Acquiring Information From Ed Grad Schools - How To

[day_manderly]

I'd like to start a thread on how to acquire information from grad schools on education. They are all very different, right? And most of the good ones are highly competitive.

And my problem of today - I have a connection with two grad schools, but not with my potential supervisors. Still, I feel I should be using these connections to get acquainted with the schools. In fact, I am going to talk to one of the professors today. Do you have any advice on the questions? I have two goals: 1) to understand the atmosphere, how the school functions; 2) to become familiar to the professors.

[nm16]

There are quite a few questions you can ask your professor(s) as well as anyone working at the school to address those goals.  Here are a few resources I pulled off of Google, for your convenience:

https://quantumfrontiers.com/2014/05/25/top-10-questions-for-your-potential-phd-advisergroup/

https://me.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/advice_paper_web.pdf

http://education.seattlepi.com/good-questions-ask-potential-phd-adviser-3094.html

Keep in mind that professors are great sources, but overworked and not altogether unbiased. School staff (admissions, student affairs) and current students can also be good resources for you.

[day_manderly]

Thank you. I ended up simply chatting with the professor, but I am not sure it can always be done. According to my observations, in most cases professors prefer to talk about their work first, and about everything else next.