I’m currently sitting in the backseat of a jet black Dodge minivan, traveling with four of my colleagues at peer institutions on the East  Coast. (The G5: Columbia SIPA, Princeton Woody Woo, Georgetown MSFS, Tufts Fletcher, and Johns Hopkins SAIS.) We’ve greedily piled our luggage and boxes of flyers, booklets, and pens in the trunk. The weight of it all occasionally skids from side-to-side when the van takes a curve a little too sharply. As I peek at the speedometer, I confirm my suspicions that we’re traveling a little faster than the posted speed limit in South Carolina. We’re on a mission to meet with as many schools as we can in a limited amount of time, and sometimes that includes waking up before sunrise, skipping breakfast and bathroom breaks, and driving as efficiently (and safely) as possible. This week, we’re driving across the Southeast United States — we started in Atlanta, GA and we’ll end in Raleigh, NC. 

I’m on this trip in hopes of connecting with potential Seeples whom I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet with otherwise. SIPA and the other schools knows that not everyone can trek out to NYC, Boston, D.C., or Princeton as they weigh their graduate school options. So we do what we can to meet with students and young professionals both across the U.S. and abroad every year. 

While I’m in the van, Grace is currently in  Qatar and the United Arab Emrites, and Diane’s visiting D.C. and Chicago. And we’ve got plenty more visits scheduled this fall: Seattle, Los Angeles, Jakarta, Paris, and Mexico City, to name a few. To see where else we’ll be, review our Receuitment Calendar. Just like my trip this week, several of the stops on the calendar are in parternship with the G5. So chances are you’ll get to meet with more than one school at the same event (the event details will mention if it’s a group trip.)

If you missed our visit or if we didn’t make it to your part of the globe, there are still ways to get in touch. We have a few joint, virtual information sessions planned on Oct. 12, Nov. 22, and Dec. 7, as well as our own SIPA virtual information sessions. And if you REALLY want us to stop by for a visit, make a compelling case for it by sending me a message through the blog’s SUBMIT AN IDEA form. I’ll add it to the discussion pile for when we plan our visits for next year.