Admitted Students Weekend - Worth the cost?

[HiFiWiFi]

The school I will more than likely attend (the only way I'd go anywhere else is if the yet undetermined school offered me full funding + stipend, which isn't incredibly likely) has an admitted students weeked in mid-March. Because I have never been to that area of the country, let alone that city, I would really like the opportunity to see the city, get my bearings for the neighborhoods to look for housing in, get a feel for the environment on campus, and meet some of my fellow incoming students. However, the cross-country flight and hotel room would be ~800 bucks, and I'm not certain I can get the time off work. (Notable: I'm intending to quit my job soon anyway to prepare for this upcoming move, so if I could make the weekend work, leaving my job in time to go wouldn't be out of the question.)

Has anyone gone to admitted students weekends? Any advice on whether it's worth the money or not? I almost feel like I just need to go to prove to myself that I actually did get into such a wonderful program and that it's not a mistake, but with expensive grad school considerations on the horizon, I'm not sure if it's worht putting out money I don't absolutely have to.

There will be a new student orientation in August that I'm sure will cover basics of the campus.

[2017 Applicant]

I'd say it's probably not worth it. It sounds like a generic admitted students day, in which case they're probably going to try to convince you to come with some information that isn't necessarily specific to your intended program. And since you're pretty much sold on the school anyway, it may not be very helpful to you. I think you could probably do better by exchanging back-and-forth emails with students and faculty in your intended department.

I think a better idea would be to move into town a decent amount of time before orientation. You can get your bearings in the city, start making friends, meet with professors who can tell you a bit about their work and your program. I don't think you'll miss out on making bonds with your classmates - I've attended a graduate program before which had a department-specific visit day, and while people were friendly we still went a whole 6+ months without seeing each other again. Just my two cents.

[angesradieux]

I'd say it's probably a good idea to go. If nothing else, you can talk to current grad students to get an idea of what the area's like, cost of living, etc. You can find that information online or over e-mail, but you'll probably get a more complete picture from being there, which could be helpful while planning the move. It might also be beneficial to reach out to faculty and see if they're available during the admitted student weekend. I find communicating with people via e-mail is very different from the experience of a face to face conversation, so the best way to see what they're really like is to go. Maybe being there, talking to people, and looking around will just confirm your feeling that this is the school for you. However, if you go and something strikes you as not quite right--maybe a professor looks fantastic on paper, but you get the vibe that they're difficult to work with, or if students seem disgruntled, or you get to this place and you just don't see yourself living there--you first have the opportunity to talk to people and potentially address some concerns, should they arise, and second, should there be anything you're not quite sure of, you have time to think and weigh your options before committing to the program. Traveling is expensive, but if you can swing it, I think it's probably worth it, if nothing else so you can say with greater certainty that this is what you want.

However, I'm also really bad at making decisions and committing to things. If you're less prone to waffling and second guessing things than I am, maybe the visit isn't actually all that important for you. I just know that personally, if I were to not visit at all, or only visit schools X, and Y, but not Z, I'll always be wondering if I would have made a different choice if I'd gone out to look around and meet people at school Z. I'll probably still have second thoughts no matter how informed my decision is, but visiting before committing to anything means there's one less "what if" scenario I can torment myself with later on.