I am starting my application for Fall 2010 and am doing research on some prospective schools (UCLA, NYU, Berkeley, Ross, etc )

As for getting to know the school better, would I benefit from visit the campuses and talking to the students there? How do one go about doing that if the full time job won't permit much flexibility?

I can definitely go on the weekends, but from what i've read there isn't much activity on weekends for most schools.

Some suggestion would be great!! Thanks in advance!


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Fall 2010 applicant here.

One method I am considering is to talk to some of the officers of the clubs that I am interested in. They can provide a point of view on some common interests.

Alternatively, I'd suggest attending the school events hosted in your local city. Sometimes they are students, and other times adcoms.

Make that 4
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I am a potential Fall 2010 or 2011.

These are several schools that have Fridays as visit days. For instance, some of the Booth's live days are on Fridays, making it easier to miss only one day of work.

Also, take advantage of the weekend to visit the city and see if you can see yourself being content in that area, not just for the two years during school, but eventually post MBA since you could end up in that general area.

I used this forum and the MBA books to form a list of questions before the visit, and then answered most of them from online information. Then the questions left over were more school visit specific, which is truly the reason why your visiting the schools.

If you can not miss Fridays, I suggest visiting on the weekends, and trying to email certain students working at the admissions office, to see if they can provide feedback, or if they could direct your emails to specific groups. In the end, you want insider information that you can use for your essays. Visiting the campus is good to get a good general feel, but information that distinguishes one school from the other is key when your writing essays on how you see that "X" school fit for your post MBA goals.

Each school is different, and finding out why "X" school fits for you is essential for your essays. Hope I didn't ramble too much.

Does anybody have concrete knowledge about what value schools place on visits? I say this because I live in Europe and my job is such that I am rarely able to return to the US. How much of a "tick in the box" are these things?

I am thinking of visiting a few elites this summer, but obviously class will be out - will that even be worth it? Is that considered a "lesser visit"? I will be in Afghanistan this September, so any chance of getting a class visit before Round 1 deadlines is out. I've reached out to a few students at all the schools I am looking at (happen to know a few from their former careers).

I'm really just curious if this is some hidden "essential" for an application. The schools all say they really dont matter - any thoughts?

I think visiting is a great idea. The adcom likes to have a face to put with a name. Plus, it shows that you're really interested. Unless you're an absolute cretin you should really visit every school you are seriously interested in.

For example, I applied to law school back in 2004. I was accepted but chose a different school. Several years later I spoke to a friend of mine Krista, a 3L attending the school I turned down, and asked Krista if so an so still worked in admissions. She said yes. Since Krista worked in the admissions office I told her to ask this admissions officer if she remembered me.

My friend told me that she was blown away because the admissions officer immediately remembered me! She commented on my unique background, how nice I was to her and how outgoing I was! Krista said I must have made a great impression on this admissions officer.

As J. Walter Weatherman would always say:

"And that's why you always visit the schools."

Franklin Delano Bluth

It all depends on the school. For example, Wharton and Harvard have both come out and said "A school visit has ZERO impact on your application".

Other schools such as Tuck and Duke don't care so much about visiting the school, but they do put a lot of emphasis on coming to campus to interview (both schools interview all applicants). Duke basically says "Unless you live on the west coast, you better come and interview".

That said, if you are an international applicant, the expectation to come and visit or even do an on-site interview is pretty much non-existent. Tuck has a space in their app were you can explain why you didn't come and interview on campus. Living overseas is a more than adequate excuse.

for those schools that do care if you come and visit (Ross comes to mind), I think the closer you are to the school, the worse it looks if you don't come and visit.

RF
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This may be a little early in the game, but are there any 2010 applicants out there? Doesn't matter what stats or school. I thought it would be nice to start up the 2010 community and get to know some names. Thanks.
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A New Yorker's MBA Journey Yo!
http://xlick.blogspot.com/

Yes, I'm in for 2010 (applying this fall, matriculating 2010)!
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Fall 2010 Applicants: (8)
Billyjeans
Ancientmtk
unhedged
pbanavara
GMATagogo
89nk
ElleBee
Triple5Soul

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