Questions at an Open House

[mikeman591]

I'm officially attending UConn's Open House for the Communication Department in two weeks. What are some questions you feel are important to ask as you weigh offers from different places?

Here's some I came up with:

 

How many years of funding are guaranteed?

Do they cover costs for conferences? How much?

Do they cover moving expenses at all?

Graduate housing/where people live

Do I get an office (solo vs shared)?

General cost of living in the area

Tuition cost after waiver for assistantship

Average time of completion of the program

What's their relationship with the social psychology department (this is more of a personal question)?

What's the weather like?

How often have graduates been placed at R1 jobs?

 

Obviously I'm omitting some things because I've had conversations with quite a few potential advisers should I go there.

 

 

[lyrehc]

Talk to the graduate students. 

 

Ask about:

 

Faculty dynamics - who works well together, who doesn't

Interest areas - if you wanted would you be able to add intercultural and rhetorical and social influence scholars to same committee, that type of thing

Department culture

How interactive the faculty are with students - easy/hard to get appointments, opportunities to collaborate on research, what types of mentoring

Community - what students you would teach are like

Teaching opportunities - support/discussion sections, able to teach stand-alone courses, able to develop own curriculum

Graduate classes - when taught, what faculty are like, how often the classes you really want are truly offered

 

 

Another thing to consider asking the students is, if they were choosing which PhD program to attend now would it be the same.

 

And also find out about the community where the university is located. Are there times when you aren't able to go anywhere because of activities? Are members of the community open to students/faculty?

 

Good luck!