Attending Info Day before Applying and without Established Contact

[MidoAlhajji]

Hi all,

 

I'd love to hear your opinions about attending a prospective student information day for grad school. I'm applying for a DrPH at UM Ann Arbor (it's my third choice in line). I would like to mention that I have attempted to reach out to a potential advisor whose research interests align with mine. He never replied to my initial email nor the followup one. I have not applied yet but have my SOP and all other documents ready to go.

 

Is visiting the school something fruitful and worth the time and money spent? Would hate to spend my resources for a mere formality.

 

Any thoughts?

[iphi]

It is useful ONLY if you live nearby and feel as though attending is not a huge hassle. As I told someone in another post a few weeks ago, 99.99% of the time attending an info session is NOT going to be the thing that gets you in. If it's convenient then sure, learn about the program, but don't spend tons of cash or whatever to try and attend one, it won't make a difference. Also I feel compelled to point out that your potential advisor may not even be at the meeting. My program only sends one prof to these things.

[MidoAlhajji]

Thank you iphi. It doesn't sound like it's worth the 600 bucks for tickets and accomodations. Appreciate your insight.

[grad_wannabe]

I attended a grad info session last week (I live very close to one of my top picks) and I was genuinely surprised at the number of people who flew across the whole country to attend.