Questions to Ask About a PhD Program
Questions to ask about a doctoral program before you accept an offer: funding years, supervision, milestones, attrition, and what happens when something goes wrong. Some are for a professor to answer about the PhD program they teach in, others are for current students, and the last six are what to ask after you've been admitted, while the terms can still be put in writing.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
How many years does funding actually cover, and what happens after that?
Why ask it
Guaranteed years and median completion time rarely match. The gap is the period students spend teaching extra sections or working outside the department to finish.
What does the stipend come to after tuition, fees, and health insurance?
Why ask it
Mandatory fees are often deducted from the stipend rather than waived, which can remove a noticeable share of it. Ask for the net monthly figure a current student receives.
Can students live here on that without a second job?
Why ask it
Ask what students pay in rent and how far they commute. A stipend that looks reasonable nationally can be unlivable in one particular city.
How is a supervisor chosen, and when is that decision locked in?
Why ask it
Some programs admit you to a lab, others give you a year to choose. The first means the match is decided before you know the department; the second means a year of uncertainty.
How many students does each faculty member in my area currently supervise?
Why ask it
Advising capacity is the resource you will compete for most. A supervisor with eight students and a heavy administrative load will not be reading drafts quickly.
What happens if my supervisor leaves, retires, or loses funding?
Why ask it
This is common enough that a department should have a ready answer. If there is only one person working on your topic, ask directly who would take you on.
What is the teaching load, and which years does it fall in?
Why ask it
Teaching is valuable experience and a serious time cost. The question is whether it is concentrated in the coursework years or continues through the writing years.
What do the qualifying exams involve, and how many pass first time?
Why ask it
A low first-time pass rate usually reflects unclear expectations rather than weak students. Ask what students are given to prepare and what a retake costs in time.
How long do students in this department take from entry to defense?
Why ask it
Ask for the median for the last several cohorts. Departmental averages are often quoted from a good year or from the fastest subfield.
Of the students who started six years ago, how many finished?
Why ask it
The most informative number in any doctoral conversation, and one that many departments have never assembled. Reluctance to produce it is itself an answer.
Why did the students who left leave?
Why ask it
Leaving with a master's for a good job is a different story from leaving after losing funding or falling out with a supervisor. Ask a current student the same question separately.
When do students here publish, and with whom?
Why ask it
Norms vary by field and by lab. What matters is whether students are brought onto papers as collaborators or expected to produce their own without support.
What is the conference travel budget, and who decides who goes?
Why ask it
Conferences are how a doctoral student becomes known to the people who will later review their work. A named amount is worth more than encouragement to apply for funds.
What data, archives, lab time, or computing would I have access to?
Why ask it
Access is usually shared and queued. Ask where a first-year student sits in that queue and how long the wait typically is.
Where did the last five graduates end up, by job title?
Why ask it
Titles and employers, not categories. "Postdoctoral position" covers both a step toward a faculty job and a holding pattern, and only the specifics distinguish them.
How does the department support students aiming outside academia?
Why ask it
Most doctoral graduates do not become professors. A department that treats non-academic work as failure will give you no help and may cost you your supervisor's goodwill.
What happens when a student reports a problem with a supervisor?
Why ask it
You are asking whether there is anyone with real authority who is not the supervisor. Ask who currently holds that role and whether students actually use it.
What mental health, medical, and parental leave provisions apply to doctoral students?
Why ask it
Doctoral students often sit between employee and student status, which affects everything. Ask specifically whether funding pauses or expires during a leave of absence.
What would you change about this program if you could?
Why ask it
Asked of faculty it shows how closely they follow student experience; asked of students it produces the structural problem everyone has quietly adapted to.
What should I be asking that applicants usually do not?
Why ask it
Best kept for last. People often use it to raise the thing they have been waiting to be asked about, which is rarely the department's strength.
Is the funding tied to teaching or to a grant, and how many hours a week does that take?
Why ask it
Teaching assistantships are frequently described as twenty hours and run considerably longer in a marking week. Ask students what the load looks like in the worst month of the semester, not what the appointment letter says.
What are the milestones, and when does each one fall?
Why ask it
Coursework, language or method requirements, qualifying exams, and a prospectus defence should map onto specific terms. A programme that cannot lay out the sequence is one where students discover requirements late, which is how timelines slip.
Where is my prospective advisor in their career: up for tenure, on leave, moving, or near retirement?
Why ask it
Each of those changes the attention you will get and the risk you are taking, and none of them will appear on a webpage. A pre-tenure supervisor may be highly engaged and may also leave, and a retiring one may not be there for your defence.
How often does my prospective advisor meet students, and is that one to one or as a group?
Why ask it
Ask the students, not the advisor. Weekly individual meetings and a monthly group meeting produce very different degrees, and neither style is wrong, but a mismatch with how you work is the most common reason a doctorate goes badly.
How many of your own students have finished, and did any leave your group before they did?
Why ask it
This is the professor's personal record, which the department's figures hide. Someone who has graduated nobody yet is not a bad choice, but you would be the test case, so ask who else on the faculty would read your work.
How long do you usually take to return comments on a chapter or a paper draft?
Why ask it
Turnaround on writing sets much of the pace of the final years. Put the same question to a student who is writing up, and go with the student's number if the two differ.
Has anyone changed advisors recently, and did their funding move with them?
Why ask it
The policy always permits a change; the practice is what matters. Ask current students whether the person who moved lost a year, kept their stipend, and is still on good terms with the department.
Would my dissertation be my own project or part of an existing grant, and who holds the data?
Why ask it
Working on a funded project brings resources and a narrower question that is not yours to redirect. Ask what you could take with you: the data, the code, the samples, the right to publish after you leave.
How does authorship get decided in this group?
Why ask it
Practice varies by field and by laboratory, and disputes over order are among the most common serious grievances doctoral students report. Ask for the convention here and ask a senior student whether it is followed in practice.
Is there a graduate union here, and what does the contract cover?
Why ask it
Where students are unionised, pay, grievance procedures and workload limits are written down and enforceable, which changes what promises are worth. If there is no union, ask who a student goes to when the problem is their advisor.
How large is a cohort, and do students collaborate or compete?
Why ask it
Cohort size shapes whether you have peers doing what you do, and internal competition for funding or supervisor attention shapes everything else. Ask students whether they read each other's drafts, since the answer is a good measure of the atmosphere.
Of the students who wanted academic jobs, how many got them, and over how many years on the market?
Why ask it
Placement rates are often quoted on those who sought positions, or across many years, which flatters the figure. The number of postdocs or adjunct years before a permanent post is the part that describes your likely twenties and thirties.
Who should not come here, and when would you advise an applicant to go elsewhere?
Why ask it
A confident department can describe its limits: a method it does not teach, a subfield with no supervisor, a city that suits some lives and not others. The claim that it suits everyone means you are being recruited rather than advised.
Is everything I was told about funding written in the offer letter?
Why ask it
Promises made at a visit day, such as summer pay or a fellowship top-up, only count if they are in the letter or a follow-up email from the department. Ask for the missing ones in writing before you reply, while the department is still waiting on your answer.
What is the deadline to accept, and can it be extended if I am waiting on another program?
Why ask it
Reply dates and the rules around them differ by country and by institution, so ask how it works at this one. A short extension is an ordinary request once you have been admitted, and how the office handles it shows you who you would be dealing with for years.
Can I defer for a year, and would the funding offer still stand?
Why ask it
Admission and funding are often separate decisions, so a deferral can keep your place and lose the fellowship. Get an answer on both before you plan around a year away.
If another program has offered more, is there any room to match it?
Why ask it
Some departments pay a fixed stipend and cannot move, and others can add a fellowship or a moving allowance. With the other offer in hand it is a fair thing to raise, and the graduate coordinator is usually the person to raise it with.
When does the first stipend payment arrive, and what do I have to pay before then?
Why ask it
A housing deposit, the first month of rent, and enrollment fees can all fall due weeks before the first paycheck. Ask a first-year student how they covered that stretch and whether the department offers an advance.
Which current students can I talk to without a faculty member in the room?
Why ask it
Visit days are arranged by the department, and the students you meet there were picked to host. Ask for the email address of someone in year four or later in the group you would join, and find out what they would check if they were accepting the offer again.
Evaluating a Doctoral Offer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Who to ask what
Students in years three and beyond
First-year students are still repeating the recruitment pitch. Students who have passed their exams know what the milestones cost and which promises did not hold.
Your prospective supervisor, about their practice
Ask how often they meet advisees, how long they take on a chapter draft, and how many students they have graduated. These are answerable facts, not opinions.
The graduate coordinator, about rules
Funding mechanics, leave policy, milestone deadlines, and what happens after guaranteed years are administrative facts. Get them from the person who administers them.
Weighing the commitment
Plan for the median, not the minimum
Base your finances and your personal decisions on how long students actually take in that department, not on the program's stated length.
Compare offers on the net figure
Take the stipend, subtract fees and insurance, subtract local rent, and compare what is left. Multiply by the number of guaranteed years.
Count the fallback
Ask what a student leaves with if they stop after three years, whether that is a master's degree, and whether it is awarded automatically or on request.
After you've been admitted, get it in writing
The weeks between the offer and the reply deadline are when a department is most willing to answer. Use them to have the guaranteed years, the stipend, and anything promised in conversation confirmed by email.
Common mistakes
Choosing the institution over the supervisor
Your years will be shaped by one or two people. A strong department with nobody working on your problem is a weaker choice than a modest one with the right advisor.
Assuming a well-known name will be available
Senior faculty travel, hold administrative posts, and take many students. Ask how often they meet advisees and who supervises when they are on leave.
Not asking about the exit
Most conversations cover admission and nothing after it. The provisions for leaving, pausing, or changing supervisor are the ones you will be glad to know about later.