Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi guys!
I know it is kinda early to ask about this but considering that I'm an international student and flights are quite expensive I need to do it in advance. I would like to visit some schools before deciding what will be my future graduate school. The problem is that I don't even know which one is gonna accept me. I think about going to Boston to visit MIT and Harvard, and then move to California to visit Stanford, Caltech and San Diego. In this plan I'm leaving out Columbia, UWash and Princeton, because I don't have friends living there.
I also have to decide the dates. I am free the first week of february, another week at the end of february (missing lectures) and the second week of april. I think the prices are similar. What would you do?
Are schools open to this kind of visits? What about teachers? I am not talking about only improving my chances, I really need to see the city and the uni before deciding the school. I would appreciate any comment. Thanks!

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Thank you for your hospitality a13ean!
I will definitely go to some of the universities but I got an email from MIT that changed my plans. This could be a useful information for most of you (you probably already know):
If you get an offer of admission they partially fund your travel to the correspondent university. If you get several admission you can link several flights to see all the universities, and you will probably have to pay nothing. And they usually want you to go during the open house days.
So I guess I will wait a little bit to buy my tickets, but if I don't get an offer I will miss the chance to visit some nice cities

I'm also thinking about visiting a school or two like that. However, I think they usually have you buy the ticket and reimburse you later -- and some of the first year grad students at my school still haven't been reimbursed yet, so unless you have a good line of credit it may not be as easy as they make it sound! I guess I'll wait and see what my offers are like before I make any more plans at this point.