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If I were to go through this process again, I'd ask: To the DGS/Chair: 1. How many students from your program are currently on the market? Of those, how many have received academic job offers? (R1 schools are basically done hiring, so while some students will still get VAPs and LAC positions, the best batch of jobs have already been allocated). 2. What % of your students who have been on the market in the last couple years have rec'd TT jobs? 3. Do you offer summer funding? 4. Do you offer paid semesters/years/summers for me to work on my own research? 5. Can I take dept funding abroad (i.e if I need to do fieldwork?) 6. How many student/faculty coauthored pieces of come out in the last couple years? 7. Does the department provide incentives for faculty/student collaboration/coauthoring? 8. What is the average time to completion? To the POI(s) you want to work with: 1. Tell me about your students (or some such question to gauge how well they're able to talk about the students they advise. Iif they can't say much or just speak in generalities this will give you an idea of how actively involved (or completely not involved) they are with their students. 2. Are you taking new students? (could be applicable if the POI is pretty old) To the current grad students: 1. Ask if faculty are helpful/good mentors 2. Ask how prepared they feel to go on the market 3. If you have kids, try to track down students with kids to see how well they manage family/student responsibilities in the dept 4. Ask if grad students are treated as students or future colleagues by the faculty. Different depts manage this differently. 5. Ask if the dept provides opportunities for students to workshop their own work with other students/faculty. Off the top of my head, I'd ask these. If I think of anything else, I'll add!

Very true. If you have external funding, you'll be in good shape!

Didn't mean to discourage you, just to provide information. Placement problems are not unique to GW---the market has been terrible for a number of years now and many schools have had a harder time placing graduates than normal. That said, not all schools of similar ranks have struggled equally in this terrible market. Some have done quite well, others not (GW has fared poorly here). This is just something to look out for during your admit visits. General rule of thumb---you need to ask hard questions at your admit visits. Ask: How many students from your dept *this* year HAVE placed, and where? (If they can't tell you or won't tell you, that's a bad sign). In the last few years, what percentage of students on the market from your department are able to land a TT job (depts usually only advertise their success stories, but you need to know how many students struck out on the market each year, not just how many placed). If the placement is less than ideal, ask what *new* things the dept plans to do next year to help boost its placement. If the answer is that they already feel they're doing enough (and the outcome is not what you're looking for), that's not a promising signal to you....

Hi, I saw a link on the Duck of Minerva blog today about this place and it seems to be a fantastic resource! As chance would have it, I'm currently a PhD student in Psc at GW and in the spirit of providing information in what I remember to be a ridiculously difficult decision-making process, I thought I'd try to give as much information as I can. Of course, this only reflects my own opinion/perception and should be taken with a grain of salt. I certainly can't speak for everyone here. I suppose I'd start by saying these are precisely the sorts of questions you should be asking yourself as you decide on a program....and I'm sure you'll get the chance to talk to faculty and students about them during admit days. That said, here are some thoughts: 1. Yes, I think GW is invested in improving its reputation, and when the new US News rankings come out, I wouldn't be surprised if GW bumps up a bit. 2. Yes, our placement is less than ideal. Why might this be the case? Generally, GW differs from other "top" phd programs in its work obligation. PhD students (with very few exceptions) are required to either TA for roughly 60 students a semester or provide 20hrs/week of research work for faculty every semester of their tenure in the program. These work loads are heavy and mean that by the time you have carved out half of your week to working for the faculty you have have little time to A: do your own coursework and even less to B: work on your own research. Unlike most programs, you won't get a year (or even semester) "off" here----(called a "fellowship year" at other places). This costs the program quite a bit, though I'm not sure it recognizes this. Our students don't publish as much as students at other top tier programs, largely because we simply have quite a bit less time to work on anything of our own. This happens in the summer too. Unlike programs that provide summer funding of a livable wage, GW pays only up to about 2,500 in summer funding (so you'll likely need a job on the side to pay those three months of DC rent) and all of that 2,500 iis tied to you coding/doing slave work/etc for faculty members (i.e. a RAship). I didn't understand the value of having fellowship years when I started looking at PhD programs, but trust me, it's important. And while you can learn A LOT from an RA gig, there are diminishing returns for each additional semester/summer you devote to that coding project (which is often in a completely different field than the one you work in)! 3. The faculty are really fantastic here. Sure, all departments have bad eggs, but I tend to think we have fewer here than the norm. The profs at GW are thoughtful, creative, and interesting folks. That's a big plus. 4. GW isn't a "policy school." I've heard this come up before, but I'm not sure why its circulating. Most students here plan to have an academic job at the end. If they jump to the policy world it's likely more a reflection of them learning about outside options (due to living in a city with lots of think tank and policy jobs) and by the time you've been living at the poverty line long enough (grad student stipends), I guarentee you'd be interested in jumping to a livable wage too . 5. I don't regret my decision to come to GW. That said, I think it's important that students make informed decisions. If you were admitted to a place with stellar placement which doesnt' require work obligations every semester, you should look at it very seriously. GW is a lovely place with lovely people, but if you can't get a job at the end of the day, all that loveliness isn't worth all that much..... Good luck!