Questions to Ask Program Directors
A set of questions to put to every program director you meet, phrased so that cohort size, cost, completion time, support, and outcomes can be compared across programs on the same terms.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How many people started your most recent cohort, and how many are still in it?
Why ask it
Asking for both figures gives you a retention number you can hold beside every other program you visit. Directors who answer with a percentage rather than two counts are usually quoting a figure from a good year.
Who do you consider your closest comparators?
Why ask it
Directors know exactly who they lose applicants to, and naming them is a sign of confidence. The list is also the fastest way to find programs you had not heard of that suit you better.
If someone chose a different program over yours, on what grounds would that be the right call?
Why ask it
A director who can describe the applicant they are not right for is telling you the truth about their design. An answer insisting they suit everyone means you will have to find the mismatch yourself.
What is the cost for the full program, and what does that figure exclude?
Why ask it
Comparing programs on tuition alone is misleading once travel, materials, exam fees, and unpaid placement time are counted. Ask each director for the same total so the numbers line up.
How long does it actually take people to finish?
Why ask it
Advertised length and typical length diverge in most part-time and research-based programs. The gap, in months, is a cost you can compare directly across your shortlist.
How do you decide who gets in, and what does a borderline application look like?
Why ask it
This tells you where to put your effort, and whether the process rewards experience, grades, or a specific prerequisite. It also reveals how selective the program really is beneath the headline acceptance rate.
What do your graduates do in the year after finishing, and how do you know?
Why ask it
The second half matters more. Outcomes drawn from a voluntary survey with a low response rate flatter the program. Ask what share of leavers they actually heard from.
Which part of the program do students find hardest, and why?
Why ask it
Every director can name it if they are paying attention, and the answers vary enough between programs to be genuinely comparable: a statistics module, a first rotation, a capstone with an external client.
What support exists for someone who falls behind, and who delivers it?
Why ask it
A named person with allocated time is different from a signpost to a central service. Ask how many people used it last year, since a support route nobody uses is often unusable.
How much of the schedule is fixed in advance, and how far ahead do people see it?
Why ask it
This decides whether you can hold a job, arrange childcare, or plan anything. Programs that publish late are usually short of staff, and that shortage shows up elsewhere too.
How much of the teaching team has changed in the past two years?
Why ask it
You are buying access to people, and turnover changes what you get halfway through. Ask who taught the core courses two years ago and who teaches them now. Directors who have just lost or gained several staff will usually say so if asked plainly.
What do you ask your own students each year, and what did they tell you last time?
Why ask it
A director who quotes their own survey back to you, including the criticism, is running the program on evidence. One who cannot recall a single complaint is either not asking or not reading the answers.
What has the program stopped doing recently?
Why ask it
Additions are easy to talk about and cost nothing to promise. Removals show real decisions and real constraints, and they tell you what is no longer considered worth teaching.
How is my work assessed, and by whom?
Why ask it
Whether assessment is by exam, portfolio, or supervisor judgement changes what kind of person does well, and whether a single individual's opinion determines your result.
What happens to someone who decides partway through that this is not for them?
Why ask it
Withdrawal terms, refunds, and whether credit transfers anywhere are settled in advance and rarely volunteered. A calm, specific answer suggests the program has handled it without acrimony.
What are your obligations to me if the program is restructured or closed?
Why ask it
Programs do close, and institutions usually have a stated commitment to teach out an existing cohort. Knowing whether that commitment exists here is worth a minute of an interview.
Who could I talk to who has no reason to sell the program to me?
Why ask it
Named alumni who have already left, or an external examiner, or a former student who withdrew. Reluctance to offer anyone outside the recruitment pipeline is itself an answer.
What do you need from applicants that you rarely get?
Why ask it
It is a practical question dressed as a favor, and the answer often tells you what to put in your application, or what preparation to do first.
What would you change about the program if the budget allowed?
Why ask it
This surfaces the constraint the program is actually operating under: staffing, facilities, contact hours. Compare answers across programs and you learn which are stretched and which are stable.
If I accept a place, what should I do between now and starting?
Why ask it
A specific list, a text, a software tool, a refresher course, means the program has thought about how people arrive ready. A shrug means the first weeks will sort the prepared from the rest.
Comparing programs on the same terms
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Making answers comparable
Ask every director the identical question
Rewording between conversations produces answers you cannot line up. Keep the exact phrasing for the four or five questions you intend to compare on.
Insist on counts, not percentages
Twenty-two of twenty-six is a fact. Eighty-five percent could be from a different year or a different denominator. Write down the raw numbers as you hear them.
Record the answer the same day
By the third visit, programs blend together and you will attribute one director's good answer to another. A page per program, filled in the same evening, prevents this.
Note the non-answers
An evasion on cost or attrition is a data point. Keep a column for questions that were not answered, and follow up in writing where the answer matters.
What to compare on
- 1Cohort size at start and cohort size now
- 2Typical time to completion against advertised length
- 3Full cost, including items outside tuition
- 4Named support for falling behind, and how many used it
- 5Where recent leavers went, and what share responded to the survey
- 6How far ahead the schedule is published
- 7Whether you were offered anyone independent to speak to
What skews a comparison
Being persuaded by the person, not the program
A warm, articulate director may not be teaching you, and may not be there next year. Ask who you will actually deal with week to week.
Letting the last visit dominate
Recency weighs heavily on this kind of decision. Reread your earlier notes before you rank anything, ideally a few days after the final visit.
Comparing prestige instead of provision
Institutional reputation is easy to compare and often unrelated to the quality of one program inside it. Compare staffing, contact hours, and outcomes instead.