 Hi global supply chainers. Welcome to the second Hangout event. Today we are going to discuss about the blended program. I'm Eva Ponce. I'm the Executive Director of the MicroMaster Program in Supply Chain Management and we have today with us Dr. Bruce Arsena. Bruce is the Executive Director of the Supply Chain Management Master's Degree Program here at MIT and also the Director of the Blended Program in Supply Chain Management. So thank you so much Bruce for being here today. He's going to provide you an overview of the blended program and we will try our best at answering all of your questions. So let's see how it works. I know that you have a lot of questions so we will try our best. So the first part of the Hangout is going to be Bruce's presentation, the overview of the program. Then we will have around 20 minutes to answer your questions and after that we have prepared breakout session. So you can join this breakout room. This is a space that you can discuss with your peers. You can see them and be seen by your peers. Talk about relevant topics in SC0X. So I hope you enjoy the event. Thanks again and thank you Bruce for being with us today. Thanks very much Eva. As you know, we're all very excited about getting ready for this blended program. It's a new and unique adventure for us as well as it will be for the students who are interested in participating in it. Just like the MicroMasters program itself was a new and innovative way to reach out to many people in the world that normally wouldn't get a chance to benefit by our courses. The blended program is in that same spirit. We're setting up the blended program to be able to admit what we would think of as non-traditional candidates to come to MIT. MIT has a very successful residential program, a 10 month master's degree program already. This year we have a very proudly of 40 students, 20 men, 20 women from 14 different countries. They're going through the program right now. But what I say non-traditional candidates, let me start off by saying what is a traditional candidate and then I can make the contrast. The recruiters who come to our program to recruit our candidates are looking for early career supply chain professionals probably between 25 and 35 years old. They have normally at least two years of experience but more preferred as five or more years of work experience in supply chain. These students are ones that have a very quantitative background. Students who are an industrial engineer can do a lot of math. That's what the recruiters are looking for and we're very proud. We're very successful at getting their job searches. Normally we have 100 percent of the students get job offers before graduation. Occasionally like this last year we had a couple of students that it took them a few months longer to get landed in jobs. That's a traditional candidate, a 25 to 35 year old young career professional in supply chain with a great GMAT score, very high grades as an undergraduate and a very quantitative background. However, there's lots of great people out there that don't fit that mold. What MIT is trying to do with the blended program is provide a pathway for some of the folks who don't fit that sweet spot of our traditional candidate. Some of the things that are different about the blended program obviously by taking the five online courses and doing well and doing well in the capstone exam, you're given a different way to prove yourself and establish your credentials for us to look at instead of looking at a GMAT score or looking at your undergraduate grades which you might have had 15 years ago and and who knows what we all did as undergraduates, right? This gives a person an opportunity who's working in supply chain who has great experience to be able to prove themselves and we can look at that. And so when we're looking at what kind of a candidate or we're looking at for the for the blended program, you still need to have a couple of years of work experience, at least a couple of years of work experience, but we're not we're not looking for people right in that sweet spot 25 or 35 years old. There's sort of no age limit at all on this. And when I look at at your college transcript, I'm no longer like for the for the residential program. The first thing I do is I go through the transcript and I circle all the math classes that the student took and how did they do that they get an A in each math class, right? We're not going to do that for the for the blended people. I'm just looking to see that that you went to college. You got some degree. And and we're not looking at a GMAT or a GRE score. That's not required for admission. So we're looking for a person who's got some great great ideas, did well in the in the Micro Master certificate. And part of what you'll have to do when you arrive is a research project. Let me just talk about the research project for a second. The students who are part of our residential program begin that research project almost immediately after they arrive and they work on it for about nine months. It's it's done in conjunction with a company. The students who are coming for the blended program will do a research project, but they're only going to be on campus for five months. So they'll probably have to do some work ahead of time. For example, part of the application process will include giving us a two page description of what what kind of a project would they like to do. Have they thought about what problem it's going to solve? We like projects that include quantitative analysis. So that means what kind of a methodology do you think you'd follow if it needs data? Where are you going to get this data? All of the projects that we currently do are done in conjunction with a sponsoring company. You might want to think about what company could I approach to help me to help sponsor this project. So those are some of the things that we're going to be looking for in the application process for the blended program because we want them to want the students to get started on that on that research project. You know start thinking about that even before they get to campus because they're not going to have a lot of time once they get here to make this thing happen here. How intense do you think it's going to be this semester for the blended program students? So the blended students, well all of our students are very very busy when they're here. We encourage them to take time to enjoy life but we also give them a lot and the and the blended students will be very busy when they're here. There's a set of classes that they'll have to take and they'll have to finish working on this research project. What I thought I'd do is we're in the process of preparing some some answers to to questions and an overview. I thought I would just run down through that through what we so I don't forget to cover some of the areas. Give me a second to look at this here. The the blended people are going to get the same degree as the people who are in our residential program. At the moment that degree is the master of engineering in logistics. So they'll be working on that and the application system will open probably right at the very beginning of April of 2017 and the applications will be due on June 15th 2017. We're going to try to get back to everybody no later than August 1st of 2017 with our decisions and then the people that we have offered admission to will have one month until September 1st to reply back to us to say yes you're going to come or no you're not going to come. It's a possibility that we'll have a wait list and work through that as well but but that's the timing of what of what we're doing here and there will be 40 students admitted we have 40 residential students there'll be 40 students admitted to the blended program as well. Yes I want to add one thing that is that in order to apply to the blended program you need to complete the five SCX courses plus the proctor final exam. So the SC4X is going to start in January 2017 and is going to end mid of April 2017 and the proctor final exam is planned to be on May 2017. So then after completing the final proctor exam you can apply to this blended program. And so because of that timing you will need to have started creating your application materials before you take the capstone exam because after you get your results of the capstone exam you'll only have until June 15th to submit your application. So if you need letters of recommendation and so forth you will need to have started working on those well in advance and also the two-page description of your thesis idea you'll need to get working on that ahead of time as well. There's questions about work experience we're looking for a minimum of two years full-time work experience. If the work experience is in supply chain that's great we also look at work experience and other things you know with operations and so forth so it's not absolutely necessary that you were in supply chain but you do have to have some work experience. I have people who write to me and say I'm a junior in college should I apply for the micro master for the blended program and my response is you need two years of work experience before we can even look at your application so finish your undergraduate degree and then go go get a job for a while right? Yeah and the main reason is because the degree we provide here is very industry oriented. This is the main reason we need to require this experience work experience to be admitted. So let me just I'll read down what the what the application is going to require so you have to do an online application complete that you have to get the micro master's credential. You have to work for at least two years full-time we want to see your undergraduate transcript you'll need three letters of recommendation the two from your boss or a previous boss or one from a professor if at all possible. You'll have to make a video statement and the video statement will be about telling us why do you want to study supply chain management. You'll also have a two-page description of a research project. If you're a student whose first language is not English you'll probably be required to take the TOEFL or the IELTS exam. There can be waivers on that if your education was done in English there's some instructions that you can get a waiver for that. And what is the application what is the admissions committee looking for well the thing we're looking for is how well did you do on your micro master's credential we're not going to simply admit the people who had all the top scores that's one of the criteria but it's not the only criteria we're looking at what kind of work experience you had we're going to read your letters of recommendations we'll look at your transcript your undergraduate transcript to see if you got a degree and we'll look at your video statement having you explain why do you want to get a degree in supply chain management this will also help us understand how well you speak English and present and so forth right. We're going to read your research project this is very important because we want to make sure that you're going to hit the ground running and you put a lot of thought into what your research project is going to be. We've already talked about the deadline let's see make sure I hit all the bases here so people ask what are my chances of being admitted into the blended program what's interesting is that well MIT is going to be reviewing everyone for admission to the blended program there we also have some centers MIT has has cloned our our center here at MIT in Spain and Malaysia we're in the process of opening up new scale centers in Luxembourg and Ningbo China at least two of those centers Spain and Malaysia will also be offering a blended program of study and so when you apply to the blended program you'll see choices in there that you can ask to be considered for the blended program in these other centers as well beyond that my understanding is that there's universities outside of MIT that are going to be offering blended program so so my suggestion would be that don't apply only to MIT's program apply to some of these other programs as well because we can only take in 40 people at our program but there's there's other slots available out there yeah indeed so far cartoon university in Australia Queensland University Denmark Denmark technology university and Rochester Institute already have an agreement with us in order to offer their own blended program yeah people have asked can I apply to both the residential and the and the blended program you can the that's two different applications the timelines are very different for these two I would suggest studying it and only applying to one but technically you can apply to and the decisions are made separately if you if you do come to the residential program but you've taken some of the online classes people want to know can I get credit for that well if you're in the residential program you can't get any credit any college credit for what you did online but you may go to that professor and say I've already taken the online version of your class can I opt out of it and take a different class instead and in fact yes that that will be a possibility but it's up to the individual professor to make that decision along the way right people have asked the question after I take the capstone exam how long is it good for and the answer is we consider it to be valid for three years and you can if you don't get into the blended program the first year you can certainly apply again and actually two more times after that okay I just received one question that is very related with this topic they said which is the difference between the micro master the blended program and the scale network so for the micro master I'm going to answer the micro master is a credential it's not a master's degree so it's a credential it's a certificate that allows you to apply for the blended program the blended program is a master's degree program so they are also asking about the difference between the blended program and the master's degree program we offer in the scale network so MIT's offers a 10 month residential master's degree program which is very similar to what is offered in Spain and in Malaysia and is about to be offered in Luxembourg and China Ningbo China that's a 10 month program it's very intense that's what exists today the blended program is you're on campus from January through June or two June it's five months on campus MIT will be offering that our centers in Spain and Malaysia are seeking to set that up right now the expectation is that they will be able to offer that that still has to be determined that's still being in the approval process at those centers but but that's it's the same degree it's five months instead of plus the micro masters instead of the 10 month program let me just one of the things that very important to talk about with the blended program is about the job search of course we're very proud of the ability for our residential program to play to have our students get very excellent jobs and like I said oftentimes 100% of the students but not always get a job before they graduate but what what everyone needs to understand is that in North America the heavy recruiting season for companies to come to to MIT and and do presentations and interview students that all happens in September October and it starts to tail off in November and so most of that recruiting will already have happened before the blended students arrive on campus in January right and so if if one of your reasons to try to come to MIT for the blended program is is to get that really outstanding job first of all you're better off if you came to the residential program because that's really what that's all set up for if you come as part of the blended program you have to understand that you'll have to to do a lot more work yourself on your own reaching out to companies because not the flow of companies will have have died down to to a much smaller flow by that time we'll still do a number of things that to assist you will include your resume and so forth in our resume book companies that do come to campus in the spring time if someone shows up to do a presentation you're absolutely invited to participate in those but we just want to make sure people understand that in North America the recruiting happens before a blended student would arrive and so there's much more responsibility on their own shoulders to to make sure that that they're going to find a job for themselves okay yes um another question that that students have asked um if you're an international student and you come to MIT as part of our residential program because you're enrolled for at least one full year you're eligible to um to take advantage of what's called OPT uh and STEM OPT is um is on-the-job practical training um you can stay for some period of time i think it's a year after you have graduated even without a company sponsoring you for an h1b visa you can work for a company and then if you're in science uh technology uh math uh engineering uh you're actually you're allowed to stay for two more years and that and our residential students uh do can take advantage of that unfortunately because the blended students are not going to be enrolled for a full year those two things are not available to them okay now just one side comment here is that our experience in the SCM program has been that many companies are reluctant to hire students based on the just OPT and STEM because they realize that uh within two or three years that person would have to leave the country and they may become very dependent on that person or they may be worried about some some unfortunate relationship with that person because of that so it's much more common that a company if they're sponsoring you for a visa they'll hire an international student they don't normally hire international students just based on OPT and STEM yeah the main question here is for the to qualify for the OPT you need to spend one full year at MIT um with the blended program is just one semester right two full semesters yeah two full semesters for for to qualify for the OPT right yeah and our blended program they will not qualify for that so yeah okay so um that's sort of an overview of um that I guess one more question on financial aid we realize that um a lot of students need financial aid our program is is very expensive there is limited amount of financial aid even for our residential students there's a very limited amount of financial aid um the the cost of the program is still being finalized it will probably be between 40 and 45 thousand dollars for tuition um so um obviously if if you're a U.S. citizen there are places you can go through the government to get financial aid um international students uh you would need to start thinking about that well in advance uh because our program has very limited financial aid for anybody yeah perfect you already answered one of the questions about the scholarships so yeah okay one more question is there a bachelor degree required to apply for the for the blended program the bachelor degree is highly recommended um at the moment uh for our residential program we absolutely require a bachelor's degree um it's possible there will be some situations in the future where a person without a bachelor's degree may be uh admitted but that's uh that's an uncertainty uh our advice right now is stick with the bachelor's degree uh we absolutely want to see that you've gotten we're not going to scrutinize your bachelor's degree the way we would i'm not going to go through and circle all the math classes but um uh but we do want to see evidence of that kind of training a formal training for applicants excellent so they are also asking about ac4x when it's going to be offered ac4x is going to be offered in january 2017 and it's going to end in april 2017 so after the c4x you can you can go to the proctor final exam in may 2017 before applying for the blended program more questions let's see my age is over 35 am i still eligible absolutely absolutely you would be uh i would say that non-traditional candidates uh we welcome you absolutely yes one more question about the capstone exam locations we are still working on the details of the capstone final exam um my answer is no worry about that we will offer location we know we have a students from all over the world from more than 180 countries so we will be sure that the locations will be as close as close to you as as we can so we are going to offer it in many different countries and we are still working on the details if it is going to be virtual or physical what else let's see more questions blended program education requirement i have a master degree in supply chain so can i apply with this master degree you can sure yeah you can apply um there's no problem with that universities don't like to give out identical degrees to what another university has already given you but this the blended program is sufficiently different than anything else anybody else yeah there's no problem like that one more question blended program is it available in nimbo china it's going to be available in china it may someday but it's not going to be available immediately in nimbo and the same is true in our center in lexenberg it probably won't be available this first year but may be available in future years definitely yes i'm i'm yeah we we are going to to update all of this information in our website so there are also other universities that are going to offer blended programs and this information will be on the supply chain master and website so you can go there um access to this information so they say meaning if people start now they will not complete until after the first capstone can you let them know they will have to apply to the next round this is a very good question once they they complete the micronuster and they and the capstone some how long they have in order to apply to the blending program so the blended program is going to have a cycle um each year where the application system opens in this particular case uh april first of 2017 is when we project that and it'll close july 15th 2017 um our expectation is that we'll repeat that every year so if you finish your capstone exam um after the time uh when when you needed to apply you can apply to the next window and the window opens up again the next year at the same time and and the capstone is good for three years and so you could apply several more times there okay in terms of the application the line is going to be a every single year more more or less same depth line yes as far as we know now we're obviously this is the first time we're doing this and so uh we'll learn what works what doesn't work and there may be some changes to some things along the way but our expectation is that each year in the spring time uh the application system will open and um yeah now in the future um we may offer the blended program in the fall as well as the spring and there will be two rounds of application um as i said we're we're gonna figure out how to do it the first time and get all the bugs worked out of it before we open it up to another round that happens in the fall semester perfect so let's see if we have more questions here okay this is a question for me about the format of the final exam so for the final capstone exam the best way to prepare for this exam is go through the great assignment the meter and the final exams that you are taking now in sc1 sc0 and scx courses so i would say it's going to be this kind of question the questions that you are taking now in great assignments um and final exam per course so this is the best way to prepare for that what else do we have here well maybe one other thing i might mention is um uh questions students have asked questions about housing um as in any big college town it's all geared up for people who are going to show up in september and then graduate in june we are working with the housing office very closely right now to uh to understand um how much housing is available where is it and and what process would we have our blended students go through in order to secure housing they're going to be a little bit off-cycle from the normal um normal flow of students um so uh we're working on that and we'll be we'll be posting a lot of this information in the near future um but uh again this will be a situation where once you know that uh that you're being seriously considered and admitted to our program you'll have to start thinking about housing um sooner than the normal student would because it will be more difficult to get housing um and we're working on trying to figure out a process to make that happen and more easily for you perfect more questions about the capstone exam it's going to be an open book it's going to be a time exam as the final exam you are taking now for ac1 or ac4x um it's going we do not have the details so far so let's see if it is going to be physical or not physical but take into consideration it's going to be a time exam so this is going to limit the time you are going to have to to to be open book in general yes we all of our exams are open book exams oh this is a good question you don't seem to have any plans in the near future for africa market any plans to open a center in africa why not yes i won yes we have here professor sheffy so please yes can you answer to this question i i know you are very interested in africa yes in african markets good question we have been interested in opening a center in africa for many many years um there are problems with funding such a center interestingly we're in the process right now of working with the gates foundation and with nigerian authorities but possibly and i have to mention possibly opening a center in nigeria so it may or may not happen but i appreciate the question we very much hope to add a scale center in in africa it was our hope all along and actually interestingly we now have a project to evaluate such a center funded by the gates foundation let me just make another comment about uh candidates from africa um but we talk about non-traditional candidates i i think of africa because we occasionally get applicants uh from africa applying to our residential program it seems to be because of the education system over there it's very difficult for students in that in that part of the world to get very high g-matts scores and so forth um so uh we're very anxious to get some non-traditional candidates applying from africa that come through the micro masters pathway it seems that it's very challenging for students to come through our normal pathway from africa and so i'd love to be able to get some great african students in here definitely they are suggesting south africa i guess so yes i mean i'm suggesting south africa i understand something let me just say yeah south africa is not in the middle of africa but if they have more more of a suggestion if they can come up with more than just a suggestion it's it's fine yeah in the past there were no takers we would not we usually wait for an approach from a country a foundation or a set of companies to open a center so we have no way no approaches from from south africa they are also suggesting india and other countries okay there is one question regarding the the blended program and the scholarship so i just want to mention that the algohair foundation they are going to offer scholarships for those students that are for the arabic world and they are going to get the admission in the blended program so this is a foundation that is going to offer these scholarships and we are definitely talking with with more organizations in order to to see if other foundations can also provide these scholarships so for those that are arabic citizens have a look to algohair foundation more questions let's see oh again with the capstone exam they want me to release the the solutions of the final exam so okay let me go to this question again i'm learning an assessment for learning you are going to have all of the solution explanations because we want really really want you to learn assessment is pure assessment it's just to check if you have the knowledge in order to give you the certificate so we are not going to provide solutions for assessments since this is not intended for learning it's just to check your knowledge so the answer unfortunately is no we are not going to provide the solutions for final exams or the proctor final exam i hope you understand this more things let's see open the program in google hangout can the professors advise on how to come up with a good research idea for the research project initially as part of the application process a student will have to a candidate will have to create a two-page description of what project they would like to work on and we're going to give some guidelines around you know what's the project what company might be willing to sponsor you what data do you think you might need so we need you to start thinking about this i we expect that after we have admitted some students we will start to engage with some of those students around what their thesis project is but in the application process itself when there are still hundreds of students that are in the process of filling that out it's it's very unlikely that we're going to have enough staff to engage with with applicants at that point yeah but we would have general instructions on the website right right general not not specific right yeah but it's going to be a mission criteria so we are going to take this into consideration in order to admit the student after admission then we are right and so but by the way after a student is admitted i mentioned that they only have five months on campus to get the project done so after students are admitted we will be getting back to them asking them to do a little bit of pre-work on their project before they come to campus to spell out in more detail exactly what project they want to do the methodology they expect and so forth so they'll be doing a little bit of work so that when they arrive in january they're not starting from scratch they'll have a great idea as exactly what they want to do where they're going to get the data and and they can start working on it the fourth week of january the residential students go away they go on a trip to Panama the blended students will stay at MIT and work on their thesis and also get more coaching on on career development skills in that week as well great one question about what what will be the percentage of international students within the blended program we we have no but assume this is we have a student so far for 190 countries the pipeline student that we have in the micro master program is from 116 countries so i think we we we we can we don't have any target that is going to be a very international program important things there are no targets and no quotas yeah this is a very good one yeah definitely right more questions is there a formal way to get a company to sponsor you this is a very good question re-ask yeah is there a formal way that the company can sponsor a student in our blending program so let me describe first of all set the stage and what happens in the residential program the residential program MIT has a center for transportation and logistics that has about 50 companies who are corporate members of that center we approach those companies every year to ask if they will sponsor master's thesis projects and we in fact do get from that population of companies we do get companies to sponsor every master's thesis project for the residential program for the blended program the responsibility shifts over to the blended student to to think about what kind of project they would want to do what kind of a company might have that particular issue or problem to be solved and and to approach companies a lot of this will be done before they come to campus once they arrive on campus and they're now working on under our advisors and so forth we can help them but a lot of the responsibility for figuring out your thesis project or your master's your your research project will be done by the student even before they arrive let me suggest there's another element to the question when somebody says sponsored they mean financially sponsor a student and that's if a company wants to financially sponsor a student students should mention it in his or her application in many cases this will also be a company that the students will work with and we do his or her thesis with but at MIT there are many many cases when a company sponsors a student financially and pays tuition and pays the living expenses this is a common way of doing business at MIT and you should just mention it in your application and we will give all the instruction for the company how to do it great one good question bruce a can traditional candidates get admission in the blended program sure sure there's nothing to prevent that we're looking at anybody they people have to have two years of work experience but beyond that but they want to add that they need to have the micro master credential to get admission so let's say if you if they mean with traditional candidate they want with they do not have the micro master credential the answer is no so that's the question so for the blended program is mandatory to have the micro master credential in order to apply in addition to that we are open to candidates for every different ages or cultures or experience or whatever but it's mandatory to have the micro master credential for the blended program and by the way it's you can if you have the micro master credential you can also apply to the residential program right there's nothing nothing preventing you from from doing it yeah but if you do not have the micro master credential then you cannot apply to the blended program because the blended program is an accelerated way to earn a master degree at MIT or other university because of the micro master because you already passed five a massive open online courses plus the proctor final exam okay this is a question that you already already answered but they are asking again how much is the blended master going to cost we're targeting tuition will probably be between 40 and 45 thousand dollars yeah in addition to that you need to take into consideration the the cost to live the living experience and by the way we will have an estimate once MIT will release the final tuition for that semester which is right now unknown we just estimated MIT will also release an estimate of the living expenses so you can do some financial planning yes Boston is such a cheap place to live there Boston is an expensive place to live it's a very expensive place to live yeah but a good place nice I agree let's see this is the same question we already answered the blended and residential degrees are the same degree yes we already answered this question and yes it's the same degree somebody asked before about the scale network yes the the scale I don't think I don't remember who answered it but I don't think we answered it fully students who are in the blended program are part of the scale network because it's the same degree as the residential degree so they are part of the scale network and by the way in many cases a employer will be interested in them working for a multinational some other part of the world we are usually when we put together the the resume book it includes people from throughout the scale center right so they will be part of this scale center resume book and other activities of the scale center another example in January when the blended students come to to MIT during January in three and a half week in January the student from all the scale center are at MIT and we specifically started it in January and not when the MIT official spring semester start which is February in order to blend them with the rest of the scale student get them to know each other and be part of that community they will also be considered part of the alumni of the scale network so yes they are part of the scale network yes yeah January will be a very busy time we have a very full schedule of courses and tours and lectures team projects and all 100 and this year we have about 110 students will be there when the when the blended people show up it will be at 150 students and so forth so yeah so January 2018 even more students from Luxembourg in China that's right yeah we can be 200 so one question about the are we going to receive a customized certificate rather than the one from edX so let me clarify this point so you are going to receive a certificate for SCX course and this is a certificate it's an MITX certificate that you can get through edX through the platform for the micro master is going to be an MITX micro master credential through edX so it's an online certificate that you can access through the platform through edX it will say that you get the micro master in supply chain management it's not going to be it's going to be MITX micro master in supply chain management credential in credential it's not going to be just vanilla micro master say supply chain management the question they are asking about is any customized way to receive it the way to receive it through the the platform it is customized and it says supply chain management it's not general edX but I think maybe the probably question is are they going to receive in the mail this beautiful horizontal they print them no it's not printed copies it's an online deliver through the platform and everything is delivered through the platform through edX this is very important for the blended program there is an option that they can choose to send a kind of transcript directly to the university but only for those universities that are edX partners but this is a different thing right I should say that once they finish the blended program they'll get an actual MIT degree yes but this is a yes a physical MIT degree what a physical a physical program that's why it's called blended great more things what about if the degrees are from one of the partner universities okay this is a good question so you are going to have the MITx micro master credential in supply chain management and then if you get admission at MIT and you pass the the degree you are going to have the MIT degree if you go to Denmark you are going to have the master's degree for Denmark University of Technology so this depends on the university you get admission for the master's degree more things what are your thoughts on the University of Queensland cartoon Denmark I think they are good universities yes they are good universities they are interesting using the micro master as a path of credit for their blended program more universities is going to be interested and go for their own blend is that Queensland and Australia sorry is that the one in Australia Queensland and karting are both in Australia my daughter went there for a semester she loved it yeah it's a great experience oh and also I understand Rochester Rochester city of technology rIT very good rIT is an excellent school they are also going to offer a blended program based on the micro mastering and we are actively looking for others yes yes others are going to to yes to you soon do you have any indication yet what the criteria will be for the proposals the research proposals two or three people have asked but I said it was too early in the chat what criteria the research proposal will be assessed we're going to issue some instructions on what we're looking for in this two-page description it's only a two-page description but we'll be looking for things like that they're going to suggest what problem or issue that they would like to address what kinds of companies or what kinds of supply chains have that issue how they're going to address how they might want to solve it what think about what data would you need to be able to solve this where might you get such data so it's it's really an opportunity for a student to to think about some interesting issue and then dive into it a little bit deeper give us a description of how you want to dive into it once the student is admitted we're going to go back to the students say okay it's it's now let's say it's now September and you're going to show up in January I want you to start thinking a little more deeply about this project so that when you get here in January you've got a much better understanding of exactly what the question is what company might work with you and what data do you need and so forth one more question how would they write this credential on my resume micron mitx micro masters credential in supply chain management this is the best way to present this um let's see I have another question here yes you already write it perfect yes one question is can I use the micro master credential to apply for an undergrad degree in at MIT and say this is going to be part of your cb you can for apply for a job for another graduate program undergrad program is mandatory for the blended program it just just just say that MIT does not have an undergraduate program in supply chain management so just but but as we're already starting to receive for example the application season is open right now we're receiving applicants for our residential program and I'm sure other schools are receiving applicants for all sorts of programs and I'm seeing people listing in their in their resume that they took sc1x or sc2x and so forth and telling us what score they that's very positively received it it helps a lot we like to see that and I'm sure other schools are going to like to see that as well perfect they are asking for the cost of the blended program in other universities I would say you need to go to the specific website um this is some information that each university is going to so it's working with Malaysia may be more difficult we'll see yeah we will announce those universities that are going to to offer a blended program and then and we are going to provide the link with the specific details and information about this lecture so you need to go to there indeed the admission criteria is going to be different for one university and another university so the the the length of the program could be different so it's a decision the only interesting thing is that um the the centers that are members of the scale network um when you apply to the blended program at MIT the same application there'll be a way to apply to those centers as well on the same application whereas other universities will have their own admissions process to participate in one question about the difference between the x series certification and the micro master the x series certification includes three courses sc1x sc2x and sc3x and it's a certificate certificate that said okay you have a knowledge in supply chain fundamentals supply chain design a supply chain dynamics supply chain strategy the micro master is more than that include five scx courses plus the proctor final exam um we are going to provide you this credential and you can apply for a blended program with this credential so this is the main difference between the x series and the micro master credential okay any other question arthur amat the people are asking if the internship suffices as work requirement uh few people have asked about the working requirement to apply for the blended can you offer any more insight sure we repeat the question does it does we talk about having at least at least two years and preferably five years of full-time work experience lots of students as they go through college in the summertime they have a a two or three month internship we're really looking for full-time work experience it's great the internship is is excellent to have on your resume and that helps a lot but we're looking for that full-time job after graduation usually at a company so the internship helps but it's not a substitute for full-time employment one more question when when is going to be an mba mit metro master be offered not in the near future by the way the mba mit requires four semesters not two so at best you'll be three semesters in resume that trap doesn't doesn't say much right okay so i think we we almost cover all the questions we have thank you joseph for joining us we're going to have you too we're going to be open you can talk about okay so thanks both to to be here today um now we we are going to have the breakout rooms open you can join them we just uh include them by by different regions and areas in the world so you can join to the north america breakout session the europe india middle east or any other one that you have here so this is an opportunity to talk with and discuss with your peers to introduce yourself and to have a nice discussion in supply chain management with your colleagues your classmates so please feel free to join the breakout rooms and thank you for your participation and see you next in two weeks so thank you okay let me stop recording let's hold tight for one second