Visiting Business Schools - Yay or Nay?

So earlier this week I received a message from a blog reader asking the questions below.  I responded to the reader but also wanted to post this on my blog because I think it's very important.


1.  How important do you think the visit is to the schools?
2.  Do you think schools care if you visit?
3.  Do you think that if I visit in January after deadlines, those schools that like for prospective students to visit would weigh this visit the same as if I had visited before my application was sent in or do you think they wont even consider my visit when evaluating my profile?


There were some other questions mixed in there but you get the idea right?  So yeah let me start from the beginning...


The way that I think about school visits is not from the perspective of "Oh what will the schools think of me visiting?"  it's more from the perspective of "Oh...can I see myself at school X with student at school X for two years and enjoy myself?"  That's how I go into every school visit.  I don't care too much whether or not the school "cares" if I visit because I care.  I'm grateful to have the opportunity to visit all of the schools that I'm interested in and I believe that it's VERY IMPORTANT to visit if you're able to.


I have visited Tuck, Yale, NYU, Cornell, HBS, and soon to be Michigan and hopefully Haas.  I have definitely written off two schools from that list after my visit.  Other schools I have moved up and moved down in my own personal Consortium ranking.  


When you visit a school you can just get a sense of the atmosphere and if you would like to be associated with those people for the rest of your life.  Sure I reach out to students prior to visiting (One school resulted in a bad experience just from doing that) but I really get a sense for the school during the times when there are no prospective events going on.  So for instance having attended many diversity conferences and such, when we have free time for like 15/20 minutes or so, I'll just sit and observe the current students and how they interact with one another.  Or I will walk around campus by myself and also observe how people interact with one another.


During class visits, I don't pay attention to what the professor is saying as much as I observe what the current students are doing during the class.  Usually during the classes you're sitting in the back of the class and if students are allowed computers, you can see if they are looking at the proper materials or on facebook and instant messenger.  I'm not saying that I would write off a school simply because of this fact, but it gives you a sense of the level of engagement at each school.  I have seen different situations at different schools, and they stick out in my head.  Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that any student who has a laptop open and is on facebook is a bad student or whatever, but in my opinion it does affect the class, in some way shape or form.


Do I think schools care if you visit?  Hhmmm... some schools yes and other schools no.  I know some schools track all of the interaction you have with the school whether it be an information session or an email to an admissions committee member.  I know this for a fact and from my observations it seems to be the smaller schools (one in particular and no it's not Dartmouth) that does this because they have the time to do so.  


Sure you can visit during the admitted students weekends after you're admitted, but at that point how do you know you chose the right school to apply to in the first place?  I mean I literally struck a high ranking school off my list after I visited.  I walked away from the visit saying to myself "I would not enjoy being here with these students for 2 years."  Was that a hard conclusion to arrive at?  Hhmmm...after the visit no it was not.  Prior to the visit I would not have even thought of doing it.  


Another benefit of visiting the schools is that you learn a great deal about the school that you cannot learn from a website or a brochure.  All of the schools say that they're collaborative..they all have student groups... most all have sections...  all top schools have great recruitment placement etc etc... So to me it's funny when they all say "oh make your essays different" and yet all of the information they put out there about themselves is the same.  


Sure from school to school there may be 1/2 things different about each program, but if all of the applicants are trying to make their essays sound different, they're going to hone in on those 1 or 2 things.  By visiting schools prior to applying you learn all of the little nuances that make each school different.  I will not go into detail what I've learned from each school, but I can guarantee you that my essays will be very tailored to my experiences with each school.  It may come down to me being able to reference something that I experienced or realized while visiting, but those "little" differences make it all worth it in the end.  


Plus I like meeting new people so school visits excite me.  If you've been following my journey from the beginning you'll remember that I didn't know anyone who was getting an MBA when I began this process.  Now I have friends on Facebook... current students cell phone numbers...email addresses...linkedin profiles....etc etc, whom I can contact should I have any questions regarding their schools....insider questions at that.  And since I've built up a rapport with them I can ask them very candid questions if need be.  I mean when I was up at Tuck just recently I contacted a couple people just to catch up with them because I remember when they were first years!  When I was at the Reaching Out Conference in LA last month, I ran into someone whom I met back in October of 2009 who gave me some great information about NYU.  These interactions are priceless and would not come about if I did not visit schools.  You can only get so close to someone via email so being able to meet them in person is a "good look."

Needless to say, I think that if you can visit a school, you should!  Now that I've written that, I'm going to go back to editing one of my essays.  From now until Sunday I plan to get all of my first drafts completed and then send them off for review.  Then it's back to GMAT time!!!!!


Oh I do want to write a post about what to wear to business school visits too!  Cuz lord knows I have seen some funny attire.... really... a flannel shirt and jeans?  yeah I won't go into that one!!


Cheers!