will you visit any schools before applying?

[frankdux]

i'm looking to visit a school that waitlisted and eventually rejected me last year. its my top choice. i'm hoping to make a solid impression by attaching a face and personality to my application this year.

how about you? any experiences to share?

[rising_star]

I wouldn't bother. I only ever visited places that accepted me and paid my way.

[Ferrero]

Yes, the upside is you get to advertise yourself, putting a face to a name during the bull sessions in February when you're up against equally qualified applicants. The downside is if, like me, you make a poor impression. I arranged a meeting with 4 faculty at once and tried to negotiate a promise that they'd all adopt me as an advisee. As I was leveraging from a position of weakness (I hadn't been admitted yet), I thought I'd equalize things by locking the door of the conference room. This was a bad idea; campus security had to unlock the door and I was escorted off the premises. On balance, though, I think it made me stand out as a committed student and was a good opening anecdote for my statement of purpose.

[frankdux]

Yes, the upside is you get to advertise yourself, putting a face to a name during the bull sessions in February when you're up against equally qualified applicants. The downside is if, like me, you make a poor impression. I arranged a meeting with 4 faculty at once and tried to negotiate a promise that they'd all adopt me as an advisee. As I was leveraging from a position of weakness (I hadn't been admitted yet), I thought I'd equalize things by locking the door of the conference room. This was a bad idea; campus security had to unlock the door and I was escorted off the premises. On balance, though, I think it made me stand out as a committed student and was a good opening anecdote for my statement of purpose.

could you go into a little more detail on exactly what happened? did you accidentally break the lock on the door? why did campus security escort you off? how did the professors react to this whole ordeal? did you get in to that school?

[anese]

could you go into a little more detail on exactly what happened? did you accidentally break the lock on the door? why did campus security escort you off? how did the professors react to this whole ordeal? did you get in to that school?

I think its pretty obvious at this point that this poster lies and makes things up. I don't know whether it is to intentionally sabotage fellow candidates or to just be annoying, but I'm sticking to this assertion.