Planning for a visit to the Rutgers Graduate Program in Statistics and Biostatistics
- Choosing the dates of your visit: Our department does not have one specific time for student visits. Students may visit a weekday of their choice between Monday and Friday. Students should avoid times when the university is not in session, such as spring break. Wednesdays work well for a visit, since our seminar series generally meets on that day, and so most of the faculty are in at the same time that day. Friday is the least-preferred choice, since fewer faculty are in that day.
- Planning your time here: We find that visits work best if the student is in charge of his or her own schedule (but we're happy to help with the planning.) The usual things our applicants do when they come are:
- Meet with the graduate program director. Usually, but not necessarily, this is done when you first arrive.
- Talk to a few other faculty members. Feel free to contact faculty members directly to schedule a meeting, suggest to the graduate director names of faculty and let us set up appointments, or ask us to pick faculty to talk to. This is more important for PhD applicants, and less important for MS applicants.
- Attend one or more classes.
- Attend a seminar if one is running during your visit. This is more important for PhD applicants, and less important for MS applicants.
- Meet with some graduate students. For many students, meeting the graduate students is the most important part of the visit because it gives you a chance to find out from them what it is like to be a student here.
- Take a campus tour.
- Student sometimes visit at short notice. We are happy to introduce students to the various faculty and set up more spontaneous schedules. The faculty and student body are large enough that it is not a problem to find some interesting people to talk to.
- Lodging while here: MS applicants usually spend only an hour or so visiting our program, and so we generally do not recommend an overnight stay. We can arrange for doctoral applicants to stay overnight at the home of some graduate students. Let us know if you want us to do this. The alternative to staying with graduate students is staying at a hotel. This can get rather expensive because of hotel costs. If you choose to stay in a hotel, we can generally arrange for a ride to campus, with sufficient advanced notice.
- Financial support for visits: Budgets vary over time. Please contact the graduate director for details. You should be careful about keeping receipts. For the plane flight we need a receipt showing that the reservation was actually paid for (submitting boarding passes would be good too).
Driving to and parking on campus: Rutgers provides directions to Hill Center, where the Graduate Program in Statistics and Biostatistics is housed. After arrival, please come to Room 501 or 504 to pick up a parking permit.
- Keeping us informed of your plans, and particularly of any change in plans.