Recruiting Events

[calchas]

I see that some of the top PhD programs visit the other top schools in PhD recruiting events. A couple of questions:

1) Are these intended only for students at the host university? Or can someone else attend?

2) How knowledgeable do you have to be in your area (finance in my case) to hold a decent conversation with the visiting recruiters? Is it possible for you to distinguish yourself both in a good and bad way by attending these sessions?

An example is this one one. Events

Anyone with experience, I'd appreciate your insight.

Thanks.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by calchas

I see that some of the top PhD programs visit the other top schools in PhD recruiting events. A couple of questions:

1) Are these intended only for students at the host university? Or can someone else attend?

2) How knowledgeable do you have to be in your area (finance in my case) to hold a decent conversation with the visiting recruiters? Is it possible for you to distinguish yourself both in a good and bad way by attending these sessions?

An example is this one one. Events

Anyone with experience, I'd appreciate your insight.

Thanks.

1) Others may attend these.

2) It is very tough to distinguish yourself. When I went, there were few faculty that manned the booths (only 1 I can recall). Many were manned by admissions personnel, who, unlike perhaps MBA counterparts, don't have any weight in the admissions process.

I would not go to these sessions to make an impression. They are more of a fact finding for you, though in reality you could just call up each department to get the same info.