Admitted Students Live Q&A Session - Master of Engineering in Financial Technology (FinTech)

Hello and thank you for joining us for today's Live Q&A session for admitted students to Dukes, Master of Engineering program in financial technology. Congratulations to all of you.

Where you see these words is the chat box, where you can submit your questions live. Don't worry if you don't immediately see your question, we will see it and we will address it.

We had quite a few questions that were submitted upon registration, so we'll get started with those, but we do hope that you will post questions live during this event. Thank you.

I'm Susan Brown and Jimmy Lynn. Dr Jimmy lens will be joining us pretty soon. I don't see him on yet.

Ann Paige Anderson is on the chat and I think JD Hastings might be as well, page says Azure Azure questions here will be moderating the questions for you.

I Jimmy, I think I see you on are you there?

I am definitely here. Good morning.

Oh great, thank you so much for joining me today.

Let's

Of course, no, it's great. It's great to be here. Thank you for hosting this. I think it's a just a great event to to have to answer questions and I'm really excited to hear some from the our newly admitted students.

I know it's so wonderful were so excited about our first class and I can't wait to dive into the questions in this chat.

Like I said, I'm Susan Brown. I'm here with doctor, Jimmy lands, and we're going to get started with the questions a day DC or two high GD. We're going to get started with the questions that were submitted as part of the registration process and will get to your questions that are going to be posted live perfect. All right. Let me see.

This person says hi, I'm so excited to receive admission. They have several questions and we'll just go through them. What is the expected class size?

Wow, that is a great question and I I received this question quite often. I'm a little bit surprised by the people are very interested in this, are anticipated class size is 34. This first year, now that's up a little bit from what we first anticipated, but the number of qualified applicants was just overwhelming.

And by the way, some of them are still coming in, but we are anticipating about 30 students. For the first Copart.

That's great, that's perfect in this person asked can you can you share information what the rough admission rate was so far? I guess they want to know what were their chances in it and how. What was the bar they cleared?

It was a very exclusive right now it was a close to 10% were admitted, so it's it's been very, very exclusive.

It.

It is so congratulations to all of you.

Absolutely absolutely it has had a high bar. The one thing I would say and I'm to everyone on the call and they listen to this, is that we did take a very holistic approach when we when we looked at candidates and we did look at every candidate, several people looked at every candidate and the committee considered all factors. So if if you're thinking wow, I didn't think my grades were that high. My jirari grades were that high or something like that.

There may have been other other circumstances. There may have been other factors as well. As I said, we take a very holistic approach. So when you look at the rates and the average is things like that, remember those are just averages we normally take. We normally post kind of the average of that middle 50% of the curve, and so those standard deviations beyond that, both higher and lower, also factor in. And that's something really important to think about, we do.

Want to get classes that have a broad range of students, students with different experiences with different majors, different work experiences, all kinds of different things? So it's more than just grades that factor end but but I will say it is. It has been unfairly exclusive group approximately 10%.

That's great, and I think you make a good point. We're building a good class and that can include a wide variety, a wide range of students.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in person. I've spoken with so many by email or by phone. Skype calls an zoom calls and things like that and it's been great too. I have a chance to to meet so many of you but meeting everyone in person I'm really looking forward to.

Wow, um.

Me too me too. Can you give us an estimate of how many international students you think will be in that initial group of students?

Right?

It's hard to tell at this point because of course everyone hasn't accepted yet. I think it will be a good percentage of international students. We've had students that have applied from pretty much every continent we have student from Europe. We have students from all over Asia, the subcontinent. I don't think we had any from actually we have. We've had students from North Africa. I don't think we've had any from from South America. We did have several from Australia apply.

Absolutely.

So it's it's literally around the world, but it's really hard to estimate that right now because we haven't received all the acceptances. So that'll be that'll be a little bit of a little bit of a guessing game for all of us. I suppose it of the surprise.

Right, I can't help but notice that several students admitted to other chats questions about how Cove in 19 is going to affect fall 2020 admissions, and I want to share that we will be sending out information on Duke's response to Cove in 19th to all add minutes so we will address that kind of separately. From this chat you mentioned all over the world and I just thought we should. We should let people know about that.

Thank you.

Um, someone asks us there away like a Facebook group chat for students to have connection with other admitted students.

I'm going to leave that up to the tech team page and JD to answer. I know that they have been working on some other methods for students to interact. I didn't think anyone went on Facebook anymore, Jimmy.

But but color me wrong, I guess we will definitely work on ways to connect admitted students to each other. I think that's a good way to kind of get together and see what common questions you have and make connections early. So, great, great, great. Can you go ahead, go ahead.

Ha ha.

And I would take it one thing I would say is informally I know there are groups of accepted students that have formed their own channel on things like WhatsApp and we chat. So there are some out there that have done those kinds of things. But yeah, formally we haven't, but that would be great if JD an age can. They can certainly way in because they have much more experience at this than than I do for sure.

JD says there is a WhatsApp group available. It's not divided by Department, but I think it can still be helpful for students about the Duke experience and page is also going to see if there's a we chat group or if we can set one up.

So thank you both. Thank you both.

Let's dive a little bit into the curriculum. We have a we have kind of the two core business course courses.

Business fundamentals and management in high tech industries. Then we have four financial technology courses of financial technology. Capstone course, an internship, an electives in either a technology track or a technology management track.

Our students held front in one track or another. Can they mix between these two tracks, Jimmy?

That is such a good question. I've had so many students that have asked about it. Ask this question or switching tracks or things along those lines. Absolutely, there is the ability to take courses from either track, so you're not you're not confined to one track, so if you're in the technology track, but there's something in the management track that really excites you, you'd really like to.

To see about, we can certainly do that, that that you can. That is certainly available, and so that isn't a problem at all. Doing those kinds of things, and I think that that will be more common than not. Honestly, from what I've heard from different students and questions that I've received, there are quite a few things in both that appealed to people, and so I think that that will be fairly common taking.

One or two courses from a, from, from from the other tracks. So I do think that will be a. Yeah, I think that would be pretty common.

OK.

Great and I just put a slide up on a typical schedule. That kind of outlined how a student might go through the program starting in the summer and graduating in the following fall. Just wanna leave that up there for a moment.

Let's talk about our careers services, Jimmy. We have a phenomenal career team who works with all Masters students. We've gotten quite a few questions about career outcomes, so let's talk about both. I can talk about career services, but if you could talk about the career outcomes that students might expect, the areas they might expect to go in, that would be great.

Yeah.

Sure up the and you're right about the career services team and the number of questions we have received a lot and you know a lot more about that than I do, but phenomenal phenomenal team that you can speak on in detail so the career outcomes. I received this question quite often and I think it's a good question. I think people should be thinking about this, not only what the outcomes are, but what they are interested in. And that's usually the question that I asked. Back is So what are you interested in?

You're welcome.

Um, because I think that with everything we do, that should be a driver, not a specific job, but a specific job that you're interested in our specific area that you're interested in. So some of the some of the areas that we put up here on this slide, which, by the way thank you for doing this. It looks really nice.

Everybody.

See I highlight a lot of these and it's interesting. I would say after reading all of the applications an interest people have, it runs the gamut of these we've had a lot of people who have asked or who are interested in, or who may already be working in payment systems and transaction services. I think everybody sees the value of that because we use it every day we use alipay, we use Apple Pay, we use PayPal, we use all kinds of things like that.

People are extremely interested in continuing to mature that, so we had a lot of people talk about that. We got to talk. A lot of people talk about credit lending and those kinds of things. Quantitative analysis and quantitative trading have permeated boy just a huge number of different different applications that I saw. So that's something that's very popular. One thing that is even, even with all of these things that I've mentioned here, one thing that seems to be.

Really popular people want to learn about whether or not it's it's directly applicable or not is Blockchain.

Oh, it's amazing how many people say you know they're interested in the quantitative trading, but they still want to know about Blockchain or they're interested in payments, but they still want to know about Blockchain. Blockchain seems to be the one thing that we are receiving quite a bit of attention on. Part of it is we are a school that is doing quite a bit in the space. We recently were named as one of the companies or one of the participants in a.

Group that is kind of setting the steering committee, but it's setting the path for some new very new blockchain work that's going on. It's a consortium that is kind of.

Champion by Microsoft Ernst and young and consensus and we are the only University on the steering committee for that, so we have taken a very very proactive approach. But that's one area that I see a lot of. A lot of information on risk management is another one that we have had quite a few people talk about, and the risk management. The interesting thing is people are talking about it from different aspects, so the risk management of trading the risk management.

Credit, you know general or more general risk management in financial institutions or infin tax, so we've seen a lot of a lot of different tax that people have, and I think a lot of people have already done their homework, but we're hoping that during the process, obviously you're going to learn about a lot more and even more doors will be open. More opportunities will be open as you go through.

The the program and you may find that you came in thinking you were really interested in one thing, and maybe there ends up being two or three things that you're interested in coming out. That's what I'm really hoping.

Right, that's great and I'll just say a little bit about our careers team. The first, the keyword in that sentence is our team. We have 3 three team members who are devoted to career counseling. So resume review, practice interviewing, exploring opportunities, that kind of thing.

We have one who is dedicated to professional development for turning you into the most well rounded financial technology student. You can be and then we have one who is dedicated to employer relations who goes out and talks to companies and sees what they're looking for. And let's send know what our students have to offer. So kind of being a bridge between those two and that team is, I think one of the best advantages that Dukes program.

Has to offer students.

Jimmy, I've got a slide up here that kind of says why student might choose Duke Fantac, but really I would love it if you could give your own overview on what you want. These admitted students to take away from all the information we presented. What do you want them to to know?

So there are a couple of things. Uh, and thank you for asking it that way because there are a couple of things I think people should should know and should be well informed about. Kind of what we are and what we aren't. So what we are is at heart is we're going to engineering school and we build things and so all of our courses are.

Meant to be as hands-on as possible. People are building things. People are doing things we are not a course of study that concentrates on case studies or on theory of so. During the class is people are experiencing things that they will in the workplace. It's very, very practical experience they can take to the workplace with them. It is not. As I said, You know kind of theory driven. It's a little bit different in that respect. So that's one thing.

Yeah.

I think people should be, uhm, very, very attentive. The other thing and kind of meshing with that are the professors that we have that are teaching within the program. Almost all of the professors have great academic credentials teaching experience, but they've also worked in industry and some of them are still working in industry. I'm really excited about one particular professor, just.

Has uh that there will be here in the spring with us he's still working at one of the major technology companies in the world and he's agreed to teach a horse for us at the same time but we have a lot of people with that kind of experience that are that are involved in the program and that are working with the program the other thing is the speakers that we bring in are almost all from industry so we're very much geared towards?

The application of your skills and the application in the workplace. So those are two things that we.

I would like students to take away.

The kind of building even appan that one more level is the intern ships and the capstone projects are oriented towards real applications. Again, this isn't a theoretical expertise, are theoretical exercises. They will have the opportunity to work with real problems and come up with real solutions that could be put into into the environment so that whole experience thing is kind of Permeates everything we do.

And it starts from the very first thing, the very first semester that there at school, where they'll be exposed to professionals in industry and things like that through seminars and things along those lines, as well as their teachers.

Beautiful.

Right?

The other thing is just the Duke environment is is fantastic for those of you who haven't visited Durham NC. I mean it's a great place you can talk about it more than I can. Probably citizen, but the Duke environment. The campus itself is just. It's a fantastic place to not only be on a beautiful campus with all kinds of facilities and things like that, but you are very much integrated into a large community.

Of of people, not only at the engineering school because the engineering schools right in the middle of the other other areas of campus. So there are people from different areas that are going to be interacting with on a regular basis outside of the classroom. That's maybe one other thing I should mention is the classes because I have had a few questions about this class. Is fintech classes are always think students are always preference for bent classes. Although we will have.

People from other disciplines in Fintech classes, which I think adds again greatly to the kind of the class experience that whole class experience, not just the experience of the individual. So those are just a few things I would really like for people to take away and I'm happy to answer any questions on those.

Absolutely. I think we're building an exciting first cohort, and I've posted a link to a virtual tour of Duke University. You can't come to campus right now because of the Cove in 19 issue, but Duke has a wonderful virtual tour that makes you feel like you're right there.

Great Jimmy, we got this question last time and I liked it so much I remembered it and I want to ask it again. What is the best thing and admitted student can do to prepare for orientation and starting the program this summer?

You know what they can do? Take a break.

Yeah.

Huh?

Hedjet

That's what they can do. They can take a break up a lot of students are going to be coming from directly from work. A lot of students are going to be coming directly from undergrad. You owe it to yourself to take a little bit of a break. I've had so many people ask me what do I need to study for the assessment you need to study nothing. It's an assessment. It's not a task you're not going to be graded on it. It's not going to do anything about your class standing or anything along those lines.

You need to take a break first, first and foremost. Uhm, there have been a lot of things going on that you all have been involved in. There are a lot of things going on in the world and I think that it's really important that when you get this school you're not exhausted. You're not coming off of a lot of other things, so if you have the opportunity to take a little bit of a break. I mean, really, I can't tell you how important it is to just have time to kind of sit back, relax with your family with your friends, maybe read a little bit.

Pleasure reading not not work. Read it. Uh, you know do things like that, that kind of get you that freshen you up a little bit and get your ready to embark on this brand new path. I think it's important to have some time to reflect before you come and you dive into something brand new.

Not the answer you expect, it is it.

Great advice.

Not, it's not I think a lot of people were expecting read this book. Watch this obsession. But um, really taking time to prepare yourself, I think is is good advice. Spoiler alert. I knew you were going to say that.

OK.

But it's such a good question and I think it we really do need to present that kind of information.

I want to give a quick plug for my other live QA sessions. You should definitely sign up for those were going to cover career services for Masters students in depth of vibrant community life in Durham. There's a lot to do in Durham. I think it is an excellent small city to be a young professional in and that session will cover all things Durham and then if your international steps to securing a US student visa, you can find all those on the admitted student Page. Pratt Duke.edu.

Forward slash Brad Ford Slash Masters Ford slash admitted I don't see any other questions for now, but I do want you to know you can always email them to us. We are available at Pratt underscore Masters at duke.edu and we can answer a lot of your questions about your admission offer about next steps about systems and things like that. Jimmy is better for what kind of questions do you think you're better suited to answer Jimmy?

Any anything that you're not really any, it any other questions that folks have about courses about the professors about kind of the teaching or learning experience. I'm really happy to answer any of those, but for a lot of the technical questions page and Susan and shady, they do this every day and they are the experts at these kinds of things so.

Don't hesitate to reach out to them because they do they have so much experience doing this with students that they're just a wealth of information and the one thing I'm going to give you guys another plug here. The one thing that I think people sometimes are don't realize is you all have heard all these questions 100 times and you've seen it all and you can probably when somebody asked do either calls or emails you a question you can probably anticipate with the next question is going to be an you can answer a question they haven't even thought of yet.

Yeah.

I found myself doing that a lot, so you're absolutely right there. We did get a quick question from someone who missed the beginning of the session. I want to point out that all of these sessions are recorded and we will send out the recordings to all registered attendees. So don't worry if you missed a question and the question you missed was how many people do we expect? And Jimmy said about 30.

So so great. Well, I don't see any other questions. Jimmy, thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.

Oh, absolutely Susan. This is always great. I love talking to students. An students now that have been accepted to the program, I would encourage them if they have any questions or any thoughts or anything along those lines to to reach out. If you haven't. If you haven't responded yet, please do your offer. Please do that as soon as possible. That makes a big difference and I can answer your questions a little bit better, especially some of the questions that we've had around the makeup of the class and things like that.

As we as we see more as we see more. But if you do have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me and again the Susen Qadian Page are just fantastic wealth of knowledge about the whole program and Duke and Durham area and everything that you might want to think about.

Thank you so much, Jimmy. Quick plug for my other events and thank you all. Congratulations Jimmy. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, have a good egg.

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