Questions to Ask During Your Visits

[FertMigMort]

As recruitment visits are approaching, I thought I might start a topic on what questions senior graduate students think are valuable to ask AND who you should direct them to.

A few suggestions:

• What direction is the department heading in? (to the graduate director or the person you'll be working under) If you're coming into a department wanting to do education and there is a huge new push towards health research, that's something you need to know.
• How do you like working with X? (to ALL of their graduate students) Don't base your opinion on only one of your potential advisor's students. Try to get all of their opinions.
• What is the pass rate on comps/defenses? If you fail, can you retake them? (I would ask this of the grad director AND the students. Sometimes grad directors have reasons to inflate this number.)

These are just a few of the questions I came up with off the top of my head. I'm sure that other faculty and older students here have others.

[SocGirl2013]

FertMigMort, your reputation preceeds you. I am sure your AmA is half the reason half of us might be going to grad school next year. Thank you for that and for this because seriously, I have a Visit Day on March 5 and I am sitting here thinking everyone will ask really smart questions and I'll stare dumbly at everyone and say "I like food" (my research has a lot to do with food).

 

So everyone who has been through this before, or is on the other side, more advice will be super helpful.

[Maleficent999]

I have a few pages of notes in my notebook with questions I want to remember to ask at my recruitment day. I'm at work so I can't whip it out and type them out right this second but I'll try to remember to add them later tonight. Hopefully they can help out some people.

 

And thanks FertMigMort, I was hoping you were still around these forums! SocGirl is right, your thread was SO very helpful and I think this one will be as well! I'm going to add your suggestions to my list.

[mightymaus]

For faculty:

What is the average time students in this department take to complete the degree? Is there a maximum time deadline between ABD and earning the degree?

Does the dept have connections with community organizations or local colleges?

If coming in with a masters degree to a phd program - how will this affect the classes I need to take? Can I waive the requirement for certain classes?

What is the job placement for recent grads like? How many are placed in tenure track positions? What are some of the colleges they're at? Are any unemployed?

For grad students:

Is the funding package enough to live on in this city/town? How much is rent in this area?

What were your biggest factors in deciding on this program?

What is funding like for traveling to conferences, research expenses, etc? Is this all done through the dept, or the college?

[turbodream]

Don't forget to breathe and be yourself.

[amlobo]

Something I will add - I got a lot of different answers depending on what grad students I talked to.  A faculty member gave me some sage advice during the visits:  pay attention to who is giving the advice.  So, basically, I tried to find people who seemed to share my approach to grad school, with similar goals/interests, who could really give me an idea of what it would be like for "me" in the program (and, as FertMigMort said, be sure to talk to your advisor's students!).  Just something to keep in mind as you talk to grad students on visits because you will probably get some conflicting answers from different students.  

 

Also, just don't be afraid to ask the questions you really want answers to; after all, this is an important decision for you to be making.  I think it's especially important to bring up any concerns you have with the program, so you can have those addressed... either by your potential advisor or other students.

[gingin6789]

All of this advice is absolutely excellent!! Thank you all so much for your insight!!

[Sociolite]

A little bit of a deviation from the OP, but whats the boards consensus on thanking grad student admissions committee reps if they make themselves known to you?

[Beltenebros]

This site seems fairly comprehensive on the issue: http://www.esa.org/students/section/node/412

[FertMigMort]

FertMigMort, your reputation preceeds you. I am sure your AmA is half the reason half of us might be going to grad school next year. Thank you for that and for this because seriously, I have a Visit Day on March 5 and I am sitting here thinking everyone will ask really smart questions and I'll stare dumbly at everyone and say "I like food" (my research has a lot to do with food).

 

So everyone who has been through this before, or is on the other side, more advice will be super helpful.

You're too kind. I assure you that I can't take even 1/4 of the credit. Y'all worked hard and got in on your own merit + the admissions crapshoot.

 

 

And thanks FertMigMort, I was hoping you were still around these forums! SocGirl is right, your thread was SO very helpful and I think this one will be as well! I'm going to add your suggestions to my list.

I'm not here often anymore (real world job), but if anyone has questions, just PM me. I still get some and try to answer them in a timely fashion. Unlike some advisors ... ba-dum-cha!

 

 

Something I will add - I got a lot of different answers depending on what grad students I talked to.  A faculty member gave me some sage advice during the visits:  pay attention to who is giving the advice.  So, basically, I tried to find people who seemed to share my approach to grad school, with similar goals/interests, who could really give me an idea of what it would be like for "me" in the program (and, as FertMigMort said, be sure to talk to your advisor's students!).  Just something to keep in mind as you talk to grad students on visits because you will probably get some conflicting answers from different students.  

 

Also, just don't be afraid to ask the questions you really want answers to; after all, this is an important decision for you to be making.  I think it's especially important to bring up any concerns you have with the program, so you can have those addressed... either by your potential advisor or other students.

I can't agree with this point enough. Talk to AS MANY grad students as possible. I was happy to answer the same 3 questions repeatedly during recruitment weekend. Current grad students have different agendas, but my personal one was to make sure that the people coming here were going to contribute in a positive way to our department, which included them being happy and completing the program. Also, departments stash problem students sometimes. Some people in my cohort were never invited to email prospective students (made me so mad) because they weren't sunshine and smiles about the department. Nothing they said would have prevented me from going to my school, but the GA decided they couldn't take that risk.