School Visit - Planning the journey

Question

I am an international applicant who joined the Zero Admits club this year, having hastily applied to 5 schools in round 2. I will be applying again this fall and this time around I want to do proper research and visit target schools. The following is the list of schools I want to visit:
 Tuck
Kellogg
Wharton
Yale
Darden
Duke
Kenan-Flagler
Ross
Cornell 
I have never been to the US and I am not sure what the best route would be. I will probably land in New York and will have maximum 2 weeks to visit the schools. I am looking for an advice on time- and cost-effective route for my journey. Is it worth renting a car and driving to all destinations? Should I get local flights to some cities? Maybe bus or train would be a better option? 
Also, what is the best time of the year to visit?
Any help will be appreciated.

dreamer2achiever · Answer

If I were you I would break the schools into the following 3 groups based on their geographic locations
1)Tuck , Cornell , Wharton and Yale
2)Darden, Duke and Kenan-Flagler
3)Ross and Kellogg

You can start at New Hampshire(Tuck), the go to Connecticut, then to New York and finally to Wharton in Penn.
I think you shud land in New Hampshire or Vermont and may be drive through this whole route. Let's say youe take one day to visit each school. You can finish this area in 4-5 days. Visit school in morning and drive in the evening/nights.

From Penn you could go to Darden in Virginia(by air may be). Then Raleigh/Durham in North Carolina is right next door, you can drive.

Then you could take a flight to Chicago. Chicago to Ann Arbor(Ross) you can take a bus. This is what I did when I visited these schools. Then you can think of taking a flight back home from Detroit.

You can also enter first in Chicago and then take the exact reverse of the above. One advantage of this is that you can plan your NY visit last and then fly back home from there. NY having 2 big airports you can get better flight deals I guess.

If you do plan on driving around in the group-1 area then u shud probably put it to the last of the 2 weeks because then your jet-lag might not be bad enough to trouble you during your drives.

Ideal time to visit schools - After September and before December.
Best = Sep- Oct
Here are my reasons:
1 - Classes start in early fall and hence class visits are available. Summer , weather wise , is probably the best time to visit schools, but you might miss the opportunity of 'experiencing' the school community since most of it is out in internships or career trekking.
2 - You will get a chance to meet new students who you can relate more closely in terms of applying to schools etc. Also second year students would have just been back from internships and will have a lot more to say about the B-School experience.
3 - Winter(November-Dec) is probably not the best time.Apart from the weather, think about the busy recruitment season going on on campuses.

Hope this helps.

Wish you all the very best in next year

horrorshow · Answer

Thanks a lot, this is very helpful!

VictoryMBA · Answer

Being a current student at Cornell and having made well over 10 trips to NYC (from Ithaca) by car and bus, I would just say not to underestimate the toll that hours of driving can take on you. That being said, I also recommend flying into Hanover or wherever the closest airport to Tuck is, then hit Cornell, to Yale then Penn. From Penn it's quite easy to catch a flight to wherever you're going next. My advice would be to stay out of NYC unless you have the time and $$....you can visit when you get into school. Good luck :-D

horrorshow · Answer

Thanks, great advice!

Moss · Answer

I believe there is an Amtrack line that connects Chicago and Detroit as well, which may be much faster than a bus. If you rent a car, its about a 4-4.5-hour drive between the two.

shadow · Answer

you've already gotten some good advice regarding the logistics of such a journey, but i'd take it one step further and recommend you perform due diligence researching the schools first. that's a pretty long list of potential schools, and you'd be much better off trimming it down to 4-5 and then visiting those, as opposed to visiting every single school you have a remote interest in.

horrorshow · Answer

Thanks. I would actually prefer to travel by train or by bus, because I get tired quickly when I drive.

horrorshow · Answer

I agree, I will definitely do the research before embarking on the journey, and some of the schools will most likely be dropped from the list. But don't you think that school visit is an important factor in choosing where to apply?

coaks · Answer

I have taken the train along this route and sadly Amtrak between Chicago and Ann Arbor will take the same amount of time as the drive, if not longer. It's quoted at 4.5 hours of travel but it took a little over 5 with extra time at stops when I took it, plus however long it takes to get to and from the train stations. It's also much easier to get around AA with a car although Chicago is probably slightly easier to navigate via mass transit.

coaks · Answer

Agreed. Plus also keep in mind that you'll be tempted to interview on campus when you get extended invites so you might be double dipping on travel. It's far from a requirement for most schools, though, so you might be able to resist and do a phone interview, if available.

Andrew2489 · Answer

Thanks! Very useful!!

School Visit - Planning the journey

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