Question on school visits

[polscimajor]

Hi all,

I decided to go on a couple school visits, just to take a look around the school and get a sense of the graduate atmosphere. I am also interested in meeting my prospective cohort and other grad students who are already enrolled in the program.

The problem though, is about the one-on-one sessions with the faculty members. I have no idea what I'll be talking about for thirty minutes with each of them, I mean I can't ask them outright how much effort they are willing to put into graduate students, or if someone is going to receive tenure. So my question is, what kind of questions are appropriate to ask during visits (especially when meeting personally with faculty)?

Any kind of help would be appreciated! Thank you!

[fuzzylogician]

8 minutes ago, polscimajor said:

The problem though, is about the one-on-one sessions with the faculty members. I have no idea what I'll be talking about for thirty minutes with each of them, I mean I can't ask them outright how much effort they are willing to put into graduate students, or if someone is going to receive tenure. So my question is, what kind of questions are appropriate to ask during visits (especially when meeting personally with faculty)?

Yeah, don't ask those questions. They will probably ask you about your interests, and you'll give the same spiel that you'll give 50 other times. They may ask what other schools you're considering and give you some opinion of those places (hopefully positive and constructive), bur anyway don't be surprised if that happens. You could ask them what they have been working on recently, or what they've been teaching (e.g. what seminar topics, what other classes). You can ask them how often they meet with students. You can ask what their philosophy is on helping students find research topics. You can ask if they publish with students or if students publish with other students. You can ask if/how often students go to conferences and what their take is on when that should happen, and how much funding there is for that. You might ask what they think about you being a visiting student elsewhere for a semester/year, if that's something you might be interested in. You might ask about what people do over the summer and what kind of opportunities there are on/off campus. You might just chat about the town or school, where you can get good coffee around town, how easy it is to commute to [large cite/airport/other nearby university, etc], you might ask about labs and resources, or libraries; or if you know they studied at a school you know anything about or come from a city you know, you might chat about that.. these conversations are usually very relaxed and friendly, you don't really have to prep too much. 

[terefere]

I'm not a super chatty person and I was also a little worried, but actually pretty much all my meetings went very well, in a nice atmosphere. The faculty may have a bunch of questions too, and set the tone of the talk. Feel free to ask questions, also about the students they have been advising. When it comes to some matters like tenure or advising, you may prefer to talk about that with current grad students, or DGS, if this is of concern to you. You can talk about what research you have been doing so far (likely not much at this point, but still). Ask professors about it too, you can't always tell by their publications what are they really working on these days. Ask general questions about the department, etc. Get to know them, get a sense of whether these are the kind of people you would enjoy working with in the future. And remember, people may come and go, but there is this more general things as a department atmosphere too, try to sense it, see if you fit in. And totally feel free to be honest about what other schools you are considering and what your concerns are, what are the questions marks with regard to that particular school. But don't waste people's time if you are not seriously considering that school.

[puddle]

Read their most recently published papers I'll never forget the awkwardness of sitting in Stathis Kalyvas' office after failing to recall the punch line of his most recent article. To be fair though this might be a Kalyvas specific problem and I never ended up working with him but with ego-driven profs it's definitely worth brushing up on their work before one-on-one meetings.

[polscimajor]

Thank you all for your comments!!! You guys just saved an introvert from blacking out in a potential advisor's office 

[ILikeHotDogs]

I am on my way to a visit this week...this thread was very helpful! Your insight is truly appreciated