How to decide whether to attend an open house?
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:13 pm
I've gotten some offers of admission for Astronomy/Physics PhDs and have consequently signed up for 5 open houses so far. I recently got another offer from a school that is slightly lower on my preference list: UMass Amherst. I anticipate that I'll end up deciding between OSU and Penn State, but I realize that things could change after the open houses, and it's possible that I could fall in love with an unexpected program (like UMass). As far as research goes, there are a few profs who I’d be interested in working with at UMass, but as of now I’m definitely more excited by the research at 2-3 other programs.
So my question is - how do you know whether or not it’s worth it to attend an open house? If I attend, it’s also a lot of traveling. I would then have an open house every single week beginning next week and lasting through the end of March, which would include 4 different trips to and from the east coast (I live on the west coast). If I don’t go, I’d have a week break in the midst of the traveling, but I might also have fomo.
So my question is - how do you know whether or not it’s worth it to attend an open house? If I attend, it’s also a lot of traveling. I would then have an open house every single week beginning next week and lasting through the end of March, which would include 4 different trips to and from the east coast (I live on the west coast). If I don’t go, I’d have a week break in the midst of the traveling, but I might also have fomo.