Questions to Ask Professors About Grad School

The questions

Open any question to see why it works.

1. 1

   Based on the work you have seen from me, what do you think I would be good at in this field?

   Faculty rarely volunteer this unprompted, and their read is based on things you cannot see about yourself: how you handle being stuck, whether your questions are your own. Ask early, because the answer reframes every question after it.

2. 2

   What made you decide to go, and would you make the same choice now?

   You are asking someone who succeeded in the system, so expect a favorable answer, but the qualifications are the useful part. Note whether they talk about the field as it was twenty years ago or as it is for their current students.

3. 3

   Should I go straight through, or work first?

   Norms differ sharply by field, and a professor in yours knows whether time away reads as maturity or as drift on an application. Push for what the gap should contain rather than a simple yes or no.

4. 4

   In this field, what does a real funded offer look like?

   Funding structures vary enormously: a fellowship, a teaching line renewed yearly, a grant tied to one advisor's project. Ask how many years are guaranteed in writing and what happens in the years that are not.

5. 5

   Master's or PhD: what does each one actually get me?

   In some fields a master's is the working credential and a doctorate is overqualification. In others the master's is a paid-for consolation prize. Ask which one is true here and what the master's costs, since funding often does not extend to it.

6. 6

   How much does the specific program matter for what I want to do afterwards?

   Prestige matters differently for an academic path than for industry or government work. Say your intended destination out loud first, because the honest answer changes completely depending on it.

7. 7

   Should I be choosing programs or choosing advisors?

   In lab-based fields the advisor is nearly the whole experience, and a strong department with no suitable supervisor is a bad fit. Ask how to tell whether a potential advisor is taking students at all next year.

8. 8

   What does the first year look like day to day?

   Coursework, teaching load, lab hours, and how much unstructured time exists differ wildly. The concrete picture is what most applicants are missing, and it is what makes the decision real rather than aspirational.

9. 9

   How long do students in this field actually take to finish?

   The advertised length and the median are usually different, and the gap is paid for in years of your life at a stipend. Ask about the distribution, not the average, since a few very long completions tell you where things go wrong.

10. 10

    What is your own advising style, and how often do you meet your students?

    This is a fair question to ask of any professor, including one you might apply to work with. Weekly meetings and once-a-term meetings both produce good work, but they suit very different people, and mismatch is a common reason students stall.

11. 11

    How do admissions committees in this field actually read an application?

    Faculty who have served on the committee can tell you the order things are read in, what gets someone cut in the first pass, and how much weight the statement carries against grades and letters. This is not published anywhere.

12. 12

    What should go in my writing sample, and what would make you stop reading one?

    Ask for the second half specifically. Common answers involve length, an unfocused opening, or a piece that shows breadth where the field wanted depth. It is easier to fix a known failure than to guess at excellence.

13. 13

    Is my research statement specific enough, or is it still a list of interests?

    Most drafts describe topics rather than questions, which reads as someone who has not yet worked on anything. A professor can tell you whether your statement would let a reader picture your first two years.

14. 14

    Who should write my letters, and what should I give them?

    The strongest letter comes from whoever supervised your most substantial work, not the most senior person who knows your name. Ask what materials they want from you and how far ahead, since that is also the answer for your own request.

15. 15

    How do your students support themselves over the summer?

    Many stipends cover nine months, and the summer gap is a recurring source of debt that nobody mentions at open days. The answer tells you whether summer funding is routine, competitive, or left to the student.

16. 16

    Where have your former students ended up?

    Ask about everyone who started, not the successes. A professor who can trace an entire cohort is being honest about attrition, and the destinations tell you what a degree from this lab or department is worth in practice.

17. 17

    Have any of your students left partway through, and what happened to them?

    Attrition is normal and rarely discussed. What matters is whether the department treated leaving as a failure or helped them land somewhere, and whether the professor speaks about those students with any bitterness.

18. 18

    What is the market like in this field right now, for the kind of job I want?

    Ask for their own read rather than a general statement, and ask what has changed in the last five years. A professor who has recently sat on a hiring committee sees the applicant pool, which is the number that actually matters.

19. 19

    What do you wish you had asked before you started?

    This turns the conversation from advice into recollection, which is usually where the specifics live. Answers often involve money, geography, or the assumption that the work would resemble undergraduate study.

20. 20

    Would you be able to write me a strong letter?

    The word strong is doing the work. It gives a professor who cannot support you a graceful way to say so, which is far better information than a lukewarm letter you never see. Ask in person if you can, and accept a hesitation as an answer.