<p>Sure parents are expected to visit colleges with their children, but do you parents accompany your "kids" to graduate programs? Since I figure the focus of grad school visits are less about seeing the campus, checking out quality-of-life logistics, etc, and more about meeting personally with prospective professors, perhaps it may be awkward for parents to be there?</p>
<p>Also - for those of you with kids already in grad school - did they visit and meet teachers beforehand, and (how) did that factor in to the admissions/decision process?</p>
<p>I guess that is probably more intended for those in humanity leaning, PhD type programs rather than for the sciences or professional programs where admission is probably more of a numbers thing as opposed to writing samples / creative portfolio based.</p>
<p>My daughter applied and visited grad schools with zero input from us. My daughter did meet with the people in her desired program. Indeed, this is very important if you are looking for financial aid as those Prof’s are the ones that get grant money and can help with financial support. I have no idea how those meetings affected admission.</p>
<p>Grad school is a whole different ball game.</p>
<p>My d. didn’t visit programs before offers being made. She did, however, e-mail, and usually had phone conversations with professors most closely associated with the field she would be working in. Some schools actively discourage pre-decision visits. Once accepted, the better programs will pay for the visits, and will wine and dine - they don’t want to be turned down.</p>
<p>Funded programs often have visiting days for accepted students in Feb/Mar. They also may fly prospective students in and pay hotel/meals during this time. So many applying to these grad programs wait and visit after they know where they have been accepted and who is paying. Just a heads up. And no, parents don’t go.</p>
<p>Been here & done this With more than one kid.</p>
<p>Yes, visit. If possible the student should have an introduction made by one of his or her current professors to a professor at the prospective school. Frequently profs are recommending their best students to colleagues/friends at other universities for PhD programs. Regardless, your student’s profs should be helping with these plans imho. Make these visit arrangements in advance, checking to see when is convenient for the faculty. Don’t just show up. Follow up with thanks and a display of interest after the visit. Obviously the student should be prepared to discuss specifics of why they are interested in the program they are visiting. It would be best for the student to meet with profs they wish to work with and know their recent publications.</p>
<p>In some humanities programs they are only taking one or two students out of 100+ applicants. It makes a huge difference if the admissions committee thinks you will attend if offered a fellowship. My kids were sometimes called and sounded out as to the seriousness of their interest before official offers were made. </p>
<p>Don’t go with your “kid” unless the kid really needs that support and if so hide in the background so no one on the faculty knows you are there.</p>
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<p>I am not sure I am following this. Science admissions are numbered based? In any case, for humanities program I believe a writing sample will always be required. This is why some students wait to apply after graduation when they have an honors/senior thesis… if they don’t have an appropriate writing sample already completed fall of senior year. I don’t know if a writing sample is required for science fields but many of these students will already have their names on a publication.</p>
<p>Good Luck!!</p>
<p>edit: Interesting to me mini has a different take on the visit idea. Some students may be so well known in their field that this becomes a non issue?? I think this is really important ymmv</p>
<p>My d. asked the professors she called point-blank whether she should visit. In every case she was told no, to wait after an offer was made. And yes, 3-4 acceptances out of 200 applicants is about right. They are often very much based on the precise field and professor one might be working with (and, I’m told, professors at different schools will indeed compare notes on applicants and, informally, “trade” - so that multiple acceptances among the top schools are less likely. Once the top schools have made an offer, they really don’t want to be turned down.)</p>
<p>Mini - While there really aren’t any “average” grad school applicants, do you think your daughter might have been in a special category? Is it possible they already knew they would accept her, even before they saw the rest of the applicant pool, and wanted to spare her the expense/hassle of a visit? If so, leaves 2-3 slots open at that program? Did they already have those filled by reputation, too, before any applications were received? </p>
<p>I hear a lot of gossip. In some cases these campus visits are important. But I am absolutely not suggesting anyone visit against the advice of the faculty, at the current or the prospective school. And I think profs advising against visits could be interpreted in various ways.</p>
<p>For PhD candidates, my department requires either an interview at an academic conference or an on campus interview. I don’t think that is unusual. Department pays for these visits as they only invite likely admits. Exceptions made for internationals.</p>
<p>It’s hard to know. I do know that she was the only one accepted who didn’t already have another masters degree (and then would still start over), and was the only one directly from undergraduate studies. I doubt about the visits though. She amassed plenty of rejections. (But, I do know that virtually all the professors she spoke to knew each other. How much they caballed, I have no idea. We do know she was selected at Princeton for a quite specific reason that very much had to do with her particular background, and the needs of the school at the time.) </p>
<p>Remember that if a reputable program in the humanities has 200 candidates for 3-4 spots, having lots of them visit would be a royal pain in the butt, and to no good end (and a huge waste of professor’s time.) A better strategy would be to have a professor at the undergrad school very much in one’s corner who is willing to reach out to his/her colleagues.</p>
<p>When I was in my PhD (a top program in my field in the social sciences) it was not very well seen if an applicant visited, because it was perceived they didn’t realize the difference between undergrad and PhD. It can do more harm than good to visit before you are accepted. Your recommendation letters and writing samples matter, a visit is irrelevant (but definitely frowned upon).</p>
<p>Every professor I know (including myself) would tell you NOT to visit, and especially not with your parents. It would be like your parents going with you for a job interview, it’s not professional.</p>
<p>In the sciences, many programs have interviews. And in pretty much every field, accepted students get a paid visit to every program they got into and then they make a decision. So your daughter or son will get to visit all the programs they get into and then make an informed decision, but that is AFTER they were accepted.</p>
<p>EDIT: I agree with what mini said, it would be a royal waste of time, and a pain in the butt to have hundreds of people visit for a handful of spots. A phone call or e-mail from a professor will help more.</p>
<p>Interesting to hear some of these stories. I wonder how prevalent the practice is, to have professors “trade notes” on applicants to spread their acceptances around. Seems like the academia industry is far deeper than we can ever contemplate holistically, lol.</p>
<p>Well, I am aware of profs who starting talking their best students up sophomore year to their colleagues and then send those students to visit late junior/early senior year. Everyone has met them and everyone is expecting that application. That particular spot is essentially gone. In some programs that is the only spot. So it won’t matter if the remaining 100+ applicants visit or not - I guess. </p>
<p>Maybe I just know nice professors, but all of them think it is part of their job to meet with prospective grad students. And some give advice to visiting students to pursue other or additional programs when they are concerned theirs isn’t going to be a good fit or a possibility.</p>
<p>Maybe I am wrong, but I think by the time schools are paying for likely admits to visit, they have already cut the list 90% or more and just want to meet the candidates face to face before committing to them. imho the goal is to get on that likely candidate list.</p>
<p>Consider the wastefulness is having three or four different programs expend one of its very rare fellowship places on a candidate who would be unlikely to attend. Waiting lists don’t work very well - the top candidates are already gone by the time one gets around to them. In the humanities, it is more likely that the place will wait til next year. Some of these fields are just not that large, all the faculty know one another, and stories of their own graduate students travel with them. (It is not unusual for a professor who moves to another university to take one or two of her graduate students with him/her.)</p>
<p>In every case, at least for my d., the school had already committed, and made an offer, complete with dollar figures, BEFORE the visit. There weren’t any “likely admits”.</p>
<p>^^this is why I think it is interesting so many argue it doesn’t matter where you go for undergrad; that it won’t impact your grad school options.</p>
<p>salander: maybe this visit thing really varies depending on field?</p>
<p>My science & humanities offspring did visits. It was advised by their profs. It seemed expected. They had excellent results. I don’t know what else to say.</p>
<p>Visiting will not increase your chances of admittance (when discussing grad school admittance is not something that is even discussed, there is not such a thing as proved interest, the one time we talked about it was about a prospective student who visited and kept calling a specific professor to increase his chances. Said professor was not on the admission committee, so all his shown interest was for nothing). A good GRE score, writing sample, and recommendation letters will help you make the short list. Spend your time in tangible ways.</p>
<p>alh: I have friends in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. I think it’s a general view that you should not visit programs, but spend that weekend doing more research or studying for the gre</p>
<p>“this is why I think it is interesting so many argue it doesn’t matter where you go for undergrad; that it won’t impact your grad school options.”</p>
<p>It might, but it’s hard to know how. My d’s program hasn’t accepted a single Ivy student in five years (none even from the school itself), and only one AWS student. (Don;t know about this year, though).</p>
<p>^^I don’t know what your daughter studies. Are those accepted into her program studying as undergrads with influential and/or connected scholars in the field? Is there an opportunity to excel with independent research?</p>
<p>I guess I did have one more thing to say :(</p>
<p>Her acceptance was specifically the result of independent research in the humanities, started as the result of a paid research assistantship provided in her first two years as an undergrad, and very extensive and particular language studies that met her program’s specific (and, in her year, unique) needs. And, from what I can tell, the program got exactly what it wanted out of her.</p>
<p>I think some of these things are so individualized as to make top school grad school admissions in the humanities at least particularly unpredictable. Great GREs, good grades, great writing sample, and excellent recommendations gets you into the game, but that’s really only the beginning.</p>
<p>D did her MM and multiple visits were made at most schools. For three of the schools she first visited with teachers for sample lessons and if possible met with the director of the opera program. And of course for the balance of the mostly East Coast schools she met with teachers the day before her auditions. All this was done solo by couch surfing with friends and friends of friends. My only assistance came in the form of banked frequent flier miles. And , as to schools, I had no input whatsoever. She found out later that practically all the teachers knew one another and calls were made back and forth as to what their impressions were. She got nice offers at each school.</p>
<p>yes. With admissions so competitive, maybe it is useful to be aware that some undergraduates will already have published or publishable research; some will already have taken a couple of years of graduate course work as undergrads. Some will have started in grad level courses first term freshman year. And lots of students who already have MAs are applying for PhD slots. </p>
With more than one kid.</p>