petrouchka

Thanks for your response. What you say about fraud does make sense, though I disagree with your comparison of this situation to booking a seat with extra legroom. In that case, the school incurs an excess expense on my behalf, which is not the case here. For instance, School B did offer to book and reimburse a roundtrip from my home to the school. This would have left School A's flight in place. I don't see how it would make it any better if I chose to do this, when I knew there would be a cheaper alternative for School B (they save one leg of the trip essentially) that would not require any extra funding from School A. So theoretically, I would be saving academic funds across departments with this rearrangement. Anyway, I agree that it would be good to speak with the school in question about this, and will do so soon. No point in stressing over it really. On another note, I must say that United's policy is terrible. I called today (to the tone of a rather unfriendly agent), and essentially I incure a penalty of $200 for EACH LEG of the flight I modify. Canceling leads to a credit of the price I paid minus $200, which is ridiculously high. From what I've read online, it does seem that a good number of people chose to forfeit their money instead of giving United the opportunity to make even more money from their ticket via resell. Maybe I'm just spolied by the reasonable policies of Southwest, but I will try to avoid United Airlines for future travel.

Congratulations!!!! What's your area of interest?

I wouldn't fret. They won't pass you over just because you didn't pick up your phone. Keep your phone close tomorrow... in the worst case, they'll just email you if they can't reach you. I'm sure you'll hear soon.

I can confirm that Stanford invites are out.

Hi TakeruK, I appreciate your input, but I'd like to clarify a few things. I am still attending the entire Open House for School A. I only wish to cancel my flight from my home to School A because it would not be feasible to fly from my house to A to my house to B to my house. The cost incurred by School A would remain the same, whether I took or missed the flights. Both schools are high on my interest list. School B has already stated that they will cover the cost of the other flight. Cancelling the flight will lead to an additional charge of $200 and I will not receive any refund of the money that I paid from the airline. And likely no reimbursement either. :-/ Does anyone have actual experience with a similar situation?

Ok I will try to call the airline (United). From their policy online, they seem very inflexible and charge $200 to change the flight. This is more than the cost of the ticket itself. :-\ If I cancel, they say I will get 0 money back. Regarding reimbursement using the boarding passes - theoretically I could check in at home and just send that in right? Besides, some airlines like Southwest collect the boarding passes upon boarding, so it maybe just a purchase receipt would be okay?

A few weeks ago, I bought my ticket to fly from my home city to School A. I recently received an interview invite from another school, B. The only way for me to make this would be to fly from my home city to School B and then from School B to A. Both schools offered to reimburse my costs. My question - would it still be possible for School A to reimburse me when I won't be using the ticket I bought at all? A refund would not be possible because the airline is inflexible. Should I bring this up to the school? Advice?

Kind of irrelevant to your question, but I'm interested in the outfit you plan on wearing. It seems that most past interview threads are geared towards guys, so I'd like your input on what's appropriate. Thanks!

You shouldn't hestitate to contact a professor if you have a genuine question or interest in their work. From my experiences, professors will often take the time to answer questions about current research, inform you if they are looking to take a new student, and direct you to other professors you might be interested in. They might keep an eye out for your application and follow up if they are especially interested (mention them in your SOP). However, it is not necessary for admission. I have been offered interviews at the majority of my schools already, and fewer than half of the schools were places where I actually contacted the prof beforehand.

I got an email from my POI two days ago and the official invite by email today. I wouldn't freak out, since it does seem different tracks send out invites at different times. However, it might be worth calling if you don't hear anything by the end of the week. (My invite says to RSVP by Sunday.)

I got an invite from MIT for the Cognition track two days ago, but they may still be sending them out. Any other cognition people out there?

Has anyone heard from MIT BCS for their cognition track? I've seen invites posted for all the other tracks, but wasn't sure if cognition has been sent out as well. Any one know?

I'm also wondering about MIT. Have any cognitive invites gone out yet?