Going to interviews back to back? Advice needed!

[persimmony]

So I have a Duke interview Feb6-8 (thurs-sat) and just got notified I was invited to Boston University to interview. They have two dates available: Jan 24 and Feb 10. It would be a full day of activities so I'd have to fly in the day before and out the day after.

 

I would normally choose Jan 24 but my boyfriend's annual company getaway is that friday through the weekend. I already said I'd go so I'd feel pretty bad if I had to cancel.

 

Which leaves Monday, Feb 10. I could interview at Duke through saturday and fly out from North Carolina to Boston on Sunday, and interview the whole day Monday. I'm afraid I might get worn out, but on the other hand I might be on an energetic interview roll? Does anyone from previous years have experience with interviewing back to back?

[scienceowl]

I'd say go for it. Last year, I scheduled a few back to back interviews because my significant other was also doing job interviews at the same time. I interviewed at Boston then flew out to San Francisco the same night, got there at 1AM after a 7-hour flight, and did my interview the next day. I think the adrenaline keeps you going so you wouldn't be worn out

[persimmony]

Good that's what I was hoping would happen! So let me ask you, how did arranging flights work out? If Duke is going to pay for me to fly there and Boston is paying for me to fly home, who's paying for me to get from Duke to Boston??

 

I'm trying to get this figured out with the people in charge of arranging this, but they haven't emailed me back.

Edited December 18, 2013 by persimmony

[scienceowl]

Hmm...the details are kind of fuzzy because I remember emailing back and forth a lot to figure out the details...but as far as I can remember, Harvard paid for one flight (to Boston) and UCSF paid for my returning flight (from San Francisco) right off the bat. I think I ended up paying for my Boston -> San Fran flight myself, but was later reimbursed for it by Harvard, though right now I'm having difficulty remembering...it could have been UCSF that reimbursed me. Anyway, I think the best thing to do would be to keep trying to contact the administration in both schools and ask their opinion on how they think the arrangements should be made. This sort of scheduling dilemma happens every now and then, so they're bound to have experienced it before and will probably be happy to help you out.

[TakeruK]

I did something similar, but it wasn't interviews (it was prospective student visits). I flew from Home to School A to School B to Home (Schools A and B are close to each other but both far from home).

 

I think you should let both schools know what you're doing (you don't have to explain the reason why you don't want to interview on Jan 24 though). Schools know that a lot of people have multiple interviews so things like this might happen. But you should also let them know so that they can figure out the expenses. 

 

For me, what happened was that School A paid for my trip from Home to nearest Home Airport to School A and all the expenses in School A city, plus half of the cost of the trip from School A to School B. School B paid for everything else. You should talk to the schools because each school may have rules on what is allowed to be covered by each school. For example, even though the cost for each school was pretty much 50% each, I couldn't just add up all the expenses and divide by two because of the way they have to account for things. Also, School A needed itemized receipts for everything but School B didn't care.

 

Luckily, the people in admin at these schools are experts and they surely have dealt with more complicated stuff than this. I think in my case, the people at School A and School B contacted each other and figured things out too. I wouldn't necessarily send an email to both of them at once, but when I contacted each person at each school, I did let them know my plans and that I was currently corresponding with X at the other school.

[persimmony]

I got Duke to cover the expense from Duke to Boston, so looks like everything is good to go. Thanks for the advice!

[mike0982]

I'm doing the same thing! Except I'm starting at Harvard OEB feb 2-4 and coming to Duke DSCB feb 5-8. I'm nervous to do them back to back, but those are the only dates for both programs. See you at Duke!