14: The Grad School Open House or Campus Visit

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi everyone, Happy Sunday. Today I'm going to be talking to you about the grad school open house, or the grad school campus visit. This is an episode really focusing on those of you that have been invited to either interview at a campus or you've been invited for recruitment weekend and it's unclear whether or not they've admitted you. Or they have already admitted you, they've given you an acceptance letter, and they want to have you come to the open house to check out their program.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What's the first thing I want to tell you? Let me see. I will share with you the advice that I've been sharing to a few of my students who have received some early news from one or two programs that are either interviewing them or admitting them. The first thing is, you want to respond back right away to the memo to let them know that you are going to be there. Especially if this is a top program, you want to do everything possible to make sure that you make it to that open house. This is where they are going to have everybody on their shortlist or everybody that they've admitted show up, check out the program. It's an opportunity for them to interview you, and an opportunity for you to interview them. So right away, make sure that you let them know: thank you so much for this for this invitation. I'd be happy to be there, and will make the appropriate arrangements to get there.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The second thing is you have to figure out your logistics. This means you need to find out if they're going to be funding you. Sometimes they'll let you know in the memo. They'll say, oh, we will provide you with $500 for travel and we will pay for lodging. If that's the case, then find out: are they booking flights for you? Are you expected to book your own flights, and then they're the ones that are going to reimburse you? The same goes with lodging, the same goes with getting to and from the campus or the hotel, or wherever you're staying from the airport. So figure out the logistics. If the email with that information is unclear, it's completely okay to send a memo back and to let them know: thank you so much. I just wanted to clarify, will this trip be on a reimbursement basis? Or is there someone that I should be contacting to help me book my flights? And they'll let you know. Also if you have questions about how to get there, what time should you plan to arrive, what time things start, it's okay to ask about that. At some point, they will probably send you an itinerary or a schedule. But again, this is something you can ask for in advance or they'll let you know when they'll have it available for you. So you can say thank you so much. I'll make sure to work on the appropriate arrangements. I also wanted to know if there is a schedule for me to review, and if not, then what time should I plan to arrive? And what time should I plan to depart? That way you can make your plans. So logistics.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Another thing that's involved with this is if you're a student, like my students are. We all just started the winter quarter at UCSB and they're taking classes. So they're finding out and they're having to go to these campus visits. Sometimes it's one or two. Sometimes it's even more than that. That affects your classes. You have to notify your professors. One thing that at least the director and I from our program do is we recommend that the students forward these memos where they've been invited to a campus visit to their professors to show that you're legit, that you're not making it up. Let them know: hi, I've applied to graduate school. I've been invited to an interview or an open house. As a result, I will be away from your class these dates. Please let me know what I can do to make up for it. This will help mitigate any issues that could come up, especially if it conflicts with a midterm. That sometimes happens. So make sure you communicate with your professors. Let them know that you've been invited on this campus visit and that you'll be away. Most of the time, they should be supportive. If not, then you'll have to plan around that. Find out, is this gonna affect my grade? Do I really need to take this class or can I drop it and take something else? All right, so that's the logistics side of it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, in terms of actually what to expect at a campus visit. I will tell you, typically, it's a one to two day event. I think more often than not, it's a two day event. And you have a variety of different things that can happen. One is obviously interviews. Interviews can be in group form, where you are getting interviewed by more than one professor at the same time, or one on one interviews. You could have one, two, three interviews with professors that you probably mentioned in your application that you wanted to work with. Aside from that, you'll have an opportunity to get to know other faculty. During probably a reception of some sort, you'll have an opportunity to meet grad students. Sometimes grad students have special dinners, where you just get to hang out one on one with grad students. Then they may have a campus tour. They may have you sit in in a lab meeting or sit in during the graduate student seminar. They'll just take you through what a day in the life of a graduate student in that program looks like. Please keep in mind that even when you're not officially getting interviewed, you want to be your most professional self. Because again, at any point, these are people that you may be working with in the future, including the grad students. That's what a campus visit really looks like.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

One other thing I want to mention is, if you've already been admitted, you shouldn't worry too much about what you are going to say, so long as you feel comfortable having a conversation about your research with other people. That's all you really need to worry about. It would be very, very rare for them to rescind their offer. Once you're in, you're in. Really, you're the one that has the reins. You're the one in control, because they're trying to schmooze. They're trying to impress you. They're trying to show their best selves to try to get you to go to their program. They don't know if you've been admitted anywhere else, so they want you to choose them. They're investing their time and energy in you. Remember, they're flying you in here. So really, you should feel really good if you're going in and you've already been admitted. If you're going and you haven't been admitted, or you know for sure it's an interview, then you want to prepare a little bit more. Maybe have a few more conversations with some of your letter recommenders, or faculty in your department to talk about the state of the field, to talk about your current and future research interests. That way, you can practice feeling more comfortable talking about these things. And that way you have conversations to start when you're there.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But a campus interview is actually a really good thing. It means that you've made the shortlist. For the most part, it means that there's a really good chance that you'll get in. It's not certain that you'll get in, but you've got a really good chance. And it means that you stood out from a list of probably hundreds of applicants. So keep that in mind. I'm going to keep this episode a little bit short, just because I feel like a lot of what I covered last week with regard to the campus interviews or sorry- for the grad school interviews, applies here too. So if you want to know more about the types of questions they'll ask you, definitely go back to last week's episode and check that out. But for campus visits, I don't want to mention the interview questions again. I just want to remind you to make sure to plan for the logistics because that's what's going to come up. Make sure to communicate with them at all times and promptly. Then prepare. Talk to folks who can help you. Practice. Do a mock interview if you can, have more conversations with people about it. Before you know it, you'll be their having a really good time. Hopefully, it goes well. And keep everybody posted on how it goes. All right. Have a great rest of your day. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.