Questions to Ask Graduate School Admissions
Questions for applicants to put to graduate admissions officers, directors of graduate study and faculty, covering how applications are read and decided, funding, advising, time to degree, attrition and where graduates end up. The closing group is built for a graduate school fair, where you get two minutes and the representative may cover every program the university runs.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The program
How many students do you admit each year, and how many people apply?
Why ask it
Two plain numbers tell you whether the program turns people away or needs bodies to staff undergraduate sections. Offices that cannot produce either figure usually do not track their own cohorts closely.
Who reads my application, and does a faculty member in my subfield look at it?
Why ask it
Some departments run a central committee; in others an individual professor pulls the applicants they want to supervise. If it is the second, your statement of purpose should read as a pitch to one person rather than to a discipline.
Is funding guaranteed, and if so for how many years?
Why ask it
Guaranteed multi-year support and year-by-year support produce very different lives. Listen for the hedge 'typically funded': it usually means someone in a recent cohort was not.
After tuition and fees come out, what does the stipend actually leave a student to live on?
Why ask it
Advertised stipends are often quoted before mandatory fees are deducted. Someone who cannot compare the remainder to local rent has not thought about whether students can survive on it.
How many hours a week does the assistantship take, and is that number realistic?
Why ask it
A twenty-hour appointment can mean forty in grading weeks. If the answer stops at the contract figure, take the same question to a current student before you accept.
What is the median time to degree here, rather than the minimum?
Why ask it
The minimum is a brochure number. A gap of two or more years between minimum and median means something in the middle of the program reliably stalls, usually the dissertation proposal.
Of the students who start, roughly what share finish?
Why ask it
Attrition is the figure programs least like to say out loud. A department that tracks it and can describe why people left is being run by someone paying attention.
How are students matched with an advisor, and what happens when the match does not work out?
Why ask it
Assigned, chosen in year one, or negotiated before admission are three different levels of risk concentrated in one relationship. Ask specifically about switching, because nobody volunteers that part.
Which faculty are taking new students next year, and how many are they supervising already?
Why ask it
A professor with ten current advisees will not read your drafts quickly, however well you get on. The list also reveals whether the person you applied to work with is actually available, or on leave, or leaving.
When do students start teaching, and what training comes with it?
Why ask it
Teaching is either training or unpaid apprenticeship depending on whether preparation, observation and feedback exist. Being handed a section in week one with none of that is common enough to be worth checking.
What are the milestones between the first term and the defense, and when does each one fall?
Why ask it
Dated milestones let you tell whether you are behind while there is still time to fix it. Programs without them tend to let students drift and then discover the problem at the defense.
What happens to a student who fails comprehensive exams the first time?
Why ask it
Every program has a retake rule, and hearing it stated plainly tells you whether one bad month ends the degree. Vagueness here usually means the outcome depends on your advisor's mood that week.
Is there a written expectation about publishing or conference presentations before graduation?
Why ask it
Fields differ on whether published work is required or merely rewarded. Where the bar is informal, students discover it only by missing it, so a written norm is worth more than encouragement.
What health insurance, parental leave and summer funding do students get?
Why ask it
These three items decide whether a person can get through five years with a chronic condition or a new baby. Summer funding is the one most often quietly absent.
Are international students funded and supported on the same terms as domestic students?
Why ask it
Visa rules cap outside work, so any funding gap lands harder on international students. The answer also shows whether the office has considered this before you raised it.
Where did the last two or three graduating cohorts end up?
Why ask it
Recent placement lists are checkable and specific, unlike claims about where alumni often go. If the only example is one star graduate from a decade ago, that is the real answer.
What support exists for students who decide they want work outside the university?
Why ask it
In most fields most graduates do not end up on the tenure track. A department that treats industry, policy or teaching work as a failure will not help you build toward it.
What do current students complain about, and has the program changed anything in response?
Why ask it
You are asking someone to say something unflattering about their own program, which is the point. One honest complaint plus one concrete change beats an assurance that everyone is happy.
What would make you say a student here is struggling, and what happens at that point?
Why ask it
This surfaces the department's picture of trouble and, more usefully, whether the response is support or a quiet nudge toward the exit.
If I am admitted, what would you want me to read or work on before the first term?
Why ask it
A specific answer, a methods course to brush up on or two papers to read, signals a program that plans its cohorts. A shrug tells you how much structure to expect later.
Your application
Do I apply to the program, or to work with a particular person?
Why ask it
This determines how the whole application should be built. Where students are admitted to labs, an application without a named potential advisor and a matching research interest often does not get a serious reading.
Should I be contacting faculty before I apply, and does it help?
Why ask it
The honest answers range from expected to actively unhelpful, depending on the field and whether admission is to a lab or a cohort. Asking the coordinator saves you from either the wrong etiquette or several weeks of unanswered emails.
Is the deadline a hard cutoff, or does review begin before it?
Why ask it
Many programs read on a rolling basis while advertising a single date, which means late applications compete for fewer places. Ask when review actually starts, because that, not the posted deadline, is your real target.
Are standardised test scores required, optional, or considered if submitted?
Why ask it
These three policies are materially different and are often described in the same sentence on a website. Where scores are optional, ask whether admitted students typically submit them, since a formal option that almost everyone exercises is not really optional.
What do the transcripts of admitted students usually look like?
Why ask it
More productive than asking for a minimum, which is a floor almost nobody is admitted at. Listen for whether they weigh the last two years, the major, or specific coursework, since that tells you what to emphasise or explain.
How many letters do you require, and does it matter who writes them?
Why ask it
Programs vary on whether a supervisor from work counts, whether all letters must be academic, and how a fourth letter is treated. A letter from someone who supervised your research beats a more senior name who taught you once in a large class.
What should the statement of purpose contain that a personal statement should not?
Why ask it
Where both are requested, applicants routinely submit two versions of the same essay. Ask directly what each is used for: usually one is research trajectory and fit with named faculty, the other is background and motivation.
If part of my record needs explaining, where should that go?
Why ask it
A weak semester, a leave of absence, or a career change is better addressed briefly in the right place than left for a reader to guess about. Some programs have an addendum field for exactly this, which is preferable to spending a paragraph of the statement on it.
Am I compared against this year's applicant pool or a fixed standard?
Why ask it
Cohort based review means your odds depend on who else applied, which explains why a strong applicant can be rejected in one cycle and admitted in the next. It also makes reapplying a more reasonable strategy than it appears.
Do you admit applicants who are missing prerequisite coursework, and what happens then?
Why ask it
Career changers need this answer specifically. Programs may admit conditionally, require a summer course, or add a semester, and knowing which applies tells you whether to apply now or spend a year taking two classes first.
How are international transcripts and degrees evaluated?
Why ask it
Some institutions require an outside credential evaluation service, some do their own conversion, and turnaround can take weeks. Getting this wrong is one of the most common reasons an otherwise strong application misses a deadline.
What English language scores do you require, and who is exempt?
Why ask it
Exemptions frequently exist for degrees taught in English or for time spent studying in certain countries, and they are often unstated on the main requirements page. Ask about minimum section scores too, since an overall pass can still fail on a subscore.
Is there an application fee waiver, and what do I need to send to request one?
Why ask it
Waivers exist far more widely than applicants assume, tied to income, service programs, conference attendance, or membership in specific organisations. The form is usually short and the request rarely affects how the application is read.
Is funding decided at the same time as admission, or through a separate application?
Why ask it
The most consequential procedural question here. Separate fellowship applications usually have earlier deadlines than admission, and applicants who discover this in January have already lost the chance at the best packages.
What is the deadline for full funding consideration, as opposed to admission?
Why ask it
These dates are often different and the funding one is earlier. Programs will state it plainly when asked, and the difference between the two dates is frequently the difference between a funded and an unfunded offer.
When are decisions released, and how does the waitlist work?
Why ask it
Ask how many were admitted off the waitlist last year and by what date. That figure decides whether a waitlist is a real prospect worth holding for or a courtesy you should plan around.
Can an admission be deferred, and for how long?
Why ask it
Policies range from a routine year to no deferral at all, and funding sometimes does not travel with a deferred place. Worth asking before you apply if a visa, a job, or a family situation might delay your start.
If I am not admitted, can I learn why, and would reapplying be worth it?
Why ask it
Some programs will give brief feedback to a polite request, and it is frequently something fixable: a missing prerequisite, an unclear research fit, letters that were too general. Asking now means you know whether that door exists before you need it.
Grad school fair
Are you from the department itself, or from the central graduate school office?
Why ask it
Fair tables are often staffed by a recruiter who covers every program the university runs. Knowing which one you have tells you whether to ask about deadlines and fees or about faculty and research, and saves both of you a wasted minute.
Which of your programs suit someone with my background, and which would be a stretch?
Why ask it
Give one sentence about your degree and what you want to do next, then let them sort. A representative who names a program you had not considered has earned the stop, and one who says everything fits has told you nothing.
Is the program offered part-time, online or in the evenings, and does it lead to the same degree?
Why ask it
Formats multiply at the master's level, and the flexible version sometimes carries a different name or price. Ask what appears on the diploma and transcript. If the degree leads to a licence, check with the licensing body where you plan to work that both versions count.
Do master's students receive any funding here, or is support kept for doctoral students?
Why ask it
Funding talk at a fair tends to assume a doctoral package. Many master's programs are paid for by the student, so ask which assistantships or scholarships exist and roughly how many of last year's class held one.
Do most incoming students come straight from an undergraduate degree, or after a few years of work?
Why ask it
The mix shapes the classroom and tells you how your own path will be read. If nearly everyone arrives with work experience, a statement written like a senior thesis proposal may miss what the committee is looking for.
What sets this program apart from the ones applicants usually weigh it against?
Why ask it
You are inviting the pitch, so judge it by its nouns. A required practicum, a shared instrument facility or a named partner organisation is a difference; 'collaborative' and 'rigorous' are words every table in the hall is using.
What do applicants most often get wrong after reading your website?
Why ask it
Representatives hear the same misunderstandings all season: a deadline that is really for funding, a prerequisite that is firmer than it sounds. This draws out the correction in thirty seconds, which is about what a busy table allows.
Is there a visit day or an online session coming up where I could meet faculty and students?
Why ask it
A fair gets you a brochure and a name; the people who decide and the people who live it are elsewhere. Ask whether the event is open to anyone or only to admitted applicants, because some programs hold their visits after offers go out.
Who in the department should I write to with the questions you cannot answer today, and may I say we met?
Why ask it
This turns a two-minute stop into an introduction. Write the name on the flyer before you leave the table, and send the email within a few days, while the representative can still place you.
If I fill in your sign-in sheet, what will you send me, and is the contact recorded anywhere?
Why ask it
Often it puts you on a mailing list and nothing more. Some offices do log contact with prospective students, so ask instead of assuming, and never count on a signature at a table to carry weight in a decision.
Using these questions in an admissions conversation
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask the right person each question
Admissions officers and counselors
A grad school admissions counselor or officer owns the process facts: deadlines, application review order, fee waivers, visa paperwork, insurance and the mechanics of the stipend. This is usually the only person who will tell you the fee deductions accurately.
The director of graduate study
Milestones, exam policy, attrition, time to degree and what happens when an advising relationship fails all sit with this person. They are also the one who can say which faculty are taking students.
Current students
Workload, whether the stipend covers rent, how advisors behave in practice, and what the department does when someone is in trouble. Email two students who are not on the recruitment page, and ask short questions.
Graduate school representatives at a fair
The person behind the table is often a recruiter for the whole university and has never sat in your department's admissions meeting. Use them for routing: which program fits, which formats exist, when the next visit day is and who to write to. Hold the funding detail and the advising questions for that follow-up email.
A workable order for a short call
Twenty minutes, four questions
- 1Open with a number they can answer easily: how many admits against how many applicants.
- 2Move to funding: how many years are guaranteed, and what is left after fees.
- 3Then structure: median time to degree, and the milestone calendar.
- 4Close with the one that needs their judgment: what current students complain about and what changed.
If you only get one question
Ask what happens when an advising relationship stops working. The answer covers funding, milestones and departmental culture at once, and it is the risk that ends the most degrees.
How to read the answers
- Hedges carry information: 'typically', 'most students' and 'we try to' each mark an exception someone lived through.
- Ranges without medians are marketing. Ask for the middle number, not the best case.
- If two people in the same department give you different funding answers, believe the less generous one and get it in writing.
- A department that names its own weak point has usually fixed something recently. One that claims none has stopped asking.
What not to spend your turn on
Anything printed on the program page
Credit counts, course lists and the posted deadline are published. Asking for them uses up goodwill and tells the reader you did not look. Ask what the page leaves out instead, such as when review actually starts.
Flattery disguised as a question
Long preambles about how excited you are leave no room for an answer. Ask the question in one sentence and let the interest show in what you chose to ask.
Salary speculation
Nobody in an admissions office can tell you what you will earn afterward. Ask instead where the last cohorts went, which is a fact they either have or do not.