First of all, congratulations on being offered a visit! This is no small feat. Depending on the nature of your invitation, each school will treat this part differently. You will either have an interview visit, a recruitment visit, or a mixture of both. Either way, this is an all expenses paid visit, meaning you are a competitive candidate.

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What is the difference between an interview and a recruitment visit?

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An invitation to visit without yet being accepted is an interview. A visit in which you have been accepted and are invited to visit the campus is a recruitment. Most interview visits will involve fun activities (still trying to recruit you).

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You should prepare for both, but obviously the interview visit is a bit more important since you're not yet accepted. Just like you would with any interview, research the school, remember why you applied (aka what makes their university unique and a good fit for you), research the faculty members you're meeting with (they usually give you a list ahead of time), and most importantly, think of essential questions. It's important to ask as many questions as possible while you're physically there in order to fully gauge the university. They're judging you, but you're also judging them.

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What questions should I ask and to whom?

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To a potential advisor: what is important varies from person to person, but an essential question is, "What is your mentorship style?" Are they very hands-on or are they there for you only when you come to them? Do they meet with students one-on-one? Technical questions are important too, such as how they see you fitting into their lab. What project area will you work in? How much freedom do you have with your project? Also, questions about the lab environment and program expectations can be asked to them or to others, which we'll get to.

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To graduate students in the labs you're interested in: ask away. They will (should) be honest with you on their lab experience and any major pitfalls in their PIs. If you detect any dishonesty, that is a potential bad sign. Your main goal is to learn about their experience. In other words, questions about the atmosphere of the department, life inside and outside of lab, and the atmosphere of the lab. Do they have a good work-life balance? Where do they live? Where do they have fun? What does Dr. X expect from them? When do people come into and leave lab? Do they work on weekends often? What support services does the department have? Your goal is to imagine your life as a graduate student at that university.

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To program staff or anyone else: General questions that aren't about lab are important to ask, too. Is there travel funding for conferences? What is their retention like?  What student groups are on campus? What is the funding package like? Are there diversity groups? What are the mental health support services like? What about professional development? What is the timeline like for graduate students? When are qualifying exams and what do they consist of? They can answer these more administrative questions for you.

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By the time this is all over you'll be exhausted and have asked the same questions to multiple people. That's okay, because this is an essential part for both you and the university. Besides, you'll have plenty of fun activities as well.

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What does a typical interview look like?

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I am laughing at the use of the word typical here. Interviews vary largely from school to school and even more significantly between faculty members. I experienced interviews that felt like a rapid fire overview of the faculty member's lab, interviews that felt like coffee with an old friend, and interviews that challenged me to interpret data and design future experimentation. 

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The best way to prepare for interviews is to ensure that you have researched the faculty member who is interviewing you, can speak in detail about the research that you have contributed to, and have many questions prepared for your interviewer. We suggest getting together with either a mentor or a friend to run through a mock interview. They should know enough about the field to ask you more than surface level questions. It's better for you to trip up in front of them than to sweat through your blouse in a real interview because you can't answer a question you should know the answer to. 

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How do I behave during the "fun" activities? Am I still being examined?

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Behave respectfully, because yes, people are still watching. How you interact with the current graduate students can be just as important as interacting with faculty. Some universities even have graduate students partake in the admissions process. There is a large chance that some of the events will involve alcohol, so if you do participate, do not get too crazy. Use this time to also see if you get along with your fellow interviewees as they will be a part of your potential cohort. 

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