UChicago Data and Policy Summer Scholar Program Online Information Session

Hello everyone, thanks for signing up for the University of Chicago. Dayton polisy summer scholar programs weapon in recession well. My name is shilling bill. I'm the program director and also part of the Harris student recruitment and global outreach team. Doing international partnerships. An executive education here at the University of Chicago. Today I'm joined by my colleague Andy.

Any do introduce yourself a little bit. Yes, I do. However, one iamandi Ingram Michaels. I am the program coordinator for this data, and policy summer scholar program and at Harris. I also support the student recruitment and global outreach team. Working primarily with international students great, so today. Indian I will spend time to share our experience wording working for this DPS program and also our past experience interacting with our.

Past DPS's program along 9 participants. We have a lot of exciting stories to share with you and do use the chat box to post questions on throughout the web and R and will have some specific Q&A time slots after this webinar information session.

OK today today in about like 30 minutes. We want to touch base with you all actually many things so first of all because we are the hammer school policy is part of the University of Chicago. So we definitely want to showcase what is your Chicago and why you want to join you Chicago during that 4 weeks of period and of course DPS that itself is a very this is the 3rd year of the program and we've been accumulating some really great experience from past participants and faculty members.

And staff members teaching in this program so we want to show you what this DPS is about and how you can benefit the most from this 4 weeks time and of course, you know as a prospective student you must be very curious about the application process. And we do want to share some tips from the admissions team here, so that you can best showcase yourself on when you apply for the DPS as programs and as I said, We're going to leave some time for Q&A in the end.

Right so the 1st question that a lot of the prospective student always ask us is you know what is the U Chicago way given is a Top word mentioned across the campus across the world you should always very famous and well known for its rigorousness and reputation in the academia. The quality of the students. The faculty that staff members and these are all true so during this for weeks. Of course, you're going to be exposed to.

The full resource on spectrum and you Chicago land as a student here. So it's our responsibility to make sure that you fully enjoy all the benefits as the Chicago students and explore how the summer program and the University of Chicago can help you to achieve your next key milestone in your either a career or professional or personal life. So our student they really enjoy you know this comprehensive research institutes atmosphere.

In which ways that you know they interact with faculty members here. So we have a really great record of having 91 Nobel Prize winners at the University of Chicago in history of 128 years, which is actually not that long compared to our competitors like Harvard or Princeton. But we the reason that we got to generate such a great knowledge and academia community is because you Chicago.

All at you, Chicago, we really challenged our students hours or or faculty member to you know keep driving and keep the pace with the best knowledge that they can produce the best research that they can work on so people here. They really enjoyed that the work that they do, and of course, that include our DPS is faculty members and staff members, so we're really excited that you know you will be having the chance to on a daily basis interact with our faculty and staff members here.

And learn from them so that's a really to me biggest you know benefit and based on our past program. Alumni's experience their biggest impression when they attend this to PSS program.

And besides the program is self. the University of Chicago, we have a lot of different topic or different areas of research institutes. For example, we have if you're interested in Enerji. We have this energy Policy Institute at you Chicago. If you're interested in urban issues. We have a very well known armed lapse that doing all different projects and research initiatives ranging from poverty to enerji education, etc.

So only one since it started as a student here or as a community member here. You are given a numerous responsibility and opportunities to explore a lot of resources at here and Chicago and throughout this for weeks. You're going to hear from the faculty members teaching the programme about their research work and be part of that, so that's always very inspiring for our students because they not only are able to learn from the classroom, setting from those.

Lectures about what is the best way to do research but also they are able to conduct the research implement the research supervised by faculty members, so they can see the real impact and result of that research so all of That being said, I think we really want to attract students who have a passion in data. Analytics and public policy, and who want to explore their boundaries and explain extend their boundaries and cool to join us during the slow weeks period.

And this is our Dean Catherine Baker, so at Harris because we we are a professional school, so from day one. We challenge and inspire our students to be involved in local community through various of effort and the same way for the DPS as program as well is because we have such a great community environment here, so as a summer program student you actually you will be given the opportunity to connect with.

For example, Harris or other you Chicago community members through coffee chance through informational sessions, etc. So as long as you have the mindset to.

To learn what you want to do uh and also advance this is a great program for you.

So, In summary if you ask me, who is the best audience for this group and tour. Why do I want to attend this DP SS then my one sentence answer would be if you were constantly thinking about harness your data analytical skill set and also enhance your leadership communication collaboration skill set to really tell the story that you think was telling then this is a great place to be.

So as I mentioned also asked to write is our faculty director Anne also that one of the key instructors for the DPS as program. He's also one of the core instructors for our core courses at Harris for our master level program students. So Austin has great experience teaching student an interacting with students from all different types of background and research interests and he always has to.

Is best magic way to keep students engaged and as student to learn from not only him but also all the peers. So he's able to really create a mutually learning environment for our student an this 2020 summer program will be his 30 year to teach the DPS and we're really happy to have Austin back and get involved with our new coal forge so Andy do you want to talk a little bit about for example, the three courses that?

Will list here? Absolutely so during the program over the course of the four weeks. You were taking for excuse me 3 distinct courses. The 1st is quantitative analysis in public policy, and that's taught shown mentioned by Professor Austin right. It is very similar to a statistics or econometrics type of course, and no you don't have to have a background in those areas before coming to this program will talk more about that a little later on.

You can get a really good foundation on how to approach statistical knowledge is an analytic type works that have that critical thought the second course that you will be taking is introduction to programming and R as the title says this is an introductory level course, so this is really designed for students with little or no coding experience will walk you through the installing of the R programming to your own laptop to working through some of the key functions and methods.

Up to running your very first regression and how to analyze data sets.

The short course you're taking is a writing apolosi course because the first two courses teach you how to work with data and approach it.

Do you need to learn how to communicate that when you're making affective Paula see you wanna make sure you can interpret and explain the data and what its impacts will be and not writing course will help you achieve those goals does this really great an from the design of the 3 core courses here, and in later on. We're going to also talk about the 4th component in the economic side which is the faculty lab capstone project, you will see the design of this being that.

You're going to be equipped with all the key or quark skill set up in the first three weeks on through those 3 courses and then by doing that essentially you grab the skill set of running the running your own data analytical exercise scrubbing the open source database and eventually you design? What is the research topic that you want to explore and through a faculty lab capstone project?

Which we're going to talk about later then you come up with your own policy recommendation through writing a policy memo. So this is a very coherence course design in which during that 4 weeks. You're going to see your significant growth in terms of the experience that you have in data. Analytics in Public Policy Research, so this has been definitely the highlight from our past. Participants in terms of what they gain the most from this program and we do see because we

have students coming from a wide range of backgrounds some are.

Policy professionals, but who wants to actually do more. It using data or using programming are some are more like liberal arts. Interested students or participant and they've never done programming are inputs for for example, so this is a great opportunity. So we do see students benefiting from this combination of the core courses here in many different ways.

And as we mentioned so this is a faculty love capstone project, which is going to happen in the last week. Ask your capstone project and also some rising all of the learnings. You have through a comprehensive intensive research period, with a faculty member and by doing a policy memo by yourself, so in the past, we have had all different types of policy capstone projects so for example, some of our projects are more International Development oriented in terms of the content.

So Austin himself, sometimes lead a conflict an insurgent learning project learning having the database of how insurgent learn or adapt through is a is a multiple year of data set that student can actually see the pattern of how the insurgent learning being an also the capsule product may includes for example, some of the more domestic focused Contacts for example, the hate crimes in the USA.

Essentially, the reported hate crime whether that all tells the truth about what's happening and was missing etc. So our student. They are able to use either the data set provided by the faculty member through his or her own research or some open source data set to come up with the policy question, and then come up with the recommendation in the end. And if you haven't seen it already on our website. We actually have some past examples of.

What the final product of the capstone project looks like so if you want to have a better sense of what this data is going to look like? How does it look? What is a policy memo to begin with, we encourage you to take a look and to see that and get excited by it, but to also recognize that that is produced after 4 weeks of work are not expected to write those during week. One so it's just an exciting way to kind of see what students have done in the past, yeah, and also one of the highlight of the program for example, this slide shows the picture in the middle is.

The student group, they're doing a presentation of their capstone project as a group, so this is always the highlight of program, which happened in the last day as part of the celebration ceremony of the program that they got to present their policy recommendations in a group setting and God questions from the peers and the faculty members and a lot of the continued to generate more research ideas and more research projects after their own capital projects.

And students seem to also put this on their resume or Graduate School application as a really good work example as well.

Great so besides the academic core component as I said, because we know that our students. They join the DPS as wanting same or different things. And they are eagerly exploring their next steps, either in their career or graduate studies or further advance their personal goals. So we definitely want to encourage our DPS students to keep it keep the exploration and also we want to provide them the.

Best resource that we could so for example, we have this career exploration series every week in which that student they could attend some policy action series that we invite some fraction practitioners, or other faculty members at U Chicago to do a session with them to share his or her own research or current work with them and get questions answered from students. We also have our career development office doing career.

Readiness workshops, an exploration workshops, helping student to update their resume their LinkedIn profile. The networking skill set, etc. And we do provide usually in Week 2 or 3, one or 2. You should call community networking session so for example, the picture. You see here is I'm leading a group of students who are interested in applying for the master level programs at Harris so we're in a local cafe and discussing.

Answering questions from them so these are all great experience for our students for our staff and faculty members and they got a chance to really have a one on one conversation with the people that they need information from.

And, of course, as I mentioned in this light here. So we also organize graduate admissions panels for students who are thinking about this DPS as a step stone for them to explore whether a graduate level program is a good fit for them. So then we invite the admissions.

Expertise in Chicago to come and talk to students. What is the best application tab would think they should do so All in all we expose our students to various resources on canvas. An we hold that they can learn the most out of it.

Right and of course, because summer is the best season. Ave Chicago at Chicago. So we always want to make sure that our student have fun so any doing the share a little more about the code word, and community building piece of the GPS program. Yes, and to begin. I say we really value. This portion of the program because it really helps you have a holistic experience of what it would like to be.

A graduate student in the United States. A graduate student at U Chicago. You get the rigorous academic you get the professional networking, but you also have a lot of fun during that process. So one of the first elements of the student life experiences is the cohort groups. This summer program is very diverse this past summer. We had over 15 countries represented and I think about a dozen different states within the United States also represented so very eclectic group of individuals.

And these cohort groups are smaller groups within the student body to help you better connect with one another and I help facilitate those relationships.

So within the cohort groups there are some program sponsored activities. One example as you have a weekly lunch as a cohort you tell us what food you want to try some local cuisine and we sponsor that lunch so y'all can just have LAX and fun with a new type of restaurant. Another one of the activities, which is quite popular as the photo challenge and one of the photos that you see on the screen. The students jumping in the air was one of the winners of the weekly photo challenge.

Simply just taking photos of your group doing activities as you explore the city as you're exploring campus. So it's just one of the elements of the student life experience, but you're also supported in any other ways. One is through our resident assistance. We have you. Chicago graduate students living in the resident Hall with you so to make sure 24/7. If you have any kind of urgent matter or just general question of being a student and in the city of Chicago, those graduate.

Resident assistants are there to assist you and throughout the summer Schilling and I are also available. We host office hours. We have one on one appointments available, so if you have questions or wanna learn more. We invite you to come chat with us. We were always available to support you through this experience and Lastly. We also teaching assistance, which is actually one of the most complemented things bypass students because we have teaching assistants how hosting TA.

Hours every night of the week.

So after class is a lot of material and you need help processing it or how to approach the homework. Those teaching assistants are available for you, every weekday to work through those problems, so a lot of resources to help you in the student life experience. Just just from the program along. Yeah, this program definitely brings so many people together in terms of how to make sure this is a great experience for our students. So all of the people that any just mentioned they're part of this program.

And there during the summer, there, only for the working for this program so this is really great for our students, especially because we know that this roller attract students from such a wide range of country representatives and you know background. So we want to make sure that no matter where you are. We want to meet at where you are so this is very important for us to support our student in such a floor short 4 weeks period, but outside from what?

The program individually provides you also have all of campus and all of the city of Chicago. So you see that the resident Hall is 24 hour front desk service. the University has really good response system so if you have any questions at anytime during the day or night. We have a full staff ready to assist you as a full time student on the Chicago campus. You access to the library to the Recreation Center to the dining Hall even our counseling services.

Better health services so we really have you covered in every sense of your living experience. But one of my personal favourites about the uchicago campus? Is it just a 10 minute walk from Lake MI. It is so convenient to walk to bike sit there in front of the beach pass students have talked about having picnics at the beach or playing volleyball at the beach a lot of students really enjoy biking along Lake Michigan. They like to downtown they go to the museums in the downtown.

Area and they have a lot of fun so on your screen. You see some images of some of the activities that students have done in the upper left hand quarter. There was a festival and the Pilsen neighborhood, which is just a short distance from campus and a group of students went there an had salon at out, local festival. There's a festival almost every weekend during the summer in the city of Chicago. There's just so much activities. So many things to do I can't even begin to list. We do provide some?

Suggestions and resources for ways. You can spend your time on the evenings and weekends. But y'all students are definitely creative to find other opportunities as well great.

So let's uh we gave you a lot of you know delicious details regarding with this program is about academically and also you know in life aspect. So let's just zoom back to the bigger picture of how this program works. So you're spending to 4 weeks for entire full-time weeks here at U Chicago and as we said from Week 123. We want to equip you.

The essential skill sets that you were able to essentially generate your own capstone project and your policy memo so from Week 123 every day. You are going to have from Monday to Thursday's you're going to have 3 hours of lecturing in the morning for quantitative analysis as Andy mentioned. This is essentially statistics and Econometrics and in the afternoon, you're going to have 3 hours of programming R.

So that's from Monday to Thursday every week from week one to Week 3, so that comes up as in the total hours at 33 hours of quant analysis and 33 hours of programming are and for those students who are already studying the US you may already know our notice that the workload itself is actually can be equivalent to full 2. Full courses right so this is a lot of work on that you should expect that during that 4 weeks. You're going to do.

And as many mentioned the reason why also we, we do want to provide all the resources that we want you to make sure that you are on track and you will thrive after this program and then on the Fridays from week one to three that's the time that we expose you to all the careers coloration initiative like the policy inaction lunch. The career network. The workshop the graduate admissions panel etc. All of the.

None quirk Tomic related offerings that we want to. We want you to enjoy so that's comes up as a prop approximately 13 hours from week one to 3 and then week forest. Really, the delivery weak in the sense that you're going to spend 8 hours learning how to write policy memos how to do writing in a public policy sense and immediately you're going to also spend.

12 hours about to do the capstone project supervised by the faculty member that you choose. So every year. We have a group of faculty members bring different projects together so you were able to pick your Top choices in the very beginning of the program and then we're going to let you know as we move forward, which program which capstone project. You got selected into so that you can start early to prepare for the work.

That you need to produce for this capstone project, so the last week is really no longer you know courses in Quant. Analysis word programming? Are you just start to deep dive in your writing and in your research specific research project, so this is how the program works in 4 weeks and after that 4 weeks. You're going to get as a participant. You're going to get 2 things. One is for all the student you're going to have a official.

University of Chicago transcript that has lifelong access online, which has all the key horses names and the pass fail grade and on Top of it, you can also you will also get a certificate of completion from the Harris School of public policy about this DPS program. And that certificate you will have a letter grade of each course and also you're going to have an instruction hours in 4.

Each course the reason we provide that is because when you receive requests from past students, saying that they can use those to actually gain credit or transfer credit to their home Institute if they're still involved involved in a undergraduate or graduate study program so we found this to be really enjoyable and beneficial for sharing who have that need to have a graded letter graded certificate with the hours of instruction.

OK, so that's all about what the program is and the offerings so let's go to come from the other aspect of thinking about you may wonder who are we looking for like who are our greatest best DPS students from our experience experience so Andy do you want to share your experience interacting with our pass students and also reading their applications? Yes.

So our past students have demonstrated that there really self driven that they already have something in their lives. That makes them want to consider a path and policy or data science and so they come it to us to the admissions office demonstrating how they want to explore how they can make an impact in that way. They are students who were interested in furthering their studies whether they are still an undergraduate student or recent grad. There exploring what it would look like to study at a Top.

The institution like the University of Chicago or even if they're a working professional they know that these 4 weeks. This quantitative analysis and our programming would be helpful for their next steps in their job that they can. Let us know. In that application process that that's what their goals for this short term program is and our past students have also demonstrated a real keen to teamwork and that there truly interested in connecting with one another. We've talked about how diverse this student.

Body is it's a great opportunity for individuals who are excited to connect with one another 'cause that's going to be your network moving forward. You're going to as a collective be people who want to make a social impact with data science and policy.

Great and for those who already take a look on our website. You may notice that we have 2 sessions for the DPS's program is the same identical sessions, so the reason we have 2 as one is that we have have a growing demand that we realize that we need 2 sessions to accommodate our student needs, but also is based on your personal schedule right so you need to let us know which session you want to.

Pick when you create your application online so the two session days are here on one is starting from mid to late June to mid July and the other is one week after the session, one finish, which is starting from July 27th to August 21st.

So there will not be significant programming changes between the two sessions. So you can constantly be comfortably decide based on your personal schedule, which session you want to apply for Yeah, and all now works website.

So.

Our clear debt lying system so you may not get there. A lot of dates here, so depending on which round you want to apply. We always encourage our students to apply as early as possible. That gives us more time and also gives you more time to prepare for the real program coming.

Yes, I can speak more further on the benefits of applying early, particularly in that our next deadline is next week Friday. February 14th and the benefits for applying early are a multitude. The first for you is you get to know early you get to better plan ahead on how you're going to travel to Chicago.

Awesome those logistical components if you are currently enrolled in an academic program. You can maybe plan around for your spring term. If you want to take some classes that will help you feel really confident coming into this program so that's the first benefit for you. On just preparing ahead of time or the second benefit again also for you? Is it can be helpful in terms of funding and a moment. We're going to chat further about the funding and scholarship opportunities.

But we have seen in our years working on this program that those who have an emissions letter in their hand earlier. There's more opportunities for scholarships. Some scholarships require that you already have an emissions letter in hand and so by applying early you really get that benefit.

And the 3rd key benefit that I want to share is we're currently meeting with Austin right and planning. What those capstone project. Topics are and by applying early in letting us know what your preferred research area, or topic area is we can help influence? What those capstone projects will be so if you're someone who really interested and say health care policy or a finance policy apply early and let us know so that we can get faculty and researchers in those areas.

To be involved in this program so that's a really key benefit that I will those are the key 3 benefits that I would outline for you to applying early.

I would also like to point out that timeline of how you hear back and confirm with us as you can see the timeline is relatively quick.

You submit your application annual receive a decision within 2 weeks. Just 2 weeks. You will know if you've been admitted into the program and then 2 weeks later is when you need to confirm that you are going to actually join us and submit an enrollment deposit.

And So what this means it's a really quick thinking for yourself of you submit your application. You can't just forget about the program. You need to keep keep us in your keep keep us in your mind that this is something that you want to do and certainly shown and I are happy to help you navigate and other circumstances that may cause your timeline to shift for example, we have worked with students who they were obtaining sponsorship from their home University.

And their deadline was a little later than ours. So we were able to make a small extension to their confirm date. But overall, you see, those outlined there so don't hesitate to reach us reach out to us if you have any further questions about wind to apply.

But the next question is when and more so, Watt is needed to submit an application. You will begin by simply starting an online application on that online application. There are certain fields and data points for you to enter telling us your name, your education history and other key details like that.

You also need to submit a motivation statement and 2 short essays, one of which is required and the other as optional and if I can give you any key tip my tip, is to focus on these writing components in the motivation statement that's really your opportunity to outline to us why you want to do this program. How is this program in the skills gained going to help you achieve your academic and professional goals even if it's to simply explore the area.

Of public policy or explore the idea of going to grad school or if you have something more specific in mind tell us you are unique story and let yourself shine through don't don't necessarily need to be too humble in this point really tell us why you are a great fit for this program.

You also need to include a one page resume and your academic transcripts now to point out on the transcripts or may be known as Mark Sheets in your University. These transcripts include the course name. The date or determine which that course was taking taken and then the grade result for that course and we recognize that not all academic institutions are on the same grading scale in the US we have a 4.0 scale.

So most academic transcripts also include the grading scale and what constitutes as an A or a B, so having those details on your academic transcript is really helpful to for the committee to review your academic transcript and better understand your academics drinks.

If your transcript is not already provided in English than you are required to receive an official trend script translation. Unfortunately, you as individual cannot translate your own transcript.

And the last component for international students is to submit a toll full or riled score there is no minimum required score.

Merely then just having this estimate in the 1st place is what is required if for some reason you are unable to take a tofel or oils exam that we do have 1/3 alternative here offered by the University of Chicago. You can learn more about that additional opportunity on our website under the English language requirements page or reach out to us. I'm happy to discuss that process further.

So let's summarize what is the missions process you first begin your online application you submit it. Before that deadline ideally before that February 14th deadline. Then you'll receive the emissions result within 2 weeks and then 2 weeks later, you will confirm by accepting the offer and submitting an enrollment deposit.

And for international students who will need a visa to join the summer program. We will help initiate that process. We have a whole team here at the University of Chicago really knowledgeable and have a great expertise in working with pieces and knowing the appropriate timelines, and tips going through that process. So we will certainly help you through that.

Now to the question is what is the cost and our scholarships available.

The program fee for 2020 is 9500. USD this includes tuition course materials on campus accommodations. A partial meal plan. University required health insurance student life fees and extra curricular and fees. It's a fairly all encompassing programmed fee includes a lot of different components. So if you're thinking about it really encompasses many components.

This does not include your travel so getting yourself to an from Chicago is not included in this program feet but we've designed it. This way to help once you arrive in to campus. There's little out of pocket expenses that you will need to occur.

And I'd like to point out here that the enrollment deposit. It goes into this total program fee. So admitted students are required to submit an enrollment deposit of 1000, US dollars and that is applied towards your toil program theme so after that deposit your remaining balance will be 9 thousand 8500.

In our scholarship available. Yes, you Chicago awards partial merit based scholarship, the way to indicate consideration is simply on the application in the financial section of the application. You simply check. Yes, that you would like to be considered. There's no further documentation require no additional essays or needed information like that.

I'd like to point out that full scholarships are not granted and not all admitted students are awarded a scholarship, so This is why we highly encourage you to continue to look for additional sources of funding. And it being February and you're already asking these questions. You're setting yourself up for great success to help identify different funding sources.

Some options that we have heard been very successful in the past, is one sponsorship from your home University or employer for those currently in an academic program. We encourage you to connect with an advisor or your academic Department or even your Career Center. They have additional funds available for your academic pursuits.

If you were a working profession are professional connect with your supervisor or HR personnel to talk about professional development funds.

Sometimes applying for these sponsorships or professional development funds require some additional documentation of what this program is about so In addition to your admission letter a shell and speak for you here. You've already indicated that you're willing to write an additional letter on students behalf outlining the key benefits of this program and how it can be helpful for you and your home University or employer.

2nd we encourage you to explore additional scholarships based on your academic discipline your career goals or your citizenship or identity group. There's numerous of different opportunities out there and we found a couple different scholarship. Search engines that we have been that we have found helpful both for those currently in a student status. And those not in a student status. So if you need additional help finding those external scholarships, Please send us an email.

We'd be happy to send you the links to those different search engines.

And Lastly you consider educational loans. It's a very similar process as you apply to alone for any other degree seeking program.

And with that that concludes the content that we have to share we want to say thank you so much for joining us today. We are now going to transition into our question, and answer time so please use that chat box feature to type in your questions and showing and I will answer them as they come in as you are writing down your questions now. I want to reiterate our website whichisharris.uchicago.e.edu/dps.

Yes, that's where you can read about the different elements that we've talked about today accessing those capstone research project examples or reading the profiles of our past. Lumini so to make sure to really dive into that website and also our emails here at harrissummerscholar@uchicago.edu, Please send us an email. If you have any questions. We are more than happy to correspond via email schedule Phone call or a Skype appointment, we'd be happy to connect with you.