metametis

I'm planning on visiting some grad schools during their weekend recruiting events. I'm guessing these events consist of a mix of talking with professors, touring the campus/city and some other recreational activities. What are some good shoes that look formal enough to go with business casual clothes (to make a good impression when visiting with professors), but would be comfortable and sturdy enough for hikes and long walks across campus? Would anyone like to share what kind of shoes they wore during their campus visits, or recommend any particular brand or style? Also, are there usually breaks between activities where I could change clothes (to change from business casual for interviews to casual for a group hike, for example), or should I just wear clothes and shoes that would be appropriate for a broad range of activities?

Thank you all for your input. I suppose being happy in my research work is more important than the prestige of a university. I am actually pretty open to trying and finding other research interests. Right now, I have a pretty good idea of what I think I would like to work on both in my graduate studies and as a career, but it's possible that my interests can shift a bit once I actually enter grad school and start doing research. UT Austin doesn't have research in the exact field of my interest, but it does have somewhat related research. I guess I'll just have to visit each school and see how I feel about each program before I decide.

I've started to hear back from some of the schools I applied to, and I'm now faced with a dilemma. I was recently accepted by two programs -- UT Austin and Rutgers. UT Austin is a top 10 school for my field (chemical engineering), but none of the faculty do research directly related to my interest. Rutgers is one of the few schools that offer a specialized program that fits exactly with my research interests, but is ranked near the middle to bottom of all the U.S. chemical engineering programs. Since I'm in an engineering discipline, both the research and coursework are integral components of the graduate experience. When I'm trying to decide between the two schools, if funding is not an issue, which factor should I weight more: the strength of the overall program (ranking), or the best fit between my interests and the faculty's research? How would you choose between two (or more) graduate schools in a similar situation?