Non-typical time of stay for interview weekends

[Owlet]

I have an interview weekend that needed us to arrive before Sunday afternoon and leave after Tuesday noon. Since most of the flights from I checked arrive in the US at night and leave in the morning/noon. I booked a day earlier and departure a day after the typical day. Another reason is I have some friends in the University I would like to visit. One friend in the Ph.D. program I am applying to and told me that I could stay at her place on the extra days if I want. I was contacted by the administrative office and by a graduate student organizing the events about my travel arrangements. I told them my arrival and departure dates and staying with their Ph.D. student... and now I'm starting to wonder if it will leave a bad impression that I am causing trouble arriving and leaving at non-typical times.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Owlet

[shadowclaw]

I doubt your travel arrangements would leave a bad impression! You're an international student and you are coming from very far away. International flights don't fall into the neat and orderly schedules that domestic flights often have. Besides, if I was in your position, I would want to arrive an extra day earlier anyway. I flew to Japan this past summer with several connecting flights resulting in a total travel time of about 18 hours, and I was completely exhausted when I arrived, partly because I didn't get much sleep the night before and partly because of the travel time. Coming home was a little easier because my flight left later in the day (allowing me to get more sleep), but it was still rough. I imagine the program will be very understanding of this.

[rising_star]

It shouldn't leave a bad impression. Not everyone will be able to meet their preferred times because of flight availability (for example, I grew up in a small-ish town in the USA where there are only a few flights in and out each day). They understand that and will probably be glad that you made your own lodging arrangements, which saves them the effort of doing so.

[TakeruK]

This should be totally fine. At one school, I asked them to reschedule my visit to a few days later so that I can visit that school on a Mon-Tues and another nearby school on a Thurs-Fri of the same week. They were fine with that because I can then split costs with the other school and everyone wins. Also, at the other school, I asked if I could stay with a grad student I already knew there to save them some money. I also spent an extra weekend there to visit my friend and see the city a little longer. Of course, I made it clear that all of the expenses not related to the visit would be on my own dime!

 

It's pretty common to do this in academia. When my school pays for me to go to a conference, I often tack on a few extra day (or a week) and have a mini-vacation. I pay for the extra days myself and as long as the return flight is the same price as returning immediately after the conference, the school still pays for the return flight and there is no problem. In fact, this was how I got half of the flight costs for my honeymoon to Paris subsidized (we paid for my spouse's ticket of course).

[Owlet]

Great! Thanks for all your helpful replies!!

 

Actually, 3 days after booking the flight, I was unexpectedly invited to another interview and had to make flight changes so that they can fit on the same trip.