Should I Cancel?

[Angua]

Things have not gone quite as I expected during this process, and I am now wondering if I should cancel a scheduled interview visit.  The program I am thinking of cancelling on is one I don't know much about, and it is a very large interview weekend process (lots of invites, lots of logistics, sort of a "cattle call" model).  They were one of the first programs to contact me, and I scheduled my visit a while ago.  Based on the programs that have accepted me since then (which I haven't yet visited, and which I'm really only slightly better informed about), I have a hard time imagining that this place could compete, even if the interview goes well and they decide to admit me.  I feel like I still have a lot to learn about all of the schools and programs, and part of me wants to go to the interview for that reason, but I'm starting to wonder -- should I just cancel?  I'm not 100% against this school, but it seems to me that, unless something really weird happens when I visit my other top choices, it's unlikely to wind up on top.

 

They booked my travel directly with a travel agent, so they should be able to at least get an account credit for my flight (and I'm not stuck paying for it), right?  I don't want to take a spot from someone for whom this would be a number one pick, but I don't know that there's much risk of that -- their interview process is so huge that I doubt there's a waiting list for invites.

[kaister]

Why not just go?  Like you said, there are many things you don't know about the school and even if you end up not wanting to go there, at least you'll know for sure and you may even learn something about the school or what you want in a school.  Especially since they paid for the flight.  Unless there's some conflict like another interview at a higher choice school, then I'd say go.  I'm in a somewhat similar situation and I still decided to go anyway.

[queenleblanc]

If you aren't 100% sure if you would accept an offer of admission, I would at least go and find out as much as possible to make that decision. There may be funding incentives or something else you can't really see until you go, something intangible or something not on the school's website, I think it is worth it, especially with expenses paid.

[MadScience]

I was actually in a similar situation - signed up for an interview weekend with a school that accepted me very early on and was pressuring me to decide to schedule a visit ASAP before receiving some of my preferred offers. I wasn't thinking straight and so agreed to attend the weekend and they arranged my flights. A few months later, I had acceptances from programs with much better research fits for me and could no longer see myself attending that first school, despite how well the visiting weekend might go. The day I realized this, I emailed them, asked them to cancel my flight and apologized for any inconvenience.

 

This is my logic. If I know with 99.99% certainty that I am not going to attend there, I am not only wasting my time but theirs as well. By cancelling, even though they may be charged a cancellation fee, they at least get some of the money refunded to them versus if I had gone with no intention of accepting their offer they would lose 100% of the cost. MOST IMPORTANTLY - I would be hindering another person's chances of getting accepted to the program. I think of it like "treat others the way you'd like to be treated" - I would feel really bummed if I was wait listed to my top choice and there were many accepted students going to the visiting weekend with no intention of attending the school. It would put my planning on hold until they declined their offers, so I wanted to decline offers from my 0% likely to attend schools ASAP as a common courtesy.

 

Just my two cents