Open House before Acceptance...

[nocturne]

I've been invited to the open house for UCSD, and they have offered to pay for part of my travel costs. I see from this site that others have been accepted without a visit, so I am understandably nervous about the trip, nearly to the point of freaking out. Basically, I *MUST* impress! I figure that they are going to be basically comparing me to the other as-yet-unaccepted attendees, deciding whom to pick (and I have no idea how many slots they have left). :shock:

Has anyone been to an open house before who can tell me what I should expect? I went thrifting recently with the purpose of buying some nice-looking clothes, and ordered some professional-looking shoes... is one expected to wear hose to these things? What sort of activities are usually included? Are they going to be looking more for a personality match? Will I be questioned on specific knowledge (and therefore should study)?

I am worried because while I express myself articulately through writing, and my GPA and GREs look good on paper, I am rather shy and consider myself mildly socially awkward. I'm not one of those "go-getter" types with a loud voice and a firm handshake; I'm more of a quiet nerd. Any advice?

[Victory]

It's not like you're trying to get your MBA where they actually look for the go-getter types. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I also received an invite to an open house prior to acceptance. Then again, the open house is over a month away...and no offer to pay for any part of the trip.

[socialpsych]

Nocturne, I have one such visit coming up myself (although they have not accepted anybody yet without a visit). Like you, I consider myself to be fairly shy and socially awkward.

Keep in mind that, especially if they are offering some travel reimbursement, they are not inviting huge numbers of applicants--probably 2-3x as many as they want to admit. So you are probably looking at the remaining admits and the top of the waitlist. Given that people apply to multiple schools and their yield is unlikely to be 100%, your chances are pretty good. And they selected you for this group because they already like you and want to meet you!

I doubt you will be questioned on specific knowledge, but I would read up on the recent publications of any faculty you are interested in working with. Some literacy in the field you want to go into will be helpful and will come across easily if you have it.

One piece of advice I have heard over and over again: just as important as talking about yourself articulately is getting the faculty you are meeting with to talk about themselves...everyone likes talking about themselves (especially academics, since so few people are in a position to really appreciate their work!) and you will seem automatically likable if you can get them talking about their work. "What have you been working on recently that isn't out in the press yet?" can be a good opener. I think I will also probably think of some questions I have about these profs' research based on the recent articles they already have out, so I will have a follow-up question ready in case they are still working on something similar.

You will do great...congrats and good luck!

[deianira]

I just did my first "open house". There was quite a lot of trying to impress from the graduate program's side, so I wouldn't say that it's all about you. People were dressed nicely for both the pre-interview dinner and interviews, but I wouldn't say they were dressed tot he nines. Women were mostly in business casual (a couple were in suits), most wore heels. A few men wore formal suits and ties, or business casual. I would say I spent about 75% of the time asking and listening to people talk about their research, the program requirements, and graduate life (and other completely random topics), and 25% talking about my experience and goals. All interactions (with faculty and students) were very relaxed, and I did not feel like there was any pressure on me to impress.

[psycholinguist]

Yikes! Talk about nerve-wracking! I'm really sorry they did that...though I know it's pretty par-for-the-course for grad-school programs. But still. They could have taken the pressure off by not formally accepting anyone until after the Open House weekend. (That's what the University of Toronto psych-department appears to be doing.) I guess the department just wanted to let people know their most-firm decisions as soon as possible, though.

Anyway...if it's any consolation, I think nearly everyone in linguistics has got to be the quiet nerd type (and I proudly include myself). Presumably that's even more of a trend amongst aspiring grad-students.

I would prepare a list of things to do, people to talk to, and (especially!) questions to ask; review its contents a bit before meeting with people, and then hopefully you'll have a few safety-nets in place to protect against intimidation awkwardness. (I really like socialpsych's suggestion involving asking professors about their current work!)