Campus Visits

[zombiekeats]

Any UT Austin folks on here and going to the visiting days? I'm going to have an ocean of time on Thursday, and I'm debating on what I should do. I'm hoping to sit in on a class, if possible, but open to suggestions on interesting things on/nearby UT's campus! Also would love to meet a GCer in general.

Edited February 27, 2017 by zombiekeats

[Vorian Atreides]

On 2/21/2017 at 10:26 AM, Scarlet A+ said:

I got accepted to Alabama's MA program, fully funded with stipend, but the email and letter did not mention a recruitment weekend. Are they only for PhD students? Or am I misunderstanding something? 

I was also accepted there for an MA this year but, as a Renaissance student, it is with the Strode program.  The letter did not mention a visit, but the director of the Strode program offered one over the phone.  I know that the process for the Strode and general English programs are different, so I would ask the director of your program if they have a specific weekend for visits, or if they typically have their MA prospects visit at all.  My visit was this weekend and it seemed like there were a lot of visiting students down there.

[Vorian Atreides]

On 2/21/2017 at 10:29 AM, Wyatt's Terps said:

Huzzah!

For the Strode program, I know it's just a case-by-case basis -- I was told that if I get off the waitlist, they'll make travel arrangements for me to visit etc. I'm not sure if it's the same for non-Strode acceptances, but it's definitely a question worth asking the DGS.

1. Great screen name.

2. You were wait listed by the Strode program this year?  As a PhD applicant?  I didn't think that they were admitting any PhDs this year, but I could be wrong.  I visited along with 2 other students who were accepted for the MA and I didn't hear anything about new PhDs, but there may be 1 or 2.  With the awesome sense of community in the Strode program though and the 238973 current Strode students we hung out with, I am surprised it never came up.

[Dr. Old Bill]

2 minutes ago, Vorian Atreides said:

 

2. You were wait listed by the Strode program this year?  As a PhD applicant?  I didn't think that they were admitting any PhDs this year, but I could be wrong.  I visited along with 2 other students who were accepted for the MA and I didn't hear anything about new PhDs, but there may be 1 or 2.  With the awesome sense of community in the Strode program though and the 238973 current Strode students we hung out with, I am surprised it never came up.

I was / am indeed! I'm not sure how their waitlist process works there (I was told it is a "small waiting list"), but I've been in contact with the DGS, and we've mutually agreed to let each other know if there's movement either way. I'm inclined to accept an offer from OSU, but there's a lot that I like about the Strode program, so I'm going to hold off as long as I reasonably can in the hopes that a slot opens at U of A and I have the opportunity to visit before April 15th. It sounds as though a visit in my situation would be arranged individually. Hard to say if the timing would work out, but here's hoping. And it's great to hear yet another person attest to the strong sense of community in the program.

[cfog4]

Hello hello!  Finally signed up for an account.  Any prospective Cornell English or Comp Lit PhD students visiting Cornell next week for the Open House?  I'm wondering whether anyone would want to share an accommodation and/or travel to/from Syracuse.  Please PM me!  Thanks

[punctilious]

Edit: oops wrong forum!

Edited December 24, 2017 by punctilious

[more.truly.more.strange]

Is it very unwise to plan a much-needed sunny vacation the second week of March? Will it definitely conflict with campus visits? 

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, more.truly.more.strange said:

Is it very unwise to plan a much-needed sunny vacation the second week of March? Will it definitely conflict with campus visits? 

No one can say "definitely". I found that more wintery places plan their visit dates as late as possible so that they get better weather. In contrast, warmer places take great delight in inviting students to visit in early February where half the country is still frozen but you can walk around in shorts eating an ice cream cone.

[to_di]

Hi, hope this is the right thread.

If I have two invitations for March (for now), is it customary to share with the schools that I have another campus to visit, offering that they split the travel costs? I am coming from outside North America on long flights - so I prefer not to make the trip twice. 

Thanks!

[TakeruK]

5 hours ago, to_di said:

Hi, hope this is the right thread.

If I have two invitations for March (for now), is it customary to share with the schools that I have another campus to visit, offering that they split the travel costs? I am coming from outside North America on long flights - so I prefer not to make the trip twice. 

Thanks!

Yes, since you are coming from another continent, this is a reasonable thing to ask. Make sure you phrase it as a request though. 

Do you need to ask the schools to move their visit dates or are the two schools close enough together in time that you can visit both in one longer trip? Before you ask, keep in mind that you might still get more invites (if there are more applications outstanding) so you might want to keep your top choice schools on their original dates and then ask other schools to fill in the gaps.

Typically, people from outside North America don't visit schools in person in my field but if they do, they usually plan for a 2-3 week trip, hopping from school to school, visiting friends or doing personal travel in between. Plan for some time to adjust for jet lag too, if you are coming from a place with a very different time zone.

[more.truly.more.strange]

Is there an appropriate maximum number of campus visits? What I mean is—I’ve gotten three wonderful acceptances so far, but I applied to 15 schools so I’m hoping for maybe 2 more. Five visits crammed into a month and a half seems like too many to me (albeit this is purely hypothetical at this point). I already have some inclinations as to location (I’m a New Yorker having serious doubts about my ability to be truly happy in a small midwestern town, no matter the quality of the program), and then funding/teaching loads seems like an easy way to make an initial cut. However if I should be so lucky as to get into four or five schools, should I just suck it up and give them all a chance? (Note: I have a flexible work schedule so taking time off is not a major issue) 

[punctilious]

4 minutes ago, more.truly.more.strange said:

Is there an appropriate maximum number of campus visits? What I mean is—I’ve gotten three wonderful acceptances so far, but I applied to 15 schools so I’m hoping for maybe 2 more. Five visits crammed into a month and a half seems like too many to me (albeit this is purely hypothetical at this point). I already have some inclinations as to location (I’m a New Yorker having serious doubts about my ability to be truly happy in a small midwestern town, no matter the quality of the program), and then funding/teaching loads seems like an easy way to make an initial cut. However if I should be so lucky as to get into four or five schools, should I just suck it up and give them all a chance? (Note: I have a flexible work schedule so taking time off is not a major issue) 

I feel you there--we are East Coasters and ultimately decided not to bother applying anywhere in the deep South, Midwest, California, Texas, etc. or anywhere that wasn't in or very close to a major city because we knew we wouldn't be happy in those places. Honestly, I wouldn't bother going to visit days at schools you know you wouldn't be happy at for 5-6 years of your life if you have other options. Of course, placement, stipend, teaching, etc. are also major factors in the decision. But if you have some schools in a location that you vastly prefer and all other factors are equal (or pretty close to equal), then I'd say don't bother spending the time and money to visit the places that you aren't feeling.

[more.truly.more.strange]

33 minutes ago, punctilious said:

I feel you there--we are East Coasters and ultimately decided not to bother applying anywhere in the deep South, Midwest, California, Texas, etc. or anywhere that wasn't in or very close to a major city because we knew we wouldn't be happy in those places. Honestly, I wouldn't bother going to visit days at schools you know you wouldn't be happy at for 5-6 years of your life if you have other options. Of course, placement, stipend, teaching, etc. are also major factors in the decision. But if you have some schools in a location that you vastly prefer and all other factors are equal (or pretty close to equal), then I'd say don't bother spending the time and money to visit the places that you aren't feeling.

I decided to apply all over in part because at the time i was in a “down-on-new-York” phase which made me want to explore other options. But ultimately this is where I’m most comfortable....

Thank you for your thoughts on this. It’s interesting to observe myself already feel really guilty about applying to schools I got accepted to but that I’m now less excited about. It feels ungrateful and selfish not to give them a shot. Spoiler alert: I need to work on trusting my gut and best intentions. 

[Carly Rae Jepsen]

Do you guys know if schools book hotel rooms closer to the date of the visit? 3 schools have booked my flights and said they would book hotel as well, but I haven't heard back about that.

[Sandmaster]

19 minutes ago, Carly Rae Jepsen said:

Do you guys know if schools book hotel rooms closer to the date of the visit? 3 schools have booked my flights and said they would book hotel as well, but I haven't heard back about that.

In my experience that was the case. I didn't get told anything about the hotel (just that there would be one provided) until like a week before.

[TakeruK]

1 hour ago, more.truly.more.strange said:

Is there an appropriate maximum number of campus visits? What I mean is—I’ve gotten three wonderful acceptances so far, but I applied to 15 schools so I’m hoping for maybe 2 more. Five visits crammed into a month and a half seems like too many to me (albeit this is purely hypothetical at this point). I already have some inclinations as to location (I’m a New Yorker having serious doubts about my ability to be truly happy in a small midwestern town, no matter the quality of the program), and then funding/teaching loads seems like an easy way to make an initial cut. However if I should be so lucky as to get into four or five schools, should I just suck it up and give them all a chance? (Note: I have a flexible work schedule so taking time off is not a major issue) 

Three worked well for me. Although I only applied to places I was really interested in, after getting the decisions back, there were 3 schools that stood out as slightly better fits than the rest. I ended up visiting the 3 schools in just under 3 weeks from late Feb to mid-March. I moved one school's visit to be a few days later so that I could visit it at the beginning of the week, then visited another school nearby at the end of the same week. Took a week off and then visited the last school at the end of the 3rd week. 

It also helped for scheduling purposes that the other visits were all later (late March) so my plan was to only visit the other schools if the first two visits turned out badly. But after the first week of visits, I was pretty sure I would attend one of those two over the other offers (except maybe the 3rd) so I was able to decline those visits after that first week. The decision was also made easier since one of those schools would cover very little of the visit expenses due to their budget so while I would have still visited if it was one of my top choices, I felt it wasn't worth the time and money if I was no longer as excited about it.

[Isocrates2.o]

Anyone else have a school schedule their accepted students campus visit day only 2-3 weeks in advance and then decide to bring you in at a later date because flight prices are too expensive at such short notice? Like, come on. You have to have known this would happen. 

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

For one of my campus visits, I had to select 3 professors to meet with. I picked the 3 whose work currently most closely aligns with my own because (1) we may well end up working together and (2) I get nervous talking to people and figured I'd have the most overlap with these three (hence not as many foot-in-mouth opportunities for me.)

Two of them are associate professors and one is an assistant professor. FWIW, the DGS mentioned the assistant professor to me when they called because, while we work in different time periods, the assistant professor and I overlap in terms of methodology and geography. 

Is there a polite way to ask the associate profs about their long term plans? It's a tiny department so I'm not sure if or how tenure works for them and I'm hopeful the two associate profs will stick around, but that is going to influence my decisions, so - any advice?

[fuzzylogician]

32 minutes ago, a_sort_of_fractious_angel said:

Is there a polite way to ask the associate profs about their long term plans? It's a tiny department so I'm not sure if or how tenure works for them and I'm hopeful the two associate profs will stick around, but that is going to influence my decisions, so - any advice?

There is no good way to do it. You can simply ask and share concerns about what happens if they leave. But you can be fairly certain that they won't share any private plans. If they are thinking of leaving and their institutions don't even know yet, there is hardly any chance that they'll share those plans with a prospective student. And even if they have some vague thought of leaving in 3 years, that too is not exactly something to share with a prospie. It's more a wish than a plan. So, you can ask, but I don't know how informative the answer will be. 

[TakeruK]

42 minutes ago, a_sort_of_fractious_angel said:

Is there a polite way to ask the associate profs about their long term plans? It's a tiny department so I'm not sure if or how tenure works for them and I'm hopeful the two associate profs will stick around, but that is going to influence my decisions, so - any advice?

Like fuzzy said, you can definitely ask and I certainly think there are several ways to phrase it politely. In my field, funding for students often come from the professor, so one way to phrase it "politely" would be to ask if they have enough funding to support you for the entire PhD degree, for example. It is not a direct ask, but it brings up the idea that you are seeking someone who can support you the entire length of the degree. This gives them a chance to reveal any plans they might already have and feel comfortable revealing. 

However, as fuzzy said, unless the information is already public, the chances of them revealing any plans to leave to a prospective student is very low. Instead, I know professors might find reasons to not meet with the student at all. This might not be possible if they have plans to leave but no one else knows yet, since they would be expected to meet with you and it might raise flags to their dept head if they suddenly stopped being interested in new students. That's just part of how academia works, I guess.

One other thing you can ask is to ask about tenure rates and how often faculty are hired / leave during your visit.  Most of my visits included a chat with some sort of department chair or graduate student coordinator or director of grad studies for the dept, or some person in a similar role. I asked this question to all of the depts I met. It's good to know, although you can't count on, whether or not they plan on adding more faculty members soon, and whether the dept will seek to broaden its expertise or reinforce current strengths.

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Thank you so much @fuzzylogician - that makes total sense now that I think about it. There's a lot that goes into the decisions that I'm sure I don't know/understand, so I can imagine why asking about future plans may not get me that far.

And thank you @TakeruK - your question about tenure rates and the department's plans is fantastic and I will ask it at every visit day. Also, I'll keep an eye out for profs who aren't meeting with students - while that's not foolproof, it's definitely a sign I hadn't though to look for. 

[maengret]

13 hours ago, Isocrates2.o said:

Anyone else have a school schedule their accepted students campus visit day only 2-3 weeks in advance and then decide to bring you in at a later date because flight prices are too expensive at such short notice? Like, come on. You have to have known this would happen. 

Not yet, but I have a feeling this is about to happen to me...

[semioclasm]

Hey all,

I was recently accepted to my top choice (Buffalo) and invited out to a visiting weekend. They mentioned setting me up with a place to stay, but said nothing about covering travel expenses. I went ahead and booked my flight, which wasn't cheap, but I see that many of your programs bought your tickets. Should I ask my program about funding, or would that come across as too needy?

Thanks in advance!

[E. Coronaria]

1 hour ago, semioclasm said:

Hey all,

I was recently accepted to my top choice (Buffalo) and invited out to a visiting weekend. They mentioned setting me up with a place to stay, but said nothing about covering travel expenses. I went ahead and booked my flight, which wasn't cheap, but I see that many of your programs bought your tickets. Should I ask my program about funding, or would that come across as too needy?

Thanks in advance!

All I can offer is my own personal experience. I have had two offers. Both acceptance letters or emails addressed this specifically. One said that airfare, hotel, and two dinners would be covered. The other email said that I would be staying with a current student and if I had difficulty funding my travel I could contact the graduate coordinator. So if they didn’t specifically mention funding for travel, that puts you in an awkward position. 

[TakeruK]

16 hours ago, a_sort_of_fractious_angel said:

Also, I'll keep an eye out for profs who aren't meeting with students - while that's not foolproof, it's definitely a sign I hadn't though to look for. 

To be clear, I wouldn't read too much into this. They might just be full for students this year or maybe there is some super important commitment they couldn't break. It would be also pretty hard to figure out who aren't meeting with students since you won't know everyone's visit schedule.

I meant the advice more like "here are some things that happen that allows profs to not have to directly tell a student that they will take them while also planning a way to leave". But in general, if you requested a meeting with a certain prof that you think have a great research fit, and they don't end up on your schedule, and you see them around the department on those days, and they don't say anything to you in the lines of "sorry our schedule didn't match up etc.", then it's a red flag to me in any case. It might be that they are planning to leave, but even if they aren't, showing that little interest in meeting you might mean that they aren't that interested in you after all. I might try to reach out once again for a Skype chat but it's something I would be concerned about.