Tips, tricks and general advice

[hippyscientist]

I fly tomorrow to visit a few schools, and I'm excited at the prospects of seeing the campuses, meeting POIs, seeing the labs and talking with current grad students. Anyone got any invaluable tips, tricks, things they wish they'd done when looking? (I'm an international student who's only familiar with the American system through others and trying to convert my grades!)

[ginagirl]

I'm sure other people will have lots of valuable advice so I'm just going to pick what I think was the most important. I tend not to have a very good memory when I'm stressed out, so it was really useful for me to write down my reactions/thoughts throughout the visit-- between meetings, at the end of the day in the hotel, on the plane. Especially if you're visiting multiple campuses, it may start to blur together who said what thing, or which program recommended that you do such-and-such. Being able to recall your visits well will help you make any important decisions down the line, and also might help you draft any follow-up emails you might want to send (ie you are able to reference specific topics that you had discussed, etc).

As an afterthought, I will add one more: SMILE. Genuinely smiling and being engaged non-verbally (at minimum) in meetings/presentations/discussions is an underrated part of these visits, I think. It helps convey the excitement you should feel/are feeling, and it also helps me feel more relaxed