Questions to Ask a Graduate Program
Questions to ask faculty, admissions staff and current students when you are deciding between graduate programs. Focused on funding, advising and completion, the things that decide whether you finish, rather than what is already in the handbook.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How many students started in this program five years ago, and how many have finished?
Why ask it
Completion rate is the single most useful number and the one least often volunteered. A program that does not track it, or will not say, is telling you something.
How long does it actually take people here, as opposed to how long it is designed to take?
Why ask it
The published length is the minimum. The median is the real commitment, and every extra year is a year of lost earnings as well as fees.
What funding would I have, for how many years, and what happens after that?
Why ask it
Many offers cover fewer years than the degree takes. The gap year at the end is where students end up teaching full time or taking on debt to finish.
Is the funding guaranteed, or renewed annually on conditions?
Why ask it
Conditional renewal changes your position considerably, especially in a dispute with an advisor. Ask what has caused someone to lose it.
What does the funding require me to do in return, in hours per week?
Why ask it
Teaching and lab duties are often described as a stipend rather than a job. Converting it to hours tells you how much time is left for your own work.
How does advisor matching work, and how easily can it be changed?
Why ask it
The advisor relationship determines the experience more than the department's reputation does. A program with no process for switching leaves students stuck.
How many students does the person I would work with currently supervise?
Why ask it
A well-known name supervising fifteen people may give you less attention than a junior faculty member with three. Ask how often they meet each student.
Which faculty are taking new students this year, and is anyone likely to leave?
Why ask it
People apply for one professor and arrive to find them on sabbatical, retiring, or moving. This is standard to ask and rarely stated on the website.
What do students find is the hardest stage to get through here?
Why ask it
Every program has a bottleneck: qualifying exams, finding a topic, the writing year. Knowing it in advance tells you what support you will need and when.
What happens if someone fails their qualifying exams?
Why ask it
Some programs allow a retake, some award a lower degree, some end the funding. The consequence matters more than the exam format.
How is the dissertation or thesis supervised in practice, and how often would we meet?
Why ask it
Answers range from weekly meetings to almost nothing. Neither is wrong, but arriving expecting one and getting the other is a common reason people stall.
Where did last year's graduates go, by name of employer or institution?
Why ask it
Career outcomes stated as percentages hide a great deal. Specific destinations tell you whether the program places into the work you want.
How much support is there for careers outside academia?
Why ask it
In many programs this is discouraged in practice while endorsed in principle. Ask whether anyone has left for industry and how that was handled.
What does the total cost look like once fees, health cover and living costs are added?
Why ask it
A funded place can still leave a shortfall, particularly in expensive cities. Ask what students actually spend rather than what the fee schedule says.
Would I be able to spend a term elsewhere, or work with someone in another department?
Why ask it
Flexibility varies widely and is worth knowing before you commit, particularly if your interests sit between fields.
How are conference travel and research costs paid for?
Why ask it
Whether there is a departmental budget or you apply competitively each time affects how visible your work becomes over several years.
What is the process if a student has a serious problem with a supervisor?
Why ask it
A named person outside the supervisory line, rather than only the department chair, is the sign of a functional program. Vagueness here is a real risk.
How does taking a leave of absence work, for illness or a birth?
Why ask it
Worth knowing before you need it, since visa status and funding often do not pause with the enrollment. Ask whether anyone has done it recently.
Can I speak with two current students, including one further along?
Why ask it
Requesting a specific student, rather than accepting the recruiters they offer, gets you a far more accurate picture. Reluctance to arrange it tells you something.
What would make you tell an applicant this is not the right program for them?
Why ask it
A frank answer names a genuine limitation, in coverage, funding or location. Insisting the program suits everyone means you are hearing a sales pitch.
Comparing graduate programs
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask the right person
Admissions staff for facts, students for reality
Funding terms, deadlines and requirements come from the office. Advising quality, workload and what happens when things go wrong only come from current students, and they will usually tell you if asked directly.
Ask a student who is nearly finished
First-year students are still enthusiastic and have not hit the hard stages. Someone in their fourth or fifth year knows what the program does badly.
Get funding in writing before you compare offers
Verbal indications of support change. Ask for the number of years, the annual amount, the duties attached and what happens if it runs out before you submit.
Ask the same questions everywhere
Comparison is only possible if the answers are about the same thing. Completion time, funded years and supervision frequency are the three worth asking of every program.
Common mistakes
Choosing on reputation rather than fit
A strong department is little help if nobody there works on what you want to study, or the one person who does is about to retire.
Asking things the handbook answers
Credit requirements and application deadlines are published. Spending a limited conversation on them wastes the access you have to someone who could tell you about advising.
Ignoring the years after funding ends
Programs commonly fund four years of a five or six year degree. That final unfunded stretch is where a lot of people leave without finishing.
Not asking about the exit
What happens if you fail an exam, need a year out, or want to leave with a master's instead. Nobody plans for it, and it decides how much risk you are taking.