Turning down an interview weekend--is it premature?

[Loser777]

I've gotten a few offers already--and it's getting to the point where I'm thinking about turning down an interview weekend invitation. The school is a 5 hour flight from where I currently live, so I'd be missing two entire days of class. That's normally not a problem, but I don't feel like adding more missing days where I have to catch up is a good idea especially given that I'll be doing more actual visits later in the quarter. After actually experiencing an interview weekend I'm also not so keen on doing another 8 hours of brain-dump style talking when my desire to attend the school is not very high at the moment. To be blunt, this is also the lowest of my safety schools if we are to go purely by rankings.

I guess the only things stopping me from outright withdrawing my application at this point are the fear that all of the other programs will be a bad fit for me (extremely unlikely) and that I'm not sure how to decline the invitation/withdraw politely.

Just to be clear, I haven't even been admitted to the school yet.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Loser777

[Vene]

I'm not sure how to decline the invitation/withdraw politely.

You email or call and state that you would like to withdraw your application. It's better to do such than to go there for the interview if you know you don't want to attend the university.

[VulpesZerda]

Maybe you can arrange a quick phone interview to assess your fit with faculty and the program. This is what I did - I'm pretty much in the same boat as you right now (but with only one acceptance). Since you have multiple acceptances and know you probably wouldn't want to attend this program, maybe withdrawing is a good option, too.

[CogPsych2015]

I have/had the same situation. This interview would have meant I was out-of-town for a full 10 days and missed more work/school. With an acceptance in the bag and interviews from schools I would like to attend more, I politely declined the interview. I talked with my mentors before doing so, but was comfortable in the choice. Considering I wasn't really contemplating that school anymore, it seemed like the only logical choice.

[thr0waway]

Turn it down if you're sure you won't go.  It's nice to do it as fast as possible so you free up room for other applicants.

[TakeruK]

I only visited the top 3 schools because of similar reasons. For the remaining schools, I did arrange for a Skype call to chat with people there, though, which I found helpful. But ultimately, I found that my top 3 schools were more preferable than the remaining schools so I withdrew my application/declined to visit once I made that decision.