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White welcome screen with navy blue text that says, "Welcome to Brandeis Online Information Session." Thomas Screnci, Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment, appears in the corner of the screen.
Thomas Screnci: Hello, and welcome to this recorded general information session for Brandeis online. Let us begin.
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Screen changes to a page with contact information for Tom Screnci (tscrenci@brandeis.edu) and Jess Ronan, the Senior Admissions Coordinator (jessicaronan@brandeis.edu). The general email address, online@brandeis.edu, is listed at the bottom of the slide.
Thomas Screnci: So I'm your host. I'm Tom Screnci. I'm the Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment for Brandeis Online. My colleague, Jess Ronan, is the Senior Associate Coordinator, excuse me, for Brandeis Online. Both of us handle any outreach and admissions, processes and questions. So please feel free to email us directly through our email accounts listed there. You can, of course, call us or email us at the phone number at the bottom and the email address at the bottom.
We both check that general email account. So of those 3 email addresses, you will reach either one of us any of those methods, so please feel free to reach out to us any way you feel most comfortable.
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Slide switches to display the agenda in navy blue text: About Brandeis Online, Why Brandeis?, Admissions Info, and Next Steps.
Thomas Screnci: So to begin. Let's cover the agenda. We're going to be discussing just general information about Brandeis online. Why, you might choose Brandeis compared to other programs, and then finally discuss the admissions, information, some admissions, tips, and then some next steps as well. Traditionally, there is a Q&A session for live sessions. Of course you can always email us any questions as you think of them during the session.
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Slide switches to say "Brandeis Online Overview." Bullet points below say: Master's Degrees = 10-13 classes, Master's certificates = 4 courses, four 10-week sessions, moving to five sessions per year in 2025, rolling admissions, take up to two courses before applying for a program, can finish in 12-18 months.
Thomas Screnci: So about Brandeis Online. So at Brandeis Online, all of our programs are fully online. They're all asynchronous, meaning there are no set meeting times — going to dive more into detail about that t little bit later on. Almost all of our master's degrees are 10 courses, with exception to our new Jewish professional leadership program, which is 13 courses. We do offer quite a bit of master's certificates, which are all 4 courses as well.
Currently, as it is the beginning of February 2025, all of our sessions currently are 10 weeks long, offering 4 sessions throughout the year. Later this summer we're going to be moving to 5 sessions a year, which is going to be 8 week sessions, allowing us to have 5 sessions a year, and allowing you, as a student, to graduate and complete your program even faster
Admissions is always rolling, meaning as your applications are completed, we make decisions and we try to make decisions very quickly. So it's definitely a big piece of our process here. You can take up to 2 courses without even applying for a program. So as a non-matriculated or a first-time student with Brandeis online, you can take a course without being a part of any official program.
Most programs can be completed in 12 to 18 months as well. So really enabling you to get your certificate, get your degree in a timely manner.
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Slide switches to list new bullet points: 98% of our students are working full-time while in a program. 12:1 student-faculty ratio. Average salary increase of 25% by alum at time of graduation.
Thomas Screnci: We are really designed for the working professional. As you see there, 90% of our students are working full time we do offer part-time and full time options. Part-time can be as little as one course at a time, one course per session, but you can do full time, which can be 2 or 3 sessions, 2 or 3 courses per session, rather.
We intentionally keep our class sizes small, average classes around 10 to 12 students. So we definitely have the kind of build a tight-knit, you know, engaging community in all of our classes.
We do have a, you know, significant salary increases for the the average of 25%. For most of our students. You know, students might be coming in as new graduates as midyear later career people. So obviously, things can change based on what people's goals are. Maybe they're looking for a promotion for a new job to learn new skills. But these are some, you know, important, just general overview tips about Brandeis Online.
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Slide switches to an overview of programs. Master's Certificates listed are Cheminformatics, Drug Discovery Informatics, Genomics, Healthcare Analytics, Jewish Professional Leadership, Digital Accessibility, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Agile Project Management, Project Management, UX Research. Master's Degrees listed are Bioinformatics (MS), Business Analytics (MS), Digital Marketing and Design (MS), Jewish Professional Leadership (MA), Project and Program Management (MS), Software Engineering (MSE), User-Centered Design (MS).
Thomas Screnci: So our programs have expanded in the last couple of months, we include quite a variety of master's certificates and master's degrees, as you can see here, all of our master's certificates are stackable and associated with a Master's degree. So if you wanted to start with a certificate and then roll those credits into a degree you absolutely absolutely can. So that's something to consider here.
All of our programs, again, are asynchronous. So there are no set meeting times. You can complete them at your own pace on a weekly basis. Materials are posted weekly. There's not a, you know, session, long materials list given to you. It's posted on a weekly basis. So really enabling you to kind of work on your your materials bit by bit.
These is a list of all of our master's certificates and our master's degrees. We have been growing our micro credentials non-credit courses as well. So if you're looking for professional development opportunities, we do offer those as well. So please feel free to email us to inquire more about those opportunities.
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Slide changes to list Bioinformatics Master's Certificates and required courses. Cheminformatics Master's Certificate courses are RBIF 100: Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python; RBIF 102: Molecular Biology, Genetics and Disease; RBIF 101: Structural Bioinformatics; and RBIF 110: Cheminformatics. Drug Discovery Informatics Master's Certificates courses are RBIF 100: Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python; RBIF 101: Structural Bioinformatics; RBIF 106: Drug Discovery and Development; and RBIF 111: Biomedical Statistics in R. Genomics Master's Certificate courses are RBIF 100: Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python; RBIF 102: Molecular Biology, Genetics and Disease; RBIF 109: Biological Sequence Analysis; and RBIF 111: Biomedical Statistics in R.
Thomas Screnci: So I wanted to spotlight the bioinformatics, certificates and degrees to kind of really emphasize the stackability, the pathways you can we offer for you as a student. So these are 3 master's certificates or bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, drug discovery, informatics, and genomics, as you would see from these 3 certificates there was a lot of similarities in the courses. RBIF 100 is required for all of them. It's also required for the Bioinformatics Master's Degree, and you'll see a lot of other similarities between some of those courses as well. Again, all of our certificates are 4 courses. They're all stackable into our Master's degree. So if I move to the next slide. You will see that for this, just using bioinformatics as an example. Excuse me.
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Slide changes to show a graphic. Three smaller circles on one side represent each bioinformatics master's certificate, and they're all connected to a larger circle, which represents the Bioinformatics master's degree.
Thomas Screnci: The courses in genomics, chemicals, and drug discovery are all part of the required curriculum for bioinformatics. So if you completed those 12 credits, those 4 courses, all those credits would be applicable towards your master's degree in bioinformatics. So you would complete those 4 classes. Then just have 6 more classes to go to earn your Master's degree. So maybe you wanted to start in bits and pieces. Maybe you wanted to earn a certificate first, st you know, whatever your pathway or your goals are, this really allows you to make the most use of your time, of your, of your options in our degree pathways.
This is also definitely important to emphasize here. This is the same for all of our programs of all those certificates that were listed in the previous slide. There are similar pathways where you can stack your certificate into a degree. So whether it be digital marketing and design user center design, one of the other programs. You can stack similar certificates into the degree so definitely. Probably one of the 1st reasons in our why Brandeis part of this session is the stackability of our of our programs.
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Slide switches to say "Why Brandeis Online?" The reasons listed are: Industry expertise, standards of excellence, online approach, convenience and flexibility, and take up to two courses before applying.
Thomas Screnci: going into the meat of this, this section of our presentation here. Industry, expertise, standard of excellence are gonna be some big reasons people choose Brandeis Online. We are a very well respected, awarded institution. We have a very robust in-person residential campus, and of course, a growing online presence as is available through us here at Brandeis online. We've been online learning for quite some time. So that is a new field for us. It is something we have been working on and growing and analyzing on a yearly basis, the convenience and flexibility which I have touched upon. I'll talk about that a little bit more, and, as I also already mentioned, you can take up to 2 courses without applying so as not being a part of any program, you can try our programs.
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Slide switches to say "Industry Expertise." Below, occupations of Brandeis Online faculty are listed, including Associate Chief Operative Officer at Vicenna (PPM), Chief Communications Officer at Central Park Conservancy (DMD), Director of Chemistry at METis Therapeutics (BIO), and Principal Quality Development Engineer at InterSystems (SWE).
Thomas Screnci: So the 1st part of industry expertise is our faculty. One of my favorite aspects of Brandeis Online is all of our faculty are full-time professionals and part-time educators. So we are teaching them how to instruct how to be a teacher in an online setting, and they all have full time professions in their chosen field. So you are not learning from full time. Lecturers who are, you know, part time keeping up with industry evolvements. These people are working in their fields with a great sampling here of the Bioinformatics staff project and program management, digital marketing and design and software engineering faculty just to name a few of our faculty members here. So you're learning from some of the most up to date industry professionals who are our faculty, who are again working full time teaching part time
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Slide switches to say "Professional Advisory Board." Logos of different companies are displayed, including Fidelity, Spotify, Pfizer, Google, Vanguard, Dana Farber, State Street and MassDEP.
Thomas Screnci: With that, our professional advisory boards, which are part of every single program come from a variety of industries. So they're bringing their full time expertise, their long history of expertise to the online learning platform to educate you, to bring the latest and best examples. Industry updates for you to learn up to date at the moment. So the latest and greatest skills you could say.
Every program has a professional advisory board who will advise you, perhaps, on project opportunities, networking job opportunities as well. So there are great advisory members here to give you a whole bunch of perspective and skills and opportunities within your chosen industry or new industries as well.
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Slide switches to say "Brandeis Online Students." Different student companies are listed below, like Fidelity, iRobot, Microsoft, Pfizer, Liberty Mutual, Boston Children's Hospital, The Walt Disney Company, Dell and more.
Thomas Screnci: Going hand in hand with this, our online students also come from a variety of backgrounds and industries. As mentioned earlier, 98% of our students are working full time. So our students are bringing their experiences day to day at work to the online classroom. And you're getting to learn from their perspective, their experiences and their skills, which you can bring to your learning and back to your own occupations, own professions, so combination of our faculty. Our advisory boards and our students is a wonderful combination of wonderful variety rather of industry, expertise knowledge, and experiences.
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Slide switches to say "Standard of Excellence." Navy blue bullet points below say: NECHE-accredited, nationally ranked by US News (31st in top value, top 60 in biology), Princeton Review (best value, best Northeast), and opportunities for innovation.
Thomas Screnci: Brandeis has an amazing standard of excellence, with rigorous curriculums. With regular review. Earlier this year, we just completed our review of our bioinformatics program and we are quickly jumping into review of our software engineering programs. So you're really seeing regular review of these programs to make sure our curriculums are effective. The lessons the outcomes are in line with the goals the industry needs as well.
Brandeis has amazing accreditation. National rankings, the Us. News, Princeton reviews, rankings as well. So this is an amazing institution which offers a wonderful in-person, undergraduate experience as well as in person and online graduate experience as well.
Just to note, Brandeis online is strictly 100% online programs, while Brandeis university does offer in-person programs. Brandeis Online specifically, is fully online.
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Slide switches to say "Online Approach." Bullet points list: Classes that are small by design, courses capped at 20 students, two decades of online course delivery, complete a self-paced online orientation. Screenshots of instructor videos and course pages are below.
Thomas Screnci: So our classes are small by design. We really want to have great conversations, build a tight knit community within the classroom, you'll be able to to work together in projects and have these in-depth conversations. In-depth analysis of topics. Each week courses are typically capped at 20 students with a long history of online delivery, providing you the continual updates to how online learning may be best delivered. It is fully at your own pace with this online delivery there'll be plenty of materials presented for readings.
You may have video resources used for you as well online. This is going to be, of course, instructor by instructor, course by course, might change the settings, change the materials used.
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Slide switches to say "Convenience and Flexibility." Bullet points below say: Flexible programs for working professionals, Set weekly pace for discussion posts and assignments. Below, an arrow facing to the right includes three deadlines: Wednesday a.m., Saturday midnight, Tuesday midnight.
Thomas Screnci: But one thing that will never change is the kind of self paced orientation of our program as visualized here. Almost all of our courses are going to have the materials posted on a Wednesday morning, and you have until the following Tuesday at midnight. So basically one full week to complete your work, you could do the work Wednesday morning when it's first posted. If that's your style, you could do it Saturday at midnight, if that was your style, or if you totally forgot and had a busy life, and you wanted to do it Tuesday, close to minute when it's due. You could do that, too.
We always kind of note that most students are spending somewhere between 9 to 12 hours a week on all of their coursework, all of their reading. So, as you assess what might be the best option for you. Best academic arrangement for you. That is something to consider.
Materials are posted weekly, so we are not posting the entire course at the beginning of the session, and then you just kind of just work through it week by week. Professors are commonly posting the readings and materials on a weekly basis, and then you're having discussions online.
There may be times where you have to do group projects. Some courses are a semester, long a session long project, where you may have to set aside meeting times virtual, maybe even in person, meeting times with your group members. But that is a project by project, case, by case and course, by course, kind of situation, but by and large and kind of our standard of our program here is everything is asynchronous, allowing you to complete your work at your own pace.
Professors do keep office hours are regularly available, so if you need extra assistance, you absolutely can absolutely reach them. As a Brandeis student, you have access to all of our online resources, to our career and student services. We have dedicated student advisors as well. So you're never alone in this work. If you ever need assistance. There is a lot of resources through Brandeis Online and through Brandeis University as a whole, to support you as a student.
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Slide switches to say "Take 2 courses before applying." Bullet points below say "Registration for the Spring-2 session (April 2 start) is currently open. Fill out the first-time registration form."
Thomas Screnci: As mentioned before, if you are very new to online learning, if you aren't sure if Brandeis is going to be right for you, you can test, drive a program and see if online learning is right for you by taking up to 2 courses while not being a part of any certificate or master's degree program. These one or 2 courses could be applied to a certificate. So if you took a course online, then decided, yes, I do want to get that graduate certificate or that graduate degree, you could apply those degrees towards your new program.
You would fill out a 1st time registration form on our website which we would approve and then enable you to start your registration process. It is February 4. We are have our Spring-2 session coming up which has an enrollment deadline of March 11 and classes start on April 2. So if you're thinking of starting with us at that point. You have until that time to submit this form and kind of get your process going.
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Slide switches to say "Admissions and Enrollment Information" in navy text.
Thomas Screnci: So I've covered a lot of information about what Brandeis is, what makes us special. Now, I'm going to jump into the admissions and enrollment process. It is very straightforward. One of my favorite aspects of this program is that we'd make it very easy for someone to to seek out their education.
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Slide switches to an application checklist: Online Application, Official transcript(s), Resume, Statement of Goals, Letter of Recommendation. Below, navy text says, "No application fee! No GMAT or GRE required!" Spring-2 deadline: March 4 (10 weeks). Fall-1 deadline: July 29 (8 weeks).
Thomas Screnci: This is the application checklist. I always start with the note that there is no application fee. There are no standardized testing requirements for you, so it makes the application process very straightforward. We require your application. All of your official transcripts, a resume one statement of goals, which is 500 words or more. And for all of our programs, except for our Jewish professional leadership program.
All programs require one letter of recommendation, whereas our Jewish professional leadership program requires 2 letters of recommendation. We see the bottom are upcoming deadlines. As I mentioned earlier. We are currently in a 10 week session arrangement, where each session is 10 weeks later this year we're moving to 8 weeks for for sessions that allow us to have 5 sessions per year and use student, the ability to graduate and complete your programs even quicker. So I'm going to dive into a little bit more detailed information and tips really, on this application part.
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Slide switches to say "Statement of Goals" with a picture of a person in a gap and gown to the right. Below the title, bullet points say: What's your why? What's motivating you to pursue a master's degree? Is there anything else you would like the admissions committee to know? Proofread, make sure you spell Brandeis correctly!
Thomas Screnci: So statement of goals, this is something we commonly will see submitted last, is because it is a, you know, essay section where some people don't want to do or looking for ideas on what to write. I always just say that what we're looking for is, what's your why, why are you applying to this program? Why you motivated to attend Brandeis's program. Maybe what you're hoping to get out of the program. Is there anything else you'd like us to know about you?
Some people had maybe rougher or more unorthodox undergraduate experiences, and you can give us details to what that was. If you've changed careers, if maybe you think your undergraduate track isn't the most related to your application, your graduate program, you can explain to us, maybe, what's leading to that path. It's 500 words or more. I've seen people submit, you know, 2, 3 pages long essays. They don't have to be. They can be 501 words and be totally acceptable. But it's your platform to discuss why you're planning to this program what motivates you. So take time to to do this, maybe start with an outline a bullet point list of what's reasons and motivates you to do this and then assemble it and proofread it. Make sure Brandeis is spelled correctly. It can be tricky. I've misspelled it a couple of times, and had to correct it so. No shame in that. But of course, proofreading and making sure the essay makes sense and flows well, grammatically, are important things to keep in mind.
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Slide switches to say "Resume." Below, bullet points say: Highlight your skills, provide detail, elaborate on your work experience, include relevant coursework (professional certificates, courses through Coursera, professional development courses.)
Thomas Screnci: So the resume for this application is unlike a resume you would submit for a job application, meaning that if you want it to be 2, 3 pages long and dive into incredible detail of the projects you've worked on, the growth you've had in your positions, please do. It's great to see people highlight the projects they've done, coursework they've done, certificates, professional development they've done. So provide as much detail as you want. On all your on all your past experiences. We do not, you know, critique out the resume too much based on the outline of it, the the order of it. So please give us as much detail as you want to really highlight your experience, your skills, how you are, you know, eligible for this program.
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Slide switches to say "Transcripts." Note at the bottom says that your application can be reviewed with unofficial transcripts, but official transcripts will be required upon acceptance.
Thomas Screnci: We are looking for official transcripts from every college and university you attended. If you transferred schools, you know, 1, 2, 5 times, we look for transcripts from all those schools. Please submit them to online@brandeis.edu. If you use parchment or some online delivery platform, you know, your previous institution's registrar's office can submit transcripts on behalf of your application to online@brandeis.edu.
If you happen to have an unofficial transcript saved somewhere, we can review and make application decisions based on that. However, we will require an official transcript by the end of your 1st session, so you will still need to request an official transcript. But we can at least review applications with an unofficial transcript.
If you're coming to us as an international student, if you went to undergraduate and earned your bachelor's degree at a institution outside the United States, we are typically looking for the WES or ECE structure of the transcript. That official transcript from one of those platforms is typically preferred. So please keep that in mind. If you have international transcript that we do require those format of transcripts also be received to the email address listed.
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Slide switches to say "Letter of Recommendation" in navy text. Bullet points below say: Who should write your letter of recommendation? How many should you submit? What to tell your recommender.
Thomas Screnci: So most of our programs require one letter recommendation. We are typically looking for a current manager or supervisor. A former manager or supervisor is also completely fine. If you are a newer graduate and you don't have one. A current or former supervisor, maybe somebody who oversaw a project. An internship might be applicable. If you worked part time as a student in some capacity.
A manager supervisor from there is also fine. The ideal recommender would be somebody who manage you in a related position to the program you're applying for. But if you do not have that, it is not a massive, massive concern, just someone who can talk about you in a professional setting, who can talk about your work ethic, your work, environment, your skills, your knowledge as it relates to this field or related fields are the most important aspects within the application. You would add in your recommender, as you see here in the screenshot. Here we will email them the instructions. So if they do not write recommendations or letters too often, if they're not the most eloquent speaker, perhaps, or nervous to write a letter of recommendation. We give them prompts to help them write the letter of recommendation.
So as you're asking people to maybe be a recommender if they're apprehensive. You can give them assurance that we will help them with that process and give them prompts and give them tips to to write you a lot of recommendation.
We are typically looking for one like I said, Jewish professional leadership masters is looking for 2 or more. In general, you can submit as many as you want. I've seen anywhere from one to 5 letters of recommendation. One is perfectly acceptable. So, however, many recommenders you have available that you think best, you know, really portray your professionalism, your skill. Please submit as many as you feel you would like. But again, one is totally fine. There is no need to really be stressed about finding a second or a third. Please feel free to just use one, that's totally acceptable.
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Slide switches to say "Enrolling in a Certificate or Single Course." Complete the Master's Certificate Application or fill out the First-Time Registration Form. Spring-2 courses run April 2 through June 10. Fall-1 courses run August 27 through October 25.
Thomas Screnci: If you're enrolling in a certificate or just a single course. The process is a little bit different. It's much more, much more concise. The master's certificate application is on our website. You just update. Excuse me, upload a resume. You tell us where you completed your prerequisites. All of our certificates require a bachelor's degree. So you tell us where you completed these prerequisite skills with the submitted certificate application, we will be in contact to discuss your your eligibility and start start the enrollment process with the 1st time registration form. If you wanted to just take a single course, you fill up the form. It is typically very quickly approved. And then you can start the registration process for your courses.
You see, at the bottom are open registrations for spring 2 and fall one. Those dates, how, when those sessions are running just as another reminder. We are switching from a 10 week to an 8 week session this year, so it will be a little faster, paced course, but again allow you to complete your work at a much quicker pace. So really beneficial in that regard.
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Slide switches to say "Tuition." Chart below lists cost per credit: $1,220. Master's Certificate: $14,640. Deposit (applied to first course): $500. Estimated cost of books is $25-100.
Thomas Screnci: Here's a tuition breakdown. Most of our of our courses are 3 credits. So that is the cost per credit. So you know, a single course, typically being 3,660, and with the master's certificate price as an example to show what the full cost of a certificate program would be.
We do have a $500 enrollment deposit as well to secure your spot, that $500 deposit does go towards your total cost of your tuition. So keep that in mind as well.
That is our tuition breakdown. We are happy to answer financing questions. Most students may use private funding, FAFSA for loans or grants, things like that, so please to reach out to us any questions about financial aid, and we'd be happy to assist you with that topic.
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Slide switches to say "Next Steps." Below, text says, "Contact our admissions team. Email: online@brandeis.edu. Phone: 781-736-8787. Connect with us on social media @BrandeisGPS or @brandeis.online."
Thomas Screnci: if you're ready to start the next steps if you wanted to learn more and start this process, you can email our general email account online at Brandeis Edu, or you can give us a call. We're on social media. Of course, as a lot of people are these days, so you can always keep up with us in terms of opportunities. Other info sessions. Other opportunities to meet faculty staff are going to be posted on our social media channels as well.
Slide switches to say "Keep in touch!" with Tom's email (tscrenci@brandeis.edu) and Jess's email (jessicaronan@brandeis.edu) listed below.
Thomas Screnci: If you wanted to reach out to myself or my colleague Jess directly, here is our information once again. We're always happy to help with with application, materials, application questions, tips, or advice to give any answer any questions about program, breakdown formats, things like that.
But that really is the end of this presentation. So please feel free to to reach out to us directly. If you have further questions, if I can clarify things, please feel free to be in touch, and just wanted to thank you for for viewing this session here, and hope to hear from you soon, and thank you, and have a good rest of your day, evening, or whatever it might be, and thanks again for joining us.