Visits

[AgentScully]

Hey All!

I wanted to start a thread to talk about visiting prospective programs. What are you looking for in a program? What criteria (e.g. academics, lifestyle, funding, placement, diversity, pgr rank) weighs more heavily for you? What are the important questions to ask/have answered when you visit?

I want to get the most out of the visits, and so I think preparing a list of questions/criteria would help me evaluate and eventually choose where I want to go. Of course, part of the reason for the visits is that some measures can't be quantified or communicated by means other than just being there in person.

What do people think?

Edited February 17, 2016 by AgentScully

[sidebysondheim]

You should make your decision based solely on how fun the grad student party is. I'm only half-kidding. Everything you stated is important but remember that you're going to be spending the next 5-7 years of your life with these people as your primary social group. How grad students interact with each other (and how you like to interact with others) is important. 

Edited February 17, 2016 by sidebysondheim

[AgentScully]

3 minutes ago, sidebysondheim said:

You should make your decision based solely on how fun the grad student party is. I'm only half-kidding. Everything you stated is important but remember that you're going to be spending the next 5-7 years of your life with these people as your primary social group. How grad students interact with each other (and how you like to interact with others) is important. 

This is actually very high (perhaps the top) on my priority list... A good grad group/cohort is key!

[Disgruntledlurker]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm going to try to get the most out of my visits, and I'm almost certain that I'll leave them kicking myself for not having asked questions that I think up later. That's why I think one objective to add to campus visit weekends is to trade contact info with at least a couple of current, upper-year graduate students who can field those questions later. So far, schools have been really proactive about putting me in contact with students with whom I have things in common. If the school doesn't do that for you, do it for yourself during the visit. 

[gughok]

Well, assuming I hear anything positive from anyone (which itself assumes I'll hear anything at all, and so far I have not), here's what I've got: most important for me is probably placement. I'm just not comfortable spending the time completing a PhD if I can't reasonably expect a good position coming out of it. But as far as visits are concerned, I'll be looking at how compatible the social atmosphere is with my personality, and what the town is like. I've spent the past four years living in the middle of nowhere, so ideally I won't have to repeat that. Weather is pretty important to me (I can't stand the heat). Lifestyle and diversity, I count as part of the social life, and I would strongly prefer a diverse cohort. I also really want to be with faculty who are friendly, approachable, and available.

[philosophe]

Question -- are you folks emailing your wait listed schools to see if they'll fund a visit? Not sure if its polite to ask them to spend the money if I don't yet have an offer

[abisch]

I emailed and asked UA. They said that although they would love for me to come and visit, I would have to pay out of pocket because they do not have the funds. UNC is offering to pay for my travel expenses, and I will get to stay with a current grad student. I kind of wanted to tell UA that UNC is at least covering the cost of travel, but I think that might be inappropriate.  

[philosophe]

2 minutes ago, abisch said:

I emailed and asked UA. They said that although they would love for me to come and visit, I would have to pay out of pocket because they do not have the funds. UNC is offering to pay for my travel expenses, and I will get to stay with a current grad student. I kind of wanted to tell UA that UNC is at least covering the cost of travel, but I think that might be inappropriate.  

I assume by UA you mean Arizona? That saves me from asking! 

[abisch]

1 hour ago, philosophe said:

I assume by UA you mean Arizona? That saves me from asking! 

Yup!

[dgswaim]

I think the main thing I'm looking for is to get a feel for how well I'd probably do working with the faculty members in my area. I have a great relationship with my MA thesis advisor and have had a great time working with him, and I've found that the quality of work that I produce is closely linked to my psychological health, and my psychological health is closely related to not having to deal with jerks. 

Probably the next most important thing (for me) is a generally relaxed atmosphere with respect to the graduate cohort. I'm not really into academic competition and one-upsmanship. I prefer a friendly and collaborative environment.

[currentphilgrad]

I've already shared this advice in personal correspondence with people from the board, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Don't make the same mistake I did and go to a program you hate! Here's a couple of ways to use your visit time to make sure the program is right for you.

First, make sure the professors are the same on paper as they are in person. What do I mean? Well, although they may have published extensively in area X, they may no longer have an interest in it and don't want to take on any students who work on it. They may not give you a straightforward answer if you ask them about this (at least they didn't with me). You can also inquire about what that prof's students are researching and use this to gauge what your research may end up looking like.

Second, again regarding professors, how do they relate to the students? Are they controlling or do they let their students formulate their own ideas? You can tell this at least partially based on how closely the students' research matches the professor. If every student is basically a clone of the professors without making much in the way of original contributions, that's probably a red flag.

Third, note how the students socialize. Do they segregate based on interests? Do they seem uninterested in work that doesn't relate to their own (not that they have to be over the moon for other work but they should still at least respect it)? Do they make disparaging remarks about their colleagues?

Fourth, I know diversity isn't a huge deal to everyone but the lack of it (and the lack of willingness to do anything about it) can be a red flag for some of us. Ask if they have a MAP chapter. If so, ask them what sorts of activities they do. If not, ask about starting one and gauge their reaction (a negative reaction to that could be a bad sign).

That's all that I can think of for now. Those are the things I wish I had known about my department before joining.