<p>I was wondering, for people that have gone through the process of being invited to visit grad schools, what days of the week do the visits usually take place on? The University of Rochester just invited me, and it's going to be on a Thursday and Friday. Will this be true for other schools as well? Particularly these other schools that I applied to:</p>
<p>If anyone has had a visit or knows this information, please let me know. I'm trying to optimize my class schedule so I can skip the least amount of classes possible.</p>
<p>Some are on weekends in march. UCSD seems to be a glaring omission on your list since you are applying to other CA schools? And no JHU,Duke,Penn?</p>
<p>Blah2009, to be honest, UCSD just didn’t have enough research projects that I was interested in, based on a review of their website. (Also they seemed to have a disproportionately small number of faculty compared to other schools). Besides, I am going for a biomedical imaging concentration, and UCSD is more molecular engineering oriented.</p>
<p>As for the other top ranked schools… well I just didn’t think I’d get in. My final school list consisted of a couple high-ranked schools (UCB, Stanford), mostly medium/respectable schools, and a couple of safeties. IMO, no reason to apply to all the good schools in hopes that one of them will want you.</p>
<p>wdrmhbs, I was referring to visits where the school invites you out of their own pocket. I’m certainly not going to visit all of those by myself haha! And the link you provided was for undergrad, and I assume they’re campus tours, and not department-focused.</p>
<p>I think cblinks did a good job at his selection in terms of applying to a range of schools in Biomedical Engineering to optimize his chances of at least getting accepted somewhere and still have shots at the top 25 programs.</p>
<p>Engineering Specialties: Biomedical/Bioengineering
New! Ranked in 2007 Graduate Level:</p>
<p>University of California–Berkeley (12)
Stanford University (CA) (12)
University of California–Davis (24)
Cornell University (NY) (24)
Pennsylvania State University–University Park (30)
University of Southern California (Viterbi) (30)
SUNY–Stony Brook (37)</p>
<p>All top 50 schools, so I’m sure you’ll at have no problem with prestige at least. Match in interests is probably your priority though. What’s your top choices? You obviously like California and I can’t blame you.</p>
<p>Sorry back on topic. Invitations usually happen in Jan - March. But, from my opinion, I went to a lot of places, but I think you should only pick about ~3 schools of your top choice to visit if you get invited to many schools. I think my graduating GPA suffered because I was flying so much that quarter.</p>
<p>My top 3 choices would be Berkeley, USC, and Davis, in that order. Although Cornell and Stanford are “Ivy”-level, I think I’d really need to be impressed during a visit to seriously consider them (they didn’t have as much research that I was interested in, again just from looking at their website).</p>
<p>I think people are misinterpreting my question a little. I’m not asking about what months the visits are, I’m asking about what <em>days</em> of the week. Based on what I’ve read, interviews seem to be closer to the weekend, so therefore I should try to avoid signing up for classes that meet on Thursdays and Fridays?</p>
<p>Usually weekends. They fly you in Friday and goto dinner with a Professor or something and Saturday is more like a poster session to show off their research from the groups in the departments.</p>
<p>Has anyone dealt with problems missing class to attend grad school visits?
One of my Thursday classes this semester has required attendance (and it’s a required course typically taken in the spring of senior year). I assume that as long as I don’t miss exams or presentations, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to go to a few grad school visits that require me to miss Thursday classes… basically I should be more concerned about visiting schools and choosing a grad program than worrying about the effect of my absence on my grade? Missing course material isn’t a concern for me as the lectures are videotaped and posted online for review.</p>
<p>Ctheflute, just go to the visit. if you have a test/assignment due tell your prof and explain that you’ve got a legitimate reason. they’ll understand. if they don’t, complain to the chair.</p>