Does visiting a school help your chances (on provided days)?

[xcrazydave]

Do you think it helps? Especially when you have to write an essay about why you want to go there and you mention what you experienced? Just say yes, and make me feel better.

[snowcapk]

Do you think it helps?

Are you currently a junior? Are you sure the visiting days are not just for admitted students? If the department provides visiting days for college juniors/next year's round of applicants, then you should go. But your essay should focus on the type of research you have done/intend to do and how the profs in the department are a good fit for you. You might not learn anything on visiting day that gives you any insight to their research, especially if the visit is not organized by the individual department.

[JKoch]

I would say yes, if you visited the department you are interested in.

Last year I went with one of my peers to visit several different graduate institutions over spring break (mid March). Before we went, he had recieved two rejection letters and nothing from the rest of the schools. Shortly after the visits, he received acceptance emails from most of the schools we visited. This could have been due to the timing, but I tend to believe that the visit did sway the opinions of the faculty we met with.

Of course, this could have the opposite effect if you make a bad impression.

[Kee]

Do you think it helps? Especially when you have to write an essay about why you want to go there and you mention what you experienced? Just say yes, and make me feel better.

Yes.

[kissesofthesun]

it all depends on how you take the visit...if you do some networking and maybe get the names and email addresses of current students and actually get some correspondence going then yeah, it definitely is helpful.

and if i'm totally off base here, it helps schools to know you're really enthusiastic about them and that you're just not copy-pasting your Statement...

visiting is NOT useful if you just sort of follow around the group like a sheep.