Visit Days

[pyroknife]

Applied to 4 schools. Accepted into 2 so far. The results for one of the other schools should come out next week. No idea when the 4th comes out (Caltech). 

So, for the two schools I have gotten in so far, the visit days are on different weeks. So that's good. They gave me a time frame to accept/decline the visit (by end of next week). So my concern is, if I get in the other schools and the visit days end up intersecting with each other. 

Has anyone had this happen before? What did you do? Declined one or can you reschedule? 

[peachypie]

Typically you want to accept an interview and reschedule if there is overlap for the school contacting you after the other one.  Kind of a priority by being the early bird for the school.  Generally you take the alternate interview for the school you are somewhat less interested in if you can.  If not its not a huge deal.  I'd say don't hold out too long for visits or contact the school you are still waiting on to see when they may be scheduling interviews or check the website if you could.  I wouldn't decline an offer to visit unless you have decided not to go to this school and you shouldn't make that decision until you've visited.  All depends on who you are waiting on and how interested you are in the ones you are still waiting to hear from.  I typically accepted an interview relatively quickly, I wouldn't wait longer than a week (depending on when the interview timeline is).Good luck!

[pyroknife]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think these are classified as interviews since I have already been admitted with full funding. Unless they interview you after you're admitted?

[TakeruK]

I am also from a field with very little interviews (so these are just visits to recruit already admitted students). I would recommend accepting visits within a few days of the invitation. You should schedule your visits in the "first come first served" order. If a second school asked me to visit them on a conflicting weekend, I would ask them if I could visit on another day because another school has already booked me. I have found that they will be okay with this. 

 

You can also ask to visit on another day if it lets you combine two visits into one week to avoid having to fly to a school, then home, then back out again!

[pyroknife]

I am also from a field with very little interviews (so these are just visits to recruit already admitted students). I would recommend accepting visits within a few days of the invitation. You should schedule your visits in the "first come first served" order. If a second school asked me to visit them on a conflicting weekend, I would ask them if I could visit on another day because another school has already booked me. I have found that they will be okay with this. 

 

You can also ask to visit on another day if it lets you combine two visits into one week to avoid having to fly to a school, then home, then back out again!

I thought of that suggestion too (in your last sentence). One of the schools I am visiting is Cornell. I am still waiting to hear back from Princeton (hopefully next week). The two schools are pretty close to each other so I can see that working out. But isn't it more expensive for them to fly me from Cornell to Princeton then back to my home institution as opposed to home to princeton back to home?

But I don't even know when princeton's visit days are. I just hope they don't coincide. 

[TakeruK]

School A got back to me first and scheduled my visit to be on a Thursday+Friday of one week. School B got back to me second and originally scheduled me for Thursday+Friday of the week before. Since A and B were close together (and very far from me), I asked School B to reschedule my visit to be the following Monday+Tuesday.

 

So, on Sunday, I flew to School B, visited on Mon/Tues, flew to School A on Wed, and then visited School A on Thurs/Fri. It was cheaper for both schools because School B paid for Home to School B and half of School B to School A. Meanwhile, School A paid for half of School B to School A and all of the flight from A to Home. This is cheaper for each school than roundtrip flights to either A or B.