Questions to Ask for Grad School Interview
For the half hour you get alone with the professor you would actually work under, which decides more of a doctorate than the department does. Every question here is about them and their group rather than the program: whether they are taking anyone this year, what is funded and live right now, how often they meet students, how authorship gets decided, and what happened to the last three people to leave the lab. Save the department-level questions for the people whose job it is to answer them.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How many students are you taking this year, and are you taking any into your own group?
Why ask it
A department can be admitting while the professor you came to work with is not taking anyone. Ask early, because the answer changes which questions are worth your remaining time.
What are you working on now that you would want a new student on?
Why ask it
This is more useful than asking about their research generally, because it distinguishes published work from what is actually funded and live. If the answer is vague, the project may not exist yet.
How do you decide which students you take, and what are you looking for?
Why ask it
Advisors have a type, and most will describe it if asked directly: someone who can be left alone, someone who wants close direction, someone with a particular technique. Whether their description sounds like you is the point of asking.
What would fund me in your group, and how long is that money secured for?
Why ask it
Ask about the specific grant, its end date, and what happens at renewal. An advisor who knows their funding cliff and says so plainly is being straight with you; one who waves at the department is describing a promise they do not control.
How much teaching do your students do, and do you shield them from extra sections?
Why ask it
Some advisors buy students out of teaching when a grant allows and some regard teaching as the department's business. This single habit can be the difference between finishing in five years and seven.
How long do your students actually take to finish, and what slows them down?
Why ask it
Published median times are institution-wide; a single advisor's record is the number that will apply to you. Someone whose students consistently take eight years is telling you something about how they supervise.
Where did your last three students go after graduating?
Why ask it
Three specific names and destinations is a checkable claim, unlike a general statement about placement. Ask whether they went where they wanted to go.
Has anyone left your group or the program recently, and what happened?
Why ask it
Attrition is normal and the reasons are informative, so the concerning answer is a flat denial that anyone ever leaves. Ask the same question of current students, separately.
How often do you meet your students, and what happens in those meetings?
Why ask it
Weekly one-to-ones and one hour a term are both workable for some people and disastrous for others. Ask what happens when a student needs an unscheduled conversation.
How do you decide authorship order on papers from your group?
Why ask it
Every group has a practice here even when it has no written policy, and an advisor who has thought about it will answer without hesitating. Watch for an answer that leaves the decision entirely to their discretion at the time of submission.
What happens if my project stops working in year three?
Why ask it
Most projects fail at least once, so what you want to know is whether there is a plan, funding, and patience for the pivot. Answers that treat failure as unlikely are the ones to worry about.
How much freedom do students have to shape their own question?
Why ask it
Some groups hand out well-defined pieces of a larger grant and others expect you to invent the project. Neither is wrong, but the mismatch between expectation and reality is a common reason students leave.
Are you going up for tenure or planning any leave in the next few years?
Why ask it
An advisor on sabbatical, moving institution, or in a tenure decision will have different attention and possibly a different address. It is a fair question and most people answer it honestly.
How do you fund conference travel for your students, and how many do they go to each year?
Why ask it
Conferences decide who knows your work, and the money for them comes from a specific pot. Ask who chooses which conferences and whether a student can go somewhere the advisor is not attending.
Who else would I be working alongside day to day, and how senior are they?
Why ask it
A lab with three senior students has people who can teach you the equipment; a lab where you would be the only student means direct access and nobody to ask at eleven at night. Ask how much the group works together rather than in parallel.
What would a student in your group typically have published by the time they defend?
Why ask it
The concrete version of asking about output, and it tells you the record this advisor considers normal. Compare it with what the jobs you eventually want actually require, since the two are often different.
How do you give feedback on writing, and how long does a draft usually sit with you?
Why ask it
Turnaround on drafts is one of the strongest predictors of how long a dissertation takes. Ask for a number of weeks, and ask a current student the same question afterwards, because the two answers often differ.
How have you supported students who went into industry or outside research?
Why ask it
Most doctoral students do not become professors. An advisor who can name someone they helped place outside the academy is telling you the choice is available; a change of subject tells you it is not.
What would make you say a student in your group had a good first year?
Why ask it
This gets you their actual standard rather than the handbook's, and it is the sentence to remember if you accept. Wildly high or entirely unspecified expectations are both worth noting.
If I get an offer, who could I speak to privately about what it is like here?
Why ask it
Whether you are given a name, and whether that person speaks freely when you call, is one of the more reliable signals available. Groups with nothing to hide usually offer this before you ask.
Making a graduate visit worth the trip
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Read two recent papers from the group, not the whole back catalogue
One question about a specific choice in a recent paper does more than a general statement of interest in their field. Look at who the co-authors were and whether they were students.
Find out who is actually recruiting
Departmental pages lag by years. A short email asking whether they are taking students this cycle saves an entire trip and is standard practice.
Write down your own non-negotiables
Funding length, location, teaching load, and how much supervision you need are easier to weigh if you decided their order before anyone was charming at you over lunch.
Plan who to ask what
Faculty answer questions about projects, funding, and expectations. Students answer questions about advisors, attrition, cost of living, and what the department is like in year four.
Getting honest answers from current students
- Ask when no faculty are present, and ask more than one person the same question.
- Ask what they wish they had known before accepting, which is easier to answer than whether they are happy.
- Ask about the advisor you are considering by name, and pay attention to pauses rather than words.
- Ask what the stipend actually covers locally, including rent, and whether people take second jobs.
- Ask who left and why, then compare the answer with what faculty told you.
When the offer arrives
Read what is guaranteed and for how long
Look for the number of years of support, the conditions attached, whether fees and health coverage are included, and what happens in the summer. Ask for anything promised verbally to be added in writing.
Compare stipends against local rent, not against each other
A higher stipend in an expensive city can be the worse offer. Work out the monthly figure left after rent in each place.
Ask about the exit routes
Find out whether a master's degree is available if you leave early, and under what terms. It is a reasonable question and the answer costs you nothing to know.
Common pitfalls
Choosing a department instead of an advisor
For most doctoral study the day-to-day experience is determined by one person and the group around them. Rank the advisor first, then the institution.
Asking only questions designed to impress
The visit is also your evaluation of them, and interviewers generally respect a candidate who asks about funding, timelines, and attrition. Performing enthusiasm gets you less information.
Taking silence on money as a good sign
If nobody has told you the stipend, the fee waiver, and the number of guaranteed years, ask directly before deciding.