Can I pay for my own hotel room?

[MidwesternAloha]

I've been assigned a roommate for an interview but would anyone know or care if I paid for my own room? Then the other girl and I could each have privacy.

[agrizz]

I'm sure you could if you wanted to.  But some programs encourage rooming together to gauge how well you get along with others. I've heard that some field interview questions that appear informal along the lines of, "so what do you think about your roommate?"  

 

That said, research tends to self-select those that are not so much the "people-persons"... so I can't imagine it would make all that much of a difference.  

[MathCat]

You probably could, but having been on two visits recently, I would say that by far the most useful part is talking to the students. I was housed in hotels both times (that was arranged by the departments), but having more time to talk to some of the students would have been nice.

[TakeruK]

I think asking to pay for your own hotel room is a perfectly reasonable request. It's okay to not be comfortable sharing a room with a stranger. I was able to avoid this situation at all of my school visits without any out of pocket expenses (at some schools, I asked to be reimbursed for gas+hotel room instead of a flight+hotel [less money], at others, I stayed in a room at another student's home or I stayed at a friend's place [friend was already student in the same program])

 

I have no problem with sharing rooms in general (I do this all the time at conferences to save grant money even though my advisor would be fine with me having my own room), but only if I get to pick my roommate. In fact, I like sharing rooms with a friend (especially one from another school) at conferences/meetings because usually one of us will know a group of people going out that night and you'll have something to do.

 

However, for a prospective student visit, at least in the programs I went to, the days are long, often going from 8am to late (including the social events) so you just use the room for sleeping. And you would already have spent all day with your roommate and other students, so there's not much left to gain from the roommate interaction. And, personally, I would be so worn out of socializing and talking to people that I would really just like a quiet room to myself at the end of the night, instead of having to deal with sharing a small space with a stranger and worrying about morning schedules etc. But maybe that's just me!!

[GeoDUDE!]

I agree, I generally here am the one harping at people to let the schools give you the experience they want to give you during their recruitment so you can see what they are really like, but Takeruk is right: the room will just be used for sleeping (or in some very unfortunate cases, the rooms were used for more on one my visits... don't do that people, its not a good look, and everyone knows).

 

You should also NEVER do soemthing that you are uncomfortable doing if you are willing to make it comfortable.  You want to be able to give it your all.

 

Shell out the extra cash for the separate room.