(2015) Campus visits and story sharing

[DontFly]

Hi all-

 

It strikes me that people will probably start to go on visits soon, if not already. I want to start a thread that's a little less practical. Since there already is a thread giving advice on questions to ask during visits, I thought it'd be fun to share some stories (including maybe ways of indirectly getting information, behavioral indicators of politics, serendipitous findings, things caught you by surprise, etc.).

 

You don't have to reveal the names of the school or the people involved if you don't want to, though you can (especially if it's a positive story). If it's a story about a city, it's probably helpful to tell us which city it is.

 

Some other things people might want to talk about:

- things you immediately wish you had done differently

- how travel reimbursement was handled

- how do faculties match or don't match your prior expectations based on reputation

- the information you get from faculties vs. from students (are they different?)

- whether this visit has changed your decision/ mental ranking of places

etc.

 

(I'm going on my first visit by the end of this week, so I'll have more substantive things to add a bit later. So far I've received overwhelmingly friendly contacts from this one institution, and nearly no contact from the other that I'm visiting. It's hard not to read too much into this  )

Edited March 3, 2015 by DontFly