All right - well let's go ahead and get
started. thank you everyone for for
joining us for this webinar.
my name is Paasha Madhavi I'm a professor
here at McCourt as well as the director
of the Masters in science and data
science and public policy. so what I'd
like to do very briefly is to just give
you a bit of an intro to the program,
talk about the curriculum, and then we'll
take some questions about the program
itself before getting back into student
engagement opportunities career
development and admissions logistics. so
just to give you a overview of the
program you know as you can tell from
from our our site in our documents we
are really thrilled about this new
master's program in it and it is one
that we envision that will combine
cutting-edge analytical skills from
statistics and computer science with
governance skills from political science
economics and public policy and our core
philosophy is that we believe that
investing and data science and physical
reasoning augments a strong
understanding of governance and policy.
so this is why we have the combination
of those two fields of data science and
and public policy. so let me give you a
brief overview of the of the curriculum
and then what we envision for this in
this program. it's a 39 credit hour
curriculum and that really means is 13
semester length courses. and it's about
what happened half between your core
evidence-based public policy and public
policy analysis and and data science
including civic data science as well as
a number of electives. so the core really
begins with the quantitative social
science backbone and there's two
semester lengths courses and accelerated
statistics. so getting diving into
econometrics, fiscal analysis,
reasoning over the course of the first
year. in parallel we've got the
foundations of public policy these are
also these are three different semester
lengths courses intermediate
microeconomics it's a core course that
we have and we teach it at McCourt then
we have our public policy process course
as well as Public Management these round
out our three public policy core courses.
in addition we've got a four semester
length core of
civic data science courses so while
you're taking and in the beginning
semester accelerate stats as well as a
public policy process you're also doing
foundations of data science and that's
really an intro to data analytics. in the
second semester is the data science
sequence continues with things like
introduction in continuation of
introductory data analytics before
getting into massive data fundamentals,
data visualization, statistical learning right.
now in the second year of the program
here's where we have a bit more
flexibility with the added choice of two
electives on top of two other core
courses which are the data ethics and
ethical legal contexts for uses of data
that's split into two half semester
lengths courses and and machine learning
which is taught in the second year now
on top of that you have the chance to do
electives and here's just a short list
where you would pick from two of these
of these electives the network science
this one that we have natural language
processing text analysis machine
learning the machine learning - data
visualization - pattern recognition and a
host of other electives and really is
any elective course that either
McCourt school policy already offers or
the data analytics program in computer
science now the last part of this are
these data science and action seminars
these are kind of a less of a class and
really more of a speaker series will be
bring in people from the DC area and
beyond that will be talking about how
data science impacts both the public
sector and government, consulting, and
private sector, the multilateral sector
NGOs -- you know World Bank, IMF, UN, etc as well as other nonprofits and the media
so that's a chance to see real leaders
in data science literally in action
right so that's sort of the basic
overview of the program and really the
ideal graduate
this program as you can see will be
somebody who will be fluent in
understanding you know software
understanding data science in
statistical reasoning but will also be
able to work it and process it in the
context of governance so we'll talk more
about employment opportunities later on
but before doing so I'd like to stop
there and see if I can answer any
questions that you all have we've got
this great - an a tool through zoom that
I can can use to to track people's
questions or you can type them in via
chat. I'll just give you a few moments to
pose some questions and then we'll kind
of get right into it
okay so while you're thinking of
questions I've got a few in here already
so please again feel free to keep keep
asking while I go through the first the
first two or three so the first one here
is asking about the program that the
timeline question is is this the first
year the program has been offered the
answer to that is yes so next year will
be our first class or first cohort for
this specific degree however we've been
offering the Masters of Public Policy
for many many years the data analytics
program in computer science has been
offering their masters for about four or
five years we have a host of other
masters programs that McCourt so this is
the first year for this master's of
science but it's it's building on the
strengths from both the data analytics
master's in computer science and our MPP
both of which have been around for a
long long time and maybe the courses
that we're offering are are already in
existence we would send those within
those degrees a second question we have
is does the MSD SPP categorize itself as
a stem course yes so we are stem
certified that's gonna be very important
I think for a number of students so we
are currently a stem certified Masters
of Science okay so uh get into question
number three question is do we have to
have a base on Python programming
language so the internet question is is
in a way yes and no it's great to have
exposure to programming wings just like
Python we we expect that students have
some familiarity with R really more
familiar with R then than with Python
even though we'll be doing a
both and at least some exposure to
Python and for those who don't have a
background in either we will have a pre
semester boot camp so to speak and
before the year starts
that will get students up to speed
before the fall semester begins now
we've got that boot camp but I encourage
me that the students who've emailed me
directly to get going with some of these
there are a host of great online options
for for learning about about these
programs and programming languages
rather okay a fourth fourth question
here so I have a quick question about
the curriculum are any of the courses
offered at the PhD level for example can
I take intermediate microeconomics at
the PhD level well so the answer is no
to that we we are these courses are
taught specifically for McCourt students
and McCourt masters level students now
our intermediate macro is effectively
the same curriculum as as many people
would get and at other early-stage
master's in economics now if you wanted
to do more you could go outside the
program but that wouldn't count towards
the classes that we that we offer but
Georgetown has a fantastic economics
department and that's one that you could
certainly explore while you're a student
here at Georgetown but again that
doesn't wouldn't apply for our that
wouldn't apply for your credit
requirements all right next question
about how big are you expecting the
program to be well we currently envision
the first Corps we'd a great answer
search question but we really envision
the first cohort to be somewhere between
you know 25 or so students maybe as high
as up to 50 students now that's just a
the first first go now of course in the
second year that's that well you'll have
both first year students and second year
students ultimately growing to about a
25 to 50 a 50 person per per cohort
program but we don't know there's a lot
of uncertainty in that and and
predicting and predicting uncertainty of
course maybe one thing you'll be you'll
be learning about in some of our
physical reasoning courses all right let
me turn to the
the chat see there's another question
here are the data science class is part
of McCourt or are they taken through the
data science computer science department
so these all of the classrooms that I've
talked about are fully tied to this
specific program the MS-DSPP they are
taught by a mix of McCourt professors
and computer science professors so the
classes themselves are tied to the
McCourt and to the Data Analytics so they are unique to this program but the they are
designed and taught by a mix of 50 50 50
% McCourt or so 50 percent data science
and computer science so that's that's a
pretty even even split or so let's see
so let's get to the next question here
yes so well a question about job
opportunities and this field especially
for international students that I'll
leave for for later because we will get
into that especially the next one how
involved were the leaders in industry
and creating the policy with best
standard procedures in mind especially
putting students on track
post-graduation that's a great question
about how we reform this program and
designed this curriculum yes we did
indeed consult with many leaders in
industry especially here in the DC area
to craft many of these and design the
curriculum we also include another of
examples and and and kind of many many
components of each course by consulting
with with leaders in industry we are
incredibly tied to and sensitive to the
idea that we want to make sure that
everything we're teaching are going to
we'll be putting our students on the
best possible track after graduation to
secure some great employment outcomes
that like I said again we'll be talking
about further further on all right so
we've got to let's see one more question
I think I miss here have previous MPP
students been able to use their proof
upon their foreign language skills is
that possible in this program yes you
know this this is a great question we we
have a host of
program you know officers here at
McCourt specifically that help with with
writing and that could be beneficial for
both students who are using learning
English as a second language as well as
for those who for whom English is the
first language but for many of our
international students programs like
these have been really fantastic for
improving foreign language skills
especially in the writing component and
writing a policy briefs and memos and so
on and on top of that of course being in
in-house in a department like this
really does improve one foreign language
ability I've seen that firsthand from
from my own experience as a master's
student you know many many years ago
before a PhD but it really really helps
having the community that has a nice mix
of English in a second language in
English is the first language students.
Right, and you get to one last question
unless there are others that pop up so
MPP class of 2011 joining from London UK
any plans for former graduates of
McCourt to enroll without repeating the
MPP yeah this is another good question
if so those of you who are have taken
MPP courses or the like there is the the
option of course to be able to test out
of the policy process the public
management especially if you have taken
those courses so those who have have
done that can can certainly do that
leave more room for electives now that's
just a small component of the program
just the two or three initial core
courses that are from McCourt that does
not apply to accelerated stats those are
very different classes. okay let me turn
to one one last question this is one
that that I typically received from via
email from from former students and
prospective students rather so the the
level of depth that is is covered in
terms of data analytical tools I guess
one way to raise this question is in
what depths
are data analytical tools and techniques
covered so the answer to that question
is they are covered in great great depth
these statistics courses are going to be
taught in R they're going to make
extensive use of Python the foundations
of data science course that's the first
semester course will cover command line
and Python programming with
introductions to data structures data
manipulation and programming paradigms
the second semester intro the data
analytics course is going to cover
sequel as well as provide an intro to
cloud-based computing and then our
courses in the second year will address
tools for parallel processing and their
implementation and that's things like
Hadoop spark MapReduce etc well cover
machine learning that's mostly going to
be R & Python and data visualization
which is mostly R as well as a little
bit of Java you can be exposed to
tableau as well alright so those courses
especially some of the electives and
some of the cores in the second year
taught primarily by computer scientists
as well as public policy professors that
have a background in CS or data science
right okay great well thank you all for
for your questions
these have been great if you continue to
have them please do do you feel free to
pitch them in our Q&A or in the chat
with that I'd like to turn it over to to
Jackie she'll be talking about our
student engagement opportunities as well
as career development for talking about
some admissions logistics right I'll
take it away Jackie. thanks Pasha
hi everyone my name is Jacci Clevenger
I'm the Associate Director of Student
Affairs here at the McCourt School
and like Professor Madhavi said I'm
gonna be walking you through a little
bit about what student life is like here
at the McCourt School at Georgetown
University in Washington DC in general
for those of you who might be coming to
Washington DC for the first time I'm
just gonna walk you through some of the
other things that you can get involved
in while you're here so the first thing
to talk about is the tremendous
community we have here at the McCourt
School. you know the McCourt School of
Public Policy came into existence as a
school in 2013
from a very generous gift from one of
our alums however we've really existed
for decades before that in a couple of
different entities and like Professor
Madhavi said we've been offering our
degrees for a very long time and what
that means is creating a very robust
active and engaged community here for
our students across all of our different
programs so while you're here there's a
number of different student
organizations that you're more than
welcome to be a part of and these are
open to students from all of our
different academic programs everything
from topical based student organizations
on education policy, energy, and the
environment, food, and health policy, women
and gender issues, etc - or regionally
based student organizations with student
organizations focusing on Latin America,
South Asia, East Asia, and Africa. two
other different organizations focusing
on journalism we have what's called the
Georgetown Public Policy Review,  which
is a student-run, student-led online
journal that any of our students are
welcome to submit articles to and maybe
part of the editing process we also have
a organization called report policy and
practice which is basically our own
in-house international development firm
that takes on different projects in
developing countries and then works on
them so right now actually they're
working with a few different
organizations in the Dominican Republic
and education issues working with
different school systems down there
and exploring some environmental issues
after the recent hurricanes and how
they can be of assistance in the DR so
lots of really great opportunities for
you to get involved while you are here at the
student organization level beyond that
one of the best things about coming to
graduate school here at Georgetown and
in Washington DC is really the exposure
you're going to be getting to tremendous
policy leaders you know from - these are
folks that are going to be teaching your
classes your course instructors are
experts in their field and with your
elective classes you also have the
opportunity to take classes from those
who maybe are working 9:00 to 5:00 and a
very cool and interesting job and coming
to
classes at night a good example of that
is one of our one of our most popular
professors it's E.J. Dionne -- who's a
Washington Post reporter that teaches
all about political journalism who
better to learn from than someone who
does that during the day lots of other
options very similar everything else
from guest lecturers coming into your
classes to talk to you about their
experiences we have policy dinners which
literally are going to a very nice
restaurant down in the Georgetown
waterfront and having a you know nice
intimate dinner with you and eight of
your friends and someone who works at
the State Department or the Justice
Department or a great nonprofit or
something
something' similiar in the area we
have a lot of different series where
we're bringing in experts to come and
talk to our students about a variety of
different topics - whether that be leadership,
whether that be data
whether that be about policy innovations
etc we're always bringing people to
campus and as you can see from our
pictures these are just a few examples
of some of the more recent speakers that
we've had this past year one of the
great innovations that came out of us
becoming the record school of public
policy in 2013 was the development of
the of the Georgetown Institute for
Politics and Public Service (GUPolitics) which we
just call "GUPolitics" and this is really
an opportunity for our students to
really dive deep into the political
world that is going to impact them no
matter where they end up working in the
policy world it's kind of
difficult to avoid politics no matter
where you're going to work and so we
want to make sure that students really
understand it and know how to operate
within that system
so GUPolitics for every semester
brings in five fellows and these are
fellows who are on campus with us for a
whole semester long worth of activities
they're doing discussion groups every
week with our students their students
have really fun field trips to their
offices we actually just launched the
names of our fellows for the spring
semester so I'd encourage you to go to
the book or website so you can see
what's going be for the for the spring
but past fellows include Governor
Martin O'Malley after he dropped out of the
Democratic nomination race for president
in 2016 he came to us as a fellow we've
had the former president of Costa Rica
Laura Chinchilla
who's the first female president of
Costa Rica she's actually a MPP alumnus
 at Georgetown. we've had the former
Governor of Puerto Rico we've had people
from buzzfeed we've had people from both
the Republican and Democratic side of
the aisle so it's a really great way for
our students to kind of get to work with
people who are doing tremendous things
in their job and kind of you know tapped
into their networks and their resources
and explore new new ideas I also wanted
to talk to you guys a little bit about
research opportunities here at the
McCord school um you know that's
definitely something that's very a very
big interest of our students and we are
lucky to have a number of different
research centers here on campus that we
operate that a lot of our faculty and
run result but we're able to hire
students as research assistants each
year so as you can see on this page
these are just example a few a few of
the research centers that we have
here at the McCourt School and recommend
you guys go to our website and see the
other ones that we're offering lots of
really great opportunities for our
students on the top right on this slide
you'll see something called the Baker
Center for Leadership and Governance
this is a center that really exposes our
students to different you know
leadership issues that they can be
thinking about and we challenge them
every year to come up with innovative
ideas to policy issues that they see
around the world and with the Baker
Center we have students apply each year
and we select five figure innovators who
are given a $20,000 grant to really just
go follow an idea that they have some
kind of policy innovation they get to
pick the scale and scope of whatever
that innovation is going to be and we
just try to provide them the resources
to be able to do do it and be able to
research it so for our students that are
very independently minded and had
different passions that they want to
explore
well I here at the McCourt School being
a Baker Innovator is a really cool
opportunity that we're happy to provide
so Professor Madhavi mentioned this a
little bit we're happy to answer some
questions about this leader but I wanted
to mention a few things about the career
development here through the McCourt School for you guys to be thinking about and I
always say you know during orientation
or there's never too early to start
thinking about career development while
you're in grad school really it should
start the minute you step on campus it's
not something that you want to leave
until you know May of your second year
in the program when you know you need a
job so we really provide so many
different opportunities for our students
to network with alumni and practitioners
we offer so many different opportunities
for our students to intern both during
academic year and during the summer
we're hosting workshops every single day
about different employers different
skills salary negotiations how to
interview everything everything you can
think of we're offering opportunities
for our students the real challenge is
on the students to participate in these
programs you know we're going to we're
going to bring you to the water it's up
to you then drink so we really try to
get you guys thinking about your career
as early on as possible
so that when you do graduate you're kind
of as well prepared as it possibly can
be to me that next step and I often do
get asked where our graduates go after
their time here at the port school at
Georgetown University so this is just
some data from last year's graduating
class of 2016 --  naturally the 2017 data is
not available yet, but as you can see an
overwhelming majority of our students
were employed within six months of
graduation as you when you look at the
employment sector you'll see there's
three big fields there's public
nonprofit and private sector those are
really the big three areas where we see
our students going into and to be honest
depending on the year depending on
what's going on in the world those
numbers kind of you know can change up a
little bit in flip-flop and maybe one
year the private sector is higher the
next year public sectors higher and that
really just depends on what's going on
is the government higher
is an election year as there are hiring
freeze how is the economy doing are more
private sector organizations hiring
students who have public policy
experience etc and to be honest the
reality is is that most of our students
are going to travel between these three
fields during the case during the course
of their career you know you're not
going to be in the same job for the rest
of your life it just doesn't really work
like that anymore so we want to prepare
you with the skills and the network and
the know-how to be able to make those
transitions really seamlessly and then
the last fact on the bottom is just
geographic location where our students
end up and just given that we are here
in Washington DC and that there are so
many opportunities here we do see a
majority of our students do stay in
Washington DC after they graduate at
least in the short term we do have a
number of students that go to other
cities in the United States and go
abroad to work after they graduate but
then you know later on in your career I
think those numbers kind of expand as
students are deciding where if they want
to go back home for their careers who
our students we want to travel abroad
but the majority will stay in Washington at
least in the short term okay thanks
Jackie
and we're transitioning now into the
admissions portion of the presentation
I'm Lindsey Monson I'm the assistant
director of admissions here at McCourt
so the admissions committee does take a
very holistic approach when we review
applications so we are going to look at
everything that you submit to us just to
get an overall feel for the strength of
your application so we do require the
application obviously a 90 dollar
application fee we'll accept a resume or
CV it's up to you academic statement
this is a very important piece of the
application because it's the only time
we get to hear from the applicant in
their own words so really kind of
explaining why you're interested in
pursuing a master's degree specifically
at McCourt at this point in your
professional or academic career
highlighting your passion for policy and
how you see the skills that you learn in
McCourt to help you in your career
moving forward so that's a really
important piece there's a question on
the website for each program that we
offer that's specific to that program so
make sure you read that carefully and
start thinking about that because we do
you know take that heavily into
consideration so just tell the story and
why it makes sense for you to join
McCourt we also want to make sure you
know you're a good fit for us but that
we're also a good fit for you so that's
a good time for us to to read that when
you make that determination
so we also require transcripts from all
the universities that you've attended
these need to be official transcripts
that directly from your university to us
in a sealed envelope they cannot be
issued to the student international
transcripts also need to come directly
from the university if they require
translations the transcripts should be
either sent from the university to the
certified translator or you can pick up
the transcript but it needs to be in a
sealed envelope issue to McCourt not
the student to get to the translator for
translation
once they don't need to certify that
they received it in the envelope and the
originals along with the certified
translations directly to McCourt.
we do require to a TOEFL or IELTS score if
you're a non-native English speaker, three
letters of recommendation and you prefer
at least one academic and one
professional as possible if you have not
been in school in a while and you prefer
to do three professional sets okay we'd
really just want you to submit the
strongest letters from the people that
know you the best and who'd speak to
your abilities and the greatest steps
that you do to three professional if
they could speak to your academic skill
sets they've observed in a professional
setting that's helpful so critical
thinking, writing, communication, analysis
that sort of thing and then finally
standardized test score for the data
science program we will accept the GRE
or GMAT but keep in mind that the GRE is strongly
preferred. prerequisites for the program
we do recommend a college-level
calculus course if you haven't taken it
the type of application will probably
look at other quantitative courses and
math courses that you've taken and we
would recommend that you take it prior
to beginning the program and that in the
fall and then also recommended is some
it's a technical ability so either
academic or professional experience in
computer science, advanced mathematics, or
statistics.and then as Dr. Madhavi said
earlier familiarity with programming
languages such as R and Python is also
recommended work experience there is no
work experience requirement for this
program however we don't really have any
data for the data science but for MPP we
do see our students coming in with about
two to three years of work experience on
average doesn't have to necessarily be
policy related so we see students coming
straight from undergrad students so that
worked a few years of a completely
different occupation not policy related
and are reasoning is a way to pivot into
policy and then also students who've
always known they wanted to do policy
work and have that experience and I'm
using it as a um and I guess I will
enter the this question conceivable to
my section but is there a minimum GRE
score for the data science we do not
have any numerical cut-offs so again we
take a very holistic approach we don't
have any data for the data science yet
going by  our MPP we do have
averages so for verbal it's a 159 and
then for quantity did it to 160 and then
analytical writing is a 4.2 we probably
will see on average the quantitative
section being higher just because the
nature of the applicants to that program
but again we don't have that yet
and then application deadlines are
priority deadline is January 15th 2018
the new year so if you're interested in
being considered for merit-based
scholarships you should apply by this
deadline we will give you until
mid-february to get the rest of your
application materials in so as long as
you submit your application by January
15th and everything else arrives in our
office time in February
you're still considered under the
priority deadline so we'll be sending on
an email and late January to notify
applicants that they're missing anything
so it gives you time to
troubleshoot and reach out to
universities and the transcriptions
going missing for some reason and then
our final extended deadline is April 1
and that the last date that we will accept
new applications and then here
is our key context for the data science
program we have professor madhavi's
email address on here so if you guys
have questions feel free to reach out to
him and then also my office is you can
consider that as a point of contact so
that's my direct email address and then
the general McCourt admissions so feel
free to reach out with any questions
that you have after the webinar we are
more than happy to help so with that
we'll open it up to more questions I
believe okay so we had one that says
I've done a TOEFL and GRE let's see
if I do the test again do you advise to
apply ASAP
or okay so I think this is more of an
individual question so I will get back
to you offline about this just to kind
of give you some individual guidance so
I'll respond after the webinar is over
so we actually had one question I'm
gonna address real quick if that's okay
with you Paasha
we got a student asked if the Masters of
Science and data science for Health
Policy is a good fit if they're very
interested in international policy and
they mentioned the Walsh School of
Foreign Service which is another another
school at Georgetown University I would
really encourage all applicants to
whatever program you're thinking about
wanting to a Georgetown to really look
at the core curriculum I know one thing
that you really need to consider for the
Masters of Science in data
science for public policy for of your 10
core courses are going to be taught by professors
out of the computer science department
that is going to be a very heavy you
know data and computer science direction
for the program comparably you know if
you are in the Masters of Public Policy
program you would not be taking those
courses or if you are taking pursuing
the Master's in International
Development Policy which is another
masters
that McCourt principle offers so I just
really encourage you to look at the core
courses at all of our programs to kind
of see which one makes the most sense to
you you know the data science program is
it's very special and we're really
really excited about offering it when we
want to just make sure that students can
understand with the curriculum. that's
great thank you very much Jackie I I
want to add an answer a question from
earlier just to get into more details
about employment outcomes with this field or with this program
again since we don't know it's a
brand-new program we don't have the same
count list that we would for for the MPP
MIDP and others but we have put together
a list of potential employment outcomes
based on our own research and based on
our own conversation with those outside
the university now this run through some
of these some briefly before getting to
the next couple questions so the
employment outcomes would actually like
to think of it and split up into five
different sectors and you're really
covering those three sectors that Jacci
pointed out so in the consulting side
the private sector you know we envision
jobs such as the following the Deloitte
here in DC has a data analytics
department and they are recruiting for
for data analysts over at Deloitte the
same is true at Civis or Cambridge
Analytica they're both in the political
space by trying to gather political
information for politicians and
candidates. Google in DC has positions
for data analysts, Blue Labs, the Analyst
Institute and a host of other type of
boutique you know consulting firms that
are involved in political data science
the second sector really is public and
government and here the kinds of jobs
that that we've seen as people are
trying to recruit for are things that
revolve around being staffed in the
chief information office that exists at
a number of federal level as well as
state and municipal level government
departments such as the Office for
Management & Budget, Department of Defense, State.gov it's really getting some
traction here
the municipal level mayors and cities
have their own chief information office
and officer. so the one in DC is called The
Lab at DC that Mayor Bowser's put
together but a great opportunity and a
number of our you know it would be a
great great potential employment outcome
for a number of our students there. the
third is the multilateral kind of sector
so the World Bank in particular is now
hiring data scientists, and the IMF is
following suit as well as the UN. on the
nonprofit side to the fourth Senate
sector anything in flash NGO -Pew Research Center, ACLU, DataKind, the Heritage
Foundation, AEI, all of these
organizations are looking to recruit
people with data science skills to be
able to apply them to a lot of the
policy questions and policy problems
that they have and then lastly the media
this is one that I'm sure many of you
have been paying attention to places
like 538, Politico, Vox, Axios, etc where
you can really see some of that data
science work at the forefront of a lot
of stories that are being reported in
the political space. so one one other
questions let's see here just going
through the chat with all will all
students do the first of the pre first
semester of bootcamp that I mentioned
when would that begin no this is we have
really something in here that's an
advanced math camp so to speak that is
at the moment optional I like to suggest
that everyone take it I recommend doing
so I I did the same when I did my PhD
and my Master's even though I'd already
had a lot of experience in the field but
it's a great way to get some meet some
of your cohort early on as well as get
settled in before classes actually begin
it's not formally required, but I often
recommend it strongly. let's see okay
lastly I did not take calculus in
college but and since completed a fairly
comprehensive Coursera course but that'd
be sufficient for your prerequisites or
do you require work done with the credit
cramping institution so for the calc
recomment we have it
as Lindsay had pointed out it's not a
formal prerequisite we recommend cause
level calculus course so your work at
Coursera is you know would fit the bill. I still recommend continuing on and
doing more work especially if you're
lacking on the programming side or you
know other more advanced mathematical
coursework so again things that could be
done online or something through
Coursera will allow this linear algebra
so on and so forth
but of course you've taken does sound
sufficient for for our recommended calc
requirement okay with that I think I'm
going to turn it over to Lindsey and Jackie. I think there are no more questions on
on admissions and admissions logistics.
sure so you see the first one is can I
send my transcript before completing the
online application the answer is yes so
I'm assuming your materials as soon as
you can we will hold them until you
submit your application and then we'll
add them to the application so you know
don't wait to the last minute to do that
because the chances are good especially
with the holiday coming up it might take
a little time for documents to arrive
and then if you already have your
documents right when you submit I'll see
this just don't see it's all of a
shorter time to process them and upload
them so that's definitely definitely
helpful and definitely encouraged let's
see so there's one question - does the MS-DSPP have
concentrations of policy. that's actually
that's a good question we don't have
specific concentrations or tracks for
any of our policy degrees. it's really up
to you to decide how you want to use
your electives and I imagine this is
probably where that question is coming
from um you know we have some students
that decide they want to really target a
specific policy area of interest you
know maybe take all their classes on
health policy etc and you're more than
welcome to do that some students want to
be more of a generalist and take a
little bit of everything
some want to be more skills based and so
we'll take more skills focus classes on
their electives
and it is completely up to you and the
way the curriculum is designed is really
that you're gonna have a little bit of
time while you're here as a student to
meet with your advisors to meet with
your faculty directors and map out which
which curriculum in which courses really
make the most sense for you depending on
where you see yourself going after you
graduate okay and then there's another
question about asking about the priority
deadlines and if when you're going to be
notified of your decision so if you
apply by the January 15th deadline you
have until mid-february to get your
documents and our goal is to issue
decisions along with scholarship
decisions so you'll receive both at the
same time by early to mid March so
that's when you can expect to receive
that if you submit by the 15th if you
submit after the 15th it's more of a
rolling decision rendering process. so
you will probably try to get decisions
out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis just
depends on our volume and then we have I
haven't formally completed two
microeconomics prerequisite can I take
it at McCourt before the fall semester
the answer is yes so basically you can
apply and you can receive a conditional
admission that you haven't taken it so
we might look at other quantitative
coursework that you've taken oh so I
guess this is though for the 
microeconomics prerequisite I'm talking
about for all of our MPP and MIDP
programs. I guess Paasha I don't know if
you want to answer that question is that
is that a prerequisite for the data
science no okay it's not a formal
prerequisite in the same sense so we
don't have it binding but it certainly
is you know if you were planning on
taking that course I definitely
recommend doing it you know the more
more you can do before before starting
formally the better okay great and then
are there opportunities for application
fee waivers yes there are there we do
automatically waive application fees for
certain organizations so for example the
Peace Corps volunteers or AmeriCorps
volunteers so there's a list of those
website and we also do accept need-based
requests so if that is what your would
like to do you can send your resume
along kind of with your an outline of
your request for me it up to the McCourt
Admissions email address and the
admissions committee will take a look at
that and let you know if they can waive
it I would really encourage anyone that
has very specific admissions questions
there's been a few in here
I'm definitely get in contact with our Admissions office we're used to you know
students that definitely have different
timelines that they have to deal with in
different situations so the earlier that
you can give us a heads-up about what
your situation is the more we're able to
help you so I just really encourage you
to reach out so we can help you as much
as we can what one question I can you
know answer here just again can the
question is can I confirm the MS-DSPP is stem opt eligible, ie for the full
24 month extension yes so our our
program is indeed certified them at if
you need the the CIP code and this I
think will apply to a number of students
who are applying outside the u.s. the
CIP code I believe is thirty point three
zero zero one that's the the stem
certification CIP code for the program
all right, I think that's all the
questions if we haven't answered your
question live we will follow up with you
after this so we just want to thank you
guys all for joining us this afternoon
we really appreciate you taking the time
to learn more about the court and our
new Data Science for Public Policy
program
