I have applied at PCOM - Philly and have not been interviewed yet. What information do you get out of the open house that is different from an interview? In short, is it worth to fly out to Philly for the open house?
Well, where are you flying from? This is what the open houses usually consist of:
- A Q & A forum with some students, usually a recent graduate, Deb, and another admissions person. Regarding anything, from applying to coursework.
*** this wasn't that helpful for me, and many students asked really weird questions, like "If i don't go to the interview, will that ruin my chances?"
- A tour, which is either made or broken by which student is giving you the tour.
*** Once, mine wasn't that good because she seemed scared to talk in front of alot of people, BUT I was able to sit down at a lecture.
*** Once, my tour was AMAZING. It was given by a recent graduate who was really involved and well liked, so we got to see alot of things I don't think we were allowed to. Like, we saw Noel and Hal while they were fixing her, and we walked around in the anatomy lab.
I also walked my application down that day so they had a face to my app. It's kind of easy for me to go though, since I live <5 minutes away.
I enjoyed the open houses I went to, but you can probably get the info from the web. But maybe for networking, it might be worthwhile.