Campus visit: travel arrangement etiquette

[Hcarp]

Hi all, 

Now that a number of us have received some acceptances with invitations to campus visits, I want to ask you how you reply to those invitations.

 

Suppose, for example, you get two invitations from University A and University B. And suppose that the two visits are scheduled to be reasonably close to each other (as they should be in reality - around late March). In this case, can you ask University A to pay for a flight from your hometown to city A, and a flight from city A to city B, instead of a return flight back to your hometown? Will it look weird?

This question is especially important if you're an international student. It wouldn't make sense for you to visit university A and then fly back to your country before flying into the US again to visit university B.

 

Normally do they let you book your own tickets and reimburse you, or do they book the tickets for you? The acceptance email I got yesterday said "Please contact me about booking [flight tickets]".

Thanks for your input!

[MattDest]

I don't see any reason why they would find it weird to route somewhere else - they should know that you are likely going to visit multiple places.

 

I don't know what's normal with regard to booking tickets, but my only experience has been booking and then being reimbursed at a later date. I imagine some institutions might be able to just book them for you. Have fun visiting!  

[flybottle]

Some schools have flexibility in terms of the reimbursement situation. I had one DGS tell me that while reimbursement was the norm, they can figure something out if there are cash-flow issues. I would definitely expect programs to be receptive and helpful when dealing with international flights.

 

(Also, not sure how to handle this, but sometimes programs will split the cost of an international flight if you're visiting several. This isn't your problem to bring up, but don't be shocked if somebody mentions it to you.)

[ianfaircloud]

Hi all, 

Now that a number of us have received some acceptances with invitations to campus visits, I want to ask you how you reply to those invitations.

 

Suppose, for example, you get two invitations from University A and University B. And suppose that the two visits are scheduled to be reasonably close to each other (as they should be in reality - around late March). In this case, can you ask University A to pay for a flight from your hometown to city A, and a flight from city A to city B, instead of a return flight back to your hometown? Will it look weird?

This question is especially important if you're an international student. It wouldn't make sense for you to visit university A and then fly back to your country before flying into the US again to visit university B.

 

Normally do they let you book your own tickets and reimburse you, or do they book the tickets for you? The acceptance email I got yesterday said "Please contact me about booking [flight tickets]".

Thanks for your input!

 

Just a quick thought. In my experience, people underestimate how much the department administrators / administrative assistants are involved in this sort of thing. This is going to sound elitist, and I regret that. But the truth is that, though it's very important to "impress" everyone and to treat everyone with respect, it's most important to have a good relationship with the professors and your peers. I say this as someone who has tremendous respect for department administrators, who we all know put up with a lot of shit from profs. I say all of this only to encourage you not to be worried about how the request may come off.

 

You're working with other humans who have human needs, too. I think your request is very human.

 

Finally, I think as a general rule, it's best to make sure that the cost of your travel is divided evenly among the departments that you visit. So it's not fair to have one department pay for two of the three legs of your flights. The fact that you care about fairness says a lot about you.

[alethicethic]

Just a quick thought. In my experience, people underestimate how much the department administrators / administrative assistants are involved in this sort of thing. This is going to sound elitist, and I regret that. But the truth is that, though it's very important to "impress" everyone and to treat everyone with respect, it's most important to have a good relationship with the professors and your peers. I say this as someone who has tremendous respect for department administrators, who we all know put up with a lot of shit from profs. I say all of this only to encourage you not to be worried about how the request may come off.

 

You're working with other humans who have human needs, too. I think your request is very human.

 

Finally, I think as a general rule, it's best to make sure that the cost of your travel is divided evenly among the departments that you visit. So it's not fair to have one department pay for two of the three legs of your flights. The fact that you care about fairness says a lot about you.

 

I flew between multiple cities last year and it was not a problem--they were happy to fly me on to a different city and I was honest with them that I was visiting multiple programs. Moreover, this seemed to be the norm--many of us were visiting many departments around the same time. You can also schedule a special visit not during prospectives weekend if you are visiting two nearby schools that are far from your home and you don't have time to fly to that area twice. I did this last year. Also, many prospective visits conflict, so you might not be there with the rest of the cohort anyway, although it's best to go during that time if you can.

 

Usually, departments are happy to reimburse you for a round-trip flight. Some will prefer to book it for you, although I think it's better to manage this yourself as long as you can put it on a credit card or otherwise front the cash. Many credit cards give you extra points on travel, plus I earned a lot of frequent flyer miles, because I booked nearly all of them on the same airline. Also, you may be booking lots of flights and making last-minute destination changes, which is easier to manage if you do it yourself. Protip: Southwest is perfect, cheap and highly flexible for this kind of thing. They often do not show up in kayak searches, so be sure to check their site directly. 

 

I disagree about making sure to divide the cost evenly between departments. It's a nice idea, but it probably won't work well in practice, especially since you are probably going to be booking and re-booking at different times, not to mention flying all over the country. I accepted a round-trip from a private school in which I flew back to a different city in my home state, and then asked the public school in my home state to only cover the leg back to my home city. I didn't think that was unfair, or that I should have had the public school cover even half the cost of flying from the private school (which was a *much* longer and more expensive flight than a short in-state hop.) 

[ianfaircloud]

I disagree about making sure to divide the cost evenly between departments. It's a nice idea, but it probably won't work well in practice, especially since you are probably going to be booking and re-booking at different times, not to mention flying all over the country. I accepted a round-trip from a private school in which I flew back to a different city in my home state, and then asked the public school in my home state to only cover the leg back to my home city. I didn't think that was unfair, or that I should have had the public school cover even half the cost of flying from the private school (which was a *much* longer and more expensive flight than a short in-state hop.) 

 

Yeah, what I said above was too strong. What I mean is that people ought to keep fairness in mind when booking travel through departments. If you can with modest effort distribute the burden more evenly, then I think there's an obligation to do that. I think another rule is that your travel plans should never require a department to pay more than it would have paid had you simply taken a round-trip from your point of origin to the location of the department. So, e.g., if you're a New Yorker visiting University of Texas Austin and you decide that you want to visit a department in San Francisco on the same trip, it is not appropriate to ask UT Austin to pay for the leg between San Francisco and Austin, unless by doing so UT Austin spends the same or less as it would had it paid for a round-trip NY to Austin. Another rule is that your travel reimbursements ought not to exceed your actual travel expenses.

[Cecinestpasunphilosophe]

Another rule is that your travel reimbursements ought not to exceed your actual travel expenses.

 

Defrauding an institution at which you're considering pursuing a Ph.D. definitely doesn't sound like the way to put your best foot forward. 

When do come-and-see visit weekends generally take place? Does this vary radically by department, or are they all normally mid- to end of March?

[alethicethic]

Defrauding an institution at which you're considering pursuing a Ph.D. definitely doesn't sound like the way to put your best foot forward. 

When do come-and-see visit weekends generally take place? Does this vary radically by department, or are they all normally mid- to end of March?

 

LOL, I would have thought that goes without saying.

 

No doubt it varies a bit, but mid-to-late March was the busy season for me, with a few outliers. Good luck!