Questions to Ask About Graduate School
Questions for the people who run a graduate program: the admissions committee, a prospective advisor, the director of graduate study. Covers funding terms, advising structure, milestones, and completion records.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How many people do you admit each year, and how many of those get a funding offer?
Why ask it
The gap between admitted and funded is the number that matters. A program that admits thirty and funds eight is running a filter after admission, and you may be the one it filters.
Who reads applications here, a committee or individual faculty?
Why ask it
Committee review rewards a coherent overall record. Faculty-led review rewards contacting the right person early, which changes what you should do next week, not next year.
If I name a potential advisor in my application, how does that change the way it is read?
Why ask it
In some departments naming someone routes your file to them, in others it narrows you unhelpfully. The answer tells you whether to name one person, several, or none.
When the pool is strong, which part of the application ends up deciding?
Why ask it
Every program says it reads holistically. Pressed for what breaks ties, most will name one thing: the writing sample, a letter from someone they know, prior research output.
What exactly does the funding package cover: tuition, fees, health insurance, summers?
Why ask it
Fully funded often still leaves several thousand a year in fees and no summer support. Ask for the itemised list rather than the headline stipend number.
Is the funding attached to teaching, to a specific grant, or to the department?
Why ask it
Grant-attached funding ends when the grant does, and teaching-attached funding depends on enrolment. Department-guaranteed support is the only kind that survives both.
How are new students matched with advisors, and at what point does that happen?
Why ask it
Rotation systems let you correct a bad guess, admission-to-a-lab systems do not. Either can work, but only one forgives choosing wrong in your first month.
What does the first year look like, term by term?
Why ask it
A concrete answer distinguishes programs where year one is coursework from ones where you are expected to produce research immediately. Vagueness here usually means it varies by advisor.
What are the milestones between admission and candidacy, and when do they fall?
Why ask it
Written out as dates, the structure of the degree becomes visible: how long before you can be asked to leave, and how long before you are hard to remove.
What happens to a student who fails a qualifying exam?
Why ask it
Retake, master's exit, or immediate loss of funding are three very different institutions. Programs that have never thought about it tend to improvise badly.
How is student progress reviewed each year, and who sees the review?
Why ask it
An annual review that goes to a committee protects students from a single advisor's opinion. One that goes nowhere means problems surface only when they are unfixable.
What is the policy on leaves of absence and parental leave for graduate students?
Why ask it
Ask for the written policy, not the practice. If the answer is that it has never come up, the practice is being invented on the spot.
Of the students who started here five and six years ago, how many finished and how long did it take?
Why ask it
Framing it by starting cohort rather than by graduates prevents the answer from silently excluding people who left. Reluctance to give the number is itself the number.
Where did your last five graduates go?
Why ask it
Five specific destinations are worth more than a placement page. Long gaps or a string of short postdocs tell you what the degree is actually worth in this field.
How many students are you supervising at the moment?
Why ask it
Asked of a prospective advisor, this predicts your access to them better than anything else. Ten students and a heavy service load means you will mostly be advised by senior students.
When you and a student disagree about the direction of their work, how does that usually get settled?
Why ask it
You are asking about power, and most people answer honestly because they do not hear it that way. Watch for whether the student in their example ever prevails.
What support is there for students who decide they do not want an academic job?
Why ask it
Most graduates leave academia, so a program with no answer here is unprepared for the majority outcome. Look for named staff, internships, or alumni who stayed in touch.
Could I speak with a student who works with you, and one who used to?
Why ask it
The second half is the request that matters. Willingness to connect you with a former student, including one who left, is a strong signal on its own.
What would make you tell an applicant that this is not the right program for them?
Why ask it
This invites an honest description of who fails here. A program that claims it suits everyone has not thought about fit, or is protecting enrolment numbers.
If I accept, what could I usefully do between now and the start of term?
Why ask it
The reply doubles as a preview of how they give instructions: a specific reading list and a person to email, or a vague suggestion to rest, which tells you how much structure to expect.
Asking Programs and Prospective Advisors
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When to ask what
Before you apply
Admissions mechanics only: who reads files, whether to name an advisor, what the funding structure is, whether anyone is taking students next year. A two-paragraph email to the director of graduate study answers most of it, and asking early costs you nothing.
At interview or visit
Advising, milestones, and failure modes. These need a real conversation because you are reading hesitation as much as content. Bring no more than six questions and let the answers open the rest.
After an offer, before you accept
This is the only moment you have leverage. Ask for the funding terms in writing, ask about leave policy and completion rates, and ask to be put in touch with a former student. Requests that get deflected now will not be granted later.
Reading a funding offer
- Number of guaranteed years, stated as years and not as ongoing support subject to satisfactory progress.
- Whether fees, health insurance, and dental are inside or outside the stipend figure.
- Whether summer months are paid, and if so by what mechanism.
- What work is required in exchange, in hours or in courses taught per term.
- What happens in the year after guaranteed funding ends, which is the year most people are still writing.
- Who to contact if a payment is late, because this happens more than anyone advertises.
Judging a prospective advisor
Look at their students, not their CV
Publication record tells you whether they can do research. Their students' records tell you whether they can train people. Find three former students and see where they are.
Ask about the last person who left their group early
Everyone has one. Whether they answer with sympathy, blame, or genuine reflection is the most useful thirty seconds of the conversation.
Check whether they will still be there
Sabbaticals, retirements, and moves routinely strand students. Ask directly about the next three years, and ask who would supervise you if they left.