazon in the past, Uber, Starbucks, you know, very good companies that are coming to work with you and the emphasis isn't solving a problem for the industry. Building managerial insights using a research oriented approach, but it still is working with the company. While in the Master of Engineering, you still are required to work with the company, but the emphasis is more in what is economic contribution? What is the research gap? And that requires more extensive literature to review, right? More work related to where I'm going to find the contribution and requires different different set of skills. The important thing here is that one is not better than the other. Both are different, but the way that we recruit the students, we recruit the students because of your leadership potential, your impact to make change also in the industry or mainly in the industry, we want leaders, right? And this is part of the purpose that will solve the problems of humanity and will have, you know, the mission of MIT in stealing them. And even though in the other, you may find, you know, I want to do a research career or academic career, I would like the Master of Engineering. That is also another way, but this is not how we are shaping this, right? Still, you guys can select it. If this is the case, you're required to do the thesis, but also take some other more technical courses to achieve it while the other requires more practical type of courses. So in a nutshell, if you're not sure, if you're not convinced, you haven't done research, you haven't published a paper in the past, just go for the Master of Applied Science. That's the one that makes more sense to all of us. Now, Robert, why don't you explain a little bit more how the curriculum looks like? Yeah, so over the nine to ten months here that the residential students pursue the program, MIT has the semester divided, divided, or the year divided into three semesters. So starting with the fall, you can see here that we have six core subjects that students will take that include analytical methods, the logistics system, so which is going on right now, database and data analysis, financial analysis. So this is really the core foundational experience in supply chain and logistics to get the program started. You'll also be working on your research projects that Jose mentioned, the capstone. So a lot of pre-work goes into defining your problem, your literature review, and getting that first draft ready for the spring. During this time you can also choose electives, so you'll have the option to do more electives than what's listed here, but usually we recommend at least one. Then once we go into the January term, which MIT calls IAP for independent activities period, this four weeks is more intensive, so we just have two classes listed here, and then there's more involved with your research, so you'll present your projects to your peers, do more work with your advisor, and then you'll learn more as we see here through the Python programming class and through the leading global teams. So in a normal year we'll have students from all over the scale network join here at MIT. This year we'll obviously have some virtual components to that as well. And then as we move into the spring, your options open up a little bit, so we have four core subjects that you would take in data science and machine learning. We have advanced writing to fine-tune your capstone project and get it ready for submission. We also have our study treks that would usually take place at that time, and then you'll finalize your research project and we'll present those to your peers. The benefit of the spring is that there's a lot more opportunities for electives, so through our curriculum we have required electives in analysis, supply chain management, and just management overall. So you'll have a lot of opportunities to select classes, particularly in the spring. The total degree requires 90 units, but one thing that's beneficial from MIT, although it's a challenge for some students, is that you actually have unlimited credit within reason, within our advising limits, but you do basically have the option to take however many classes you can reasonably manage. There's no additional charge to go beyond that 90 units. I see how so I'm smiling because we often have to talk students down to make sure that they have a reasonable course load because there's so many things offered here at MIT that students want to take everything possible. So it really isn't in your best interest to have a manageable course load, but there's plenty of shopping to choose those electives, so we'll work with you during the spring and the fall term to select those courses. Excellent, thank you Robert. Yeah, indeed. The students always want to take a little bit more, but they learn after the fall, then later in the spring they are more conservative, which is good. All right, so let's talk about the MIT experience. So Robert, would you like to? Yeah, so we'll do this sort of in two parts. Here we just have some iconic images of MIT and the experience that we would have here. Obviously we're located in Cambridge, which is close to Boston, really great in the heart of the city, so there's a lot to do. At the end of the webinar we'll hear more from our two student ambassadors, Michelle Roy and Namoon. So we'll be able to get a little bit better input from them on their experience so far and what they've taken advantage of and we'll have more opportunities for questions as well. So that's just like a little snippet of the experience at MIT. And then in terms of, yeah, so in terms of what are the key factors that you would use to, why would you choose the SCM residential program? Obviously one of the biggest selling points is that you only have to enroll for one year, so compared to an MBA program, which has two years of class, ours is only one year, so nine to 10 months, as I mentioned before, from late August until the end of May. The outcomes are very comparable to MBA programs, so salary outcomes and job opportunities that are really on target with our MBA peers. We also offer OPT and STEM extensions for U.S. work authorization for international students, so that's definitely a big plus. Our program is located within the School of Engineering, so we still have a very analytical focus to education that's very aligned with the School of Engineering's mission, but we still do have a lot of close relations with the Sloan School of Management as well, so many students take electives at Sloan, even though we're a part of the engineering school. And then another big selling point is the cohort experience, so we have a usually a group of 40 students is what we aim for each year, so it really allows you to build those connections with your peers, and we rely heavily on our alumni network to help with all aspects of the program, from career preparation, interviewing guest speakers, hosting us for visits, so that alumni network that we build and that cohort really bonds the students together. And then one selling feature that we'll hope to bring back very soon are our study treks. We have different experiences to Panama, which includes visits to pineapple factories, seeing the locks, and transportation in action. So these treks really allow for an experiential learning, so you can see supply chain in action. We have visits to the Bay Area, Seattle, and Portland, and in the past we've also gone to Los Angeles, so it's really to see our alumni network and how they use our supply chain tools in their careers now, so it's always a great opportunity for connections and seeing supply chain in action. Excellent, Robert. So let me just comment also some news, probably some of you have heard and we feel very happy. The first time that probably the most, if not one of the most respected rankings in the QS did for the first time ranking for supply chain management programs, and it has actually given us the number one in the position, so we feel super happy and of course this is an acknowledgement for all the great work of the staff and Robert and the rest of the researchers, and of course mainly the students, the villainous students like those that are going to speak very soon with you, Michelle and Amun. But yeah, very happy to share also these great news with you, giving also the context, the program seems to be growing in reputation and mainly because of the great emphasis we are putting on machine learning, data analytics, you know, like tech base, you know, those digitalization topics are really putting us at the forefront in a way because for us, as I said before, we receive these signals from the industry two years ago and exactly the moment we finish the Arnold Panner meeting, you know, every year we meet with all the companies to take a look at the curriculum, they made those recommendations and the next six months we were already with the changes in the curriculum offering these courses. And if there are new things like now, and probably this is a good time also to mention it, giving also the COVID, we are now launching a new course of COVID, I'm calling at this point the COVID and affecting the supply chain, but very likely we're going to change it more related to responsiveness in COVID context for supply chain or something like that. But that course that we are now working on it, I'm working with Professor Sheffi who just wrote the book and also taking the research that different staff from the center has been working on this this month, we are going to put a course for the students to take during the spring. And of course, when the new class will join, we hope that this course either will be still relevant, we will shape it for another topic that by then will be also relevant for you to know how to be better prepared. So let me just hand it back to you, Robert, for the professional development. Yeah, so one of, as you mentioned, one of our big highlights is really our high-touch job placement and career development services offered by our co-workers, Len and Justin. So it was worth showing a slide here on all of the things that they do and sort of the career preparation offered. So obviously that includes detail prep for resume and cover letter reviews during orientation and even all the way up until our onboarding process that takes place over the summer. You'll, Len and Justin offer many webinars to develop your resume and to start preparing for that career outlook. They offer lots of interviews with current alumni and guest speakers on how they've navigated their career. We also have an assessment based on your talent. So you can really get a deeper look at to what your strengths are and how you can play to those and how to improve on your areas of weakness. Individual career coaching is obviously a big part as well. Len and Justin are here. Actually, I just saw them yesterday. So they are still conducting those interviews in person or virtual. Obviously, we have to adapt this year because eventually you'll still need to use those tools. And then the companies that we get to participate, a wide range from companies on the West Coast, but also getting positions from all over the world usually. We've had positions for international as well. Information sessions, resume drops. I know the biggest time of the year for recruiting is really in the fall. So September and October. So we usually advise students to be prepared to take advantage of that now. And like I said, we'll have job postings and continue professional development series. So I think in the fall, we have communications. In the spring, we have public speaking. And then in January, we have more leadership workshops because what we're really trying to do is build supply chain leaders that will be able to elevate you in your career and further advance. So that's why the leadership component is a big part for us. And then in terms of this is just a snapshot of some of the employers that we've had last year and some of the positions that our students go on to get. So as you can see here, lots of senior positions both in supply chain planning, program development, procurement, and at some of the top companies here in the US and even abroad. So I think this is a good snapshot of where our students go. And you can see here how we end up leveraging this network to find positions for future years and also for visits and guest speakers that we have throughout the year. Yeah. And then next, I'll just jump through to the application process. So I think this is probably one of the areas that most people want to know about is basically an overview of the application and what we're looking for. So first, just covering here the stated requirements. We have our GMAT GRE or as we offer a waiver through the SC0x. So we this year, obviously, there's been a lot of changes due to COVID-19 and the ability to take the GRE or GMAT. So we have always offered for the step for several years, the ability to take our MicroMasters course SC0x in supply chain analytics. We definitely feel that this is a good opportunity for you to learn relevant information that can be applied to the program. So we've offered this waiver, I think, for three years now. So if you're not able to take the GRE or GMAT, definitely consider this option. The course will be running through the winter, so you can still apply for round three if you start taking the course now. If not, you can still take the GRE or GMAT. We know both of those offer at-home versions, so that's definitely an option that we'll take this year. But it is still an important requirement that helps us assess your skills. For non-native English speakers, we still recommend taking the IELTS or TOEFL. Again, the at-home version of this test is fine. We are pretty liberal with the use of waivers. So if you've taken a, if you've had a degree at an English speaking university, either undergrad or masters, we'll definitely take those into consideration as meeting the requirement, and you can request that waiver with an online application. The resume and CV also is a major component. We want to see your work experience. As you know from our application, we do require at least two years of work experience, so make sure that that is highlighted in your resume and incorporated in your statement of objective. Transcripts are also important. We want to see your, the grades that you've gotten at the undergrad level and what sort of classes you've taken. We don't have any required majors, so you don't need to have like a major in supply chain or management. If we have a broad overview, I think around half of the incoming students have engineering backgrounds, actually, and then a lot from business and management. But also every now and then we do get a few from liberal arts and other areas that have really been able to apply it to supply chain or have advanced in their career and really want to make that transition to supply chain or logistics. Finally, we'll have the statement of objectives and the video statement. So these are two different avenues for you to present yourself. The statement of objectives is a more formal written version where you can state your goals for the program, what you've done so far that makes you a competitive candidate. The video statement takes a more personal approach. So this will have some tips on the next slide, so I'll just wait until that point. But then we also have the letters of recommendation, which are the final piece of the application. Two are required here. They can definitely come from both academic or professional settings, depending on what best represents you. So you can feel free to make that decision. And we also accept additional letters of recommendation, I believe, up to five, but no more than that. We just want to keep it tailored to just five, but two is only the limit. And then I just have a little snapshot here of our Grad Apply application system. You'll notice our MIT system is probably different than, or I know it is different than any other system because we created it ourselves. So it's a little more simple, but useful for us to help review your applications. So if you do have any questions on that, all the emails to scm.mit.edu go to me, and I can definitely help with our team to answer any specific application questions. And as I mentioned, I wanted to cover two major tips that we say are the most important for applicants to keep in mind. So the first is the video statement. This is really your opportunity to present yourself to the admissions committee. We've changed the requirements just a little bit this year to make it a little shorter and make it a little bit more relevant. So as I said, we wanted to be that personal introduction of yourself. We're suggesting to keep it to two minutes long. And you can incorporate the questions and the prompts that we have here on why you want to be admitted, what you'll contribute to the MIT community, and then any other information that's relevant to the admissions committee that might not be stated on your resume or your statement of objective. So it's really about being yourself. We definitely want you to avoid reading a script. And you would just use a webcam like I'm using now, your iPhone, keep in mind around your settings so that we can hear you, see you, because we reference those videos a lot as basically that first, it's basically an interview with you that we can see your representation. So that's an important piece. The other important piece is your work experience and your resume. So as we mentioned, two years is the minimum, but often we're looking for applicants with a little bit more experience who are most successful. So three to seven years of experience is ideal in roles in supply chain or other areas as well. Make sure that it's clearly identified in your resume with the things you've done, the areas that you've worked so that we don't have to do too much guessing on where you are now and what you've done before. I think that always helps out the admissions committee. So those are the major tips there. Robert, can I just comment something very quickly before you go with the application reminders very quickly? So there were a couple of things that Robert mentioned that are really relevant. And I would like just to stress out those comments. So the first one is about the GMAT GRE requirement. If you guys do the SECREX, that would be awesome because you're going to end up doing it either way. And this is important. This is part of also the requirements if you are admitted. Now this one is related to supply chain management. So we can actually get an assessment with your technical skills related to the field. And it's also with us. So that means we are going to know how many hours you are dedicating to this and what were your grades in each of the homeworks or tasks. Those things are relevant as well. So in case of doubt, just go for the SECREX. Look at the dates and make sure that you get your 95 out of 100 before applying. I'm exaggerating, right? You get 85 above, that's fine. But target to get as high as possible. That's always good. Second, the video. This is something that we changed. I know probably some of you, if you have already applied and you submitted the five-minute long, that's okay. You don't need to replace it. The thing is that in the past, we will have exactly the same. The statement of the objectives will be exactly the same information in the video. You will just read it. And I'm not you, but previous applicants. And this is nothing wrong with that but doesn't add more. What we want to assess in the video is more your presence, your communication skills, how do you feel like if Robert just said it in an interview. So show us more about you in that video. That's that key. That's important. And try to extend additional information always helps. What are the things that you would like the community to remember once you do the video? We are done with you. What do you want us to keep in mind about you? So do that in the video and you probably would be very convincing. And we will look at the video. At least we will enjoy a lot. And this is also important. So definitely don't read the script. 90% of applicants do that. It's not a good thing. We don't want you to memorize something and say it's very nice articulated. It's more like show yourself. And this is important. Show yourself with us, with the committee. And that probably shows more of your personality and your communication skills. And the third one with the work experience. Robert already said it just to emphasize. We want that between three and seven because also this is very relevant for the industry. Once we do the outreach to find your perfect job, in many cases the industry looks at favorably applications that are with the degree plus from three to seven. If you are in the other side, you still can get it. It's just that this seems ideal for us. But keep that in mind. If you are in the application and you are a little bit short, you may probably benefit more by working one year more and then applying with us. So keep that in mind. So Robert, I'll give it to you now for the reminders, for the application. Yeah, so just one final side here on the application reminders. So as we mentioned, our next, our first deadline is November 15. We plan on turning around all of our decisions within three weeks. So those who have taken SC0X in the summer and recently finished, you'll be eligible for round one. Those of you that are just starting to think about applying now, you can still take SC0X and be eligible to apply for round three. Yeah, and we always, there's no, there's no preferential treatment given to each round. We usually, we have spots available at all three. So that's why we've, we've offered three deadlines to really just accommodate your schedule so that you can apply when it makes the best sense for you. Yeah. And so now I'll finally turn it over to our two student guests, Michelle and Namoon, to just give you a little perspective on how they've, how the program's been for them, how they, why they chose the program and any other sort of relevant information. And then we'll move on to questions. So why don't I first turn it over to Namoon? Sure. Hi everyone. Again, this is Namoon. I am currently a master's in applied science student. And yeah, so I, my background's in management consulting. I mostly did procurement and anti-ensourcing solutions for our clients. I ended up thinking, wow, you know, there's so much more to the supply chain than just procurement. And I really needed to get a more holistic view of, of the supply chain. And not only that, I realized that I wanted to be in a place where I was at the cutting edge of the different technologies and technological solutions, right? In the supply chain space. So that's kind of how I ended up looking up MIT and applying and thankfully getting in. So I'm really thankful to be here and excited to, to continue on to the semester, I'd say the first half of the semester. So we're about 25% there. It's been a whirlwind, to be honest. It's been a lot, like Hasway said, it is really like turning from the fire hose, but in a good way, right? Because we are here to learn. We are here to, to challenge ourselves. And I think if we aren't being challenged, then it wouldn't be a good program. So I'm thankful for that. I think it's, I'm sure Michelle would also agree that not just academically, but also in terms of on the personal level too, you know, especially working with Lynn and Justin, our career counselors really thinking through on a personal level, where, where do we want to be? Like what makes us happy? What are our next steps? Not, not just in terms of the technical aspects of the classes, which are also very challenging. So a really great experience all around. Even despite the COVID situation, I think that we've been doing really well in terms of connecting with our staff, with each other. I think that's the beauty of having a small class, just being able to really know each other's names, you know, have those smaller gatherings, and really also kind of being there for each other during these times, because we're really all going through it together. So it's been really fun and challenging. I think those would be the two words that I would, I would use to describe the first half of our year. So I, let me know if you have any other questions. I think I'm going to turn it over to Michelle because that was a pretty long introduction. Michelle? Yes. Thanks, Simone. Hi, everybody. I'm Michelle Roy. Before coming to MIT, I did an undergrad in supply chain management, and then worked for Shell for three and a half years in procurement. Similar to Namoon, I was attracted to this program because of the opportunity to be kind of on the cutting edge of supply chain and understand what's new and to get to be a part of it. The other piece that I wanted to bring out that Namoon spoke to a little bit is that part of the work experience requirement that makes the program so valuable is that when you're in the classroom learning from these incredible professors about concepts, you almost always have someone in the room who has worked within that space in real life and can give you a real example about, you know, when they've applied a principle in practice and, you know, examples of when that's gone well and when it hasn't. So it's really just an incredibly rich learning environment that I'm really happy to be a part of. I think I'll let Robert maybe see some questions or in the chat. Excellent. Yeah, so we'll just move right into questions. I've already started answering a few just written here. So what I'll do is just start reading them all out and then doing the doing my desk to field the questions to see who they're for. So I already mentioned here, we do have the option that applicants could apply to both the residential and blended programs. They're reviewed that the admissions committee reviews those decisions separately. So there's no there's no downside to applying to both if you're eligible so definitely take that into consideration. In terms of the level of detail for the resume, I think it's important to highlight the experience that that is most relevant to the field of supply chain or just your general leadership areas there. That's always helpful, but still keep it to one or two pages long, depending on depending on how long your work history is. If you've only been working for three to seven years, then you shouldn't be going over two pages, at least on this application. And once you learn from when you'll you'll really fine-tune those experiences once you've joined the program. Let's see. So in terms of the application process, you'll notice that there is the ability to apply to multiple programs. So we have our program here in Cambridge. Through the same application, you can select multiple scale centers with all with one application. So we have our scale centers in Spain, Luxembourg, Malaysia, and China. So you can just submit one application there and you'll receive a decision for all of the programs on the same date, different time zones. So they might be spread out, of course, over a few different hours, but we all commit to the same three day three week turnaround of decisions. On average, what is the percentage of the class who pursue entrepreneurial careers? I don't know the exact percentage. I know that that would probably be a question more specific towards our career development office. But just anecdotally, I know that there's a lot of careers and particularly for some of our blended students or students that might have more advanced careers, they take the entrepreneurial path a little bit more because they have more experience to develop their own business idea or go on to higher level positions. So that was an earlier question as well. What's the average age for the residential program? I believe the average age just here was around 30 years old. So you can keep that in mind. We don't have any upper limit to experience or age, obviously. We do have some applicants who apply with more background. And in those cases, you might just need to be a little bit more proactive with the job search because you would be looking for higher level positions. Jose, did you have anything? Yeah, just very quickly, Robert. I was going to give a couple of examples. Actually, last week, we got a session with Jeff Silver, which is an alum from the program that is also the founder of Coyote Logistics Company. And by the way, he also has to sponsor plenty of research and even a chair for the executive director of the Center, Chris Caplis. Very successful example. We have also Bindiya, who is also the founder of Resilink. And now she has become even more famous with all the challenges with COVID because this software of Resilink is used plenty to teach companies, executives how to build a better supply chain risk management strategy. So there are examples of entrepreneurship, but of course, this takes time. And we both, Robert and I are quite young in the programs of the examples. Probably we should start tracking down. There are plenty of successful alums that are doing plenty of different things, but usually after working for some years in the industry, just to give that example. And also for the other question, I just wanted to comment, when I said that the three and seven, it's easier. What I meant is not restrictions. You may have 12, 15 years of working experience. That's awesome. The question there will be how the program will really help you grow in that direction. There are people that will receive, particularly for the blended, usually blended, correct me, Robert, this number, but blended in terms of age should be like probably four or five years older than the residential students, right? Yeah, that's correct. And if that's the, in that case still, right? We have cases in which those that are senior actually finished and they actually hire residential students. We've seen that as well. And they come and recruit, that's totally fine. Your contributions is what really matters for the class. And this is what we are going to really assess. And in your case, you should probably just think whether the program will really help you in that direction. If you just wanted to go back and keep working in your industry, if you would like to achieve something else, this is probably the conversations we should have, right? But everyone is welcome to apply, no restrictions at all in terms of the working experience, the years of working experience. Yep. Oh, I heard, Robert, with the most difficult questions for you, please. I saw one that was, by the way, an interesting one. I'm sorry to interrupt. That was, if you ladies can describe a day of at MIT, right? Yeah, I was going to jump right into those questions. Like, what's your, what's a day of life on campus for you guys, for Michelle and Namoon? Yeah, I can, I can go ahead. So I am actually living off campus. And so on a typical day, I have most of the time one, maybe two classes in the morning. And so that's normally how I'll start my day. Something that's, I think, a little different about grad school than maybe the undergraduate experience that some of you would have had, is that I that I know I had is that I like to keep my, my kind of business hours during the day focused on on school and on class. So in between classes, I will either be working often on my capstone project, or working on homework or meeting with classmates to go through a case study, perhaps. So that's pretty typical. And then probably another class maybe in the afternoon or evening. I think most of us would say we try to work in time for the gym or run or something like that. And then we often have in the program opportunity for some kind of socially distanced activities together. So an example of that may be, you know, going with a group of, you know, three or four classmates to eat dinner. There are a lot of nice patio restaurants in Boston that we've been able to take advantage of. And so that's a pretty, pretty normal day for me right now. Yeah, I think for me, I don't really have a typical day. So I actually came with my family and I have two kids. So it's been pretty typical every day, I would say. But generally speaking, it's, depending on the number of classes I have in the day, it's usually two to three hours or sometimes four to five depending if I have two or three courses scheduled for that day. And then the rest of the time would, you know, be divided around, like Michelle said, meeting up with classmates to review cases usually over zoom sometimes. And doing homework, right, spending about an hour or so a day on recruiting and researching networking with alums and other classmates. And yeah, and so I'd say and some exercise if it gets it in. So that's pretty much on average what it looks like. I would say it does vary for people like some people to your families don't some people are working maybe part time. And so everybody has different, you know, priorities. And again, different class loads. So depending on how many credits you're taking to that could also change a little bit. But I would say it is pretty packed, your week is packed, you are, you know, doing homework over the weekend, you are, you know, not working over the weekend, there are activities also over the weekend. So it's really what you make out of it. You can do everything and just have a really, really full schedule or, you know, you can also ease in to the semester maybe I would I suggest kind of going full in that's kind of the way I do things. So it's been really great for me. I mean, this is what I wanted to do. So it's really different for everybody. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Going off of just another sort of loose question that I'll pose to all three of you, also included is what, what sort of initiatives have students been involved with. So any sort of projects that they've we've done, either with the center or that you've taken on with yourself. The one that comes to mind that I know is in the in the process now is the supply chain hackathon. I think that that's been a project that was done last year and we're continuing it this year. But do you have any other comments as well? Well, you just spoiled the surprise, Robert, for for Namune and Michelle. But yes, it's just a joke Robert, of course, it's a great example. It's a great example. And we are going to do this, by the way, for this for the spring. So there are different ways, right? And usually, you know, it takes a little bit of time and most of the of the students, at least in my experience, they start engaging with the different initiatives and labs at the center in the spring, which is also the time in which we are we are usually giving the lectures, like the classes of our labs, like in my case, I teach sustainable, before sustainable supply chain management, now sustainable logistics. Remember the most important class at MIT. And we have also urban logistics, we have digital supply transformation, but then lately students, once they are, you know, getting the liking in everything in place, you know, managing correct to the classes and also the capstone progress, then usually they start getting much more involved with other type of activities. In my case, I've been working with different students in the past, not just during the capstone, but also those that just as volunteer want to want to do something in one of the projects that I run, for instance, with small firms in developing countries. And the students take part, they actually analyze data, you know, make contributions in different dashboards, work with also other faculty or companies or students from the from the from different regions, in this case, from Latin America. So those activities are just extra and the students are having extremely active in the past doing things like that. I know similar things like just in the in the in this past spring. You know, also because of COVID, plenty of students took part also of the of the short projects we call it. So it's it's like an independent study. But actually, students were able to work on projects with also UNICEF, another organizations related to the responsiveness of COVID. So when that happened, all the companies were really struggling. And we actually shaped around three or four projects, they probably more probably, but you probably know the number better than number. But there were plenty of students that took part of this, what eight? Okay, eight projects. That's awesome. Eight projects on this. And and at the end, there were students that couldn't really get involved at the end, because they were really working with the capstone. So there are plenty of things, right? But the initiatives are there. There are also students that after, you know, finishing the work, they actually continue working with us. Others just joined. So I actually had a new at a PhD student that was also an SEM student, just one year and a half ago. So those things can happen, right? So there is plenty of opportunities of engagement. I'm still, you know, in managing that part of our role, as as Robert said, it is trying to, you know, provide things to the students in a timely manner so that they do not just get in a crisis with all the things that they need to do. And now we know that is a challenging part. But very soon, the idea is that we will we will share also other opportunities for the class to get engaged with, you know, with the different labs and different initiatives we have at the center. For now, for sure, the hackathon is going to happen in the in the spring. And that's going to be a great opportunity for the students to engage with industry, but also with alumni and also work on projects shaped and overseen by different researchers and labs from CTL. But we'll talk about that later. So any other difficult question, Robert? You are muted. One more question for Namoon and Michelle is, are there any clubs across MIT that you've joined or associations or other areas that you've been involved with? I know you've only been here two months now, so it's still getting the ball rolling. Any thoughts there? Sure. So I, there are many, many clubs to join and they're just so many. It's really a matter of, you know, prioritizing and choosing the ones. So there are a couple of fun clubs, I think, from, and not just within a CM, you can, you know, pick from Sloan or all the other schools on campus. So there are a couple of Sloan classes that I have, I'm just a member of and I, you know, it's mostly Zoom sessions now because of COVID. There's like a wine club that's kind of interesting and a brewing club if you're into beer brewing. So that's something that I can drop in, you know, every other month and meet network with other people, but also, you know, it's a really great de-stresser for sure. There's, and then on the more serious note, there are many women-specific organizations that I've been following, not necessarily been very active with yet. There's one called the Graduate Student Women's Organization that actually one of our classmates will see is a, I think, a chair at this year. And she's been sort of the person that has been plugging us into their events. And there are loads of events that are, you know, tailored towards women in graduate school that that we're invited to and I've attended one. And that has been really lovely against the networking piece, but also kind of that piece of getting, you know, a different side of graduate school, not just focused on supply chain, but also other parts of it, you know, again, career building, learning a little bit more about how to best design a happy life. I think that was the workshop on the topic. And so, again, lots of different things. Of course, organizations around like music and sports, unfortunately, are not active at the moment, but I'm sure it would be slowly active once COVID does die down a little bit and gets better. So there are many opportunities, Michelle. I couldn't have said it better. So I think we can. Yeah, please. No one said the chess club, Michelle. You are part of the chess club or not? I could join. I may have to look into that as well. Actually, I just realized our class do have our own, they're not official clubs, but we do have like a tennis time that everybody goes and plays tennis. So we have these times reserved at the tennis court, and whoever has time would come and join and play together during that time. So we have these unofficial clubs as a program as well. That's great. So yeah, I know we're getting a little over on time. So I just want to answer two questions that I think are most relevant. And as I mentioned in the chat, any additional questions you can feel free to email me at scm.mit.edu. We'll get through to all those questions if you send those emails this week. So one question that is very relevant is if you have the SCM MicroMasters, is it advantageous to your application? And the short answer is yes, because we can see that you have demonstrated your ability in areas of supply chain that are very relevant to us. This also gives you the opportunity to apply to both the blended or the residential program. If you choose to apply to the residential program, you can use that credential towards waiving or opting into different classes as a residential student. You would still be required to fulfill the 90 units of credit, but you have a little bit more flexibility to choose more electives or other classes. So it is beneficial both for your learning and preparation for the residential program. And another question sort of on that same topic is if you have a business degree or other graduate degree, are you still eligible to apply or does it impact your application at all? You're more than welcome to apply. I think we definitely have a lot of applicants who have a prior degree, either an MBA or a Masters of Science elsewhere. So you can definitely take that into consideration and still apply to our program here. You may just want to be, you can explain in your statement of objectives just how you see the our degree here at MIT impacting your career and how you'll use that different from your MBA, but it's definitely an option to apply and we'll definitely review your applications if you have that degree. So maybe final questions for Namune and Michelle, right? I like actually the last question. So it says what is the most important tip that you wish you that you had prior to the enrollment? This is a tough one, but I'll take a stab at it. So I think the thing that probably surprised me the most was how quickly we hit the ground running just from the perspective of academically during orientation that you are already looking at coding and statistics. And if you haven't looked at it since you took SC0X, then maybe good even to do a little brief refresher before orientation. But that was definitely one surprise just how quickly we hit the ground running. But on kind of the same other side of the coin, I was also very pleasantly surprised that even with the intense academic environment that we're in, you can totally rely on your classmates to work with you. If you maybe somebody has an area that they don't understand as well, somebody else in the class very, very likely is able to understand better and people are so willing from day one to go above and beyond to help out their classmates. So yeah, that's what I would say. No, I agree actually. I can't really think of a really another good example in terms of what I wish I had known. But the planning piece is really key. You do hit the ground running like as soon as you arrive. And so I think really do spend the months or weeks before coming preparing whether it's through those SC0X courses, thinking through your stories and your narrative, really spending time reflecting on what you should be prioritizing, what you want to get out of this program and what your next steps would be after the program. And so I think getting those stories straight with yourself and those priorities straight with yourself in the beginning would be really helpful. Not with just classes and ranking capstone projects or ranking classes and choosing electives, but also in terms of recruitment and the types of companies that you end up applying to because everything starts basically in the fall. And so the sooner you have a better understanding of what you want and what you want to get out of the program, the better. Awesome. That was great. Thank you so much. It's a very interesting answer and makes us also think about it. But that makes total sense. I mean, the program starts extremely quickly. And yeah, you guys are really required to start really coding and doing statistics and working on different things. So this also sets the tone for those that are interested in applying. This is part of the expectations and all the work that you could do the pre-work before applying to get more familiar with this, get the SC0X and start taking your intro to Python course. That will be extremely helpful later for the program. This is what I'm also getting. So this is great. There are other questions I see, but we definitely are already running out of time. But as Robert said, please reach out to us. Let me just share the final slide that shows also the website and of course the email that Robert has been referring to, just right there. And if you also want to reach out to Michelle and Amun, we can also share the contact through this email. And you can also, because I saw some questions related to scholarship or the awesome things like that. That's totally fine. Feel free to reach out to them. Of course, I hope that you guys are also looking forward to receiving these questions and communication. But for the rest, Robert is the best person. And I also received a copy of those emails. And if in some moment there is something you also want to know that I could share, feel free also to reach out to me. Robert, anything else that I'm missing? No, that's great. I think with that, we'll wrap it up. And like I said, we'll be happy to respond to any emails. Thanks in advance for staying with us and joining this webinar. And we will be in touch. And we look forward to reviewing at your applications in the coming months. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you all. And thank you, Michelle. Thank you, Amun.