unhedged wrote:
OhThatMBA wrote:
I couldn't more strongly recommend visiting the schools. I visited every school I applied to, which had a huge impact on my perception of those schools. Gave me a much better sense for which schools I preferred and helped tremendously when writing application essays. Also gives you a great opportunity to meet fellow applicants, which can be helpful as you navigate the application process. I visited during the fall and took time off from work to do so. If I had to do it over again, I'd visit much earlier - ideally during the summer.
Why ideally during the summer? I was under the impression this wasn't a good idea because campus was dead?
I wrote that too quickly. Ideally you'd do this during the spring (not summer), as in now. Problem is that some schools have already finished classes and others are soon to be done. If you're considering visiting before the fall, I'd get on that right away. Visiting classes and talking to students were valuable experiences, and yes, you won't be able to do that during the summer. If you do this during the fall, as I did, you'll have to schedule visits ASAP after classes start to have enough time to visit before submitting your apps. That's a bit tough if you don't live near the schools; for me, it meant taking off a lot of time from work. My schedule became so crunched that in some cases I visited just a few days before apps were due. In hindsight, I wish I had visited much earlier.