White background with navy text that says, "Welcome! Chat with the Chair of Bioinformatics!" Below, a picture of someone working in a lab.
Amanda Doctor speaks: Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today, and welcome. My name is Amanda Doctor, and I'm the Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment for Brandeis Online, and today we are discussing our program in bioinformatics, so both the master's program and a brief note about the associated certificate options.
Just a reminder for those of you in attendance, please mute your microphones during the session to avoid any audio issues or background noise. We will allow you to unmute your microphones toward the end for a live Q&A. You're also welcome, as we work our way through the presentation, to enter any of your questions in the chat field, and we will address those toward the end of today's program.
Screen changes to say "Program Chair." There's a headshot of Alan Cheng, PhD, with bullet points below: Senior Director of Merck & Co, PhD University of California San Francisco, Past roles include: Principal Scientist at Amgen and Senior Scientist at Pfizer.
Amanda Doctor speaks: I am joined today by our program chair, Dr. Alan Cheng. Alan, if you wouldn't mind doing us a favor and introducing yourself to let us know a little bit about your professional background and your role as program chair here.
Joining us is Alan Chang, the chair of the Bioinformatics program. I'm going to let Alan introduce himself, and then we'll continue with our breakdown of the bioinformatics program. Alan.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, hi everyone. Thanks for joining. So yeah, so my name is Alan Chang. I am program chair of the bioinformatics program at Brandeis. I've been teaching in the program for actually quite a while, almost 20 years, including on campus, when we were on campus. And, my, other, actually, day job is a senior director at Merck, where I lead a group that does, drug design and some ML Methods development for drug discovery, for target discovery. And then you can see other background on me, on the slide.
Slide switches to say "Agenda." Bullet points say: Bioinformatics curriculum, Marketplace information, Admissions info, Open Q&A.
Amanda Doctor speaks. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Alan. A bit about today's agenda. As I mentioned, this is going to be a presentation on our bioinformatics program. We'll address the curriculum within the master's degree program, as well as touch very briefly on our master's certificate options. Dr. Cheng will share a little information about the marketplace for bioinformatics. I will then take the reins and let you know what the admissions requirements are, and again, we will have an open Q&A toward the end of the presentation.
For those of you who aren't familiar, however, with Brandeis University, while this particular program is part of our online program portfolio, Brandeis itself is a physical university located on a 235-acre campus in Waltham, Massachusetts. If you're not familiar with New England, it's approximately 9 miles west of Boston, so very accessible campus in general.
Brandeis University was founded in 1948 and named for the first Jewish justice of the Supreme Court, that is Lewis Brandeis. And the founding principles are those rooted in social justice, equity, and access. It was the founders' belief that anyone, regardless of background, religion, race, ethnicity, should have equal opportunity to pursue advanced studies.
We are a nationally ranked research institution. We host approximately 3,300 undergraduate students per year, and roughly 1,400 graduate students, and that is across a diverse array of disciplines. Also, we are institutionally accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, and this just ensures that our programming is rigorous and transformative. It's really the gold standard in higher ed accreditation.
Slide switches to say "Program Defining Features." Four defining features are listed: Statistical and computational methods; Communication of bioinformatics analyses; Biological data analyses; Modeling biological processes to provide new insights.
Amanda Doctor speaks: So moving along, as I mentioned, we were going to talk very briefly about bioinformatics in general, and so, Alan, I was wondering if you might be kind enough to share with us a bit about Brandeis Online's Master's program, perhaps maybe what some of our differentiators are, or how we might stand out to other programs being offered in this space.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, yeah, thanks, Amanda. So this slide gives a couple of the program-defining features, and I can add a couple things to that as well. But let's start out on the top left corner. This is what you generally think of when you think of bioinformatics, so statistical and computational methods for analyzing things like gene sequences, proteins, other biomolecules.
And then all the informatics, the large-scale approaches, to analyze that data. That if you move, kind of, counterclockwise, we take those methods and we apply it specifically to biological data analyses, and you'll get experience with this in the program. And all that is done, really, to provide new insights into biological processes, either for, understanding biology, or to actually solve a disease. A lot of folks do end up in drug discovery. And so to try to ameliorate disease, or find pathways to interrogate, to try to improve the condition of people.
But there are other areas as well. We've had, students work in, animal health, zoology, ecology, plant, environment. So… so this is not just drug discovery, but we do have, many students end up in drug discovery, and we do have a bit of a focus there.
Amanda Doctor: Wonderful.
Alan Cheng: All of this is… yeah, all of this is, great scientifically, but a key part of it, and a key part of bioinformatics is that you work at the interface between these technical kind of areas, and kind of scientists that apply it. And so, it's important, and it's a key part of our program to communicate out your bound for max analyses, and you get practice on this and feedback on this throughout the program.
Slide switches to say "Required Courses" and "Elective Courses." Required courses include: RBIF 100 — Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python; RBIF 102: Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Disease; RBIF 109: Biological Sequence Analysis; RBIF 111: Biomedical Statistics with R; RBIF 112: Mathematical Modeling for Bioinformatics; and RBIF 114: Molecular Profiling and Biomarker Discovery. Elective courses include RBIF 101: Structural Bioinformatics; RBIF 106: Drug Discovery and Development; RBIF 108: Computational Systems Biology; RBIF 110: Cheminformatics; RBIF 115: Statistical Genetics; RBIF 120: Research Topics in Computational Biology; RBIF 290: Special Topics in Bioinformatics.
Amanda Doctor: And a couple of the courses, are shown here. Actually, all of the courses are shown here.
Alan Cheng: And, we'll touch on a couple of them specifically. So you see the required courses, cover from, 100 and 102 are the, kind of, the first courses you take in the program, typically. And this covers, like, scripting, and then, updated, kind of graduate-level biology. And then you move into, kind of, sequence analysis. Essentially, a 111 and 112 are, machine learning approaches and statistical approaches to modeling. And then 114 is about, profiling, subprotein profiling, genomic profiling, it's related to clinical, biomarker discovery as well.
120 is essentially like a, capstone-type project. And in…I think at the end of 2026, we'll allow you to take it, you know, extend it if you want to do it for two sessions. Basically, you, this is typically taken towards the end of your, degree. And you kind of synthesize everything you've learned on a topic that you care about. So sometimes people pick, favorite disease, but they also, sometimes it's pure technology, trying to get a pipeline working as well. So that's a great, opportunity for those that are interested.
Slide changes to display the curriculum for three master's certificates: Cheminformatics, Drug Discovery Informatics, and Genomics.
Amanda Doctor: Wonderful, thank you so much. I can just say that, in general, we do offer these four master certificate programs. The areas of focus are in cheminformatics, drug discovery informatics, genomics, and healthcare analytics. Healthcare analytics, if I'm… if I'm correct, Alan, also has the opportunity to roll into a few other master's programs outside of, strictly bioinformatics, is that correct?
Alan Cheng: Yeah, it's, so the Healthcare Analytics is a certificate that is kind of like a sibling of bioinformatics, and so we highlight it here because we know sometimes folks are interested in that as well.
Amanda Doctor: Right, wonderful. And just, you know, as a word of advice to anyone who might be considering the full master's program or a certificate program, what feels like the right approach, there is a stackability option, so that if you were to start by taking a certificate program, the credits achieved within that certificate would be eligible to transfer into the full master's program, correct, Alan?
Alan speaks: Yeah, we've seen, quite a few students, do this before, not do this, and I think it works well, because at first, you may not… you're not sure if you can commit to that full 10-course program, and then when you finish the certificate, you're like, I can do this, so, then people go ahead. And sometimes a certificate is sufficient for what you want, right?
Amanda speaks: Yes, it probably really just depends on what your intended outcome is. If you just need to upskill or, you know, refresh your knowledge in a particular area, that is why a certificate is really a wonderful option. If you're looking to achieve the full master's, but again, want to try to do it in a bit of a bite-sized portion fashion, this gives you an opportunity to do that as well.
Slide switches to say "Required Course." Heading says RBIF 100: "Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python." Bullet points below say: "A high-content introduction to scripting and programming with applications in bioinformatics. Appropriate for students with little previous programming experience. Course covers fundamentals of working with Linux systems, using bioinformatics tools, and manipulating biological data files. The focus will be on scripting with Bash and Python."
Amanda Doctor: So, if I move along, we were going to highlight two courses, and you know, Alan, I think you can keep it brief, but I think it is beneficial for prospective students to hear a little bit more about the curriculum, because it's not something that I can offer from as knowledgeable a perspective from the admissions office. So, if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about those two requisite courses that you discussed at the top.
Alan Cheng: Yeah, so students, start typically with RBIF100 or 102. So 100 is our Bioinformatics scripting and Databases with Python course. It gives you an introduction to bioinformatics while actually applying… Sorry, introduction to bioinformatics, as well as an introduction to Python. So, for this program, you don't have to come in with coding skills. Having some exposure is helpful, and we typically set up some tutorials ahead of the session starting. So for those that have never had experience, they can get a rolling start, which we find is super helpful for success here. Otherwise, it does end up being a lot of work during the session. But again, there's no requirement for Python coming in, and RBIF100 is intended to bring you up to speed on Python.
And this just highlights one, unique thing about the bioinformatics program at Brandeis, is that we craft our courses specifically for bioinformatics. It's not… these aren't, courses that we pull from other programs. They're crafted specifically so you get the highest, kind of, amount of learning, and really cater to bioinformatics. So you don't have to take a separate Intro to Bioinformatics course and a separate Intro to Python course. Kind of do it all together.
Slide switches to say "RBIF 102: Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Disease." Below, bullet points say:" Covers concepts of classic genetics; sequencing and mapping technologies using Human Genome Project; Basic sequence analysis methods and techniques; Cloning and methods for genetic manipulation are introduced."
Amanda Doctor speaks: Wonderful. And then again, you mentioned that RBIF 102 is one of those primary courses that students will take.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yes. Yeah, so this gives you the up-to-date intro on biology, so things like genetics, inheritance, and then like, our RBIF 100. We do include, you know, this is not typical of molecular biology courses, but we include R, scripting in there as well, so there's a small intro to R to help, kind of kickstart your learning in that direction.
Slide switches to say "Marketplace Information." Bullet points say: "Bioinformatics market estimated to grow from USD 2.5 billion in 2021 to USD 5.3 billion by 2026. A compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2023 to 2030."
Amanda Doctor Speaks: Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. You know, and I think especially for those who might be a little more junior in their careers, just thinking in general about the bioinformatics industry, what sort of insights can you share with prospective students as far as outcomes or goals? And what to expect.
Alan: Yeah, yeah, overall, it's a growing market. So, just to be honest, there was a bit of a pause, I would say, in 2024 and early 2025, and now we see that, especially biotech is growing, again. And this is all driven by, people living longer, and then we do have, you know, people aging, but we want, you know, in healthcare, in biopharma, trying to keep people productive and happy into old age. And so, this is a key goal of biopharma, and this is growing as, people live longer, as, people live longer, health, you know, healthier into old age.
You can see a bunch of numbers. There's biopharma concentrated in Massachusetts, especially in the Boston area, as well in California, both in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I actually sit. Now, and, in San Diego. But really, it's all over the country and all over the world. So you see some statistics for New Jersey, Maryland, it's growing in Texas, it's growing, in Washington, Seattle, and many places, so.
Amanda Doctor speaks: I think it's just good to know that there is growth potential, there is opportunity, and sort of, you know, very… not specific to one concentrated area, it seems to be sort of nationwide.
Alan Cheng: Yep.
Slide switches to say "Bioinformatics Faculty." Bullet points list occupations of Brandeis Online faculty: Bioinformatics Engineer IV at Memorial Sloan Kettering Center, Research Fellow at Pfizer, VP of Translational Genomics at Maze Therapeutics and more.
Amanda Doctor: Wondeful. Also very important, I think, to share with our prospective students is that our faculty are comprised of practitioners in the field, and I think that's truly a benefit to the student experience, in that you are learning alongside people who are, giving you useful tools that are being applied in practice in their daily lives and bringing those to… to the, the virtual classroom, so to speak. Alan, could… could you maybe share a little… a few thoughts on some of the faculty that we have in the program?
Alan: Yeah, you can see that we have faculty from, the whole range of different research-type institutions, including academic institutions like Memorial Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins, big companies like Pfizer and Gilead, Novartis, as well as, smaller or mid-sized companies such as Mays, Metis, Rigenta.
So, you know, as you take courses, you get exposed to, faculty from these different backgrounds, and it's a great opportunity to ask about what they do, ask about their perspectives, and so our program, kind of brings that to you as well.
Slide switches to say "Bioinformatics Requirements." Bullet points say: "Molecular Biology or Biochemistry; Statistics, Probability, or Biostatistics. We can recommend courses to take if you do not meet prerequisites. NO previous coding experience required."
Amanda: Wondeful. So I think it's important to note that if you are looking to apply for either the master's or the certificate programs, this particular program does have a few prerequisites. What we'd like to see when you submit your transcripts on those undergraduate transcripts, we like to see, either a course in molecular biology or biochemistry, chemistry, as well as a course focused in statistics, probability, or biostatistics. And I just want to take a brief moment to state that we do review applications through a holistic lens, so it is a sum of all of its parts. If you're not meeting those prerequisites, please, feel free to contact the admissions office. We might be able to suggest alternate options for you to achieve them.
Alan, I'd like to ask, you know, in the event that we receive an application, and we have, generally speaking, where somebody doesn't walk in with those prereqs, but has good experience, probably transferrable, would probably be an ideal candidate. Otherwise, what do you generally recommend as an opportunity to fulfill that?
Alan speaks: Yeah, so there's a couple different situations we've seen. So, for molecular biology and biochemistry, it doesn't have to be exactly that. There are things like neurobiology, immunology, other things, genetics, that often have the same content that we are looking for, so that you have the grounding you need. And then, for statistics, probability, biostatistics, often, you could take it, online, kind of these, what we call MOOCs. So massive online courses, and that usually is sufficient to fulfill that. And molecular biology and biochemistry, often people, if they don't have any exposure at all, take it at a, you know, local college, community college type, thing.
Amanda Doctor: Wonderful. And we would just want to see a record of having… you having completed that prerequisite prior to… to entering the program generally, yes?
Alan Cheng: Yeah, and, definitely reach out to, you know, there's an email (online@brandeis.edu) and there's a phone number (781-736-8787) at the bottom, and we can definitely help discuss if you have questions.
Amanda Doctor: I always think it's better to reach out and have a conversation than to automatically assume or disqualify yourself if all the other pieces fit.
Slide switches to list Application Checklist: 1. Online application, 2. Official transcripts, 3. Resume, 4. Statement of Goals, 5. Letter of Recommendation. No application fee and no GRE/GMAT required.
Amanda Doctor: So let's just talk a little bit about the application process, because that is probably of the utmost importance to some of our attendees here today. We have a relatively concise application process for the master's degree program.
We do require that you start an application online. In that application, we ask you to present official transcripts from all colleges and universities you've attended, especially showing the conferral of your undergraduate degree. A side note, we can issue an admissions decision with an unofficial copy of your transcript, but you would be required to produce the official transcript prior to completing your first course, or your first term of enrollment. So generally speaking, I say if you're committed to the application process, I would highly recommend requesting those official transcripts from your previous institution.
We do look for a recent copy of your resume. This should highlight your professional and academic experience. Certainly any relevant experience, coursework, certifications, points of interest. If you've ever done another class or an online learning model outside of just your undergraduate academic experience, make sure that's on there. Again, I mentioned the holistic lens approach to reviewing application materials, so it is always helpful and insightful for us to see any of those items that might stand out.
Your statement of goals. This should really tell the admissions committee about what is motivating you. Give us some insight, some thoughts into both your academic and professional background, what is sort of prompting you to consider pursuing a master's degree in this field, perhaps what some of your intended outcomes are. Ideally, we'd like to know why you feel that Brandeis might be the right fit for you. As an admissions professional, I say it's also an opportunity, without being overly personal, to perhaps fill in any blanks. If your resume isn't what you might think of as sort of the traditional type resume you might want to see for this sort of program; if your transcript shows that maybe you've had a few undergraduate semesters where you weren't quite meeting the academic bar, but you really show an opportunity of growth. These are chances for you to highlight that for the admissions committee, so just things to think about as you work your way through the application materials.
The letter of recommendation. We require one letter of recommendation, but you are, it is allowable for you to submit more than one. We do ask that those letters of recommendation come from individuals who are appropriately credentialed to attest to your abilities, your skills, and your strengths to participate, not only in the rigors of master's-level coursework, but also what skills and abilities would align you to a program such as this. They can be an academic recommender or a professional recommender. If they are professional recommender, they should be someone who has either supervised or managed you, and again, can attest to your strengths and abilities as they would pertain to master's degree study.
We have rolling admission here. There is no fee to apply, and we do not require standardized test scores to apply. However, we do have 5 distinct sessions per academic year. The application that is available to you now would either be for Spring 2, that admissions deadline is February 17th, or you could also apply to the future term of summer, and again, you can see that admissions deadline on the screen.
Slide switches to say "Master's Certificate Checklist." List includes: 1. Master's Certificate Enrollment form, tell us where you work, where you completed your bachelor's degree, current resume. 2. Pay the $500 non-refundable deposit.
Amanda Doctor Speaks: If you are looking strictly at a master's certificate, this is a bit of a lighter lift as far as the application. It's not really a formal application in the same way as what you would find for the master's degree. It's more of a master's certificate enrollment form. There are certain fields that you would need to fill out. You would let us know where you work. We would love to see a current copy of your resume uploaded with that form as well, and it does require that you select tell us where you completed your master's degree and what year your degree was conferred.
If you were to be admitted to the full master's program or to a master's certificate, there is a $500 non-refundable enrollment deposit. Please understand, this is not a fee in addition to anything. This is strictly an enrollment deposit that holds your place in the program, and then is applied toward your tuition once you enroll.
Slide switches to say "Tuition."
Amanda Doctor Speaks: Speaking of tuition, the cost per credit, whether you're doing the master's degree program or a certificate option, cost per credit is $1,220. So, for a 30 credit degree, which this particular program is 10 courses, 30 credits, you're looking at roughly $36,600 for the full cost of the degree. For a master's certificate, you can see that it's $14,640, and again, I mentioned that $500 enrollment deposit.
So these are your direct costs of attendance. Your estimated costs are going to be associated for materials per course, and that can vary, so we just ask that you anticipate approximately $25 to $100 per course for additional materials.
Just to note as well that these, again, are total costs based on a 30 credit master's degree or a 12-credit master's certificate. They can vary program to program. For this particular, program. It is, again, 30 credits master's, 12 credit master's certificates. This is the tuition for this current academic year of 2025 to 2026.
Please note that tuition is subject to change year over year, so just anticipate that over time, that cost may increase. If you are considering funding options, the master's degree is eligible for FAFSA, so that would be federal student loans. Otherwise, I highly recommend that if you are looking for assistance with the cost of attendance, you may want to consult with your HR department. We do have a number of significant corporate partnerships here at Brandeis Online. It might be that they cover either the full cost of your program, or offer some sort of tuition assistance or remission program, and generally speaking, our corporate partners, we offer their employees a tuition discount, and that could vary from partner to partner, so if you have any questions on that, you're more than welcome to contact us in the admissions office.
Slide switches to say "Thank you for attending!" with pictures of graduates in caps and gowns.
Amanda Doctor speaks: So I'm going to open the floor. If anyone had any questions, now might be the time. You're welcome to either enter those into the chat, if you would prefer to unmute yourself. You may do so as well.
Alan, do you think there's anything that perhaps I didn't cover that you think is of added value for our prospective students to hear, or maybe, I don't know, one of, you know, a course that you think is particularly interesting or cutting edge? I just… I always like to hear a program chair's thoughts on… on what they appreciate about the program as well.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, I'll add to that last part on that a lot of companies do offer tuition assistance, and so that's a great opportunity to take advantage of that. And in terms of courses, I highlighted RBIF 120, which is our kind of capstone-type project, where students take a problem of their own choosing, work with a faculty member, to kind of, it's like one-on-one mentoring, but explore that. People have worked on technologies like pipelining technologies. And then people have worked on diseases that they cared about, maybe they or someone in their family, are working on. So I think RBIF 120 is an interesting one.
You know, AIML is, really popular in, you know. You hear about it a lot, and there is a lot going on in bioinformatics. We've actually always had, kind of machine learning. And, you know, AI is usually considered deep learning. We've always had a little bit of it, in our program, and we're expanding that as well. But our RBIF 112, has a lot of machine learning. Actually, it's basically a machine learning course, and we will be putting together another course that's more on engineering, software engineering and AI ML, deep learning and AIML, and that should be coming I think later this year, into early 2027. So watch for that as well.
Amanda: I actually might want to take just one more moment to share, since the chat field is a little bit quiet, but I think something that is really important for prospective students to know. Maybe you're not super familiar with online learning. This particular program is offered fully online, fully asynchronous, with no required live session.
But I did mention, and Alan did mention, our faculty, who they're comprised of. You should also think of this not only as an opportunity to gain an academic credential, to really sort of build up your skills and knowledge in this particular area, but also an opportunity for you to grow both your academic and professional network. All of our faculty members host office hours. I highly encourage students, especially when they're in an online format, to take advantage of those office hours. You would work directly with the individual instructor to determine, you know, a phone call, a video conference, whatever works best. But I always stress to students participating in not just online program, but, you know, master's programming in general, the more you put into it, the more you're going to gain from it. So, take advantage of the resources that are available to you.
In addition to just the learning experience, you are a student of Brandeis University when you participate in one of our online programs. You have access to our library services. We have a slate of resources within Brandeis Online. This particular program, you will work with a dedicated student advisor who sort of helps you navigate your enrollment process, helps keep you on track in terms of what your course requirements are. They're devoted to you in a way that admissions is devoted to you through the admissions process. Your student advisor is then devoted to you in terms of your full enrollment. So from the time you enroll in your first course until you graduate from the program. So I, again, I always state that just because it's online, it doesn't mean that it's impersonal. There are dedicated resources to help you throughout your academic journey in this particular program.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, and although the program is online and asynchronous, you are a full Brandeis student, so if you do come to campus, you get access to all the, you know, all the Brandeis facilities, the library, etc. There is a career center as well. And the Rose Art Gallery. I mean, we do encourage students whenever possible, even if you are an online student, make a trip to campus, as I mentioned at the top of the presentation. We are about 9 miles west of Boston, highly accessible from the window of my office. I can see the commuter rail stop right on campus, so, you know, I highly encourage our students whenever they have the opportunity to do so.
Amanda Doctor speaks: Come to campus! It helps you feel a little more connected to the community and to the institution.
Prospective student speaks: I had a quick question, if that's alright.
Amanda: Yes, thank you.
Prospective student: Yeah, the certificate in healthcare analytics looked particularly interesting. Is that something I could go into knowing I want to do the master's in Bioinformatics and that certificate as well? Can you do both? Or do you just have to go on one path or the other?
Alan Cheng speaks: So, for healthcare analytics, we used to have a graduate program, a master's program. Right now it's a certificate. I think it was more about, kind of, demand for a certificate over a graduate program. But those courses are separate. If you saw the kind of numbers, they are separate from the bioinformatics program.
So, in terms of being able to stack, you can definitely do both, but in terms of being able to, satisfy your bioinformatics requirements. We can have a discussion. So, the lectures, we could, on a case-by-case basis, think about how the lectures might help, but it's not going to be 100% stackable with bioinformatics. (Note: Traditionally, 6 credits from the Healthcare Analytics Certificate can apply to the MS in Bioinformatics.)
Prospective student: I didn't care to do them separately, I just didn't know if it was okay to do both. And do you know if the healthcare analytics, if that would also be online asynchronous, or is that different?
Alan Cheng: Yes, yeah, it's the same setup, and, it's really been optimized. This online setup has been optimized over the last, I guess 10, 15 years. Brandeis does a good job of it. Yeah.
Prospective student: I just had one last question. I have a little bit of experiment… experience in bioinformatics, and I know there's always a big debate over using HPs versus Macs. Is there a preference with this program, or is it okay to use both, or…
Alan Cheng: Yeah, both are fine. I would say, a computer or laptop, generally, people have these days, within the last 4 or 5 years.
Amanda Doctor: And as far as the courses are concerned, or the coursework is concerned, we use Moodle as our learning platform, and again, as part of the resources that you enjoy as a full Brandeis University student, you have access to our IT department as well. I know that's not specific to your question. I understand what you're saying. You're talking about within the bioinformatics space in general. But I do think it was a good opportunity for me to segue into the fact that you have full access as a Brandeis Online student to our IT department for any questions, concerns, or issues, whether you're a Mac user, whether you're an, you know, a PC user, they are there to assist you.
Prospective student: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Amanda Doctor: So, I think with that, we will look to conclude our presentation today. If any other questions or concerns arise, I'm going to put my information up on the screen. Again, Amanda Doctor, and I'm within the admissions office here for Brandeis Online specifically, so you can either reach out to me directly, fairly easy to remember, amandadoctor@brandeis.edu.
Or you are welcome to reach out to the remainder of our admissions team. So if you want the general line, or the general email to ensure that someone has eyes on it, you're welcome to contact us at online@brandeis.edu, or at the number on your screen (781-736-8787). That is the direct line to Brandeis Online.
Again, very important. Don't let your questions go unanswered. We are more than happy to assist you through this process. We want to ensure that you are making the right decision for yourself, and that our program or any of its requirements are in line with what your needs are. I'm happy to serve as a primary point of contact for you, even if it's not an admissions-related question. We want to make sure that you have access to someone that will help you get the answers that you need.
So with that, I would like to say thank you for all of our attendees today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to join us for this presentation. Alan, I can't thank you enough. It's so critical for prospective students to hear from someone closely connected to the program, so I truly appreciate and value your insight today, as I'm sure that our guests do as well.
Alan Cheng: Yep, and thank you, Amanda, and thank you, everyone, for joining.
Amanda Doctor: Absolutely my pleasure. So, again, we wish you the best. We thank you for your interest in Brandeis Online and the bioinformatics program, and I look forward to working with you throughout this process. Take care.