Choosing which schools to visit

[Riah]

So I'm incredibly fortunate to have started hearing some positive results from schools.  The problem is that I'm not sure how to choose between options.  I only applied to programs in which the research was exciting to me and there was a potential advisor that I wanted to work with.  For me, fit/atmosphere is more important than ranking/seletivity.  Ideally, visiting schools would help with this, but I work full time and some schools have overlapping visit days anyway, so I cannot possibly go to see every school.  Does anyone have any advice for choosing where to even visit?  Are there resources for finding out what the atmosphere of the department is without/before visiting?

[ss2player]

Being in DC, you could easily go to Penn and UMD on your own time after setting up informal meetings with POIs, instead of their recruitment weekends. The others I would start ranking based on other factors (cost of living, offer package, location) and go from there.

 

Congrats on all those choices!

[dat_nerd]

I had a couple of visit weekends that overlapped. Two of the schools were willing to let me visit at a later time, and still cover travel costs. I recommend that you ask around before you commit to any particular visit weekend.

[Icydubloon]

Do them all. Go big or go home