Visit Days?

[Calendar Compulsive]

In general (yes I know there’s never going to be a fully general general), what days of the week do flyouts happen on? Beginning of the week? Middle? End? Weekends? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[variable]

At my University, there is absolutely no pattern whatsoever. We've had candidates arrive and interview on all different days, depending on their availability and how it aligned with the availability of the search committee members, the Dean, and anyone else with whom they would be meeting.

[no general rule]

By the time our search committees are scheduling campus visits, we're trying to get them here as quickly as we can so we can make an offer decision before our top candidates get snatched up by somebody else. If we have four candidates, we'll try to get them all in within a two week period. Maybe that means Monday--Thursday--Tuesday--Friday. Maybe that is Monday--Wednesday--Friday-Monday. Or Tuesday--Friday--Friday--Monday.

Once the SC is at the campus visit invitation stage, it can be a major logistical challenge. We need to give the candidates time to make travel arrangements and prepare for the interview, but most have preferred days of the week to come to accommodate their current teaching schedules. And, as noted above, we have to schedule meetings with the dean, HR, students, etc. We always try to present a set of options, and then put the jigsaw puzzle together after everybody has responded with their preferences. As a JMC, I was always grateful if I was given at least two options for visiting.

One last note: because of the above, don't ever try to read anything into whether you are visiting campus first or last. That usually isn't a sign of any preferred order on the part of the SC, it's just how the candidates collectively sorted themselves given the options that were presented. Maybe some schools have the luxury of spacing these things out by only having one candidate come per week, but that makes for a really long endgame.