Phone call while visiting another school?

[cranberry]

This is probably a long shot, but I was curious if this had happened to anyone before. Have you ever been interviewing or visiting one school and gotten an acceptance or interview via phone from another school? If so, how did you handle it? Also, lucky you if this has happened.

[communications13]

Turn the phone off? I can't think of much that would look more unprofessional than to have my phone go off during an interview, campus tour, class, etc when thier impression of me is so crucial. Other schools will certainly leave a message and you can excuse yourself to call back during a break or wait until the next day. I guess it's a good problem to have, but no one actually expects you to be at beck and call 100% of the time.

[cranberry]

Turn the phone off? I can't think of much that would look more unprofessional than to have my phone go off during an interview, campus tour, class, etc when thier impression of me is so crucial. Other schools will certainly leave a message and you can excuse yourself to call back during a break or wait until the next day. I guess it's a good problem to have, but no one actually expects you to be at beck and call 100% of the time.

Of course not during the actual interview! Just that some of these visitation weekends are several days long and crammed with activities, and for the ones I've been invited to I am staying with faculty members and graduate students. I think it would be awkward trying to find a time and space to sneak off and call another school back.

[space-cat]

Turn the phone off? I can't think of much that would look more unprofessional than to have my phone go off during an interview, campus tour, class, etc when thier impression of me is so crucial. Other schools will certainly leave a message and you can excuse yourself to call back during a break or wait until the next day. I guess it's a good problem to have, but no one actually expects you to be at beck and call 100% of the time.

Agreed. If you don't think you'd get a chance to check your messages, or if you're expecting a sneak attack phone interview type of call rather than a straightforward acceptance call, you could always change your outgoing message to say something like "I will be out of town with sporadic access to voicemail [dates of the visit]. Please leave me a message, and I will return your call on [date you return]."