 Welcome everyone, and this is the urban planning program at GSAP. I'm Waping Wu, the program director, and a professor in the program as well. And like to really welcome you. This is an extraordinary time, and the field of urban planning really need people like you. So again, a big welcome, and we will be recording this session. Joining in with me are also the program manager, Emily, and the panel of students who have introduced towards the end of my presentation. So in the first 20 to 25 minutes, I would like to give you a run through of the program, why you want to consider our program. Of course, I want all of you to be here. We want to make sure, however, that whatever your interests are matched with what we have to offer. And so I will do some brief introduction of the curriculum. I would also try to answer many of the questions that have been submitted prior to the open house. And then some of the some of the questions will be answered by the panel of students. So, this is a time of crisis, many boats, many different crisis, and studying urban planning in New York City during crisis time is both challenging and it's an exciting really. And New York City, as you can see from this chart has perhaps the most severe degree of inequality among all cities. So this inequality is showing its ugly face during COVID time. New York City also is a major city that will be severely affected by climate change and sea level rise. So, what are we doing at this time, right with these multiple crisis social ratio and climate justice are these key aspects of our school and our program. I'm not going to go through all of these. And, but G sub as a whole are making significant efforts in terms of thinking through diversity inclusion, anti racism, and confronting. The challenges of the day, and in the planning program we've had long standing commitment to social racial and climate justice. And as you can see also my notes that we have number of student driven activities which I'm very proud of. More importantly, I think our curriculum is dynamic. And I will give you an outline of other key aspects of the curriculum, but as you can see from here that just in the last year, and this current academic year, we've had number of new courses to really prepare students for at least three things right the current crisis, the emerging needs for planners beyond traditional roles of planning. The third really is to take advantage of our connection with a large number of seasoned practitioners in and around New York to really be firmly connected with practice. And so, and that will be really this dynamic and flexible curriculum is one aspect I would say, compared to many other planning programs that we are very very strong. And I am very involved in the association of collegiate schools of planning as a past president. And so I know, I know many other programs, I also have been working in three different planning programs in my career so when I say that I do feel some very degree some strong degree of confidence of what we're doing here. And as you can also see beyond the curriculum, we have incredible intellectual life so planning program hosts a weekly lecture in planning series and you can see from the titles for this semester. It's very timely, it really captures the spirits of the moment and really engages us in the urgent conversations of the time. And COVID is of course the elephant in the room, right. We are all facing this very difficult time. And the school has invested tremendous energy and the resources since the summer to really make sure that COVID is not going to be stopping us from this engaging and dynamic style of learning so we are truly hybrid. So we we call it high flex. And so you can see to the very left is our original urban planning suite we have reconfigured all three parts of the suite, and now we have 46 computers, all socially space at each time at any given time 23 students can be there. So we do two rotations for GS lab, and then also other working hours so you can see on top is the GS lab hybrid session this week on the right, so the GS lab is for first year students, and then on the bottom is the thesis workshop hybrid also this week. That is for second year students so for each class we have this one hybrid elements so that to allow that in person interaction and learning continue to happen, but also give flexibility to students who have COVID related challenges to really be part of the large community. So that is really the current time and and with that though we continue to be committed to the dynamic curriculum and the rich history that have been built into this program. And so this just gives you an outline of the various key milestones of the program and powering this program is a set of dedicated full time faculty and who work on many different fronts of scholarship and applied research and connect with students. Both through courses, all of the full time faculty teach in the core curriculum, even though we're small in number. That small in number actually is by design. That's because we have a fantastic group of dedicated adjunct faculty. This is just a very select list, but listed there so you can see. The kind of backgrounds of the kind of full time responsibilities and who they are on this I would say is the second feature of our program. And that is we are truly a professional school, not just every planning all of the programs in the school except the PhD programs. We are very anchored in practice, we connect with practitioners and applied scholars on a daily weekly basis, and they are, they are an essential part of our students learning mentoring and connection with future career and internships. And so very quickly for outline of the curriculum. And as of now, all of our students are full time, and that is two year program with 60 points. As you can see on the bottom of the slide, we actually recently received New York State approval to have a part time option. And that that is assumed that one of you if you're interested you must have at least two year full time or four year part time experience in planning related fields prior to application. And then when you come in you take eight consecutive semesters or four consecutive years to complete the program, you complete the same number of points, and everything else is exactly the same in terms of requirements. So that requirements include 27 core requirements, not 27 27 points of core requirements that include five core courses, studio in the second semester of first year, and then thesis or professional capstone in the second year it's a two semester sequence. As you have posted a question about, what's the percentage breakdown of thesis versus capstone capstone is also a very new option, as I mentioned our curriculum is dynamic so this is the second year professional capstone has been pursued by students so last year there are about 15%, roughly eight or nine students out of a class of a little over 50 students pursuing professional caps on the differences you need to have a real client to work with. And then in terms of electives there are 33 points of electives, at least 12 of them need to be in a concentration, and which you can see there are four concentrations which I will detail in a little bit. But many of our students in fact about 40% of our students actually choose two concentrations because they want to really be more broad based. In fact, we would like to say at Columbia urban planning program, we are training students to be focused, that is to say they can work with large number of different issues in the planning field and related field and in emerging roles. And so the courses or the concentrations are there to really help students organize their courses and really think through what they want to pursue a down the road. So beyond those 27 plus 12 right 39 points that you need to complete within the program. The other electives which are at least 21 points and some students that many students take more than that can be taken across Jesus, and the cross Columbia, and we give students a very extensive list of courses that they can that are really relevant to the planning and they can pursue across Columbia so I would say a third characteristic of the program that we consider quite different from other programs and we are very strong is this flexibility and cross training that students can get. And so that's just a sample program of if you pursue full time for semesters. And of course, this semester because Kobe and hybrid students that actually can take up to 25 points. Usually it's 19 points, as you can see, the first year, more required courses and elements. The second year, you have lots of flexibility to pursue your interests. There are also many dual degree programs with planning as I have listed there, and we have students in every single program, not every year, but in most years. And so if you're interested that you can apply now to both programs or in your first year in either at urban planning, or at the other degree home, you can apply across so you have to be admitted into both programs separately, and we give a lot of guidance to draw degree students, and you can also check out through our website which I will give you the link at the I would say the fourth real significant unique feature of the program is our global outlook, and this is our of course also concentration called international planning and development. Global we take it in a very broad sense, but we also take it in a very comparative sense. We want to situate our students in a way that the world has coming to us and Kobe really shows that right so even if you're not traveling, you're not going to another global world is right in your backyard and front yard. So to understand the global movements of people capital and climate change such global issues is one key of this outlook. The second is to really think through if cities are confronting very similar challenges and problems. Can we learn from each other. Can global self solutions be the key for global north problems, you know, especially Kobe. So one of the kind of courses we introduce to allow our students to pursue their back to local outlook so many students who do not choose the international planning and development concentration, take some of these courses because they are very useful. So you can see also our students travel to other places around the world for travel studio that is of course handicapped by Kobe. Then we really hope that we will have at least some other opportunities right now through lips and others to connect with scholars and local experts virtually. Because we are in architecture school our curriculum is very grounded in the build environment, especially the urban bill environment. So this concentration has perhaps the most extensive choices of courses. And as you can see, you can even pursue if you have interest in urban design. We have a couple questions about that in this here. You can also take some seminars in urban design program. I mentioned our students take electives across Jesus. All Jesus electives are open to all students in Jesus. So build environment is the most popular concentration for our students. And so this you can see the kind of work students do. Third concentration is community and economic development and it's probably where we can see our commitment to social and racial justice, most commonly reflected. But I have to say that focus on justice is throughout our core curriculum. I know that the theory and history class students this semester are debating right. And I think a lot about, you know, how do we overcome the barriers and do we change the system do we make changes within the system. I understand the debates have been ongoing every week. And so you can see the kind of courses we have there. And, and the kind of work our students have done in the past. And so the next thing that we do in politics is our newest concentration but it's increasingly become the one of the most popular. And we are among the very first few urban planning programs in the country to have this focus, and to really prepare our students to engage with sufficient skills and depth so that we can be in the center of a conversations about urban technology about smart city, we can complain all we want that technology is not catering to the needs of different groups of urban communities. But until planners know the language can be involved in the discussion, and at the center of the discussion that is not going to change. So that is our goal and I would say that's our fifth very unique feature that how important we play. We place analytics in the curriculum and a critical use of analytics, not just we know the data we know the methods but we know how inequality lack of access and asymmetry and privacy issues continue to play technology and their applications. So you can see students work using spatial technology understanding climate change. And this just gives you the studio wraps it all right so we the various different kinds of studio projects last year, and some confronting climate change and we also pivoted to some New York issues about hitting streets. And so, even though we were very much handicapped by you know middle of the semester lockdown, I think students made huge progress. So the last aspect of the program, I would say probably the last, not the last, but last that I would outline an important feature of our program is the connection we provide our students to a professional career. And so as you can see here that. Yeah, so we have a number of ways of helping our students both when they are in the program as well as when they are ready to move and to the professional world. Through the program office, through the faculty advisors and student mentors particular oops, I should have turned off in terms of the timing. So my apologies. And mentors about writing and digital skills and this mentorship program with alumni one on one, and it's very, very important for us and we started that about three years ago and it's been going quite strong this year about 30 students in the second year class are in the program. So the extensive kind of services career guidance that we give to our two planning students is something that we are very proud of and continue to build up. And so, many of you asked, so what do we do after we trained as urban planning student and so this year we developed this career path matrix for our students. And I think one of the students on the panel actually suggested this I think you know you'll remember one of you I. And the example organizations I would say 80% of them are organizations where we have alumni working in and so we did fill in some blanks where alumni are not as numerous. And so we use this to help our students consider you know, what kind of career path or path they want to consider you know what kind of organizations can do in those paths, and then then what kind of courses in a large scheme of things that they should consider. So we have 13 career pathways that we have designed so far based on what our alumni have been working. And so more information once you get into the program will be provided. So the career services in also include conversations with alumni, this of course was pre COVID time, but we continue to do that in fact just two weeks ago, we had alumni networking virtual event. So a little bit like a speed dating right so six or seven students meet with one or two alum for us 20 minutes and moving on and have this conversation of just really try to understand as a planning graduate what you can do. And we have a small scale of career fair, usually every February. And where we invite organizations, mostly around New York area and a little bit beyond to come talk to our students give you information they're not like a real interviews type of career fair. We have federal agencies like FEMA, and some other government agencies and private consulting firms, and we are having challenge in terms of getting nonprofit sector usually we get one or two so we're hoping to continue to attract them. And if you will say that this advantage of Columbia's urban planning program is, we are quite expensive. There's no doubt about that. And so in a way that our students do end up graduating and go into organizations that more likely to be in the private sector. So, over half of our alumni who graduated between 19 2013 and 2019 the five years work in private sector, and, and then another more than 30% work in government public sector and then so the nonprofit is a very small percentage. And so, you know students have to pay back their loans and so where they work is sometimes predicated upon the kind of projected income. So I say that because I used to teach at talks and I know that program is very dedicated to nonprofit sector work and the students tend to go to that sector much more We say we have a disadvantage or weakness and that's definitely one of them. And then we also take our students to different planning offices and organizations and agencies to visit, and we connect our students with alumni at American Planning Association's annual conference and fabulous end of year show that of course pre COVID but you can see the kind of products the kind of work that our students are doing. And this is primarily urban analytics and building sensors and gathering data and analyze data through mostly Python or are but also machine learning types of skills and then in the distance for more of the jazz posters and on the TV screen is videos that our students made for their urban design and studio courses. And this is our proudly our urban magazine student run magazine and I we have at least one editor on the student panel of you any of you are interested in asking about that. Okay, so all that materials lot to digest. So I just want to spend one last minute on your application and the admissions related questions of course you'll have more. I will also encourage you to get in touch with us. So our students come from a variety of backgrounds, all the way from art to design to math, science, business, you name it political science geography, everything. So the first I have to say probably design related backgrounds is the large, the largest, probably at least a third, and then social sciences would be the next you know, geography, political science urban studies, history. And then science is probably the smallest science and engineering is probably the smallest school, but they do come from everywhere, not just backgrounds, also in terms of country in terms of prior experience. We very much value experience relevant to planning. Increasingly, and some of the students can tell you on a panel that we now have students will have more than 10 years experience or more than five years and so on so we're very much value that if you don't have that. And the kind of experience you've had through internship through projects should also be outlined in your application. Right. So you don't have experience what we really want to know, especially through the statement that you will write isn't your understanding of the planning field. You know, why do you want to come to planning. What do you expect to do with this degree right what do you want to do after you get the degree. So, and then what kind of experience you have with analytical methods because this year we're waiving GRE. So we want you to reflect on your analytical abilities that could be quantitative that could be qualitative or could be both will be spatial, could be the kinds of analytical methods we want to hear about those in your statement and make sure at least one preferably at least two of your recommendation letters can reflect on your academic preparation. So if you have been out of the school for a long time make sure to get to get in touch with at least one professor who can talk about your academic preparation. So in the end, about one third of our students receive financial aid. If, if I have to say there's another disadvantage is we are continue to expand the range of financial aid and to make sure that not only it's based on merit, it's also based on me so that's a dynamic situation as well. So, to conclude, I would encourage you to check out our website to particularly check out this open house resource page in the second link that we pulled together lots information about the program to student work. Lots of the urban magazine issues, so that you know what students are doing. Well, you know, they're in the program. So last but not least, reach out through the email, and I hope to hear from many of you. So that is my presentation I went a little bit over time. But I like to now open up to our student panel. And let me introduce so you could just holler when I say your name and I'm going to say your name just based on where I see you on my screen. So they will answer a number of questions that were posted before the open house. And that depending on whether we have questions in the chat box which you should feel free to type in that we will answer some more questions that will probably go on until about 945 or 950. So we'll break into three breakout rooms for you to meet some of the current students, a little bit on a more intimate scale, and then Emily our program manager Emily can you raise your hand. Thank you and will be your best friend hopefully for at least the next few months if you have any questions about the applications and missions. So Emily and I will stay in the main room you have you have any questions so we'll go on with that for until about 1010 or 1050 each. All right, so let me get to the students. Zaynab is a second year student. Hi everyone welcome. Yep. And see fun. And one. Oh she fun. Yeah, second year also. She is really remote now truly kind of a virtual Brady. Hi everyone. First year, Moses. Hi everyone. First year, and one. Hey, Oh, Hey, second year from Columbia. Am I right. Yes. Great. And then we second year. Hi everyone. Yeah, please from China, but she's in New York correct. Yeah. Okay great terrific. So I'm going to so the way I will be doing this I will read out the questions and then I will just ask one or two students to answer that. So the first question is why choose Columbia over other urban planning program so maybe I can choose one student from first year one from second year so maybe Brady if you don't mind going first. Great yeah. So when I was making the decision my background coming into this was having spent five years at the Urban Institute in Washington DC studying community development issues. So I wanted a program that had substantial policy grounding, but also one that could stretch me with considerations of the intersection of the built environment and urban design with planning policy. So this is really the perfect mix of that having that strong policy focus in UP, and also being situated within G SAP within the architecture school more broadly. So I saw that as a huge benefit. I think that the social justice orientation with waiting of course spoke to, and really just you can see that even if you look at just the course descriptions in that packet in the UP packet. I think the course descriptions more broadly. One of the most, you know, it's one of the most impressive sets of courses I've seen in any program. So I definitely would encourage you to check that out. I think the focus on practice, you know with that mix of full time faculty and adjuncts who are working practitioners so I'm taking a class currently on zoning. That's being co taught by the chief planner at Lincoln Center as well as the former head of department of city planning here in New York. And then I think, you know it's really important when going into a planning program to think about the city that you're going to be in. It's a real benefit to being in a city like New York where so much cutting edge planning is being done. So you couldn't have a better classroom I think than here in New York. You know where any issue that you want to be studying is probably happening here in New York and I think Columbia does a great job of connecting you with the city. And being someone who hadn't ever lived in New York prior to this. You know I think you get a really great introduction to New York and the issues going on here. Maybe using it. Yeah, I think Brady did a fantastic job of summarizing all the great reasons to choose this program. I think if I had to pick maybe like two main ones definitely. I think being in New York City was one of the, one of the main things that swayed my choice. And that's because I think being exposed to the different professional opportunities that you have in the city and there's such a wide array of them whether that's in the public sector in the private sector. So international organizations I'm personally interested in international development. So, you know, being in New York and having large organizations like the UN around the corner and like being able to build those networks, while being in grad school was very important for me at least and so I think that's definitely one of the big pluses of this program as well. So the second question is how do students receive academic support and are formal informal mentoring opportunities common. So maybe I can see fun first as a second year student and then Moses. Okay. So this year we're having writing mentors and digital mentors I think they're both really helpful, although they're our peers but they can offer a lot of insightful suggestions. And also I think Emily is really helpful and responsive and in any academic related issues, and also career related issues she's helping me a lot. And then I think in terms of academic support, TAs are good resources, you have to contact them a lot for academic support, and also professors themselves are really responsive. And for academic like Brady and Wiping just mentioned they're really for career help, because there are a lot of them are practitioners and they have networks and all that. So it's offering a lot of opportunities. And then in terms of mentoring opportunities for second year we have been the mentorship program. For me, because my mentor is someone working at Asian Development Bank, and she's really helping me to get a lot of information about working in such an international organization, and also for me a lot of suggestions on course selection. And thanks to the panels to attend. So that's basically my suggestion. I think I think she found gave a great answer and touched on a lot of the resources that we have available to us as students at this program. I just wanted to call out to the fact that in my experience I've been so satisfied and pleased with the availability of all of my professors and all of my TAs and office hours. And I feel as though, you know, of course we would all prefer to be in a world where we could have fully in person classes but the virtual nature of office hours right now does. It seems like it allows for a lot more flexibility and a lot more availability. So I feel like that's a great way to get started and to get to know your professors even in this environment and that's been great. I haven't since I'm a first year the alumni mentoring is not available to me yet, but the digital and the writing mentors Elaine and Gang Wu have been super helpful and they have designed workshops for various programs and pieces of software that, you know, I coming into this program I had never been familiar with and those workshops have helped me basically from scratch to learn illustrator and in design and even some CAD programs. So that mentorship has been really invaluable to me and there's also there's also a peer matching program, which is, you know, kind of a less formal thing and it's not so much mentorship as it is just creating networks among peers within the program. But there has been a lot of opportunities for academic support and mentorships so far in my experience. Yeah, thank you actually Moses you mentioned something I forgot to mention that is. We also run a number of workshops right by the mentors and by also professor and in spring will have actually AutoCAD workshop hopefully you mentioned CAD. And we really trying to build up our students technical skills and writing skills and not just in the curriculum but as skill building more to boot camps and workshop kind of format. The third questions what steps should a student take to make the most out of the two year program so I'm going to turn to two second year students who are you know, almost there for two years now so Juan and Hui, if you could share your thoughts. Yeah, sure, I would say three things first to reach out to other GSAP students, because working with architects, urban designers, real estate developers, historic preservation students is one of the most enriching experiences you could have. And you need to seek out those types of spaces. Similarly, reach out to other Columbia schools where other interesting things are happening. For example, SIPA the School of International Public Affairs has a very strong urban policy focus. So that's, that's something that we can also reach out to. And that's what COVID has also shown us is that a lot of programming is happening, a lot of schools around the world are putting out events. And maybe we are a bit saturated by them but do your best to actually attend and get other types of perspectives or experiences. And finally, I would say engage with faculty. Our professors are extremely caring and extremely committed to talking to students and cultivating a relationship with them is critical not only for your time at GSAP but also to your career going forward. Okay, so I would like to share more about my personal experience because I'm not, I didn't learn any planning knowledge before. So I would say that first year you should just start from something that you are familiar with. So I personally learned GIS before so I just started with some urban analytics courses. So the first year I will feel more comfortable in those classes and then you should take the summer for a internship that related to planning, because if that's still your goal. And for the second year you should just do something that related to planning or more about your interest that you're developing your first year. So I just took some, I take some classes that related to financing or real estate or international planning, because that's still another concentration for me. So I would say just started from something with that you're familiar with then get to know something you don't know before. Yeah, and still keep close contact with the faculties because they are super responsive. Okay, so we have the next question so I maybe just call one at a time so that way we can go over all the questions together. So how competitive is master of urban planning, the degree, how much time did do you invest into studying. So maybe I asked Zayn it because you are second year you probably can reflect it a little more. Um, in terms of being competitive I think one of the great things about this program is, at least for me personally I've never felt like I've, I'm in competition with any of my peers in fact quite the contrary I think. We're you know on the, I think on the like smaller cohort size and that makes us very connected and. And I think we really do try to help each other as much as we can and elevate each other's work and you know if I'm doing something. And I think it might be of interest to one of my peers I'll like shoot them an email and be like hey you know check out this lecture or. So you mentioned last week that you were interested in this topic or this topic you should reach out to this person, etc. In terms of how much time, do we invest in studying a lot. But I think that's also the reason why we decided to come back to grad school. Certainly the first semester of my first year was particularly challenging just because I had been out of school for a long time. And so it was kind of like the first couple of months I was getting my bearings again but I think again having very supportive peers was helpful for me to get my bearings and it's definitely it requires a lot of time management skills but it's feasible and I've been working for the past eight months and continuing to pursue this degree so yeah it's it's possible. The next question, how is creativity involved in urban planning what aspect of urban planning requires you to be created. May I call on wait, that you worked, we worked together in studio so I kind of know that you definitely have encountered that question. Yeah, so I will say that every courses requires your activity and requires your creativity, because they know my and I worked on the studio same studio before but then we just, that's a long story but yeah I think in that process we all have to, you know, start from the ground so you have to think about, I'm going to work on a project redevelopment project in somewhere else in somewhere in the Italy, but we are, we have no any other sources to find out what happened there. So we have to figure out what kind of sort of data sources we have to use who we need to contact and what should we plan or for that area that all requires your creativity because you have no idea what happens at that place, but you still have to figure out how to plan for that area. So I think we still did a very good job on that because we just collaborated and we just work on the multiple documentation and data sources and we even get contact with some of the professionals at the local university. So I like that process because we successfully develop a plan for that area for the station for the train station and for the local housing for the residents. So I like that process because we talk a lot with we're paying and Francesco during that process, and also we have to use our wisdom to do this remotely so that's a big challenge but I am very enjoying that process. Thank you. How can students get involved with the local community so whoever whichever student I think while maybe you've done some but I don't know if other students have done some so whoever wants to answer this question just chime in. Yeah, I can start. There's a lot of things happening in New York and not only as a result of top down planning. I think Brady talked about this a couple minutes ago. Many, many community organizations are organizing and have a lot of interest in state to transform neighborhoods or to put into action plans that they developed. We could form meaningful relationships with them, but that is something that requires time that requires effort and because they, they are based on trust, and that is something that I think we're trying to move forward through many instances in within JISA. But that is definitely an opportunity to connect with these types of organizations to work alongside them and to be a part of the specific plans or actions that are happening outside of school. Great. That's great. I would just add to that as well is that, you know, we, again, we are in New York and we have this opportunity to be connected to all these organizations that are doing such great work and it's really, it's kind of on you to like, you know, make that step towards them and start to build that relationship and you have to be, you know, cognizant of their time and also the amount of time that you're able to commit to them and I think as long as you do try to build that relationship with as much, you know, trust and communication as possible. There's definitely a lot of ways to get involved. Thank you. I think I add to that I think even through the classes to some of the projects you do with classes, they're very like neighborhood focused and you can kind of get involved with the neighborhoods to that so for instance, Moses and I are working on a project for a planning methods class where we're looking at the effects on the restaurant industry and three vendors of COVID and Jackson Heights. So, getting to talk to some community organizations and small businesses out there is great. All right, next question is what is the community like within the cohort and at the school. So I will just open it up, whichever one of you wants to talk quickly. So you know just answered it in the last question that we're really a friendly cohort and everyone's helping each other out and encourage everyone out I think I'm personally and motivated by others work too. I think because we choose this program that we have some kind of similar personality. So that's why like we're also pursuing similar goals in terms of academic work career. That's why I like it's I'm enjoying it. And I like everyone here. So I learned a lot. I also want to add really quickly we have a number of student organizations I didn't have a time to do that. So see fun and way on the panel both are officers of the urban China network we have quite a number of Chinese students so this organization hosts annual urban China forum this year on all of it and other challenges, not just for China but beyond. It's very active. Zeynep is one of the editors for the Urban magazine, and then Juan works with the housing lab with that's more of a research outlet. So I know there have been questions about how much you can get into research and how can you prepare for your doctoral programs. And I think the research opportunities tend to be you have to really look for them, especially in the first year and for the second year that we do, each faculty has a research assistant that's through an application process, and then we look at students abilities, and as well as fit between interest of the student and the faculty. So your chance to just to add to what the students are saying in terms of, you know, the research experience, and if you want to get to a PhD program afterwards, every year we have not every year that we have a student admitted to a doctoral program but at least a couple of students are interested in applying. So, last year we had quite a number of students, three of them to PhD last two years. So we have our students in all of the major planning programs, not only in the US but also overseas in the PhD programs. Okay, so last two questions are more like what what is life like in Columbia and York. How much does it cost you. I did say early on tuition is expensive New York is not cheap, although I've heard that rent is going down. Last but not least what are the top three things you regret doing in Columbia. So, I mean with that sort of more student life I like to just open up to the panel, whoever wants to, you know, wants to chime in, just feel free to do that. Well, it's a it's a bit of a tale of two cities in terms of New York pre and post, but what has been surprising to me is how quickly the city has been able to bounce back into their feet. And I, well for me that having always lived in big cities this is the type of environment I'm always comfortable in, in terms of the diversity that you see on the streets in terms of the possibilities to attend museums and cultural institutions and just engage in pretty much anything that the imagination can, can take you through. So, I think it's a, it's a great city, a great place to learn a great place to study and a great place to work in the future. And I think to that point of cost in New York in terms of living expenses I think maybe counterintuitively I used to live in DC and I found it a lot cheaper daily life here. My grocery bills have gone way down, I have like a local produce stand and local butcher and local bakery, which has been a lot more fun, nice and sport, small business and a lot cheaper too. And I think I'm transit as well. I mean, obviously, during the pandemic, we're, we're not necessarily using this in the subway as much but you know you don't need a car here, a monthly transit passes 120 bucks a month, which is better than it was in DC and in many other cities. So, I think the cost of living is actually pretty good in New York. Anyone wants to tackle the question what are the top three things you regret the way maybe the second year students. Yeah, I can start on that. I definitely regret not taking introduction to urban informatics my first year. That's like, everybody smiling because everybody I say this to people at the time. I think it from my peer like what I've learned from my peers and now that I am taking it this year. I think back on all of the things I could have done with that knowledge in my first year and so that's definitely one of my, like just in terms of coursework. One of my biggest regrets and maybe also not taking as much advantage of being able to take courses in the other schools at Columbia. You know, sometimes we, when registration is around the corner, you know, we think we have like all this time to think about it and then inevitably it goes by quicker than we think. And I think, well, there were three but those are really the main two I can think of right now, if anyone wants to add anything. Yeah, maybe to a little bit of that I, I think I kind of regret not being more curious also about other types of courses during my first year I set my mind to a specific life track. The, the, like the courses I took were, were good. Now I'm thinking I should have been more like curious with my interests and I'm perhaps shop more for classes at the start of this semester. As you can see, they come really from different backgrounds, different intros, and I'm so proud to see, you know, from first year to second year they just kind of, there's this huge jump that they move through even from the first to second semester, right. So I encourage you to talk with them in some depth and also in whatever questions you have.