So I just got an email from one school that said the Econ department will recommend to the Graduate School that you be admitted to our PhD program. It also mentions a visitation day that I have to rsvp by Friday. I have two questions:
1. What does it mean to be recommended to be admitted? Is this essentially saying that I have admitted?
2. I am working several hours from the nearest large airport and about 12.5 hours from the school. I also have very limited PTO, so I don’t think I am really able to visit (this is the first response of 19 programs). How much does this hurt my admissions/funding prospects if I explain my situation to them? How often to full time professionals skip these events and how understanding are these schools? I was thinking of asking to speak with the professor who reached out via phone - how would that be taken?