Accepted Students Visits

[hooleeya]

Hi all,

I just found out that I've been accepted, with funding, to my top choice school (Northwestern - yay!) leaving me with a possibly awkward situation. I found out at the beginning of the week that I'd been accepted to another program which has offered to pay for all my travel expenses to come to a weekend for accepted students. I RSVP-ed and said I would be coming and emailed the professor with whom I had been in contact saying that I was looking forward to visiting and meeting with her. While this program was not my top choice, it was at the top of my list so I did want to visit. However, since I've gotten into Northwestern after I committed to traveling to the other school, I don't feel right going to visit the other school knowing that I won't be accepting their offer. How should I handle this? I'm still waiting to hear back from three other schools, but I'm 97% certain that I'll be accepting the offer from Northwestern.

Also, I haven't yet gotten an official letter from Northwestern or the history department, just an email from the head of the interdisciplinary "cluster" I'm interested in saying I've been awarded a fellowship and should be getting an official letter once the history department finishes making their decisions, so based on that I'm assuming (hopefully not incorrectly) that I'm in, but I don't want to make any decisions until I know for certain.

[synthla]

I'd definitely wait until you have that letter in hand before burning any other bridges, though that might just be the play-it-safe lawyer in me coming out. Also, your visit to campus is the school's chance to sell itself to you; even if you're 97% sure you're not going to attend there, they certainly saw something in your application that appealed to their department, and it might be worth exploring that. At both the undergraduate and (first) graduate level, I made an unexpected choice of school based upon a campus visit.

[hooleeya]

synthla said:

I'd definitely wait until you have that letter in hand before burning any other bridges, though that might just be the play-it-safe lawyer in me coming out. Also, your visit to campus is the school's chance to sell itself to you; even if you're 97% sure you're not going to attend there, they certainly saw something in your application that appealed to their department, and it might be worth exploring that. At both the undergraduate and (first) graduate level, I made an unexpected choice of school based upon a campus visit.

That was kind of my gut feeling, too. The people at the other school (WUSTL) have been nothing but wonderful and very friendly, and while their program isn't as highly ranked as Northwestern, the campus/department environment is a really important factor for me, particularly since I'm coming from a small liberal arts university, which I chose for its atmosphere over some "better" schools.

[synthla]

hooleeya said:

That was kind of my gut feeling, too. The people at the other school (WUSTL) have been nothing but wonderful and very friendly, and while their program isn't as highly ranked as Northwestern, the campus/department environment is a really important factor for me, particularly since I'm coming from a small liberal arts university, which I chose for its atmosphere over some "better" schools.

I too went to a small liberal arts college; unfortunately for my first graduate school, I let the highly-ranked school wow me too much over the visit, and ended up not liking my experience at the school at all. Don't regret it, but I certainly learned from my mistake this time around. Ironically, Northwestern was my top choice before I visited the higher-ranked school (this was for another department - not history), so if you end up not going to Northwestern now, I have a lot for which to atone.

[ampersand]

I say keep the visit at WUSTL. It will be good for you to have another department to compare Northwestern to, and it will provide valuable opportunities for networking. It's worth exploring all your options, especially if your visits are paid for by the departments.

[rising_star]

Honestly, I would visit. Sometimes a place that seems perfect on paper and from email communication isn't so perfect once you visit.