Holiday timing with acceptances

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Izaac
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Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:24 am

Holiday timing with acceptances

Post by Izaac » Mon May 21, 2012 2:19 am

Hi there,

I'm thinking about planning a hike somewhere in Japan next Spring (thirty days between March ~ May), and I was wondering when to go.
Since I won't be home and probably won't have access to the internet, it might interfere with university acceptances, so I wanted to know if, for instance, it was ok to leave for a month and be back around April the 15th to give a final answer, or maybe the other way around, that is, staying until the 15th and then leave. I have absolutely no idea of how busy those time will be, whether there'll be forms to fill and send or calls to do or whatever.
By the way, if that counts in any way, I'm an international guy.

Thanks in advance!

bfollinprm
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Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:44 am

Re: Holiday timing with acceptances

Post by bfollinprm » Mon May 21, 2012 4:12 pm

stay until the 15th then leave. You want to be available to do the open houses, and no one cares if you're in contact after you accept.

TakeruK
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Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Holiday timing with acceptances

Post by TakeruK » Tue May 22, 2012 10:49 am

If you can schedule your trip to be after the 15th, that might be better for you. Visiting is a very important part of the grad school decision process, in my opinion. However, I think you said before that you are from France, and usually schools do not fly international students out for visits (unless you can combine many schools in one trip so that each school's share is about the same as they would have paid for a domestic student), so you might not have to worry about that. In addition, some schools might want to do skype interviews with you.

If it's really important that the trip is in March, then if you note this in your application, they should take it into consideration. Depending on the school (and how many applicants they get), they might be able to make special arrangements for you -- for example, interview you early anyways whether or not you would have been offered one. You should probably arrange for someone else to check your email and let schools know that you are away from the internet. If you could call someone at home every few days during your hike and check in and relay instructions, that could work too.

Although it's unusual, I don't think this is an impossibility. The school should not treat people without access to Internet (even though it's by choice) differently and if other disciplines where students are away for extended periods of times on field work can figure it out, then this should be doable. However, what "should" be the case probably won't actually be so -- leaving during the busy Mar-Apr season may get your application "lost between the cracks" (either accidentally or on purpose) at big schools.

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Izaac
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Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:24 am

Re: Holiday timing with acceptances

Post by Izaac » Tue May 22, 2012 11:18 am

Thank you very much, that answered pretty well my question. I'm not particularly eager to go in March (better weather in April-May), but I was just afraid there'll be a lot of mail/call exchanges once (or should I say if) I get accepted somewhere.
So, let's make it from April the 15th!



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