Travel Plans during interview season

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KCETM

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Hey fellow SDNers,

I feel as if I might be acting a little neurotic but I wanted to know the humble opinions of the community regarding my current predicament....

At the moment I am staying abroad with my granny as her full-time caregiver. I'm making the most of my experience everyday but when I look at the bigger future picture It starts to stress me out.

Now.. I may be ahead of myself since I am currently in the middle of finishing my secondaries and don't have any IIs to my name, however, I'm really beginning to think that if I stay here until mid-November, like I originally planned, that I will be definitely hurting my chances by restricting my interview availability until late November :scared:

My real question is how does an admission committee view an applicant that mentions in their secondary that they will be away during the interview season? Do they bypass the applicant and leave them to be considered at a later time? Would they take into consideration that someone was abroad and not hold it against them in the process? It is possible for me to maybe come back a little earlier by paying to change my flights around but if it'd be worth it to give myself the best chance... I would do it in a heartbeat.

Has anyone ever been in this situation before and how did it play out? All feedback is appreciated :)

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Hey fellow SDNers,

I feel as if I might be acting a little neurotic but I wanted to know the humble opinions of the community regarding my current predicament....

At the moment I am staying abroad with my granny as her full-time caregiver. I'm making the most of my experience everyday but when I look at the bigger future picture It starts to stress me out.

Now.. I may be ahead of myself since I am currently in the middle of finishing my secondaries and don't have any IIs to my name, however, I'm really beginning to think that if I stay here until mid-November, like I originally planned, that I will be definitely hurting my chances by restricting my interview availability until late November :scared:

My real question is how does an admission committee view an applicant that mentions in their secondary that they will be away during the interview season? Do they bypass the applicant and leave them to be considered at a later time? Would they take into consideration that someone was abroad and not hold it against them in the process? It is possible for me to maybe come back a little earlier by paying to change my flights around but if it'd be worth it to give myself the best chance... I would do it in a heartbeat.

Has anyone ever been in this situation before and how did it play out? All feedback is appreciated :)

I am not understanding this very well. Did you specifically write that even if invited, you would not commit to that invitation?
 
I am not understanding this very well. Did you specifically write that even if invited, you would not commit to that invitation?

No not at all. Most schools just have a section to explain what you are doing if you are not enrolled in an academic program. In those sections I wrote about how I was spending these next few months abroad. Its far enough that I think they'd assume that I would not be able to accept an interview date that is before I return.
 
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No not at all. Most schools just have a section to explain what you are doing if you are not enrolled in an academic program. In those sections I wrote about how I was spending these next few months abroad. Its far enough that I think they'd assume that I would not be able to accept an interview date that is before I return.

If it were me, I would say that I am living abroad but will still be able to attend interviews. Then I would fly home for any interview request, whether it's in 2 weeks or 2 months, and stay in the US until I had an acceptance.

This is too important. Don't be unavailable.
 
No not at all. Most schools just have a section to explain what you are doing if you are not enrolled in an academic program. In those sections I wrote about how I was spending these next few months abroad. Its far enough that I think they'd assume that I would not be able to accept an interview date that is before I return.
Ok, now I understand it completely.
I don't know how you actually worded the answer but, if it were left to me, I'd send you an invitation, if deserved, because it would be your problem whether you come or not, not mine.
Think of this situation as a job interview: you can come?, good; you can't?, no hard feelings - next applicant.

If it were me, I would say that I am living abroad but will still be able to attend interviews. Then I would fly home for any interview request, whether it's in 2 weeks or 2 months, and stay in the US until I had an acceptance.

This is too important. Don't be unavailable.
Nope. Never explain yourself more than what's being asked.
 
Nope. Never explain yourself more than what's being asked.

Fair enough. My point was simply that it would be unwise for the OP to postpone interviewing until after November. If he gets an invite and can afford the ticket, he should go.
 
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I am in a similar situation. I am abroad until October. As part of my 'what have you been doing since graduation' essay I said I would be abroad until X date doing Y. I have gotten 5 IIs so far and have had to reschedule a couple because they were all for before I got back. (So obviously they didn't take my being abroad into consideration/ didn't count it negatively against me). Traveling halfway across the world for interviews just makes no sense to me, especially when I'd be back in a couple weeks. Will pushing those interviews back hurt me? Who really knows but I don't think it will make that much of a difference. Hope this helps a little.
 
I am in a similar situation. I am abroad until October. As part of my 'what have you been doing since graduation' essay I said I would be abroad until X date doing Y. I have gotten 5 IIs so far and have had to reschedule a couple because they were all for before I got back. (So obviously they didn't take my being abroad into consideration/ didn't count it negatively against me). Traveling halfway across the world for interviews just makes no sense to me, especially when I'd be back in a couple weeks. Will pushing those interviews back hurt me? Who really knows but I don't think it will make that much of a difference. Hope this helps a little.

Thanks so much for responding. You seem to be in almost exactly the same position and I also think that it would be so unnecessary to fly back for a few days just to interview. I think I am just going to try and reschedule my grandmother and I's tickets to be a couple of weeks earlier like the very end of October instead of mid/late November. Now I just have to get my parents on board... :p
 
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