 All right. Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining the MIT supply chain management master's program student panel webinar. My name is Justin snow. I'm the academic administrator for the supply chain management residential program. I'm joined today by five current students representing both the residential and the blended supply chain management programs that we have here at MIT in the center for transportation and logistics. I'll begin just by providing a brief overview of these programs. Each program is its own separate cohort. So the residential students spend a full 10 months here on campus. Well, the blended students complete the online micro masters credential and then spend five months on campus starting in January. But regardless of which program you're in, they both lead to either a master of engineering and supply chain management or a master of applied science and supply chain management. And they include intensive coursework, a research project and attractive is it logistics and manufacturing operations and either Panama, the Silicon Valley in California or Seattle, Washington. So we'll start off with some brief introductions followed by questions related to life here as an SCM student at MIT. And throughout the webinar, please feel free to submit any questions that you might have in the Google Hangout and we'll do our best to answer your questions as well. So with that, I'll hand it over to Brian. Thanks, Justin. Hi, everyone. My name is Brian O'Donnell. I'm originally from Massachusetts here in the US and I'm currently a member of the residential program. My position prior to MIT, I was a program manager on the innovation team at Johnny Hancock financial services. There are large financial services firm here in Boston. Hi, everyone. My name is Scott Lee. I'm originally from China, Beijing. Currently in residential program previous to this, I was a sourcing specialist leading new program introduction projects in Cummins. Hi, everyone. My name is Victor Misali and originally from Brazil prior coming here to MIT, I used to work for a few distribution company back home as a coordinator for the infrastructure planning team. Hi, all my name is Liz Shafir. I originally am from Russia and I'm here with Blended Class. My last position was a demand planner at the Rista Company in Chicago and overall my area of specialization is planning. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Tobjila Sherov. I'm from Pakistan and I'm part of a blended program in MIT. So before joining this program, I was working with the government of Pakistan as director general and now I'm doing my blended program. Great. Thanks, everyone. So I'm going to start off with a question. What led you to make the decision to choose the SCM program here at MIT? Ultimately, I'm here pursuing a career change. So prior to MIT, I was previously in the military. So I served, I was a naval officer for eight years. I actually did a grad degree in business up at Tufts and then for the past five years, I worked at John Hancock. But kind of towards the end of my time there, I was kind of looking for just a change, kind of my career path. Just didn't look too rewarding. And I kind of saw supply chain as an opportunity to kind of make a change and kind of, you know, have a more rewarding career. So not having a supply chain background, I thought, and being in the Boston area, I thought it was a great opportunity to go back to school for a year, kind of get those core technical skills and then transition to a role. So I guess for me, I'm kind of different. I kind of made my mind to come to MIT for this program back in undergrad. So I guess my main goal is to broaden my knowledge over the quantitative aspect of supply chain since I already got a business degree in supply chain back in Michigan State, which is also a top class program. So I guess my main goal here is to, because I've done enough qualitative studies back in undergrad, I wanted my master's study to continue furthering my knowledge over some quantitative analysis over operations and planning side of it. So this is my main goal of coming here at MIT for this program. Yeah, so kind of for me, the idea was my whole background has been a supply chain from my career. So my, my rationale was to deepen my knowledge within supply chain. I had already taken a master's in business. So this time I wanted to go deeper into more hard skills. So that's why initially the idea of coming here for supply chain masters and actually everything actually started back in 2016 when I first learned about the micro masters through edX. So the idea was to come here as a blended student. But when I find out that you could also apply with your grades to the residential program, then I thought that that would be a more suitable option for me, not only career wise, because that would give me more options to start an international career here, here in the US. And also we give me more time to enjoy the classes here at MIT. My story has a lot in common with Victor's story. My whole professional life was in supply chain management. I wanted to MIT to progress with my career and I decided that I want to come here four years ago. And then I took micro master courses and completed the program and I had the same choice. What program to pursue residential program or blended program and finally I chose blended because I didn't need visa. The blended program was shorter and it was better decision in terms of time and money. Yeah, so I was in this field of transportation since 2003 and I really want to broaden my knowledge and I really want to blend my experience with new knowledge. So when I have come to know about this micro masters back in 2016, I've started taking classes. And it was quite a life changing experience for me. And actually my work has improved a lot and then I thought like let's expand this. So one option was like if I come to residential program another was blended, but at the career stage I have in my country. I couldn't leave like for one year. So I've decided to come for a shorter period of time. So that was my reason to be part of blended program. Great. Thanks everybody. So my next question is obviously academics is a huge part of our program. So tell us about your favorite course so far and why? So my favorite course so far is a supply chain planning course. It's actually offered over at Sloan. And I took it for two reasons. One, I thought it'd be unique to kind of hear kind of the Sloan perspective on the course. And two, it really builds on a lot of things you learn in Chris Kapless' course, logistic systems, which I think just about everybody takes during first semester. But for me in particular, it's great because it's really driving home those concepts that I kind of quickly learned and kind of quickly forgot last semester. It's a lot of material and it's kind of you're learning, you know, the old saying, drinking by the fire hose. So taking this course allows me to kind of really kind of relearn those concepts and kind of, you know, I guess understand them at a more deeper level. Plus the professor is amazing, Sean Willems. He kind of teaches it. He's got a lot of energy. He's pretty enthusiastic. And it's, yeah, for a first thing in the morning, it's a great class, but yeah, it's been great so far. And I'm actually planning to take his course in the second half of the semester as well. It's something that really wasn't on my radar prior to this course, but I'm having such a good experience here that I think I'm going to continue it on in his next offering as well. All right, so I think so far, my favorite class is also that supply chain planning class, but I think, yeah. So I think, well, I see him to succeed taught by Chris Kapless is also a good class that views the foundation for the supply chain planning course. It gives you all the knowledge you need over the, I guess, calculation side or like the model site. But while the supply chain planning course focuses more on applying those in real cases, I guess it blow off my mind for the last two classes that like how tricky it can be in real life. So you shouldn't just like apply the, I guess models robotically without taking a second thought. So for this class, it gives you more of a perspective from the realistic side of doing it in the real cases. So that's the reason I like it very much. Yeah, for me, also a class from Sloan, which assistant dynamics, and I think it's a good balance within the hard skews and soft to skews that you can actually use into your world. I think the overall thing that you get from the class is actually kind of different mindset that you're going to use towards looking into problems that you can solve when you go out of here. And being where it was originally born and here at MIT, like being have the privilege of taking the class over here was really amazing. My favorite class so far is case studies and supply chain management. And I like the format of the class. It's case studies and we always have open and very meaningful discussions. But the best part of it is that it doesn't matter how hard we prepare, there is always something else to learn. So this is amazing. So my favorite class is strategic organization design that is offered in Sloan school. And the good thing about that is it's first of all, it's case study based. The second thing is the professor is building the case in a way that he explains the theory and he gives an opportunity to the students to come up with the solutions and then he tries to bridge the gap between the practice and theory. And that is a beautiful thing. Though I have a tie kind of between the Sloan class and sustainability class of SCM, but I'll go with both. Great. So moving outside of academics, what other opportunities have you explored in the greater MIT community or greater Boston in general? So I guess I'm in the unique position that I was actually, I've been living in the area for the past eight years or so. So kind of exploring the immediate area. I kind of had it down, but it's been fun to kind of act as kind of like the local tour guide for a lot of my classmates who it is their first time being in Boston. Sometimes it's the first time people being in the States. So it's been a fun to kind of go to places where I've gone in the past, but to actually do it with a whole new group of friends that I've made. It's been, it's been a wonderful experience. And like, I guess more specifically to the program or to like here at MIT. I'm a member of the program committee. So it's a small group of people that are either nominated or volunteer in the beginning of the semester. And you're kind of tasked with kind of planning kind of fun social activities and other types of kind of professional development events throughout throughout the year. And it's been, it's been a good experience. We had a couple of holiday parties. We did a speaker series and a couple of times just had kind of like informal social get togethers out in town. But I think we have a pretty good balance there. I guess for me, a person who loves living in my comfort zone, I didn't really participate a lot in the other school organizations. So I guess for me, I can speak from a, I guess, after school life perspective. So I've been to a couple of tours in Boston. So the doctor, which is very famous is very fun. And also I've been to the museums in Boston. Those are fantastic and are free for MIT students. This is like a great fact. And there's something I haven't done yet, but for music lovers, I know you can get a ticket for a season of Boston orchestra performance for only seven bucks or so. So this is like great as well as a student benefit. And also as a Chinese person, I have been to Chinatown a lot. I can basically find everything you need there. This is a very great or a neat position at MIT. Yeah, I guess like one of the great things of being here at MIT, there's so many things going on at the same time. So for example, you can be part of the Hyperloop team of a competition that he has here. If you guys are familiar with the project, you can build autonomous vehicle, electric vehicle. So like anything that's going on on campus, you can be part of it. So that's one good aspect of it. Also like in my experience, I've been part of the Brazil conference team, which is an annual conference held by Harvard MIT students. And it's organized by the students and we bring a lot of important people from Brazil. So this year we're going to have the vice president coming here to speak about the issues that are going on in the country. So a lot of people are coming in. So it's a great opportunity. You have like those things that you know you can make an impact and you're going to be able to be part of it. As Brian already mentioned, there are leadership opportunities in our program and Brian is part of residential leadership team. And I was elected a president of blended class. So together with our leadership team, we lead a lot of projects both academic and social. From academic side, for example, we invite guest speakers, we organize workshops and for social activities, we have parties and we go to museums together and concerts. So there are a lot of things to do here and also you can lead the things. Thank you. So I was there in MIT back in 2016, it's first program. So what I'm trying to do over there is like teaming up with these guys, arranging lectures on transportation and sharing my experience as far as fun is concerned. So Doctor of Boston is very famous and then there is art museum, which is a very good one. And then Harvard contemporary art museum is very good. So there are so many opportunities you can go to MIT science museum, a lot of fun over there. So yes. Great. So we'll take a question that came in from one of our viewers. So moving to Cambridge and Greater Boston can be a large undertaking for sure. So in your experience, if you could just share a little bit about where you decided to live, whether it was on campus or off campus and anything else you wanted to share about your move here to MIT. Okay, so again, my coming from a unique position, I was actually living in Boston when I got accepted into the program. So it's just over the river downtown, but actually chose to live in one of the graduate student housing. And I'm currently in the, in the warehouse, which has been an amazing experience. And I'm really glad I didn't. Some people asked me, like, why did I choose to move on campus when I was already living here? One, from financial reasons, was significantly cheaper from where I was previously living, which was great. But two, it's really, I wanted to get closer to kind of my fellow students and kind of experience that. And it's really been, I'm really glad that I did because, you know, you're in housing with students from all different programs. So it gives you an opportunity to kind of expand your network and meet people there. There's always different social events going on, which is great. It's sometimes, you know, our program is small here on campus, the supply chain management program. So it just gives you another opportunity just to kind of meet other people in kind of a social setting and really make new friends. So it's been great. I highly recommend it, at least in the warehouse, the building itself is amazing. It's all like one bedroom apartments, you have your own bathroom, you have your own little kitchen. So I really, really couldn't complain. And just the whole vibe over there has been great. Cool. So prior to this, I lived in Indiana. So moving to Boston is kind of like it's not that big a change, but also it is moving again. So I chose to live on campus for a couple of reasons. So firstly, before I came here, I talked to a student from the last class, like where would you recommend to live? And she recommended me to live in Sydney Pacific residential hall, which is kind of where the most student live in. It has a very great facility and you will never find, like you will always find someone to do something together, even for like go out for a eat or like do a school project together. So all of those aspects are very convenient. So actually you have done a questionnaire or survey to the whole class on their opinion over which residential hall is the best that they think or like the benefit of living in the residential halls. My blog will be posted on the SCM website, I think in March. So if you are interested in living on campus, you can take a look at that as well. Yeah, I'm also kind of biased towards living on campus. I think like living here, you can experience the full range of MIT. So you'd be closer to classes, you'd be closer to people. You can enjoy also the whole infrastructure that MIT has to offer you. So you can go to the Z Center, you can go to the Stata Gym. So a lot of places that you can actually be nearby and then kind of leverage everything that you have around you. For me, the main reason of coming on campus just as Brian said, like coming from Brazil is of course like a very different change than just living in Boston. But a budget for me was a big constraint. So also on campus options offer you kind of like ranges between things that you can't afford. So even though you kind of come into a more budget constraint as I did, you can find places that you can definitely afford and then you can definitely enjoy it. So I chose to live off campus because I came here from Chicago with my family and my husband and two children. And we just needed a bigger place and we were able to find exactly what we needed. So we live very close to campus. So I don't feel that I am out of MIT community because it is very close. So you can find good options off campus as well. So I took flight from Pakistan. I landed in Boston and took the tea, you know, checked in, got my key and there is my room. So yes, I've opted MIT housing. It was very convenient. So the next 30 minutes I was relaxing on my chair. So yeah, after a long flight. So and you can find so many things in housing, MIT housing has so many facilities for students. There is a gym. There is a bar. So and then you find your class fellows. You find your other MIT fellows and you have a lot of conversation around so many topics over there. And now another thing is like it's very convenient. And I'm living in Ashton, which is again one of the best housing grad housing. We can compare it with sit back. Yes. So both are very good and they are nearby. Yeah. So we had another question come in from one of the viewers and it's someone somewhat related to this as far as moving here to MIT. And it's definitely top concern someone in my role. I get this question a lot regarding medical insurance. So I didn't know if you could just share a little bit about whether you're taking advantage of MIT's medical insurance options or you found an option as an alternative. Yeah, I elected to go with the insurance offered through MIT. When I left my job last summer, I had the option to continue on their program. But it was just it was way more expensive than the insurance that was offered through MIT. And when I did a little bit of research, it just it looked comparable. So I just kind of elected to go with that option and it's been fine. Knock on wood. All right, so I chose to I guess I opted to not to take the MIT health insurance plan. Although I heard it's been it's great because it covers a lot for people in our class who had just had a baby. It's like very convenient for them to just utilize that health insurance. But for me who like, I don't know, don't really get sick very often. Knock on wood. I chose to for a less coverage plan. That's a little shipper than the what the school offers. Yeah, same here also opted for the MIT option. I didn't even look into some other options. I think like overall health in the US it's kind of expensive. But the basic coverage you're going to get from your MIT tuition and the extended version which is required here at Massachusetts State. You're going to have to pay a little bit more for it. But overall it's been great. So I've been to the MIT medical a couple of times, nothing serious, but like no charges overall. So so far so good. When I left my job before coming here, I could continue with corporate insurance, but MIT insurance was cheaper and with better coverage. So all my family use MIT insurance. I have explored few options like other service providers, but then I ended up on MIT insurance. I think comparatively it was better option. So I continue with that. Great. So as I mentioned earlier, when describing the programs, a large component is the research project. So I was hoping you all could share a little bit about what your project is and how you came to arrive at doing this particular project. So I'm working on a capstone project this year. The project is working with a large manufacturer of tires and wheels. And we're basically trying to understand the flows of those products from the manufacturer to the end customer and how we can best optimize those flows to kind of reduce costs. I, you know, at the beginning of last summer, you'll be if you're a part of the residential program, all the companies that are sponsoring capstone projects will come in. They'll do their presentation will present you the kind of the problem in the background on the the company. And then there's a bidding process. So everybody kind of puts their their points for what projects they want to do and then you're partnered up and then you're assigned a project. So ultimately, that's how I ended up with with this capstone project. So I'm currently working on a capstone with Uber Freight. The reason I chose that was because of several reasons. First is that I'm working on the Powerloop program. They just brought up like so it was just launched like October last year. It's a very new program, unique opportunity to work on something that new and experience some company like Uber Freight that's very entrepreneur. Coming from a traditional manufacturing industry, I wanted to get an experience in something new. So Uber Freight was a great option for me to choose on. Yeah, I'm working for a US manufacturer company. They are manufacturing those textile curtain machines and they also provide the aftermarket service, which is basically spare parts. So we're trying to help them with demand forecast for spare parts, which is a challenge and also the inventory management part. So I try to kind of cover a little bit of the basics of their operations. And as Brian mentioned, like you, once you get here in the residential program, you're going to have the chance to see a lot of interesting different projects that you can beat on and everything that gets most of your attention. You can allocate your points in the breeding process and hopefully you can work with that. So for the blended class, the process is a little bit different because we were expected to come with our own project. It was a part of our application and then only half of projects moves forward and we are because we work in Paris and I am doing project with my partner. We are optimizing aggregate production planning for a contract manufacturer in China. So this is very exciting because this project allows me to know more about other countries and other companies. This is my partner project and this is a company where she works. So I'm working on a project. So it's about incentivizing a no rush delivery. So what we are doing here is that we are developing a logistic model, which is kind of giving us the kind of optimal solution for a delivery. And then we are trying to reduce the last mile delivery part and we have a consumer behavior kind of part. We are combining two things in one model and we are trying to figure out like what is the right amount of incentive we can offer to the customers and consumers so that they change their delivery option. So it is we already have completed our model and we are now collecting data from consumers. So and this project was offered by SEM. We haven't selected like so my project, my proposed project was not able to go through as Elise has mentioned. So then I'm working with my partner. Great. Thanks everyone. So I just wanted to briefly attest to these students shared about their capstone project. So that leads to the master of applied science and supply chain management. The other option is a thesis and that is a little different as far as the process. So students would create an idea and write a proposal for a thesis project. And you would go through a process where it would be reviewed and presented to a committee and it does require approval. So all students come into the program automatically as a master of applied science student. And then if you are approved to have to move forward with your thesis, you're then switched to the master of engineering track. And the initial committee meeting, it happens in August during the residential program orientation. And that is actually the same for the blended students as well. So they would remotely present as more often than not, they're not in the area at the time. Because the blended students do work on their capstone or thesis projects throughout the fall remotely despite the fact that they're not here on campus. So moving on to the next question, another question from one of our viewers. So a big part of our program obviously is recruiting opportunities. So we are a part of the Center for Transportation and Logistics and we have partnerships with many companies and a lot of those companies and other companies will come here and recruit our students. So I was hoping that you all could maybe attest to some of these companies, some of the positions that you either know of or interviewed for yourself. And just in general, kind of what your experience has been with the recruiting opportunities of this program. Sure. So recruiting here at MIT, it starts really early on. So in the summer, at least for the residential students during orientation, companies are coming in. So last fall, I mean, you guys can help me out. So we had a number of consulting companies come in, AT Carney, Deloitte. Sure, there's someone else that I'm missing, but there was a heavy consultant focus there. We also had Apple come in and then they're looking for, you know, supply chain manager planning, all sorts of other opportunities. And maybe you can probably, guys are going to be working there. So I think she can probably talk a little bit more about her experience that obviously Amazon came in, number of other companies. So it's Google came in. So they're looking maybe you can talk about that. So looking for like program management, technical program management roles, operations roles, planning roles. So it's a it's a wide range of opportunities, a wide range of industries. And if, you know, you ever have questions, you know, the, I think Linda's a really good job of putting that information out on the website of companies that come here and recruit as well as statistics of where people are placed falling graduation. So that'll give you a good idea of the different companies that come here, as well as the companies that people end up where they have to do kind of some of their own legwork as part of the kind of the recruiting process. So yeah, so I'll hand it off to see. Cool. So I guess for my experience, it was pretty busy last semester. Because most companies come either at the beginning of the program or a March timeframe for a, I guess, a senior level of job offerings. So for me, who only had three years of work experience before heading into this program, I was more focused on the recruiting happened last semester. So there will be like a couple, a lot of companies that come come in here. And I think what's unique about this program is that many companies who don't offer opportunities to sponsor OPT or sponsor international students would come to MIT for this program to recruit. So that's a very unique fact for this program. And also, I think what's very helpful was that then is like the dedicated career advisor for our program. So once, like if you have any questions, just knock on his door, he's usually available or schedule a time with him to practice your interview. He will give very, I guess, good advice on how to revise your resume or improve your interview. So I benefited a lot from that and luckily enough, I was able to locate a job offer last semester. So it'll be a lot of flying around for the interview if you're like, I guess, focusing on job hunting. So playing your head, playing your time very Wesley, and if you're looking for a consulting type of job, my recommendation is that before coming in here, it is great to start working on your case interviews. So it saves you a lot of time and efforts once you get here because you will get very busy as companies coming in at the beginning of this program. Yeah, I guess like recruiting is maybe the first activity that you can actually see the power of the MIT brand behind you. You're going to have so many companies that you just know like a worldwide renowned and so you're going to have Apple, Google, Amazon all coming on campus. So it's a lot of efforts to say their job offers and you can actually apply and it's a different kind of interactions that we have in the company. As Brian mentioned, like everything starts really early. So we were here in August and like September already, like people having first rounds of interviews. October was a very busy month because people are already flying there to the final round. And in November, so like three months after you hear you already have a lot of people already have some job offers to have their peace of mind with whatever is going to happen. After the program. So I think recruiting should be an issue. You shouldn't be worried about it like statistically 100 people that come here get out with the job offer. So it's just a matter of knowing what you want to do after the program. And so usually you're going to have kind of like more junior positions in the fall because that's the companies come here and they have a good visibility of what they're going to need in the next year. And now during the spring, they probably come with a more senior roles because that's where and that's what the openings are for the moment. So I think you can also, depending on your background, you can kind of plan yourself of what to expect more for recruiting. For the blended class, the process is different because we came here just in January and many people from our class will come back to their country. So they will not stay here in the United States. Also, many of my classmates, they are coming back to their employers where they've worked before coming here. So for those who are staying here, there are still a lot of opportunities like Google still hiring actively and gap was here in fall and they came again in February. So maybe now it's not that active as it was in October, but still companies come and there are a lot of opportunities. Yeah. So yes, blended people usually they come with the sponsorship of their current employers. So they usually opt to go back on to the same employers. But still there are some other opportunities as well like Len is working, you know, with the fellows and he's amazing resource. He advises on how to write as nice as you may the interviews. And then if somebody decides to switch to new employer, there are so many opportunities in America, Europe and other parts of the world. Like I want to mention one development partner, the World Food Program. They've come this January and for hiring. So yes, there are so many opportunities as far as recruiting is concerned. Just one thing I wanted to add one of the things that's really unique and I found that it was really cool is that a lot of the teams that came to recruit actually had alumni from this program. So it's someone who had been in our shoes, you know, either last year or years ago. So they kind of understand the situation that we're in and was able to it's great to kind of connect with someone have that shared experience. Great. Thanks again. So this question is somewhat related and it's been somewhat attested to but the question is, is the 10 month duration for the SCMR program. And of course, once the blended students arrive while they're here, what's the pace? How intensive is it? We don't have an internship or a work experience piece to our program because the academics and the recruiting as has been mentioned is very intensive. So I was hoping you could maybe attest to and even go through like from orientation up until this today. Your experience so far, maybe work life balance, how you're managing your time and juggling all of what is involved with our program. Yes. No, it is it is it is intense obviously 10 months is a very short short period and for the blended students it's it's half that. But it's it's intense, but I think it's been manageable. I think it's been able to kind of have a good work life balance. I think the class as a whole is it should probably share that same sentiment. It's kind of a sort of work hard play hard mentality. And the fall is busy. Obviously, you're taking a lot of your kind of core courses and kind of your your class selections a little bit kind of restricted to kind of knock those out. And you just kind of get introduced to kind of your capstone. So that's kind of slowly getting underway there and that will kind of ramp up throughout the rest of the semester and then into next semester. So the fall was certainly a busy time period, but but manageable the break and enjoy your break as much as you can. Maybe work on your capstone if you have some time that'll kind of make things a little better in the spring. IAP was a very it was a very busy time. So that's, you know, three three weeks or so when when the blended students come on campus along with the other schools as part of the scale network. So we go from 40 students to 80 students with the blended to 180 students across the scale network. And we're all kind of going through that the whole IP process together, but it's a it was a very it was very busy time. A lot of work and it was went by went by quickly, but it was a lot of work. And then now we're here in the spring. So it's and it's rapidly rapidly going by. I'm actually taking more courses this first half of this semester just because of just the timing of when they're offered and what I wanted to study. It just kind of worked out. So I should have a lighter workload the second half of the spring and also be wrapping up my capstone then as well. So long story short, it's busy, but it's manageable and you just kind of take it take it one day at a time. Yeah, I guess from my perspective, I think we all came here thinking that this would be like not something that we can manage very easily into orientation in the summer last year. But it came out to be very well, it's handleable for myself and the others during orientation. Like I think everyone started very nervous, like trying to get out of our comfort zone to know each other, like remember each other's names and know their know them more. But it all came very smoothly in the orientation. So there's no need to be panic before you come. So everything was so set up for this program. So in overall, the process was smooth and the workload just at itself of like little by little. So I guess all of us were hoping that we can still get it off our sleep here. Didn't happen to me, but I guess it's okay in general. Like I used to thought I need a lot of sleep, but here like there are more exciting things going on that keeps you awake. So that that part was okay. I guess one general advice during IEP is that you will not have time to work on your capstone. So don't like count on that one month to do your work. So do some work ahead of time so you feel more comfortable doing that time frame. Yeah, definitely it is intense, especially I think for myself the fall was a very intense semester, mainly due to recruiting. So you get flies to some other cities on top. You still have to manage your homeworks, your midterms, your finals. So like everything happens at the same time. And I think that's like the bad side of being just a one year program. Like everything has to happen within the 10 month time frame. So it gets intense, but I never put an all nighter or anything like I managed to sleep. So once you get your things organized, it should be fine. But yeah, my advice like definitely enjoy orientation. It's a very relaxing time. It's very good to like enjoy while you can. The fall expect some very busy moments happening for all the semester. Enjoy December going back. As myself, you're from abroad like going back home. Enjoy your time back there because January again is going to be very busy. And in spring, I think that the good part of being also in the residence. So you had the experience of your first semester. So you kind of know how things are going to go from there. So you kind of organize yourself a little bit better. So hopefully I'm going to suffer a little bit less during the spring semester. But don't worry about it. You're going to be fine. Schedule is definitely intense, but it is manageable and good planning helps a lot. We use the devices from last year graduates, how to handle all this workload. Also within our class, we shared best practices, how to plan, how to use calendar and to do this. So if you plan, it's easier to stay on top of everything. And another thing is about how to manage work-life balance. So I have a family here. It is very important to have time for a family. And MAT has a lot of family-friendly activities. So I can combine time with my classmates and with my family. We can go to MAT Museum all together or have some social event where families are welcome. So it is manageable. Yeah. So it is intense a bit, but it's manageable. So we've arrived in January. Second day we were having exam. So yeah, it was like orientation was fun. And then we had January. It was super busy, 180 people, but it was fun as well to work with so many people. And spring is manageable. January was a bit intense, but now we have learned our ways to manage work. I'm actually writing one blog on my arrival in IAP and the Strom. So I would advise you or recommend to you to read that on the very experience of IAP. And I just wanted to add one thing that just kind of has made it more manageable for me is just kind of like the nature of the class. It's a very collaborative, helpful environment. So if you're ever like stuck on a problem, you have, there's no shortage of people that are willing to help and have the answers and the knowledge to kind of help you out. So that's something that's like, you know, it's not cutthroat. It's not super competitive people willing to help. And like from day one, Bruce told us, he's like, you are not competing with each other. He's like, you guys are a class. He's like, I want all of you guys to start as a class and to graduate as a class. He's like, I don't care how anyone does individually. And I thought that was, that was something that was, you know, really stuck with me and it's really held true throughout this year. So also one thing that helps like having taken some, some SCX courses, depending on the professor, you can actually take some courses as a listener or you don't take the course at all. But don't think that you're going to be able to not use those units. You're going to have to do those units in some other courses. But that actually like gave me a little bit of more flexibility. So I took the Chris Capsis course and the fall as a listener. So that gave me more flexibility towards my schedule to manage what was going on. So that can actually help you once you're here planning your course schedule. Great. Thanks everyone. Lots of good information. I'll just speak a little bit, maybe put some structure to some items that they were discussing. So we do have the traditional fall and spring semester. It was mentioned January IAP. IAP is an acronym independent activities period. So it's the term that MIT has for a winter session essentially. And our program is a part of a larger network called the scale network. And so there are other programs from around the world that offer supply chain management master's degrees as well. And so the additional students that come for that period are those students from that program. So it's a great networking opportunity. Classes are offered, but a lot of the way it's presented is in more of a non-traditional format with varying lectures, case competitions, things of that nature. The other item that Vitor mentioned is that many students, not just students applying and continuing with the blended program, but students applying to the residential program and entering that in the fall. There are some opportunities based on the fact that you did complete some of the online coursework to wave, take some alternatives. And the listener term, many people are familiar with more of the term auditing. So there's a lot of opportunity for that here as well outside of the curriculum so that you can still kind of gain the knowledge, but not necessarily be tied down quite so much to taking the course for credit. And MIT is really big on allowing you to explore that, especially towards the beginning of the semester. A lot of schools operate somewhat differently than MIT where you can explore and the date to drop a course is actually much later than what you would experience at other universities. So it allows you to kind of front load and try out different courses. So I will move on to another question, again, another question from one of our viewers. Lots of great questions. So what would you say is the biggest advantage of this program? Maybe a test to, you know, again, what led you to come here to our program? Do you think it's the knowledge that you learn being at MIT in general, networking? We'd love to hear, you know, what your thoughts are on this. Yeah, so I think, you know, you're getting these skills from like a world class institution. Everyone knows MIT and you'll leave here with that MIT brand, which everyone knows. But I think like ultimately you're going to be a part of that MIT like alumni network. And the people that you're part of the program with, they're going to be, you know, hopefully friends for life, some of them. But either way, you're going to be part of this like broader network that, you know, can only be beneficial in the future. And that's something that, you know, you'll be proud to be a part of. I'll be proud to be a part of it. And, you know, something that, you know, throughout the rest of my career, I know I can like rely on to reach out or, you know, just to kind of help me as part of my career. So I think that's probably one of the top advantages come through this program. So I guess for me, the biggest advantage has been the classmates that we have here. Like there's not much opportunity outside that you will still have a class of 40 people that are like 80 people. That's so close to your life that you spend time with them every day on a school project or like after school life, like going to a bar parties. So this experience is very unique. I guess after working for three years, you just kind of want to get back to school and experience how it feels like in school. So having this small and tight class really helps you to build strong relationships rather than just like simply networking. For me, that has been the biggest advantage of this program. Yeah, for me, like first MIT kind of being an engineer and like it's the kind of place that you dream being one day. So it's still kind of unreal at this point. But I would say like definitely the people as God mentioned, like you're never going to be the smartest person in the room and nobody really cares about being the smartest person in the room. So like everyone is so good that it just like leverages and forces you to give the best of yourself. And like you're definitely going to come out of here like a different person than your first came in. So I think like definitely and MIT overall is just going to leverage you and like in everything that you're going to do afterwards. Like career wise, you're going to come out in a definitely in a better way that you can mean. So like there's just upside. There's no downsides. You can argue with financial downsides, but that's actually not even a thing because if you do the math, like you notice a good investment for you. So overall, yeah, definitely you should come here. Obviously, there are a lot of advantages. And first is that when you're here, you belong to MIT community and it will stay with you for all your life. And I mean, not only a same program, but like bigger MIT community. There's all people who studied last several decades and will study in the future. So all will be part of this MIT community and we as well. And the second thing is people and our class and I mean residential and blended class. We're all so different and MIT is doing a great job with four minute diverse class of people, but everyone is great. And I'm here less than two months. And I can say that I already have really good friends, which will be my friends for my life. Yeah, so I would say the biggest advantage the group of people we have the team, the MIT family must say the sense of belonging you have to this place and these people and I think this relationship is going to last for the rest of our lives. Another thing is the opportunities we can explore. There are so many schools. There are so many opportunities you can go and learn everything. The third thing I would say is the knowledge which comes through this sense of belonging and the opportunities we have. So I think it's a amazing kind of a mixture of so many things which somebody can think of. Great, so the next question is somewhat specific and I believe may only apply to one of you but has anyone from the current batch cross registered for a class at Harvard. Is it manageable? What's your experience with it? I guess I'm the one Justin was talking about. Yeah, so like I did a cross registered a half semester course at Harvard this semester. The course subject is digital innovation and transformation. Since I will be working in the tech industry, I thought that would be a good class to sit in. So so far I think so a lot of people suggested that the logistics is going to be a problem transferring yourself from MIT to Harvard and actually have a class that ends five minutes before the Harvard class started. So I took Uber to the class, which I think is a great investment that to that can resolve your logistic problem. But if you do have time, it's also manageable to take the tea from E40 which is our men booting CTL to the Harvard Square and then walk 15 minutes to the HBS school. So content wise, I think it's definitely very different course listing. They are mainly focused on the case studies. So you definitely spend a lot more time reading the cases, but those cases are very interesting as well. So for this one specifically I'm taking it's very all the cases are very new dated from 2015 and after talking about the innovation in the digital industry. Very, I guess, educational for myself and 70% of your grade comes from participation. So be prepared to talk in the class that also, I guess, train you into deep thinking or critical critical thinking in the class itself. This has been a very rewarding experience for myself and a benefit being an MIT student to be able to cross register at Harvard for free. Great. Thank you so much. So we have just a little bit of time left so I want to ask one question. One last question. So we attested to obviously, you know, these are condensed pretty fast programs. I know the blood and students are only here for a month and they have to apply to graduate, which is pretty crazy. So we do have a very strong alumni network. So I was hoping that maybe you could just briefly attest to maybe some of the interactions you've had with alums so far. And maybe since you'll be alums in a few months, maybe something that you would plan in the future. Yes, so trying to think I guess one of my first interactions with an alum or alums was just prior to even applying to the program. So I reached out to two different people who had graduated a few years ago and just kind of, you know, talked to them, told them my kind of my background, what I was interested in. And then I just kind of asked about their experience and coming to the program and then their experience in transitioning back to the working world after graduation. And both people were just they were super, super helpful and, you know, more than willing to help. Even at that point, I was just a prospective student, but I had a really positive experience through those conversations. And, you know, those are things that are they're just going to continue on once year in the program and then afterwards. So I guess for me, my biggest impression is that even though I was not really actively looking for networking with alums for job seeking, most the information session came to here are led by our alums. Those are super great people that they're like they're always happy to help. If you reach out to them through LinkedIn, they're very responsive and gives you a lot insider insights on drop hunting. So it's definitely a great experience with our alums. Yeah, for me, kind of started early too. So like in the beginning, so MIT has a great web platform for alums to give advice like if you want to review of your resume, if you want to make some mock interviews. So it has a great platform for you to do that. So in the beginning, I was rejected kind of a couple of recruitment process. So that that's going to happen a lot, but don't worry. And so I wanted to see like if there's anything wrong with my CV. So I went to the platform like interacted and they do a good match because first they take into consideration your home country. So they actually matched me with with an alumni from the program and actually also from Brazil. So it was great to have that interaction and see that people even after the program, they're still willing to give a lot of their time just to help people. There are now a city in the program. And as Gov mentioned, you're going to have a lot of interactions with alum that are now working with the companies that you're hopefully going to also going to work for. So yeah, I think the mindset you get out of MIT is also like the sense of community and sense of belonging even after out of the program. As a blended student, I connected mostly with the last year blended students and already alumni. So yeah, I talked to many of them before applying during the application process and now we are in contact with many of them. And when I was already here, I connected with last year class president to share experience. So you have a lot of opportunities to communicate with alumni. And I believe when we graduate, we also will continue and we'll be open for help for all future classes. So my interaction with alum, one of my alum started when I was preparing for moving in and he helped me a lot. And during the IEP period, I was able to connect with a few of them. It was super amazing to know these great people. They are willing to help and guide and advise. So and when you need that help, we will try to reciprocate the same. Great. Well, that is all the time that we have. I wanted to thank all of our viewers for joining us today. I wanted to thank all of you for sharing your experiences. If you do have follow up questions you want to reach out to us for residential, please email SCM at MIT.edu for blended. Specifically, you can reach out to SCMB at MIT.edu as well. Thank you so much.