Is it ethical to attend additional interviews after making decisions

[Charlie Song]

I was admitted by a program after my first interview this season.

Although I would like to go to this program, I still wish to participate in other interviews and talk with those professors in the field I am going to work on.

Since I have expressed my will to go there this summer during a call with the director of the admission committee, I do not know whether it is unethical to go for other interviews.

I plan to attend all interviews and then send back the admission letter with my signature.

Is it OK?

[0908]

Did you sign the official paperwork, if there was any? If you were accepted that doesn't mean you were admitted. You can for sure make you final decision after all of your interviews that is why you official notice is like April 15th or something like that.

[emmm]

Well, it would have been best not to have said you were accepting, but it sounds as though you didn't officially accept -- and even if you had, I doubt it is unheard of that people switch on receiving more appealing offers. As long as you don't leave them when it's too late to make offers to people on the waitlist, it should work out ok for everyone.

[mrmolecularbiology]

Unless you have already signed the paperwork, I think it is fine to go to other interviews for a few reasons. It gives you a forum to practice talking about science and with interviewing in general. It will also help you make sure you have made the right decision by seeing what else is out there. 

[TakeruK]

Even though you have not officially accepted the first school's offer, if you have already 100% made up your mind to go to a certain school, then I think it is not ethical to attend visit weekends/interviews under the false impression that you are still considering attending these other schools. I am assuming that you have already 100% made up your mind otherwise why would you tell the first school unofficially/via phone your decision (unless that was just a mistake in the heat of the moment). If you are not 100% sure about the first school, it's perfectly fine to visit all the other schools first and then make a decision. 

 

However, if you are 100% sure about the first school, then I can't think of a good reason why you would want to visit all these other schools anyways. I think it would be pretty selfish to do this only so you can talk to other professors and try to impress them / show off how good you are. A lot of people--students, staff, faculty--put a lot of time and effort into arranging these visits so that they are informative and fun for the visitors. You would be a waste of their efforts, or even worse, you'd be taking advantage of these efforts in order to try to network/talk to these professors! If you want to network, attend a conference, that is what they are for. Prospective visits are for providing information about the school to the applicants/prospective students! 

 

If you need more reasons to not go on a visit when you have no intention of attending the school:

1. They take a lot of your time.

2. You may be denying someone else who is actually interested in the school a chance to visit (even if you sign the official letters by March 15, it may be too late for a waitlisted person to even visit).

3. You will have to keep up false pretenses the entire time.

4. It could burn a lot more bridges than it's worth if people find out. 

 

Again, what I said above only applies if you are 100% sure about the first school and you have absolutely no intention at all of attending the school you are visiting. If you are still not sure, then it's fine to visit to help inform your final decision. 

[threading_the_neidl]

While I can certainly understand both sides of the argument, I don't actually find it unethical to attend other interviews. There's always a chance that you visit a program and it surprises you by feeling like a perfect fit. Keeping all your options open is important for you at this stage. You've already done the work to EARN those interviews, so take advantage of them by keeping an open mind and really trying to connect with faculty and students, you never know what you'll discover.

[TakeruK]

While I can certainly understand both sides of the argument, I don't actually find it unethical to attend other interviews. There's always a chance that you visit a program and it surprises you by feeling like a perfect fit. Keeping all your options open is important for you at this stage.

 

I agree--if you have not actually 100% decided on a school (officially or not), then it's fine to visit the other schools to help you make a decision. But do this in good faith--not "well, I am 99.9% sure about School A, but I just want to see how bad School B is so I can feel better about my decision." We're all grown mature adults now, it's time to be responsible and critically analyse our choices, instead of just delaying the decision until you've seen all of the schools even though you know have already truly decided. Again, this is only in the case where the person has already decided and just wants to visit to feel better about themselves/their choice. On the other hand, if a person feels strongly towards one school but is still considering other places, then visiting them all and keeping an open mind etc. is fine.

 

You've already done the work to EARN those interviews, so take advantage of them by keeping an open mind and really trying to connect with faculty and students, you never know what you'll discover.

 

Yes you have earned the visit or the interview but that doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want with other people's time and energy. The purpose of the visit/interview is to evaluate your fit for the program and/or for you to determine whether or not this program is a good fit for you. It is not for you to make connections with professors you have no interest in working with. Like I said above, a lot of people have worked very hard to put the visit together and it's poor form to take advantage of their efforts for unintended personal gain. I think getting flown out to meet the profs/students and to see the campus/city/labs is a very important tool in helping us decide where to go and spend 5+ years of our lives. We have to keep in mind that this comes at a cost of both money and effort. If we abuse this privilege, then we might not have it in the future.

[elanorci]

Do you guys feel that it's ok to cancel interviews for which plane flights have already been arranged if you have no intention of going (after getting an acceptance elsewhere)? I would and don't particularly want to go to such interviews but the tickets are paid for and plans arranged and I'm not sure what to do... Are schools understanding/accommodating about this? Will they be mad?

Edited January 31, 2014 by elanorci

[TakeruK]

Do you guys feel that it's ok to cancel interviews for which plane flights have already been arranged if you have no intention of going (after getting an acceptance elsewhere)? I would and don't particularly want to go to such interviews but the tickets are paid for and plans arranged and I'm not sure what to do... Are schools understanding/accommodating about this? Will they be mad?

 

It's unlikely that the schools will still reimburse you for a plane flight you did not end up taking. You can try and ask though. In this case, I would contact the airline and try to cancel the ticket and see if they will let you keep the credit towards a future flight (usually they will, minus a cancellation fee). 

 

For others reading this in the future, I would strongly advise against buying plane tickets the moment you get your interview notice, especially if that school is low enough on your list that you are sure that you would accept another school over that one. Plane tickets don't change too much in price until about 2 weeks prior to the interview, so it's safe to wait until 2-3 weeks prior. It's also a good idea to learn the fluctuating price patterns of airlines so that you don't confuse the normal rise (and subsequent fall) of prices as an indicator that prices are going to continue to rise! Also, it's far better to wait and pay $30-$50 more for a ticket than to be stuck in a situation where you no longer want to go and potentially not get any reimbursement! 

[BG20]

To make long story short  - If you already know that you want to accept the offer of university X  and you know that interviews at other universities will not change your made then the good thing will do is :

 

Touch base with the universities and tell them that you are planning to accept the offer of university X and whether is it still OK to come to their interview day...

[elanorci]

It's unlikely that the schools will still reimburse you for a plane flight you did not end up taking. You can try and ask though. In this case, I would contact the airline and try to cancel the ticket and see if they will let you keep the credit towards a future flight (usually they will, minus a cancellation fee). 

 

For others reading this in the future, I would strongly advise against buying plane tickets the moment you get your interview notice, especially if that school is low enough on your list that you are sure that you would accept another school over that one. Plane tickets don't change too much in price until about 2 weeks prior to the interview, so it's safe to wait until 2-3 weeks prior. It's also a good idea to learn the fluctuating price patterns of airlines so that you don't confuse the normal rise (and subsequent fall) of prices as an indicator that prices are going to continue to rise! Also, it's far better to wait and pay $30-$50 more for a ticket than to be stuck in a situation where you no longer want to go and potentially not get any reimbursement!

The schools themselves actually paid for all my flights via a travel agent, so I'm not sure how that would work. Anyway, that is definitely good advice for future applicants - I didn't realize when I booked that one of my schools accepts without an interview and so I wasn't expecting to hear so early, so do look into that!

[TakeruK]

The schools themselves actually paid for all my flights via a travel agent, so I'm not sure how that would work. Anyway, that is definitely good advice for future applicants - I didn't realize when I booked that one of my schools accepts without an interview and so I wasn't expecting to hear so early, so do look into that!

 

Oh that is probably better for you, because that means you won't be on the hook for any fees. It might put the school in a slightly bad position, because they are responsible for cancelling the flight. However, it's pretty likely that they will have the resources to be able to do so, and they might even be able to just transfer your ticket to someone else. Anyhow, it's their problem, not yours! So they probably won't be super thrilled to hear that you are cancelling, but they should also understand that these things happen.

[Usmivka]

l apologize in advance for the semantics, but here goes anyway: Ethics are the principles we apply that guide us to a moral choice. The ethics of the situation depend on the individual involved, and his/her specific reasoning and knowledge of the situation.

 

While compelling moral arguments have been made to cancel, I think one could ethically still get to a point where attending a visiting weekend with no intention of accepting admission still leads to the most moral choice. For example, the school buys you a plane ticket. It is in your name only and nonrefundable, as is the case for nearly every ticket bought by a university (try getting a refundable ticket at 5 times the cost past the reimbursement office!). At that point don't you owe it to them to participate in the visit and give them a chance to change your mind? Otherwise you've made them spend money they can't get back and deprived them of their strongest opportunity to make their case. I'm not sure I believe in 100% certitude (I've only ever gotten to about 80% sure of any decision I've made!).

 

I can't say how common this is, but in my program a canceled visit does not open up a slot for someone else; more good applicants are invited than there is really space for in the class, as it is assumed some fraction will choose another competing program. If too few accept, individual applicants that weren't invited to the open house instead get a private trip out at their personal convenience, with generally equal or better student and faculty interaction. Even if they could take your place, you aren't really depriving them of anything besides the opportunity to meet other prospective students. Assuming many of the prospectives go elsewhere, is it really a less moral outcome for you to take that networking opportunity instead? Maybe you are more likely to take advantage of connections made (with faculty as well) in future collaborations that benefit both the institution you decided to attend and the one you didn't join--would that be a more moral outcome? By my ethics (as applied to a very specific situation as I understand it), the appropriate thing to do would be to follow through with my prior commitment to participate.

 

Sorry if that got convoluted, but what I'd hope you get out of this is that your interpretation of the situation and best possible outcome is just as valid as any advice provided here, and ethics are more of a recipe than an exact formula.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Usmivka