Visiting the city/uni without invite

[Kermit]

I'm currently accepted to CU Boulder and high up on a few waitlists. I've visited the universities at which I am waitlisted but have never been to Colorado. The department doesn't do an official visiting weekend because it is so small/interdisciplinary. Is it weird to visit anyways? I kind of figure it would be nice to see the place before I commit to 4-5 years of living in a totally different environment. Should I ask the department? I found some super cheap flights and I can fund myself but I'm uncertain about how to approach the school about this.

 

Any advice? Thanks!!!

[TakeruK]

You should definitely ask to visit anyways. They might not cover the costs because they can't afford to, but usually they are pretty happy to schedule an actual visit day for you and might even pay for the meals. Sometimes, they might say they don't do visits but if you ask to drop by while you're in town anyways, they might even help you plan things like get the university discounted rate on your hotel etc. One school originally told me I could not visit outside of their official date but after I asked to at least meet the people while I was passing through (on my way to visit other schools), they changed their minds and paid for everything (as if I was visiting on an official day).

 

I would say that you should definitely not just drop in unannounced. We have a few people do that each year here and it's always a bit weird. I mean, I think an unannounced visit is better than no visit at all, but it doesn't take much planning/effort to at least contact the department admin staff like a week before. (You might arrange to visit / get invited to visit through a prof, but it's usually an admin person that sets up your appointments and schedule!)

[maelia8]

At the very least, even if you can't manage to get any sort of unofficial meeting arranged through the department, you can go on a tour and get a look at campus, as well as taking some time to walk around the town and look at neighborhoods where you might want to live. I'd definitely go there before making such a big decision.