Recruitment Weekend

[achimneyswallow]

I received a letter from the program responding to my question regarding interview. The graduate program assistant told me they do invite a select group of students for a Recruitment Weekend. The committee has been considering applicants and will have made all decisions by the beginning of March. Except of these and that I will hear from the department in a few weeks, he did not indicate when the Recruitment Weekend is, nor I am in the select group or not.

I am wondering how the Recruitment Weekend works. Is it an only one-time thing? Or they rotate students to the school? That means the program does not do phone interviews (nevertheless, I have seen records on thegradcafe that one and only one applicant reported having received phone interview from a professor)?

The answer that the graduate program assistant gave to me is really vague that I can't see a clear chance...BTW, the deadline was Dec 1 last year. It has been more than 2 months and I have not seen people on the board report acceptance...Are schools making decisions later this year? If so, why? The impacts of financial crisis on higher education?

Your opinions are sincerely welcome. Thank you!

[ec86]

ssb7, would you happen to know how many of those "finalists" were accepted? What if someone can't make it to the recruitment event in person, what happens to them then?

[achimneyswallow]

Thank you, and for ssb7 and others who would know, how likely that people who are not invited to recruitment weekend would be admitted eventually? I know it depends, but would love to know how schools would make the decisions while they don't know the students "that much." I mean, compared with those they can see and talk in person, those not coming to recruitment weekend are "not as real"...do I make the point?

I just checked the website to know that they did have a recruitment weekend on Feb 12-13. I wasn't invited, but they have not turned me down yet either. I have heard from a guy who applied to the same program just got a rejection letter. I guess I am on the waitlist...which gives me some reason to wish...but I want it to be real...and it is so hard not to think of the worse...

[ec86]

Thanks for your reply ssb7! I'm also curious to know what is the distinction between recruitment and interview days? From what I understand, recruitment days also involve back-to-back interviews with faculty. I've been told that basically they want you really bad if you're invited to recruitment day and the whole point of it is to sell their school to you (they're dishing out hundreds of $$ to fly you in, etc). Is this true in your case? Did they interview you and if they did, were they really grueling in-depth questioning or just a "normality" check? Thanks!

The RW was on Thurs-Fri of last week so i'm afraid i don't know my own admissions decision, much less those of the other people attending there were two rumors floating about: one, that they were aiming for a target of 6 people total, so half of us would make it in. two, that they'd accept all of us and assume half of us would go elsewhere. there's really no way for me to tell what rumor, if either, is correct.

i'm not sure what would have happened if someone couldn't go in person, but one girl flew in from israel after speaking to a professor at this school about possibly missing the RW...so it seems like one of those "strongly recommended" things that are actually mandatory if you want a fighting chance. i'm sure, however, that that varies with school and personal circumstance. they did provide us with plenty of incentives to come, since they paid for food, travel, and lodging for each student, so it seems like they do put a lot of importance on actually attending.

hope that helps!