visiting campus

[readeatsleep]

hello all;

i have decided i am going to do a bit of travelling as i finish my applications for this year. i'd like to visit a few of the institutions I would really like to attend, check out the general ethic of the grad students there, and visit with a few of the professors I'd like to work with.

is this weird? do you think visiting might help my chances? has anyone done this before? what are some good conversation starters? more importantly, is there any way to find out who is on admission committees, so that i can visit them?

i feel that one of the things i have going for me when it comes to applications is my attitude and personality. however, i cant demonstrate this on paper very well. this is one reason for visiting.

please comment!

thanks

[rising_star]

I always think visits are best reserved for after you've been accepted. If you have questions, why not just send emails and/or arrange phone calls with faculty and grad students?

[Penelope Higgins]

I can't say this strongly enough: interest in the department (as demonstrated by taking up time with faculty members, or doing anything beyond applying and showing in your statement that YOUR academic interests have some overlap with theirs) is worth ZERO in admissions to poli sci PhD programs. If it helps you make decisions about where to apply etc, then it is worth doing. But otherwise your time is better spent reading, studying for GRE scores, or doing just about anything else.

[Lex]

I visited five of the eight places I applied. For the two schools I was most interested in, I spent three days there - I went to classes, talked to professors, called up grad students who were friends of friends, and generally made an extremely polite nuisance of myself. I got accepted to those two schools (which were actually two of the three most selective places I applied), plus one of the other schools I visited; I know that I was pretty close to being accepted to another school I visited. I got rejected by all the schools I didn't visit.

Correlation/causation and all that, but I sincerely doubt I would have gotten in *anywhere* without my visits. I got to talk over my interests (i.e. my personal statement) with professors I might be working with, and I got suggestions for other professors to talk to and people at other schools, and I got some really good advice for the application process. YMMV. I interview well. The biggest thing is that if you go visit, you're putting your cards on the table. If you can put in a good performance, stick in people's minds, and get something useful out of it for your apps - it's great. If you're wrong about how you appear, or are having a bad day, or are late for a meeting (even if it's not your fault) - not so great. It's networking, just like in any other job.

[BrunoPuntzJones]

If you are either (A) in the area or ( have the time/money to burn, then visiting a campus prior to applying might be worth doing. I think the value in it relates more to picking up things about the discipline than helping you get accepted to the University. My view is similar to Penelope's in that regard, which is that you don't get much bang for your buck. There doesn't seem to be much interplay between the few faculty on the graduate search committee and the rest of the department (at least where I'm at).

- Bruno