So I'm posting this on behalf of my partner, who doesn't do Reddit. She's applied to a number of schools to do a Ph.D. in the biological sciences and she received an invite to attend an admissions event. I'm in academia too but I never attended an admissions event at all.

So we're confused about what an admissions event is really about. In other words, it seems in her field, getting a professor to be interested in your research is key and the invite they sent out states she will get a chance to meet professors and pitch her research interests to them.

This leads us to think this might be a big deal of a thing, something that might even determine, to an extent, her chances of admission. Are we correct in thinking this? She is thinking about attending but she is inclined to believe this is a huge deal and she needs to act like it was a job interview, that she needs to practice her pitch to perfection, etc.

I ask because, alternatively, I have read some posts of people claiming you don't even need to attend these events and that they bear absolutely no importance in the admissions chances.

Anybody in the biological, cellular, and molecular sciences, at an R1, who can provide some guidance? It will be greatly appreciated.