Questions to Ask Potential PhD Advisor
Questions for a prospective doctoral supervisor, covering what the group is working on now, funding conditions, how often you would meet, authorship, time to completion, attrition, and what happens if the project stalls or the supervisor moves.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What are you working on right now that interests you most?
Why ask it
Published work lags by a year or two, so this is how you find out what the group is actually doing. If the answer sits some distance from what drew you here, you would be joining the new direction rather than the one you read about.
Would I be joining an existing project, or defining my own?
Why ask it
This shapes the entire degree. A funded project usually means faster access to data and less freedom. Defining your own means a slower first year and a thesis that is unmistakably yours. Neither is better, and a mismatch with what you want is what causes the trouble.
How many students do you supervise now, and how many are close to submitting?
Why ask it
Count carefully. Twelve students with no senior postdoc means little time for you, whatever the intention. Two or three students plus a new grant often means a great deal of attention, which cuts both ways depending on how you work.
Where did your last three students go after finishing?
Why ask it
Ask for actual destinations rather than a claim about placement. If several left academia and that is not your plan, ask whether they were supported in choosing that or drifted out because nothing else was available.
How long do your students usually take to finish?
Why ask it
Hold the answer against the department's published median, which is normally available. A supervisor who does not know roughly how long their own students take has just told you how closely progress gets tracked.
Has anyone left the group without finishing? What happened?
Why ask it
Attrition exists in every group, so honesty about it is the signal rather than the fact. Someone who can describe what went wrong and what they would do differently is a safer bet than someone claiming an unblemished record.
How often would we meet, and would it be scheduled or arranged as needed?
Why ask it
Ask specifically whether it goes in the calendar. A standing weekly slot survives a busy term. Whenever you need me tends to become three cancelled attempts and a silent month during grant season.
Day to day, would I be coming to you or to a postdoc?
Why ask it
Plenty of strong groups are run day to day by a postdoc, and that can work well. What you need to establish is whether your main support depends on someone whose own contract ends in eighteen months.
Is my funding guaranteed for the whole program, and what is it conditional on?
Why ask it
Get the number of years and the conditions in writing, including what happens if you need a fifth or sixth year. Verbal assurances about finding something rarely survive a change of department head.
Does the funding cover conference travel, equipment, and fees, or do I apply for those separately?
Why ask it
These usually sit in separate pots and are usually forgotten in offer conversations. Whether you can attend one conference a year has a direct effect on who knows your name when you are looking for a job.
How is authorship order decided on papers from this group?
Why ask it
Ask for the convention and then for a specific example. Groups without a stated norm settle authorship by seniority when a deadline arrives, and you would be the most junior person in that conversation.
What happens if I want to publish something you disagree with?
Why ask it
A question about power, phrased answerably. You want to hear a route: a second reader, the committee, a co-author who can arbitrate. An assurance that it has never come up is not the same as an answer.
What would my first year actually consist of?
Why ask it
Coursework, rotations, teaching load, and when research begins in earnest. A supervisor who cannot describe it either has an unusually loose program or has not taken on a first-year student in some time.
What do you expect in terms of hours, and are weekends part of that?
Why ask it
Worth asking plainly, because norms in some groups are severe and almost never written down. Note any gap between what they say they expect and what they then describe their students doing.
If my project is not working after a year, what happens?
Why ask it
The most likely bad outcome in any doctorate. You want to hear about pivoting, salvaging something publishable, or reporting a negative result. Answers built around persistence often mean another two years on a question that is already dead.
How would I know if you thought I was behind?
Why ask it
You are asking whether a mechanism exists: an annual review, a committee, a written plan, or nothing until year four. The answer predicts more about how the degree will feel than almost anything else in this list.
Are you likely to move institutions, take a sabbatical, or retire in the next five years?
Why ask it
Entirely reasonable to ask and important to know. Someone retiring in three years cannot see you through, and a mid-degree move can mean relocating, changing supervisor, or finishing with nobody nearby who can examine the work.
If you did move, what would happen to my project and my funding?
Why ask it
Ask the follow-up rather than assuming the reassuring version. The answer determines whether you would follow them, stay with a co-supervisor, or be left holding a project that nobody remaining in the department can assess.
What should I ask your current students that they will answer more honestly than you can?
Why ask it
This hands them a chance to be generous, and most people rise to it. A supervisor who names something specific is unusually secure. One who discourages you from speaking to students at all has answered a different and more useful question.
Would you take me on? What reservations do you have?
Why ask it
Asking for reservations extracts information nobody volunteers, and a doubt is far cheaper to hear now than in a second-year review. Warm enthusiasm with no specifics attached often means you are the backup candidate.
Assessing a supervisor before you commit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Talk to the students, separately
Ask to speak to someone without the supervisor present
A refusal is itself the answer. Ask for a current student and, if you can find one, someone who has recently left the group. Departmental websites and recent papers give you names even when nobody offers them.
Ask students about turnaround, not about niceness
How long does a draft take to come back, and did the last meeting happen as scheduled. These are answerable facts. Whether the supervisor is pleasant is something you can judge yourself and is not what determines whether you finish.
Ask what they would want warned about
Phrased that way, students will usually tell you one true thing. Phrased as is the advisor good, you will get a polite non-answer, because they have to keep working there after you hang up.
Get these in writing before you accept
- Years of guaranteed funding, the stipend figure, and what it is conditional on, including teaching requirements.
- Who your official supervisor is, and who the second supervisor or committee chair would be.
- Whether fees are covered, and by whom, for the full duration including any extension.
- The teaching load per term, in hours, and whether it is negotiable.
- Any intellectual property or publication conditions attached to the funding, particularly on industry-sponsored projects.
- What happens to your position if the grant funding your role ends early.
Checking the group from the outside
- 1Look at the last three years of publications and note who the first authors are. If they are all postdocs, students in this group may not be leading work.
- 2Check whether students appear on papers at all, and how many years into their degree.
- 3Search the group's website against an archived version from two years ago. Names that vanished quietly are worth asking about.
- 4Look at where the funding comes from and when it ends. Grant end dates are often public and they set the real horizon for the group.
- 5Read one of their student's theses. It tells you the expected scope better than any conversation will.
What goes wrong
Choosing on research fit alone
A perfect topic match with someone who does not read drafts produces an unfinished thesis. Supervision quality determines whether you complete; topic determines what you complete. You need both, and only one of them is visible from the publication list.
Not asking about money in detail
Funding conversations feel graceless and are the most consequential ones you will have. A stipend that ends in year four when the median completion is five and a half years is a problem you can identify before you accept.
Reading enthusiasm about you as commitment to you
Recruiting season brings out warmth in everybody. Ask what would change about their availability once you have started, and whether they are taking on other students in the same cohort.
Assuming you can switch later
Changing supervisor is possible in most departments and is rarely as easy as it sounds, particularly when funding is attached to a specific project. Find out now what the procedure actually is, from the graduate administrator rather than from the supervisor.