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: Welcome all. Thank you so much for being here with us today for our presentation of Chat with the Chair of Bioinformatics, part of our offering here at Brandeis Online, part of Brandeis University.
A note about today's presentation, it is being recorded so that we can share it with those who were unable to attend live. I do request that you keep your microphones muted during the actual information section of today's presentation, that way we avoid any conflicts with background noise, audio issues, and so on. We will invite you to unmute yourselves during the question and answer session toward the end, and I will stop the recording at that time as well. If, in the meantime, you have any questions that arise that you would like to enter into the chat field, please feel free to do so. We will track those and address them toward the end of today's session.
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 of bioinformatics, Dr. Ellen Cheng. Alan, thank you again so much for being here. It really is a pleasure to have you join me today to share your thoughts and insights with our prospective student population. Wondered if you might, introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your professional background and your experience here at Brandeis.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, yeah, thanks, Amanda, and thanks for everyone being here. So, I am the chair of the Bioinformatics program at Brandeis, and I've actually been with Brandeis for… a long time, something like 23 years. I taught initially on campus, and then with this program as it moved to online, moved with that. And it's been a great experience. I've seen a lot of students grow, grow both in their current careers, as well as grow in, different directions. So, I am also a senior director at Merck, and I am now based in San Francisco. I used to be in Boston, and have been at other pharma as well. So, I work on a lot of target and discovery drug design. That's my focus.
Slide switches to say "Brandeis University."
Amanda Doctor speaks. Excellent, thank you so much.
Before we launch into more about Brandeis Online and this program in particular, I think it's always helpful for those who might not be as knowledgeable of Brandeis University in general to share a few thoughts and insights, because especially since we're talking about online programming.
I know that can come into question often, you know, is this a for-profit school? You know, what have you. If you're not familiar, Brandeis University is a nationally ranked, mid-sized research institution. We are located just outside of Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, situated on an approximately 235-acre campus here in Waltham, highly accessible to the Boston area.
Brandeis University was founded in 1984, and it was named for Louis Brandeis, who was the first Jewish justice of the United States Supreme Court. The founding principles are those rooted in social justice, equity, and access, and I think that really resonates well for an online population, especially for equity and access, because online programming sort of affords you an opportunity to pursue a higher ed credential without having to totally uproot yourself for, you know, the inconvenience of an in-person program. Also, I think it's important to note that, yes, again, while we are online programming, the online programming arm of Brandeis, we still are covered by the same institutional accreditation. We are accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, and this is really sort of the gold standard in academic credentialing. It just ensures that our students, regardless of their program, are receiving an education that is both transformative and rigorous, and it does require us to subscribe to a very high standard of curriculum delivery.
Slide switches to say "Agenda." Bullet points say: Brandeis Online Overview, Bioinformatics Curriculum Overview, Marketplace information, Admissions Information, Open Q&A.
Amanda Doctor speaks: So our agenda for today, I'll share a little bit of information about Brandeis Online, what the experience is like to be a student here, what our admissions process looks like. Dr. Cheng will offer a bit more insight into this specific program and its associated master's certificates. We can talk a little bit about Marketplace Insights. Again, I'll touch upon admission and tuition information, and then we will open the floor to a live Q&A.
So as I mentioned, Brandeis Online is part of the larger Brandeis University, but within Brandeis Online, all of our programs are offered fully online and fully asynchronous. That affords our students the opportunity to complete their graduate studies in a fashion that is both flexible and works to support them and their competing priorities. So, the majority of our students are working full-time, they have personal obligations, so this gives them the opportunity to work within the confines of an academic structure in a manner that suits them and their needs.
We offer five 8-week academic sessions per academic year, so we do have a rolling admission process. While we do technically require people to submit an application for their intended start term by a certain point, you really have the flexibility to start at any of five points per year within this program. So within the span of a traditional semester, fall and spring, for example, we offer two independent academic sessions, fall one, two, spring 1, and Spring 2, and new this academic year, we offer our fifth academic session in the summer.
The majority of our master's programs are 10 courses, 30 credit hours to complete, with one or two outliers that require a few additional credits. We do offer stackable master's certificates, so we'll talk a little bit more about certificates a little bit later on in the presentation, but all of our master certificates are 4 courses, or 12 credit hours. They stand as a self-sufficient academic credential on their own, or they can be utilized to sort of roll into the completion of a master's degree. And again, we can talk a little bit more about that format later on. You do have the opportunity to take up to two courses as a non-matriculating student, however. So if you have never taken an online course, if you really just want to see if the format and the timing are right for you, you do have the opportunity to enroll in one or two courses without applying to the official program or certificate. And just know that those courses will be credit-bearing, so if you perform to academic satisfaction, and you would like to continue on to apply to a certificate or master's program, that credit will then be transferred into the program. You won't have to do anything in addition.
And as I mentioned, approximately 98% of our students at Brandeis Online are working full-time while they're enrolled in the program. Often, they might be working in the industry that is associated with a program they are pursuing a degree or certificate in, or they're career switchers who are taking a master's program to help them transition into a new professional line. But ultimately, they have the flexibility to sort of continue their full employment while participating in their academic program. We do want you to realize that even though you are online and asynchronous, you should anticipate approximately 13 hours of rigorous coursework per week, per course. So, that could vary depending on the course, depending on the instructor, you know, from week to week, but we want you to sort of manage your time appropriately, and know that this will be the added requirement for you in terms of, you know, balancing your schedule.
We do intend to keep our course class size is fairly small. This is to the benefit of our student population. We average approximately 12 students to every member of faculty. This is intentional, so that our students feel they really have an opportunity to kind of build community, to engage in thoughtful discussion with their fellow students, with their faculty. We feel that our students are able to get a bit more out of the experience if they're not overwhelmed with high class sizes. So those are some of the benefits that I can state as far as the overview of Brandeis Online, and Dr. Cheng, if you would help me dive in here and inform our audience today a little bit more about the defining features of our bioinformatics program.
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.
Alan Cheng speaks: Yeah, absolutely. So, they… these are the four… I would say general defining features of our bioinformatics program. And I'll start at the top left, the statistical and computation approaches. These are things like next-gen sequencing, alignments, structure analysis, that you would expect from a bioinformatics program. You'll learn R, you'll learn, Python, and then you'll apply it using various statistical approaches, to analyze a lot of data, a lot of biological data.
But the next step is beyond methods, you want to apply it to very large biological data sets. So, you'll gain experience applying it to, you know, typical and atypical datasets that are found in, biology settings. A lot of them are human health related, but, we see students interested in other things as well, such as ecology, animal health, etc. So… so it's really about translating that statistical and computational understanding to actual biological data analysis, which then leads to the bottom right, where you're now taking that information and providing new insights in potentially how you treat disease, but also understanding biology better. Bioinformatics is really an interdisciplinary function. You're often working at the interfaces between biologists, between computer science and IT. And so, really key, to your role and to being successful is communication of the analyses that you perform. And that is a key part of the program as well. And many, probably most of your classes, you will be, presenting on your analyses, and you'll get feedback and questions on that. And so that's a key part of our 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.
Alan Cheng: And these are the courses that, constitute our program. There are the, 6 required courses on the left side. So Bioinformatics Scripting and Databases with Python, that's an introductory course, not only introducing you to Python for those, that are newer to it, and scripting, like, shell scripting, but also directly applying that, so you're learning that in the context of bioinformatics. So this is not a pure Python, pure scripting class, this is a bioinformatics class where you learn Python scripting at the same time, trying to achieve multiple things in one class. So this is a fun way to start your program.
The other class that most students start with is the molecular biology, Genetics, and Disease. This is a modern biology course, in topics relevant to, to bioinformatics. Often, you know, inflammation and oncology disease areas, but also infectious diseases and other areas as well.
There is also a component of R in this course, and so, like that first course. We are integrating aspects of bioinformatics. It's not just a pure biology course. We're actually integrating aspects of bioinformatics in it to give you kind of the most efficient and probably the most exciting way to learn bioinformatics. And then, you know, those are usually the two first courses. Then you go into biological sequence analysis. This is things like alignment, NGS, assembling genomes, biomedical statistics with R, so that's where you learn R, which is an important language for analyzing and doing statistical analysis on large, biological data sets. And kind of RBIF 111, which is that R course, then feeds into RBIF 112, where you start to use R, to do, basically what we call AIML these days, or at least machine learning these days. So you apply machine learning algorithms to bioinformatics. And then finally, the last course that's required is, molecular profiling and biomarker discovery. Really, going beyond just genomics.
And you'll see the elective classes on the right side, and these are all crafted specifically for bioinformatics, similar to the courses on the left side. The one I'll just point out, you can read it yourself, but the one I'll point out is Research Topics in Computational Biology, as well as Research Topics 2. And that's an opportunity to do, like a project, usually towards the end of your master's degree, essentially synthesizing everything you've learned into a topic of your own choice and interest with a faculty mentor.
So that's a great, kind of, sort of a capstone-type project. You can do it with just one course, or if you want to continue, some students like to continue on and finish up, you can do it with a second one as well.
Amanda Doctor: Perfect, thank you so much. I was going to say, please don't feel the obligation to go through every course. I appreciated that highlight.
Slide changes to display the curriculum for five master's certificates: Bioinfomatics Data Engineering and AI/ML, Cheminformatics, Computational Biology for Computer Scientists, Drug Discovery Informatics, Genomics.
Amanda Doctor: So, we have previously offered three certificate programs under the umbrella of bioinformatics, and we are excited to announce that we will be offering a few new master's certificates coming this fall. And, Alan, if you maybe want to take one or two, maybe one of the original certificates, as well as one of the newer ones, and maybe highlight what specific and targeted skills would somebody expect to learn through the completion of one of these certificates?
Alan Cheng: Yeah, so these are four courses, that you would take in the program, and they are drawn from the courses that you saw on the last slide. So, for instance, Drug Discovery Informatics, you'd learn, you'd do the Python course, you'd do, the, R course, and then you'd, take a couple drug discovery-related courses. So we had, I think it's RBIF106, but there's a drug discovery course, where you walk through the whole drug discovery workflow with someone that's been very experienced at both small and large biotechs, moving drugs through, and focused on informatics aspects of that. Genomics is a popular one, and then there's Cheminformatics, which is more focused on, taking approaches, that we use for bioinformatics, but applying it to chemistry as well.
Amanda Doctor: Wonderful. And I think this sort of lends itself well to how certificates potentially stack into the completion of a master's. So, you know, a certificate can be a standalone area of skills development, or professional development, or, you know, maybe you're just not prepared to go on to the master's at any given point. But because we are deriving the curriculum from the umbrella program, that's what gives you the flexibility to, if you want to start with more of a bite-sized piece, or again, that very focused area of learning, and then have the opportunity to roll it into the larger degree if that works for you.
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: And I know you already touched on… on RBIF 102 a little bit, but this is… this shows a little bit more insight into, you know, the course itself, if you want to go ahead and share that.
Alan Cheng: Yeah, so, like I said, RBIF 101, which is the Python and scripting course for bioinformatics, and RBIF 102 are two courses that you usually start with. This one's really focused on the biology, genomics, you learn classical genetics, and then move into more modern, genetics approaches.
Slide switches to say "Faculty and Advisory Council." Sample of faculty job titles is listed: "VP of Transational Genomics, Maze Therapeutics; Bioinformatics Engineer IV, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Director of Bioinformatics, Gilead Sciences; and more."
Amanda Doctor: Wonderful. And I think you actually already touched upon this as well, in terms of the faculty that our students are learning from, they're not just teaching the theory of the subject. These are individuals who have been living and working in the space. They have deep expertise and knowledge in the curriculum that they're teaching.
And not only is our program supported and rounded out by our faculty, but we do have an advisory council specific to this program that is comprised of professionals from all different types of backgrounds, and I think, you know, seeing the breadth of experience that they have, the types of roles that they are employed in, and just the diversity of the professional spaces that they are coming from. You know, I don't know, Dr. Chang, if you wanted to add anything to that, what a student might experience coming from a practitioner.
Alan Cheng: Yeah, so in your courses, you'll see, you know, professionals from a wide variety of, kind of, institutions, and it's a great opportunity to talk to, the faculty about what it's like in the real world. So here you've, listed a sampling of the faculty, so we have both larger companies, such as Gilead, I think Bohringer, as well as smaller companies. I guess Moderna is mid-sized, maybe bigger company now. But you also have smaller companies such as Mays, Roam, Honeycomb, and we have, tech companies like Dermatech, and academic institutions such as Memorial Sloan Kettering. So you really have an opportunity to interact with a wide variety of professionals, that are working at the cutting edge of bioinformatics.
Amanda Doctor: Well, and their experience helps influence the way we structure our curriculum, and I think, you know, it is important to note that especially the Advisory Council is very instrumental, when the program comes up for academic review, we do submit to a thorough academic review every approximately 3 years, and their insights, their knowledge of what is happening in the field and what's coming around the corner really help to inspire and influence the curriculum that we are delivering to our students in real time.
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: So just a few, points of interest, within the bioinformatics industry. You know, I wonder, Dr. Chang, I know there's… there's information that we can all read here, but what are sort of your insights on the marketplace in this area?
Alan: Yeah, so, with, approaches like AIML, as well as, automation and sequencing, this area of bioinformatics is growing pretty rapidly. It's improving human health, it's, improving, like I mentioned, ecology, understanding of biology for disease treatment. And so you can see all these numbers. Bioinformatics is growing. There are hotbeds, such as in Massachusetts and, you know, San Francisco and San Diego, but it's really distributed more and more, over, you know, all over the world, actually. So there are hotbeds of biopharma and, of course, bioinformatics needs all over the world. So, Research Triangle, DC, New York City, and then you can go international, London, Switzerland. So, really growing a lot, and we have Maryland, DC area listed at the bottom, New Jersey has been classic for pharma.
So, yeah. I think it just sort of speaks to the place in the marketplace, it can be varied, it can be diverse. I think there are a lot of opportunities in a lot of different places. It's not… it's not like driving you to a very specific and focused center. I think there are a lot of opportunities for professionals moving up in this… in this, space for growth.
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 Doctor speaks: One thing I want to touch upon, and this comes up often in the admissions process, and this is about where we're going to get into, you know, sort of more about the admissions process, tuition, and things of that nature. But this program does have prerequisites. This is the experience we like to see in someone's application materials, and it can often be, you know, a little bit harder for some prospective students to ascertain whether or not they have that experience, or if they don't have exactly what is stated, it doesn't show up on their undergraduate transcript. What other experience may sort of satisfy some of these prerequisites if you don't have these walking in the door?
Alan Cheng: Yeah, so both of these are critical, to having a solid grounding for bioinformatics, so understanding molecular biology, biochemistry, understanding of statistics. The reason we have these as prereqs is because you often can get it either at a local community school. A lot of students actually have it from undergrad, but you can also pick it up. For molecular biology, biochemistry, there are a lot of these courses all over, and I think that's, well, that's a better approach, just to go locally. And then with statistics probability, there are both local courses, but also online courses that we look at. If you have experience in the area, that can also feed into our decision process, but in general, you do want to have, you know, a formal course in these to be solid. It's gonna be really helpful for your whole career.
I'll just add one more thing. For molecular biology, biochemistry, it doesn't actually have to be molecular biology, biochemistry. We have people with, immunology, we have, neuroscience, genetics is a common one. So, we're happy to discuss your courses if you think they might 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: And that sort of leads us into the admissions requirements and my recommendation. So, we'll start with the degree application checklist. So, you are motivated, you've decided you would like to apply. I highly encourage students to apply and have their materials considered. If you submit a completed application packet, it is reviewed by an admissions committee. We do material items, through a holistic lens. So, as Dr. Chang is saying, you know, maybe there are some substitutions, so if you're not quite certain, but you feel you have a skill or an experience that is adjacent to the prereq, my recommendation is always to submit your materials, and have your application considered. The online application process is free, and we do not require standardized test scores. You do need to create an account through our website, fill out the application form. With that, you will need to submit official transcripts. Now, one caveat to that is that we can review and administer an admissions decision based off a copy of your transcript, but know that that official transcript would be required should you be admitted to the program in order to move forward.
In addition to that, we request a current copy of your resume, and your resume, make sure that it sort of aligns with some of the skills and competencies that you have that you feel would present themselves well for a program such as this? You know, if you're working in the field, we want to see what that progression has been. If you are a recent graduate, undergraduate, maybe you don't have as much professional experience, so use that resume to indicate any sort of extra coursework, or certification work that you've done, or special projects that you've had exposure to where you feel that you've kind of developed some skill set that would be appropriate for this particular program.
The Statement of Goals. I actually think the Statement of Goals is a really wonderful material that sometimes people underutilize. I think it's a great opportunity if you are a more recent grad, and maybe you don't have a robust resume, but you've had a lot of really great experience in your undergrad experience. You should sort of use the statement of goals as a narrative to fill in any areas that aren't going to be as well-pronounced through some of those more static items, like your transcript or your resume. Also, it's a great opportunity to sort of articulate, maybe your undergraduate GPA wasn't that strong, right? But you've had really good professional experience since your undergrad. Really try to highlight those skills, those competencies here. Those are thoroughly reviewed, so again, we take a lot of that information into account. But I do state: please let this statement of goals be your own. We want to hear your voice. We want to know that it's been written by you. I know it's very tempting to use AI tools to help you write a very professional, grammatically correct letter, but it starts to feel very homogenous to every other letter, so I highly recommend make sure that you are writing your statement of goals from a place of your experience, your perspective. It helps to have a friend or a trusted advisor give it a review, before presenting.
And then we do require one letter of recommendation. This is for the degree program application. That letter of recommendation should come from someone who is appropriately credentialed to provide a recommendation for you for this particular program. So it should be either, a manager or supervisor, someone who is directly overseeing your work and can speak to your skills and your competencies as they would relate to this program, and the rigors of graduate academic study. If you are a recent grad and you maybe haven't had as much professional experience or don't feel as though you have a professional recommender, I highly recommend seeking the reference of a former professor, or an advisor, someone, again, who can attest to your skills and fitness for this particular program. Just a word of advice on the recommendation as well: please notify your recommender that you will be seeking a reference from them, because essentially what you will do is input their information into the application, and then the application portal auto-generates a message to them. If they're not anticipating it and it goes to spam, that can delay your application. Also, too, it's just helpful because they want to know from you that you are looking to pursue this program. Why are you looking to pursue this program? You know, maybe talk to them if you hadn't had experience with them in a while, it's been a while since you worked with them or studied with them, some of the supplemental experience that you've gained, it just helps them build a stronger recommendation for you. And again, those materials are all considered as part of a holistic review process.
I did mention we have rolling admissions. I do throw some deadlines up there, just so you can see, in anticipation of our summer deadline, which is approaching on May 5th for courses that begin on June 3rd. Why we set some deadlines is so that you have ample opportunity to submit your resume for your intended term, to have a thorough and holistic review of those materials. Once you receive a decision, and if it's an admin, it gives you the appropriate amount of time to be paired with your student advisor to help put you on the path to enrolling in your courses, to have any questions or answers addressed that you need, whether or not they're from the program specifically, or from additional resources here at Brandeis University. We just want to ensure that you have an onboarding that is, you know, comfortable and helps you feel prepared and confident to start in that first course.
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 at the Master's certificate, this is a little bit of a lighter lift. Go to our application page online and create an account, as you would for the degree application. It's a bit more of a form. We do, however, request that you upload a copy of your resume and a copy of your transcript, and this transcript should show us where your degree has been conferred and what your major was, and certainly, you know, you can submit more than one transcript if you attended more than one institution, and that contributed to the conferral of your degree.
Beyond that, as I mentioned previously, you do have the opportunity to register for up to two courses before enrolling in a program. You don't have to apply to the program right away. You would first need to fill out that first-time registration form. Just know that prerequisites for this program may also apply to certain courses, so your fitness for any individual course will be considered prior to just issuing an enrollment. So just, if you have any questions or concerns about that first-time registration, please don't hesitate to contact us in the Office of Admissions. We're very happy to help you. And just a reminder: because summer is our next available term for enrollment, courses for summer run June 3rd through July 28th. So, just wanted to give you a little insight into that.
Slide switches to say "Tuition."
Amanda Doctor: Tuition and fees. We are a low-fee institution, very comprehensive pricing. What you see is what you get. The cost per credit hour, and this is for any course offered in our graduate, in our degree program, our master's certificate programs, or as a first-time registrant. The cost per credit hour is $1,220. It is typically evaluated, re-evaluated each academic year, these are the rates that will be in effect for the upcoming academic year of 2026-27. So the full price of the master's degree, also the master's certificate, that enrollment deposit is not an additional fee. If you are admitted to a program, you will be required to submit an enrollment deposit in order to secure your spot in the program, and that deposit is then applied toward your tuition once you have enrolled in your first program. Those are all of the direct costs of attendance. The indirect costs are going to be your estimated cost of materials, which can vary from course to course. We generally see, materials costs of approximately $25 to $100 per course. I do want to say this, this particular, fee schedule is the full tuition cost. Oftentimes, you may work for an employer who has a partnership with Brandeis University or Brandeis Online, and through that partnership, you would receive a certain percentage discount. You can contact us in admissions to know whether… to find out whether or not your employer is part of our partnership program. Otherwise, I highly recommend that whether or not you're part of a partnership program, check with your HR office to see if they offer you as a benefit any sort of tuition reimbursement or tuition assistance. Oftentimes, they do, especially for professional development. So again, while this is just the total cost without any sort of reduction, you should look into options that apply to you.
If you have any questions or need any other information about that, I highly encourage you, yet again, to reach out to us in the Office of Admissions. And for your reference, how to contact us in the Office of Admissions. As I mentioned earlier, my name is Amanda Docter. I'm the Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment. My email address is amandadoctor@brandeis.edu, hopefully fairly easy to remember. But if you… if you just want to reach out to our general office, please feel free to do so. I actually do see the general office email as well. That's online@brandeis.edu. And our direct number is 781-736-8787. Either myself or one of our admissions coordinators will be very happy to assist you.
Slide switches to say "Thank you for attending!" with pictures of graduates in caps and gowns.
Amanda Doctor speaks: And with that, I'm about to stop the recording so that we can move into our Q&A, but before doing so, I want to thank you all so much for attending today. We really appreciate you taking this time out of your busy schedule to let us share a little bit of insight and information about our program and Brandeis Online. We thank you for your interest in our program, and Dr. Cheng, as always, I can't thank you enough, because without you, we… it would be me stumbling through some very difficult concepts for me to understand, so I appreciate and value your time and participation in these events. It really adds so much to… for our attendees to hear directly from our program leadership about what they can expect, so thank you so much.
Alan Cheng: Thank you, Amanda. Good to see you.
Amanda Doctor: Thank you all again.