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An offer to come visit the campus?

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 11:59 pm
by Drewe51
So I was asked to come visit one of the schools that I applied to, and they said they would pay for travel and what not, but I haven't been accepted by that school yet(the submission deadline was only a couple weeks ago). Should I assume that they would like me to go there? Or just that they want to show off how nice their things are? It seems weird to invite someone to your campus without first asking them if they wanted to attend your university.

I'm really fairly clueless in how this whole graduate admission/application etc. thing goes, so any insight would be helpful. I also realize it could be like a test to see if I am the type of person that they want, but that seems a little strange to me. Why wouldn't they just schedule an interview then?

Thanks

Re: An offer to come visit the campus?

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:28 pm
by grae313
Some programs have their open house before officially making admissions offers. What this actually means may vary from place to place, but I can tell you that I've heard of some programs that do this just as a safety precaution. You're basically in unless you show up and are a complete ass. For example, one year one of the students pissed off all of the current grads in the program by being a prick, and of course the professors ask the grads about the prospectives afterwards so that student was not offered admission. This is more feasible in smaller programs. By the way, this was at Cornell but not the physics department. I heard from a professor in a biophysics department at another school (that also visits before officially admitting) that they reassure the students during the visit that all of them will be offered admission, so again it makes you ask what's the point. I think it's just in case someone turns out to be a complete weirdo / douchebag / creep. If you don't stink to high heaven and don't piss anyone off I wouldn't worry too much. I don't think they'd fly you out there if they didn't want you to attend. It's not like you'll be paying them to get your degree there, they pay you.

They could also do this to better gauge interest from the students in that the ones who would attend an open house are potentially more likely to attend. It would make sense if the budget situation cannot tolerate a large deviation from the anticipated number of students.

Re: An offer to come visit the campus?

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:01 pm
by SSM
Wow, how badly would you have to piss off science grad students to be denied admission? And how do you have enough time to do it on a visit? They're usually some of the most socially accepting people.

Re: An offer to come visit the campus?

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:56 pm
by grae313
From what I heard, he basically acted like negru acts on these forums, but IRL ;) He thought he was god's gift to science and whatever program he chose would kiss his feet in gratitude.

Re: An offer to come visit the campus?

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:40 pm
by ccj1
grae313 wrote:From what I heard, he basically acted like negru acts on these forums, but IRL ;) He thought he was god's gift to science and whatever program he chose would kiss his feet in gratitude.

lol that will go down in forum history! :mrgreen: