 Yeah, we have one person waiting. I'm going live now, but they shouldn't be able to hear us. So we'll give it a minute and we're on about a 10-second delay for the stream. So just so that you know. I have 11 people in the room. I'll just give it another minute. And hello everyone. I hope you're doing well today or this evening. We're so happy you're here to join us for tonight's session talking about the Schulich School of Law's combined programs. So tonight we'll be talking with representatives of the programs and students of the program, current and previous, just to talk about the different benefits and options involved with doing one of our master's programs with the Juris Doctor. So before we begin, just want to jump in with a little bit of housekeeping. This session is being recorded. So you will be able to access it after the fact. We'll have a link available on our web page. Just know as well that during the session, we will be posting additional information in our, in the chat so that if there are any links, feel free to access those. And then finally, there will be a question and answer period at the end. So please feel free to give us some questions. There was a link provided in the reminder email that went out so that you can post questions anonymously, as well as posting it in the YouTube chat. So whichever way works good for you. And finally, before we begin, I do want to take a moment as it's tradition and very important for us to acknowledge that the Housie University is located in Magma, which is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Magma. We are all treaty people. And we also want to acknowledge and recognize that African Nova Scotians are distinct people whose histories, legacies, and contributions have enriched that part of Magma known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years. So let's begin kind of the run order for tonight. We're going to hear first from our program representatives, Professor Micatskis and Katie Beaton. Then we'll talk to some of our students who've gone through the different programs. We have AJ, Kelty, Kaley and Renee who will be joining us shortly. And then we'll open it up for questions. So please again, feel free, either in the YouTube chat or in the online questions, please feel free to reach out. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mike. Well, hello, everybody. My name is Michael Haskus. As was said, I am the chair of the Law School Admissions Committee. I'm also a professor at the Law School and at the School of Health Administration. And it's my pleasure to say a few words about the JDMHA program. This program prepares students to play a critical role in healthcare delivery as lawyers, policymakers, or healthcare executives. The need for individuals who can effectively navigate the legal complexities of healthcare delivery is exemplified by the difficult legal issues that are still being posed by COVID-19. Of course, there are many other challenges the healthcare system is facing that demand legally informed health leaders. No doubt the career doors that the program can open is likely top of mind for you. So let me identify some specific career options before describing the structure of the combined program. The JDMHA program prepares you for private legal practice. So representing health professionals, healthcare institutions, and healthcare consumers in the context of a law firm. You can be in host counsel for healthcare facilities, such as hospitals and nursing home organizations. You might be, want to be a government lawyer who provides advice to departments or ministries of health. You can work for non-governmental organizations such as the Red Cross and the World Health Organization. Or you might choose to take on a healthcare executive position such as being the VP of patient safety and risk management for a hospital. While the combined program prepares you for these types of careers, you should know that you will earn a general JD degree and will be exposed to many different areas of the law, not just health law. Therefore, on graduation, you'd be entitled to practice any type of law and you would be in no way limited to legal positions related to healthcare if your career ultimately takes you in another direction. Now let me give you a very quick overview of the program. It takes four years to complete. It would take longer to undertake a JD and MHA degree separately. In year one of the program, students have the option of completing the first year either at the School of Health Administration, which involves taking first-year MHA courses and then in the following summer doing a four-month paid MHA residency. In terms of the MHA courses, they cover topics that health leaders need to know such as health law, healthcare economics, healthcare policy, human resources in healthcare, quality management healthcare, and many more other areas. Regarding the paid residency, it involves a student being paired with a healthcare agency that is usually selected in consultation with a student and considering the student's interest and career goals. If you do not want your first year to be at the School of Health Administration, you can complete the first year of the JD program at the law school. That involves the exact same courses that all JD students complete in their first year, whether or not they're pursuing the combined program. In year two, students complete the first year of whatever program they elected not to begin in year one. For example, if you do the first year in the MHA program, which I might add is the typical order that the students desire, then you would spend year two at the law school doing all the first year JD courses. On the other hand, if you do year one at the law school, then you would spend year two at the School of Health Administration and the following summer you would complete the residency requirement. And that therefore leaves years three and four. And during those years, you're taking upper year courses in both the MHA program and the JD program. Switching now to admission requirements, I note that you must apply to the law school and the School of Health Administration separately. Applicants must meet the admission requirements of each school. If you're pursuing the joint program, you only need to write the LSAT no other form of admission test is required by other school. Again, that only applies to applicants who are pursuing, who indicate they're pursuing the joint program. You should consult each school for their particular requirements such as personal statements, letters of reference and university transcripts. Now, what happens if you only get into one of the two programs? Is the combined program still a possibility for you? And the answer is yes, it is. If a student is accepted into the MHA program, but not the JD program, they can reapply to the law school during the first year of the MHA program. If they get in, they can participate in the combined program. This certainly has happened in the past particularly where a student has rewritten the LSAT during the first year of the MHA program and obtained a higher score and or where a student's first term MHA grades boost their GPA. Let me end with a few additional things you should know about the combined program. DAL is the only university to offer a combined JD MHA. You earn two separate degrees, a JD degree and a Masters of Health Administration degree. There is no such thing as a JD MHA degree. The program is open to anyone with an undergrad degree in any discipline. You do not need a healthcare background. The vast majority of students do not have such a background. And none of the courses in either a program assume a background in healthcare. Also, health law is a major area of specialization for the law school and it hosts the D'Housie Health Justice Institute. So there is lots of health law expertise at your disposal in the combined program. In terms of the MHA portion, combined students can choose to do an MHA thesis or complete the MHA through coursework only. Lastly, I note that the MHA program is accredited through the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education, also known as CAMI. This is an internationally recognized accrediting body. The School of Health Administration at DAL is only one of three such programs with this accreditation in Canada. So those are my opening remarks about the program. I'd be delighted to answer any questions you may have during the Q&A. In a moment, you're going to hear from Kaylee Campbell. She's a student in the fourth year of the JDMHA program and she will give you the student perspective. So with that, I'm going to do a handoff here, Andy. Perfect. Thank you so much. Next, we're going to turn to Katie who has the monumental task of talking about all of the other programs. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks, Randy. Hi, everyone. We're happy to have you join us tonight. So my name is Katie. I am the recruitment coordinator for the graduate programs in Dahazis Faculty of Management. Three of those which are available for the joint degree option, those being the MBA, the MPA, and the MI. I'm going to try and keep things at kind of a high level here for the purposes of time, but happy to answer questions at the end and our students will have some great insights as well. So a lot of similarities here to what Mike has mentioned, but a lot of times students will ask me, Katie, what's the value of pursuing a joint degree? Why should I consider this as an option? And really the best answer to that is the breadth of experience that a joint degree is going to give you. So if you're really interested in developing a dual lens to solve complex and nuanced problems from both a legal perspective and not of the program of ours that you're interested in, this is a great option for you. I will say similar to the JDMHA, you do have to apply to our program and the JD separately, satisfy both those requirements separately. And also, you don't need to have a business background or management background to excel in any of these programs, even though they are in the faculty management, if anything, having a background unrelated to that is something that is celebrated, welcomed, and we really, I guess, encourage students to apply. So I'm going to start with the JD MBA joint degree option. So at Dalhousie, we have one MBA program. Within that MBA program, there are two pathways to completion, one being the career advanced pathway, the other being the corporate residency pathway. That pathway is the pathway that is available to do the joint degree option with. And that MBA program is an early career MBA designed for early career professionals with less than five years of work experience that are looking to accelerate their path to a professional career or differentiate themselves in the job market. So this program consists of core courses, foundation courses, elected courses, but understanding that our students are young. They have limited professional experience. We really focus on your professional development and experiential learning. So we have PD courses incorporated into the curriculum that focus on developing your soft skills like communication, collaboration, teamwork, and we'll also do things like resume clinics, LinkedIn coaching, mock interviews, things of that nature to prepare you for your corporate residency, which is the eight month paid work term that is involved in this joint degree. We have employer partners from across the country that employ our students for this position in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. So there's opportunities there for all interests specific to this webinar. I can think of one student right now who's a joint JD MBA student who's doing her corporate residency with Stuart McKelvie as a practice innovation student. So for students that are thinking of pursuing the JD MBA, they might have an interest in corporate law, intellectual law, or really keen on having that understanding of how organizations work, their key processes and priorities, which is great if you're going to work as in-house counsel for an organization, or even if you have aspirations one day to make partner out of firm who is essentially a co-owner and that will take on leadership and management roles of that firm. It's really great to have an understanding of financial statement analysis, understanding how sales and marketing work to grow and scale the firm. So really having this dual lens of an MBA program in addition to the JD is very much of an asset. When it comes to structure, I will say we are a little bit more rigid in the sense that you have four years to complete the joint degree, but we do require you to complete the first year as a corporate residency student. So you're doing your first year in the MBA program, the second year will be your 1L year, and the last two years is a mix of the two. Students, similar to as Mike mentioned, might apply to the MBA program, start there, and then consider making an application to the JD program while in their first year. And when it comes to admission requirements to the MBA specifically, we need a four-year undergraduate degree with a 3.0 GPA in your last two years of study, or 60 credits, to academic references, a letter of intent, an updated resume, and we do require you to complete a CASPER assessment. So that is something new for us this year. Previously we required the GMAT. We've since moved away from that because we found it wasn't a great indicator of success. The CASPER assessment is an online situational judgment test that will present you with hypothetical situations, ask how you would respond and why, and basically it seeks to understand your reasoning, and it will measure for things like communication, ethics, self-awareness, which are all great indicators of employability, which is important for us to know considering the corporate residency component. And we won't accept LSAT scores in place of completion of the CASPER assessment. That is a requirement that you need to complete. Okay, so I'm going to move on to the JDMPA now, which is our Master of Public Administration program. This program is designed to deeply develop your management and critical analysis skills for a successful career in the public service where priority setting, goal setting, conduct, accountability can be distinctly different from the private sector. And I will note that this joint option, the JDMPA, is only available to students pursuing the MPA on a full-time basis. So similarly, this program consists of core courses and electives, but it also has an internship and professional development component as well. So the internship is a great opportunity to again get some hands-on paperwork experience. This would take place after the first year of the MPA program that you complete. And should you do the internship, we do require you to complete some professional development courses as well. So they would be one and each semester prior to that internship. So the first one really focuses on, again, developing your soft skills, really giving you some career intelligence as it relates to the public service, and doing some goal setting and figuring out where your interests lie. And then the second professional development course really serves to support you in the application process and competition for that internship and as well as prepping for the placement. And we have, you know, all levels of government employer students for these internship opportunities and they are paid. You will see job postings similar to like a junior policy analysis, program assistant, those roles specific to research as well. So if you have interests in policy making, you know, lawyers have a big role in policy development. This could be a good program for you. Often or always, government departments will have solicitors employed. There's articulating opportunities available in the government. And while the management skills and knowledge that this program will give you as well are also beneficial for the practice of law. So definitely an asset. And similarly, this has similar admission requirements, but the GPA requirement for this program is a little bit higher. So we require you to have a 3.3 GPA in your last two years of study before your undergraduate degree. We want two academic references, a statement of intense and updated resume as well. And then last but not least, I'll speak to our JDMI program. So this is previously known as the Master of Library Sciences program, but this is a very innovative degree of significant breadth that really explores, sorry, the intersection of people, tech and information and the best practices for the management and facilitation of that. So the name change from the Master of Library Sciences reflects the transitions in this profession and the new opportunities centered around digital information, transformation, data, community engagement and human centered design. But this program also does offer some specialized learning as well. So we do offer certificates in this program, so certificates and librarianship, librarianship in youth and children services, archives, user centered design, information management and policy and management as well, if you want some to dive a little bit deeper in this option. We also do offer a practicum as well, so where you will work directly with an information management professional, sorry, to get that hands on spirit experience as well. So students that might be considering a JDMI might have interest in a career as a legal librarian, an IP lawyer, so intellectual property, information officers, tech law, federal and provincial clerks, really the opportunities are enormous. And again, the admission requirements are similar. So we need a 3.0 GPA in your last two years of study, professional reference letters, an application essay and an updated resume. So really, again, I'll just hammer home the value of dual ones that these degrees will give you, specifically as they relate to management. But I'm sure students on the call will offer you some really great insight on that student experience and their perspective as well. Happy to answer any questions at the end of the call too. Wonderful. Thank you and good job getting all of them in there. So we're going to take a moment and just kind of delve into all of the different programs from the perspective of those who are kind of, you know, they're doing it or have completed it because I feel like they will have a really good insight. So just a reminder, please send your questions in so that we can make sure we have some to answer at the end. But first, I'm going to turn it over to Ajay who will talk about his experiences going through the combined JD MBA. I was hoping I wasn't first. Okay. Sorry, I do it alphabetically. No, thanks so much yet. I guess I can't really see you guys, but it's nice to meet you virtually. Yeah, so I did the JD MBA program. I guess I graduated last year. So I'm working at a law firm now in Toronto, which has been fun. So yeah, it's been a good experience. I'm trying to think back, but yeah, when I applied, I think we still had the choice to do the MBA first and the JD first. And I actually did the MBA first, which was recommended to me by the program. And I know that that's what they want you to do now. And I think that that's the right way to do it. So I know some of you out there who maybe really want to go to law school are probably thinking, well, you know, I really want to start with law first. I think that's actually the wrong approach. Because once you do start law school in technically your second year of the combined program, those will be all your, you'll be in 1L with all your 1L friends and you'll be with them throughout. So it's actually the right way to go to start with the MBA. And you'll find you'll actually end up being really close with your MBA class. That's something I really valued about the MBA is how close the class is. You know, you guys spend a lot of time together and there's a lot of group work, whereas law at times can feel like a little bit more of a solo endeavor. I mean, there is some group work, but just the way the law school set up the work is a little more solo at times. And yeah, and I started at law school during the COVID year. So my experience is probably a little different. I was fully online for my first year. Yeah, so that was a little different. But in 2L we got to be back in person, which was great. And I think one of the things that I've really valued and that I've noticed which has really helped me in my job now was in the MBA, obviously you get to do the residency, which is super valuable because I think for a lot of you and for me for sure, I'd never really had kind of that in-person, you know, real professional environment work experience. So that was a bit of a learning curve, which I'm glad that I got to undertake before working in a firm. So it was great. I worked at Aon in Toronto. They do like reps and warranties insurance. I don't know if that's still one of the jobs that they offer, but it was a great experience. And I kind of got to learn, you know, where I needed to improve in terms of work, which was, you know, learning about attention to detail, being punctual, all these things that sometimes you don't need to do in school. I mean, I know you need to be punctual, but yeah, it's a little different in a work environment. So that was great. And another thing is just learning how to use Excel. And I know people, it sounds silly, but I had no idea how to use Excel. And at the law firm, we use Excel all the time. And I've used it pretty much every day. So learning how to use that in the MBA was invaluable. And it wasn't something at the time that I thought was going to be valuable. And there's a really good connection with people who've done the JD MBA in terms of like networking with alumni and stuff. So when I was doing, you'll learn more about it. And you guys can feel free to ask me about it during the question period. But like law has like a recruiting process, where essentially you reach out to these firms and have these conversations and hope you get a job, etc. And doing the JD MBA was a really nice in, in terms of getting to talk to people from DAL or other firms or in just saying, Hey, you know, I've seen you've done a JD MBA degree, I'm also doing a JD MBA, like would love to talk about your experience, etc. And I found that that was really invaluable in terms of networking and people from DAL who've done the JD MBA before you are incredibly supportive and that goes with any degree. A good friend of mine is also articulating here and she did the JD MHA and had a very similar experience like reaching out to people who've done that before. And depending on where you want to go, I know in Toronto, like people love East Coast people. So that that's always a nice in as well. They're like, Oh, you went to DAL blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's always nice. So anything else I should talk about, Randy? What do you think? I mean, how much time do I have? I mean, I think you covered a lot of the overall. We'll get to some of the more specifics. I know, I know there's a lot of people interested in MBA. But yeah, I feel like, I feel like, yeah, give me questions, because I'll just ramble. All right, perfect. So at this point, let's pass things over for now. Thank you, AJ. We're going to pass it over to Kaylee, who will speak about MHA. Yeah, so I'm in my last year of the joint MHA JD program. Similar to AJ, I did my first year in the MHA and then did the following years in law. I feel like it's so lovely that you have the two degrees because you have two faculties with it as well. So you're able to really create this connection with those not only in the law school, but in faculty of health here as well. So MHA is relatively small. So you really get to know all your cohorts, so your fellow classmates, but also professors and the connections that they have within the community as well, which I found to be great. I also think that the residency was an excellent opportunity to really get that experience before going through the job search for postgrad for the career that you would then get to get involved with after. So it really, so I personally had an experience with a hospital. So I was able to do something that was not law but related and then have those experiences to bring into an interview and talk about that experience that had nothing to do with law, but really brought in some good experiences in that realm. And I would say that with the MHA JD program, you really have this flexibility. And I think Professor Hazgis really commented on that a lot with the various opportunities and career paths you could go with the MHA JD. So you have opportunities of policy and then in-house and whatnot. So you're not really pigeonholed, even though you have this label in an MHA JD JD, but you're able to also tailor your law degree at the same time. So it really provides that flexibility to use. I would also say that from personal experience, I worked my last couple of summers to have a law firm and I really had the advantage of being that go-to student that could hop on a file that was somewhat related to health law. And also it was kind of like this extra credential and experience that was really beneficial in that job recruit as well. I guess also MHA is also a very small program. So it's really nice to be in some small classes, especially when you go from your 1L year to really large classes and you're in a big cohort. It's nice to have a smaller group and also a group that you can kind of go to that's outside of the law school. So you can talk to about something that's not law related. That's another thing. I don't know, I feel like I talked about a few things, but I'm happy to answer any questions. MHA is a great program. I think it really allows you for a great understanding in the ins and outs of health care and how it operates. I also think it allows for this opportunity to change your workload up a bit from the normal law degree. I think you get great opportunities as far as AJ had also mentioned with, you know, instead of just a lot of final exams that law school usually has for most of the courses, you kind of have more assignments and some group projects and I think it really helps you develop some great leadership skills and teamwork. Wonderful. Thank you. And one thing I will kind of jump in here and let everyone know is for another benefit of starting with the master's program and then coming into JD in your second year, because you already know those individuals from doing the combine, we do our best to kind of make sure you get to stay together going into your class placement so that you have that built in, you know, safety net and community already established going into your first year. But let's turn it over now to Kelty, who will be letting us know of her perspective with the MI. Hi, so I'm Kelty and I am a Juris Doctor and Master of Information candidate. I'm currently in my second year of the four-year combined degree program and the JDMI program is really unique to my understanding only one other school in Canada offers a combined JDMI and that's the University of Toronto. So I'm really fortunate to be in this position here at DAL. I kind of took a less traditional path towards the combined degree. I had started law school fully intent on becoming a lawyer and then I started working at our law library, our wonderful law library and I just fell in love with the work that librarians did. I fell in love with legal research. I really just kind of found my groove and so I started exploring, okay, what if I did the combined degree program? So I applied to the MI when I was doing 1L, got in and now I'm just doing my MI coursework this year. I put my legal coursework on pause and so when I go back to 2L in the fall, I'll be taking one elective from the information school alongside my full-time JD coursework and so what I like about this degree is something that everybody else mentioned which is the ability to really tailor your coursework towards your interests. That's really interesting to me as somebody who gets pretty laser focused on certain topics. I also really like the tight-knit student communities because both the law school and the MI program tend to have smaller class sizes. I know it probably will feel pretty big at the law school but they really try to section you off into smaller chunks of community and so you're really able to develop relationships and same with the alumni community. The other graduates of the JDMI that I have been fortunate enough to meet or email with have been really wonderful and offered me great advice and insight on different options open to me when I graduate. Lots of support between the two faculties has also been a really huge blessing and support and there is an optional practicum associated with the combined JDMI where the management school will place you in an information environment so that gives you a really interesting perspective on a different aspect of perhaps the law firm environment or a courthouse environment that you wouldn't get just summering or doing work placements in your capacity as a law student. But what I really love most about the combined degree that I'm doing is how it gives me a unique perspective in both schools and that brings new dimensions to my learning. So the programs really complement each other. I'm learning a lot of skills in information science that will help me at law school and lots of skills at law school that have helped me already in information science. A lot of these skills are teamwork, learning how to write better, developing my communication and other soft skills and most importantly research. I am infinitely a better researcher now than I was eight months ago and they can open up so many doors for you not just the skills that you learn through both degrees but just having both accreditation. You because you're developing better legal research skills that will help you in your practice if you choose to practice. There are even some roles as a research lawyer which is something that I learned about this year and it's pretty interesting. The legal research skills that you develop may also give you a leg up if you decide to apply for positions clerking at a court just because those positions are so focused on legal research and writing. They're really looking for good skills in that area and there's also lots of ways to use your JD and your MI outside of practicing roles in law. So jobs in policy making, jobs in legal publishing and legal editing, information officers with the government. I know Katie mentioned a few of these earlier and a huge advantage of the MI is DAL is an ALA accredited institution so that means when I graduate with both of my degrees I'm a fully certified librarian able to work in most places in the English speaking world and that flexibility is really interesting to me as somebody interested in non-practicing roles and the JD is a huge advantage if you're interested in legal librarianship. It's not very common in Canada for law librarians to have a law degree so that opens up a lot of doors for you already and it's a little bit more common in the US but it's just sort of an emerging trend here so that's definitely a huge career advantage if you opt for librarianship over practice. I think that's all I have to say I'm so stoked on the program I'm always happy to answer questions. Perfect thank you and finally we are going to turn over to Renee who's going to talk to us about our experiences with the NPA. Thanks Randy. Hi everyone. I am in my second year of the four-year program. I am currently doing the first year of the law component to this degree and I started with the NPA and like everyone has said or maybe two three out of seven of us have said this was the way to go. I learned so much last year about the government and policy and what it actually means to be implemented and that was I would say the driving force to why I wanted to do this degree as a whole. I would say that I miss those people I miss learning and maybe thinking a little bit more critically about the things that are going on in the world in the way that we can affect change so moving into the JD it's very very theoretical very foundational I'm very very important and I think that that is one thing that you should keep in mind depending on whichever dual degree you choose that you will have strengths coming from your masters that you would like to apply to your your JD and you will be able to but first year is really foundational so you're learning a lot but I must say that I am enjoying it. I decided to do the NPA first because I had the choice but also because I thought that starting with a full year of experience under my belt and then doing the co-op in the summer would give me an advantage for your 1L summer if you do choose to work so I worked with a consulting firm here in Halifax we were completely remote but I must say they were a niche consulting firm unlike the deloits of the world they specialized in privacy cyber security and change management and those are all things that are really important to think about especially from a policy and legal events so I learned a lot there went into law and now we're learning a lot more and I'm very interested to see how I'm going to be able to apply what I'm learning now later in either in work or in my other classes but I'd like to echo off of what Kelty was saying this degree gives you a really great opportunity to dive into what you're interested in I would say one of my favorite classes from my first year NPA is organizational design I don't think that we think about it too much but there is a strategic way to organize any organization but the government itself has a lot of flaws but when you look at it there might not be any better way so it does give you a bit of a look in to what you want to do and I also did the NPA JD because I recognized that there was a gap between those two things and I wanted to work in government as a non-partisan lawyer but depending on what you choose to do later on you will definitely be able to work as a lawyer in the government as well and that will be a whole different experience but going back to creating your degree I'm really excited to see what other NPA courses are coming up for me and in the JD there is so much that you can dip your toes in so even if it's not related to governance or government structures you could do anything health environment yep there's just so much that you can do so you can really be a jack-of-all-trade with whatever combined degree you choose if that's all I have perfect questions are definitely welcome wonderful thank you so much everyone and Renee so I'm gonna just give us a couple more minutes for a couple more questions to come in before delving into the ones you guys have asked and I just want to kind of throw this to the panel to whomever I know we've covered a lot of what you can do career rise with some of these degrees but if there's anything else that might be a little bit that might have come up when other people are talking of so what what can you do you know what different type of career options are there for for doing one of these these degrees yeah I don't mind jumping off for this one I mean really we we did old students we touched on a lot on there but I think the nice thing about a joint degree is that the options really are limitless because you get that dual lens you get that significant experience into faculties you have those opportunities to kind of specialize and dive deeper into specific areas of interest so you know whether you want to practice law as a lawyer in a law firm you know the lens you get from the master of health administration mba mpa mi is going to equip you well but if you choose not to actively practice law upon graduation you're going to be so well set up for any kind of career even if they're outside of these specific areas so I don't really want to say that you'll be pigeonholed by these degrees at all if anything they'll just open up doors of opportunities and those are endless whether they are as practicing law civil servants working in financial services industry you know working as a librarian a consultant the opportunities are endless right thank you so much does anybody else want to touch on that or going once all right perfect all right so I'm going to jump into some of the questions that you guys have have provided I'm going to open a couple of them up a little bit so the first one I'm going to start with um this one was um put the to the towards the bend of strictly the mba but I think that it's a good question to ask everyone and that is what opportunities have you encountered the students who are just doing the JD would not be typically offered so but let's start with the mba so the question is if you've done the JD mba like what opportunities have you encountered that student in the JD would not typically be offering um yeah it's a good question I think if you if you want to do a business degree or sorry if you want to do a business job after finishing the JD mba then there would be lots of opportunities available to you that likely wouldn't be available to people who just do the JD um you know you could get into consulting people will go to like the deloids of the world or kpng I think there's lots of things you can do with the mba um in terms of of law I think I think when you do the JD you do these very formal recruits through the law school so I don't think that there's any opportunity specifically as a JD mba that you get in law that you wouldn't get if you're just a law student but what I will say is you'll be a much more competitive applicant for any of those roles like when you apply as a JD mba student I do think that you have a much better chance of getting interviews getting selected um you have job experience you've already done an eight month residency so that also gives you a leg up um so I think that's where you would specifically see the difference in the law context is that you know you have this dual degree which the firms would see as valuable you have work experience you've been exposed to a professional environment and they recognize that JD mba students have like a unique skill set and same with any combined degree I would I'm just I'll build on that briefly and say even to for like the internship component of the mba program and the corporate residency component of the mba program even if you do our programs that year first and you do one else second um our employer partners that employ you for the internship and the corporate residency also do really value um and our keen on students that are doing a joint degree because of the high level of engagement these programs require and a high level of commitment um you know it plays to how well of an employee you're going to be and that you know you have that drive and motivation to do well okay I'll jump in on the mha front um much like what's been said already if you don't have an mha the various positions available to you're not foreclosed you can secure those positions however those with the JD mha are going to have an advantage um an advantage can come through not just the education received in the program itself but through your residency and the connections you make through your mha residency so for example if you wanted to pursue in-host council for a large hospital well it's possible uh they do hire uh candidates that just have a JD um but preference uh I think is given to those that have the joint degree so here in the in-health acts the large uh women and children's hospitals iwk and the general council there has a JD mha and uh thinking in terms of government positions like with ministries of health um I think uh are we had a candidate a student who graduated recently with the JD mha and secured one of the very few hierarchical positions one can get in Ontario with the ministry of health and the fact that she had a JD mha was a distinct advantage for her to to get that position so you know I would be lying to you if you said that you cannot access some of those positions if you don't have the JD mha it is just a distinct advantage if you do I'll also add on for the mha part is that in mha you get these the exposure to these individuals fairly early on in the program and I think that is also something that kind of separates um the mha from just strictly a JD is that you have such a small um alumni group and um you have those network connections really early on okay perfect thank you everyone all right so that for the next question um this one I believe will probably be for it for Katie uh for the JD mba program what are the admission requirements for the mba side of the the application yeah sure happy to chat about that so um as I mentioned the admission requirements consist of a four-year undergraduate degree um with a minimum GPA in your last two years or 60 credits of study of a 3.0 um so we're not going to look at your first two years of your undergraduate to calculate that just the last two uh we're looking for two academic letters of reference so we will not accept professional references um for this program so these would be uh professors that have taught and assessed you um in an academic setting so any of your courses um have a minimum level of a master's education themselves we're looking for an updated resume that details all of your relevant experience so academic experience any work experience you've had potentially post-grad or in those summers um volunteer experience as well we're also looking for a 500 word statement of intent so a statement of intent basically details your value proposition to the admissions committee so what are your career goals um why will our program and specifically uh help you get there so what features of the corporate residency mba in conjunction with the jd um why are they of value to you why will they help you reach where you want to go and what skills do you have that will allow you to be successful um in our program i will say one thing that we're really keen on is seeing those kind of clear career goals and an idea of where you want to go um and then last but not least we do require you to complete the casper assessment uh so just to reiterate the casper assessment is an online situational judgment test you do it online it will take about 90 minutes and basically it will present you with a hypothetical situation and it will ask how you would respond and why so just for example your coworker does a because of b are you going to go to your boss because of x y and z um and basically it seeks to understand your reasoning and so it will measure for things like ethics emotional intelligence communication collaboration all of which are great indicators of your employability uh which is important for us to know because you do have to start applying for those corporate residency jobs about two to three months into the program um and we also did some pilot studies and found that it was a great uh the outcome of this casper assessment was a great indicator of your academic success in the program as well so when it comes to registering for and completing that casper assessment um that is all detailed on our admissions page which i will draw in the chat here um it's 66 dollars to write and your score gets automatically sent to us it's not necessarily something you can rigorously study for like an lsat or a gmat because you know it's hypothetical situations you don't really want to overthink those and psych yourself out of an accurate answer um so it's got less of a financial investment emotional investment um and time investment compared to those standardized test exams the other caveat that i will know is that for the nba program we have four admission deadlines each year prior to our program starting in mid june uh we have two left prior to this june start date uh with those admission deadlines we have a corresponding date that you have to write the casper assessment on um so for example our last uh admission deadline is April 26th our casper assessment for that round of admissions is being offered on April 9th so you just need to register for and write it on that date and so then you just need to gather all those documents submit them to us prior to the deadline okay thank you and that is the um it's just casper test dot com is the website i believe i'll put that so yeah so on the our admissions page on our dahazi nba admissions page uh we have a link to register for the casper exam um and on that page as well there is a link to a pdf document that was put together by our admission specialist that details everything you need to know about the casper assessment in terms of how to register what to expect um what it's going to measure for and the nitty gritty of that so i will add that in right now okay thank you so much okay so the next question that that we have uh coming up it's going to be one that's going to be for for kelty for mi and that is how much professional experience do students typically have before starting speaking from personal experience i didn't really have much uh professional experience in the information or legal fields um in any capacity uh before i began my studies i know many of my colleagues at the information school um who i'm doing my mi with uh a lot of them worked in libraries or other information settings for some time before they began there's like a great swath of ages in the mi program i've noticed in particular which is really nice you get a lot of different perspectives in the classroom but um just as many people have never worked in a library before just like have very limited experience maybe they work like a casual job at a school library or they just shelf books at the public library for a little while things like that so there isn't really a high barrier to entry it's certainly an advantage and it helps you put your studies into focus but um they're really all about teaching you the practical skills so that you can succeed in uh career and information management for sure perfect thank you so much okay so the next question um is for mba um so with regards to the corporate placement within the mba program are there certain metrics that need to be met within the placements e.g discussing performance reviews with faculty at del regarding the work placements i don't mind answering this one a j unless you want to take it yeah i mean i like i'll just you can probably talk about it a little more in depth but i just remember at the end of my corporate residency um yeah like i had like a bit of a performance review with um my i guess like boss at my placement and you know they just gave me some general feedback like areas to improve things i did well um nothing too crazy um and then yeah like i think it's it's just like past fail isn't it right that's how it works yeah so you're not getting a grade for the the corporate residency although you are getting credit hours so it's considered a course um so in addition to that at the end of the corporate residency we also do a midway review uh so like the halfway point of your corporate residency with yourself um your employer and our office to serve as kind of a check-in um get some constructive feedback see what you're doing well and kind of map out the rest of your residency but we don't have specific hard metrics that we need you to hit by any means with anything we really want this to be a valuable experience for you in the sense where you're taking on a lot of responsibility you're becoming ingrained in the organizational environment uh you're pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone um these corporate residency roles they're not undergraduate roles they're not administrative roles they're a step above that um and all of the roles are created by our management career services team in this in partnership with our employer partners and we make sure that none of these positions consist of you know the paper pushing your administrative work um you might see early on in undergrad right thank you so much okay so the next question that we have and thank you everyone for all the questions that you have been submitting they're they're great um so this question um as for Mike um so with the LSAT changing structure which is coming up um how will admissions look at the LSAT scores used prior to the change in the coming year? Randy I'm going to pump that one right back at you uh because I would think that your office has put more thought into that than um than I have at this point yeah so uh for on the admissions side we are aware of all of the changing kind of structures that are coming out with with the LSAT and so um then we do rely on LSAC LSAC um to kind of give us um information and feedback about how things are are kind of comparing to how the old writings versus the new so we are taking into consideration all of the changes um but you know we are going to also be looking at the LSAT as as the LSAT um as as the indicator for for um success in law school so uh I'm not sure if that will change how the MHA looks at the LSAT or not no it will have no impact there no all right so I'm going to throw a couple of questions that are here that are tangentially um related but I have four students and former students here so I'm going to make the most of it um because there's some really great questions here and one is how competitive are the students um or is there a supportive environment at DAL to help everyone succeed within the their programs so let's let's get Renee to start on this one I'm not sure that was meant for the law school side of it but I'll start with the MPA the MPA had about 30 to 40 students last year and it was very collaborative we hung out every day we shared notes and I would have to say that I thought that I would have the same reservation going to the JD but everyone is surprisingly nice I think that 1L is slightly less competitive because only 15 percent of people get jobs so if you're looking for really good grades it's usually for that reason in your first semester of 1L um otherwise yeah I would hope that your section is really kind like mine is okay Kelty do you have anything you want to add um just really want to echo what uh Renee said at least in my information studies everybody is super collegial um it's a really supportive environment and um I also found the same thing at um Chulak at Weldon we always talk about uh fostering a collegial environment and um I've found that to be really true in my experience at the law school so far so it's about as competitive as you would expect law school to be but it's uh we also really try to make time outside of school for like community events and recreation and leisure time with each other and I noticed that that's something that uh some of my friends at different law schools throughout the country don't necessarily have with their communities lots of support and uh Kelty um coming from the an upper year uh perspective yeah reiterate the same things um I mean there's no doubt that you are on a curve um in the law school that obviously plays a role um but no it's not competitive and maybe um with yourself wanting to do better and try better um but I would say it's very collegial it's definitely I think uh Dow as a law school in general has that reputation as being um a very um welcoming and um good community um that's not that competitive um at least in like a scary sense that you might have heard of in other law schools um but yeah no it's all great here and as far as mha um I think the biggest class you might have is 20 students at least recently had I've been in so it's um it's like a little family um to to use the back of their lack of better term um you really get to know them well and they have no culture and all it's a it's a big team that works together and everything so perfect nice thank you um and and AJ coming from the the most recently released into the world alum um you know how is how is kind of the environment um that you kind of see you know having been at Dow kind of coming into the real world yeah I uh I miss being at Dow I wish I wasn't working no I'm kidding um yeah it was great I mean I like loved everyone in my MBA class is awesome everybody in my law class is awesome I mean I yeah and like there's just so many different people from diverse backgrounds that you really get to learn from and I think the Dow community um it's just pretty pretty diverse in general which is really great and there's lots of people um with tons of different experience and I've honestly I mean I kind of moved up to Toronto and didn't know too many people so I've actually reached out to like lots of people from my MBA class who have moved up here before because they graduated before I did um we get together um with people from the law school who are also here working so it's not the end when you are done so we all stay pretty connected you know we have group chats and stuff and uh you know I'll stay connected so yeah it's been great it's been really good wonderful thank you okay so um we're going to take uh about 10 more minutes um and just kind of get through a few more questions here um so there's a couple of questions about um when applying to both programs about reusing um materials such as as references um for one thing I can say for where um any department that's well except the LSAT the law school will happily send that information over um everything that's received on your JD application um is received automatically through the online portal um so it's more on the side of the different uh master's programs as to whether or not um how the requirements are so I'll throw this to to Michael and then to to Katie yeah I know it's a great question um you'll want to touch base in the JDMHA program you'll want to touch base with the coordinator at the school health administration to make sure that those references are received by them um it would be very unlikely you'd have to get fresh references the same references used for the JD program would be I'm sure acceptable to the school health administration the question is how do you get it to the school health administration I don't believe the school administration is using the same portal as the law school so um arrangements would have to be made for you to have those references sent to the school health administration you can't assume because the law school has it that it's accessible to the school health administration I believe that Randy has put or will put in the chat uh the email that you'll use to make that inquiry as to how you can get your references to the school of health admin the person you'll be dealing with by the way his name is Shelly Weir she's an absolute delight she'll be more than happy to make it as easy as possible for you to complete um your application including getting those references to her the logistics behind that I am going to leave to her uh because I really have no idea the magic that she does and the coordination that she does with the students in that regard so I'll just leave it at that yeah and before we go to Katie just to have put in there if we are sharing information just to let you guys know full disclosure we do need it from the applicants in writing before we at the law school are willing to share any information because you know protection of information so Katie yeah um I could offer some specifics on the faculty of management side of things so when it comes to your supporting documents um say for example you are submitting your resume you're probably submitting this obviously the same resume to both us and the JD school but uh we need you to submit it directly to us we're not going to request that the JD uh the law school share that information with us we need to receive it directly from the applicant um same goes for the cover statement of intent um as well when it comes to references uh there are two ways you can submit those references so again uh we need to have the references come directly from your referees so we're not going to ask the law school to share uh that information with us but there are two ways you can go about doing it so when you fill out the online application form for at one of our programs um there will be an option to use our automated e-reference system so they will prompt you to put in the email associated address of your referee on the form um and then our system will generate an email to your referee asking them to fill out the reference form and send it back to us the caveat with that is um those need to be institution associated email addresses um for our system to recognize them so for those academic references that's fine but in some scenarios the mpa or the mi may accept professional references um so if you are using a professional reference on our website we have our um faculty graduate studies reference form available you need to send that to your reference have them fill it out and send it directly to our admission accounts um with their work or professional related um email address so I hope that makes sense um but long story short you need to submit all of your documents directly um to us we won't ask the law school to share any of that information with us because they are separate applications and we need them to come directly from you and your referees I hope that is clear now I'm happy to answer some more questions perfect thank you Katie I'm going to do two more questions um first one is for JDMHA where that is the only one in Canada are there residency programs or early job opportunities specifically geared to utilize the combined degree do you feel that it has opened up more articling positions um so start with Kaylee um so I personally chose to do a residency that wasn't law related just to get some experience on that side with just like the mha side of things um but the residency is um completely open to whatever you want to do with it um so you have opportunities to actually you know make it more of a a loss type of um residency or job if you know of one you can obviously do that or the school is very helpful to kind of navigate um the residency and the application process for that um so yeah it's can be whatever you want it to be really perfect sorry multi-passing failing at the moment um sorry about that so final question um because again I like um you know making the most and getting the most perspective from our students so this is another kind of tangentially um um kind of related aka not not really at all um but just to kind of wrap up um for those people who are interested in Dal um in general who are coming from outside of Nova Scotia so outside of your studies do you find that there's enough activities outside of Dalhousie to help you with your work-life balance uh let's start with Renee um hello fax so I know everything under this time to do and somehow people who just move here for this program teach me a lot more about what's out there um depending on what part of your journey you're in the law school will have a lot of societies that will get you outside um if you like hiking they do that every few weeks if you like drinking if you're of age of course um we have domus which is really great and you get to meet your prof sometimes roast them there will be so many activities for you to do so I wouldn't worry about that perfect um Kayley AJ or Kelty do you have anything else looking on that yeah just to chime in there's uh I'm from the east coast but I did do my undergrad in Ontario and uh when I came back I was like oh gosh there won't be enough for me to do I was living in Toronto there was just so much happening but Halifax has really grown in particular in the last few years and um there's lots of activities outside of like societies like Renee mentioned um lots of great coffee shops great food and drink um lots of really excellent like thrift and consignment stores if that's your thing and um just because we were situated in beautiful Nova Scotia if you get like 45 minutes an hour outside of the city there's lots of nature nearby beautiful beaches when the weather's appropriate um yeah lots of stuff that can help you maintain your work-life balance for sure oh so chime in and say that Halifax is a great city and it's very walkable as well which I think is a nice perk um if you're a foodie there's lots of great restaurants um yeah so I think there's a lot that Halifax has to offer outside of just a law school and I think Daltu has um great opportunities for um some fun social events and they have intramurals if you're into sports um yeah there's always something on the go for sure okay wonderful um I just want to say thank you again I think we'll wrap up here um if there was questions that were asked um that's um we didn't get to please feel free to send us an email we're always happy to answer questions and engage um I'll put um some emails in there for the different departments um and we're also free to and happy to ensure that emails kind of get to the right person so you have anything that's specific and you can't remember who who's anything reach out to thelaw.admissions.ca and we're happy to to put you in touch with with everyone so again thank you everyone thank you to our panelists for taking the time out to to talk to everybody today um yeah and hopefully you learned something about our different combined programs okay thank you everyone good night