Calling All 2010 Applicants / Bschool visits (Merged)

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