Questions to Ask School
Questions for a prospective student comparing colleges or programmes. They cover who teaches the classes, whether courses are available when you need them, the real cost and how aid renews, support services, and what graduates actually do.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Who teaches first-year classes in my subject: faculty, adjuncts, or graduate students?
Why ask it
Introductory teaching is often delivered by graduate instructors or part-time staff, which is not necessarily worse but is not what most brochures imply. Ask for the proportion in your department rather than across the institution.
How big is a typical class in my first year, and in my final year?
Why ask it
These two numbers are usually very different, and the gap tells you when you start getting attention from staff. A single institution-wide average hides both ends.
How many students who start this programme finish it, and how long does it take them?
Why ask it
Completion rate and time to degree together expose bottlenecks. A four-year programme that most people finish in five costs an extra year of fees and a year of earnings.
If a required course is full, what happens to my graduation date?
Why ask it
Course availability is the most common hidden cause of delay. Ask which required courses fill up and whether your cohort is guaranteed a place in sequence.
What does a full year cost, including housing, fees, books and equipment?
Why ask it
Published tuition is not the price. Ask for a total, plus the typical annual increase, then compare offers on that number rather than on the headline.
What's the average debt of a graduate from this programme?
Why ask it
This figure is often already collected and it grounds a decision that is otherwise made on atmosphere and a campus tour.
How does my aid package change after the first year?
Why ask it
Packages often shrink as one-off scholarships end. Ask what renews automatically, what the academic conditions are, and what a single bad semester would cost you.
What do graduates of this programme do a year after leaving, and how do you know?
Why ask it
Outcome claims need a method behind them. Ask what share of the class responded to the survey, because a statistic drawn from a quarter of graduates tells you very little.
Which employers recruited here last year?
Why ask it
Named employers from a specific year is a verifiable answer where strong industry links is not. Ask where that recruiting physically happens and who is eligible to attend.
How do students find internships: does the department place them, or is it on me?
Why ask it
Support ranges from a genuine pipeline with named partners to a login for a job board. This decides whether your second summer is spent in your field or not.
What academic support exists, and what does a student have to do to get it?
Why ask it
Support that exists but must be sought out is used mostly by students who are already coping. Ask whether help is offered automatically after a poor grade or only on request.
How long is the wait to see a counsellor at the health service?
Why ask it
Wait times are the most practical measure of student health provision, and they range from days to most of a term. Ask a current student the same question separately.
How do academic accommodations work, and who arranges them?
Why ask it
The process requires documentation and lead time, and the office's responsiveness matters more than the written policy. Ask what the deadline is each term and what happens if you miss it.
How easy is it to change major, and what would I lose?
Why ask it
Many students change direction. Whether credits carry across departments, and whether the change adds a year, differs sharply between schools and is rarely volunteered.
Can undergraduates do research with faculty, and how do students get those places?
Why ask it
Undergraduate research is often available but allocated informally, which favours students who knew to ask in their first term. Find out the mechanism now rather than later.
What's the housing situation after first year?
Why ask it
Guaranteed accommodation usually covers the first year only. Ask what second-year students actually do, what it costs off campus, and how far out they end up living.
Who would my adviser be, how often would we meet, and can I change them?
Why ask it
Advising shapes course choices, deadlines and graduation timing. Ask how many students each adviser carries, and whether switching requires a reason.
What do students here complain about most?
Why ask it
Complaints are specific in a way that praise never is: registration, parking, one department, the food, the wifi. It is the fastest route to what daily life is like.
Why do students who leave this school leave?
Why ask it
Departure reasons are the institution's own quality data: cost, distance from home, a course sequence that failed, a difficult first year. A school that has never asked is a warning in itself.
Can I sit in on a class in my subject and talk to a final-year student?
Why ask it
Almost everything above is answered better by a final-year student in your department than by an admissions officer. How readily the school arranges it is also an answer.
Comparing schools properly
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask the department, not only admissions
Admissions offices know the process, the aid and the campus. They usually do not know who teaches second-year seminars, which required course is a bottleneck, or where last year's graduates went. Email the department directly and ask for ten minutes with a faculty member or the undergraduate coordinator. The willingness to make that happen is itself a useful comparison between schools.
Verify the numbers yourself
- Look for published completion and outcome data rather than accepting a figure quoted on a tour.
- Ask for programme-level numbers, since institution-wide averages hide enormous variation between departments.
- Use the school's own cost calculator, then add travel home, equipment and the annual fee increase.
- Ask what percentage of graduates responded to any employment survey being quoted at you.
- Write the same three numbers down for every school you are considering so the comparison is like for like.
Ask each office what only it can answer
- Admissions: deadlines, deposits, transfer credit, what an offer commits you to.
- Financial aid: renewal conditions in writing, what happens after a bad semester, how outside scholarships affect the package.
- The department: teaching staff, course availability, research places, where graduates go.
- A final-year student: whether the timetable works, which requirements trap people, what they would do differently.
- Housing: what is guaranteed, for how long, and what students do afterwards.
On a campus visit
- Go on a teaching day, not an open day, and sit in on a class in your subject.
- Eat where students eat and read the noticeboards, which advertise the real social life of the place.
- Ask two or three students the complaints question. The overlap between their answers is the truth.
- Walk from the furthest residence to the department at the time your earliest class would start.
- Visit the library and the labs during ordinary hours to see how crowded they get.
Before you accept an offer
- Get aid terms and renewal conditions in writing, including the grade requirements attached to any scholarship.
- Confirm exactly which credits transfer if you arrive with any, in writing from the department.
- Check housing guarantees, deposit deadlines and refund dates, since these often fall before you have to commit academically.
- Ask what withdrawing in the first term would cost you financially.
- Compare your final shortlist on total four-year cost and completion rate side by side before deciding on feel.