Having been assigned the job of hosting a prospective student for my department's graduate program, I found myself holding a placard at the Dane County airport. With other grad (graduate) students and professors in tow, I was waiting for my guest student. As people started streaming out of the arrival gates, we rose in anticipation. Inadvertently, many of us started looking for a smile here, a wave there. We also began to guess if a certain person looked like a prospective grad student or not.
A few things made life easy for us hosts. Look for someone will a medium sized bag and possibly another backpack. We could remove a lot of people out of the equation this way. Next would be the age, early to late 20s is what we were looking for, although we knew this could lead us down many a false trails. Things started getting difficult beyond that. Specs for some, a serious, anxious look on some faces, a wide smile on others, a huge wave from a few, an assured walk and firm shake of hands... these did the trick.
Observations
Not all budding chemists look nerdy / intellectual. Far from it, I met this guy who walked up to a prof in a flowery, beach tee and shorts, with sunglasses, a flowing beard and long hair, a small backpack and the most casual walk I have seen in ages; like he was flying in fro, Hawaii! 'Not quite like what you would expect, right?', he exclaimed tongue-in-cheek to the Prof, who was his usual nice self in laughing it away spiritedly. Most guests to a prospective grad school are jittery, nervous and curious. It is best if grad students welcome them and show them around the place before they get to meet the faculty. They tend to feel more at home with fellow students who have been in a similar position earlier and that helps them ease into the things to follow. It is also a good idea to have an extended interaction session between guest and host students where guests could ask questions that why might not mouth with profs around. Having said that, it is crucial that professors speak to as many prospective students as possible. It gives the guests a feeling of being important and needed in the school. I know of schools and departments within my school where the profs simply don't care. This leaves a sense of insignificance in the minds of the visiting student and its highly likely that he or she would rather go to another school.
A lengthy session of talks after talks can be subjugated by one where each student can pick and choose the groups he or she wants to interact with. Meetings involving a bunch of students (around 5) and a research group work best because each student gets a fair idea of the group's profile and is given individual attention for queries. Posters do help in getting initiated into the group's affairs but don't go far beyond putting up beautiful pictures and photos.
A grand dinner to round it up is always welcome and much enjoyed. More so if it is in as beautiful a setting as Monona Terrace, Madison.
A few things made life easy for us hosts. Look for someone will a medium sized bag and possibly another backpack. We could remove a lot of people out of the equation this way. Next would be the age, early to late 20s is what we were looking for, although we knew this could lead us down many a false trails. Things started getting difficult beyond that. Specs for some, a serious, anxious look on some faces, a wide smile on others, a huge wave from a few, an assured walk and firm shake of hands... these did the trick.
Observations
Not all budding chemists look nerdy / intellectual. Far from it, I met this guy who walked up to a prof in a flowery, beach tee and shorts, with sunglasses, a flowing beard and long hair, a small backpack and the most casual walk I have seen in ages; like he was flying in fro, Hawaii! 'Not quite like what you would expect, right?', he exclaimed tongue-in-cheek to the Prof, who was his usual nice self in laughing it away spiritedly. Most guests to a prospective grad school are jittery, nervous and curious. It is best if grad students welcome them and show them around the place before they get to meet the faculty. They tend to feel more at home with fellow students who have been in a similar position earlier and that helps them ease into the things to follow. It is also a good idea to have an extended interaction session between guest and host students where guests could ask questions that why might not mouth with profs around. Having said that, it is crucial that professors speak to as many prospective students as possible. It gives the guests a feeling of being important and needed in the school. I know of schools and departments within my school where the profs simply don't care. This leaves a sense of insignificance in the minds of the visiting student and its highly likely that he or she would rather go to another school.
A lengthy session of talks after talks can be subjugated by one where each student can pick and choose the groups he or she wants to interact with. Meetings involving a bunch of students (around 5) and a research group work best because each student gets a fair idea of the group's profile and is given individual attention for queries. Posters do help in getting initiated into the group's affairs but don't go far beyond putting up beautiful pictures and photos.
A grand dinner to round it up is always welcome and much enjoyed. More so if it is in as beautiful a setting as Monona Terrace, Madison.
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