Best Questions to Ask Colleges
For campus visits, info sessions, and calls with admissions. The questions cover class sizes and who teaches them, advising, the real cost after the first year, academic and mental health support, and what daily life on campus is actually like.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What kind of student does well here, and who tends to struggle?
Why ask it
Admissions staff answer the first half easily. The second half is where you learn something, and a refusal to name any struggling student is its own answer.
How big are first-year classes, and who teaches them?
Why ask it
A published student-faculty ratio can hide 300-seat lectures taught by graduate students. Ask about your intended subject specifically, not the campus average.
Who would my academic adviser be, and how often would we actually meet?
Why ask it
Advising ranges from a named faculty member with scheduled meetings to a shared inbox. It affects whether you graduate on time more than almost anything else here.
How hard is it to change majors after the first year?
Why ask it
Some programs are capped and require a competitive internal application. Finding out now avoids being locked into a subject you chose at seventeen.
What does a normal Wednesday night look like for students here?
Why ask it
Answers about a normal weeknight describe the culture more honestly than answers about traditions or big weekends, which every college has.
Where do first-year students live, and is housing available for all four years?
Why ask it
Guaranteed housing for one year only means an off-campus rental search in your second, which changes your cost and your social life.
What is the total cost for one year, including fees, housing, and books?
Why ask it
The advertised tuition figure often excludes several thousand in fees. Ask for the full number in writing so you can compare offers fairly.
If my family's finances stay the same, will my aid package stay the same?
Why ask it
First-year grants sometimes include one-time scholarships that do not renew. A vague answer here is a reason to ask for the four-year figure in writing.
What share of first-year students come back for a second year?
Why ask it
Retention is the one number colleges cannot spin, because students leaving is the clearest verdict students give.
How do students find research positions or internships, and when do they start?
Why ask it
The answer tells you whether opportunities are organized by a department or left to students to hunt down, and whether first-years are eligible at all.
What happens if a student's mental health gets worse mid-semester?
Why ask it
Listen for waiting times, session caps, and what referral off campus looks like. A general statement about a counseling center is not an answer.
What is the process if someone fails a class or needs to drop below full-time?
Why ask it
Every college has students in this position. Whether staff can describe the process calmly tells you how routine and how supported it is.
How do students reach professors outside class?
Why ask it
Office hours, email norms, and whether professors know students by name vary hugely between institutions of the same size and reputation.
What do students find hardest about the first semester?
Why ask it
Current students answer this with something specific: a weeder course, the dining situation, the distance from town. Staff often answer with a slogan.
What do students here complain about most?
Why ask it
Best asked of a student rather than a tour guide. The complaint you hear twice from two people is the one worth taking seriously.
Which departments are strongest, and which are stretched thin?
Why ask it
Colleges rarely excel evenly. If your subject is one that has recently lost faculty or lost a program, you want to know before you commit.
How do students find their people if they arrive knowing nobody?
Why ask it
The answer reveals whether social life runs through structures anyone can join or through networks you have to already be inside.
What are graduates in my intended major doing a year after leaving?
Why ask it
Ask for examples rather than a placement percentage, which can count part-time work and graduate school and tells you almost nothing.
What has changed on campus in the last two years?
Why ask it
New leadership, budget cuts, or a building program all shape the four years ahead of you, and none of them appear in the brochure.
If you could change one thing about this college, what would it be?
Why ask it
The last question in the conversation, when the pitch has run out. An honest answer here is worth more than the whole tour.
Getting Straight Answers From a College
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask the Right Person
Admissions staff for numbers and process
Cost breakdowns, aid renewal, retention rates, deadlines, and how majors are declared. Ask them to send figures by email rather than quoting them at you.
Department faculty for the academics
Who teaches introductory courses, how research spots are assigned, what happens if a required course is full. Email a professor in your subject before you visit.
Current students for everything else
Food, safety, weekends, whether people leave campus, how easy it is to get a counseling appointment. Ask students who are not on the tour payroll.
On the Visit Itself
What to do while you are there
- 1Sit in on a lecture in your intended subject, ideally a large required one rather than a seminar.
- 2Eat in a dining hall at a normal hour and look at whether people are talking or leaving.
- 3Walk the route from the first-year dorms to the science or library buildings at night.
- 4Ask two students the same question and compare the answers.
- 5Write down what you liked before you leave the parking lot, because visits blur together fast.
Common Pitfalls
Treating the tour as the college
Tours are run by selected students along a selected route. Nothing you see on one is false, but it is not a sample.
Comparing sticker prices
Two colleges with identical tuition can differ by twenty thousand a year after aid, fees, and housing. Compare final offers, not published prices.
Only asking questions with pleasant answers
The useful questions are about failing, leaving, changing course, and running out of money. Every college has students doing all four.