[What to do and ask after acceptance]

1 hour ago, fuzzylogician said:

Well, for one, you want to ask these questions in person, if possible, and even better if off-campus at some event that involves alcohol (you don't have to drink). People will be much more forthcoming if there is no record of them having said anything negative.

You could ask about where students live, whether they have roommates (and how many), whether there are opportunities for summer funding, if anyone works alongside studying (all designed to get at money issues), as well as the straightforward "do you feel like you're paid enough" or "can you afford to rent without roommates".

You want to ask your potential advisors about their advising philosophy: how often do they meet with students? do they encourage collaborations? do their students submit/present at conferences? do they publish? what is the prof's policy on helping students come up with research topics?

Then ask the prof's students those same questions. Compare and contrast. Ask younger students if they enjoyed their classes, and if they felt the work load was okay, too light, or too heavy. Ask them when they got started doing research and how their first projects progressed/worked out. Ask how often it happens that people change fields and advisors mid-way through grad school. Ask about teaching/TAing -- how often do they teach? do they prep materials - how much time do they invest in that and in grading? who decides on the TA assignments? 

For department atmosphere, ask about social events - how often do they happen? are there parties? beginning/end of semester events? weekly happy hours? do faculty collaborate with one another and with students? Is there co-teaching? Ask senior students in your field who is on their committees and who has been on committees of people who have graduated recently (actually, some of that you can learn by looking at the submitted dissertations, which will have this info in them); this might raise red flags if people who you might expect to co-advise students because they have close/complementary interests in fact never do. If you attend an open house, spend some time just looking around -- at the inevitable lunch/dinner event, do students huddle separately from faculty or do they interact? does it seem like they have an idea of what's going on in each other's lives? are people friendly to one another? how does it *feel* to be there? You can get a lot of information by just observing, and by asking multiple people the same questions. 

 

Thanks! this is very helpful. Any more thoughts welcome.

[What to do and ask after acceptance]

Hey all,  I was accepted to a top-20 English literature PhD program for Fall '17 (large public uni). Too new here to de-anonymize myself more than that yet, but what I ask here isn't school specific.  I am unsure whether I can attend the visit weekend yet because of work, but if I can't go then I will probably arrange an individual visit, but am likely to attend.  Not trying to weigh offers from multiple schools, but wondering what I should make sure to know before going in.

A few current students in the program have e-mailed me to offer to answer questions and talk about the program, but I'm just not sure what to ask either them or during the visit. Different programs are different, of course, but are there any things any of you currently attending would have wanted to know or ask about, before you went in?  Things you'd have tried to inform yourself about if you could go back?  I used the search function on the boards and have seen the thread "Questions to ask," which was helpful, but a lot of the questions seem likely to elicit polite positive answers: my cohorts and I get along, we get paid enough but not a lot, the area is good not perfect, etc.... What are the most important things to know that the DGS specifically would be the one to talk to about?   Also, are there any particular gaffes you can think of NOT to ask/do? 

True, a lot of this comes down to individual interest, like "what profs should I talk to about early modern," though that's the type of question you should probably be able to answer yourself before applying, from the website.

Not sure if I'm the only one, but I feel like I knew enough to get in, but then am useless and nervous about the process from here!

[2017 Acceptances]

40 minutes ago, Warelin said:

Sometimes, programs don't have a ranked waiting list and instead divide it by subfield. If that's the case, they may be waiting for someone to reject before offering it to the next person in the subfield. They may do this in order to make their "prestige" higher by keeping the admits low. Others may do this due to funding concerns or to make sure that they don't have too many people in one specific subfield enroll or to make sure that too many people get the same adviser. Others may indeed leave it up to the graduate school to decide which often has their own schedule of things that must be done. There are lots of things going on behind the scenes that we may not be aware of.

Thanks, Warelin. That makes perfect sense. If there are any other reasons, feel free to explain to us new peeps.

[2017 Acceptances]

Forgive me for any daftness, but what is the idea behind sending out acceptances and then (mostly) not putting the remainder on a waitlist, BUT waiting weeks or even more to inform the rejects? I understand it's different program to program, but I don't really understand why it's done that way. It's clearly a common anxiety as people talk about it here every year. They just want to have their finalized list done before they tell someone who had no chance getting in? It's given to the uni's graduate admissions office to handle and it just takes them a month to email?

BTW, I'm not complaining and I haven't bothered any unis over this. Just wondered if anyone else has insight.