(Collected or developed by Vanessa Sun)

These questions are focused on STEM based PhD programs, but may also be helpful for MS students and non-STEM disciplines. You should also create school-specific or advisor-specific questions for each category. The * marks those that people have complimented me on as being particularly interesting or unique to answer. The ** marks those that I feel are most important to ask.

Questions for Potential Advisor

• Research
  • How do your collaborations usually start?
  • How often do you collaborate with people from different institutions?
  • Tell me how your research interests have changed over time and what prompted the changes in themes, questions, etc.
  • What are your current research interests and what are your upcoming projects? ** [It’s kind of implied that you have some sense of what kind of research they do, but they may have funding for projects that isn’t advertised on their website]
  • Tell me about the diversity in the kinds of projects that people in your group work on [do all the students just focus on one topic?] **
  • Do you feel pressured to solve more problems that affect the world today? Have you embraced this or is this more difficult for you to do? [for those who do more theoretical work]
  • What does work from home flexibility look like for you?
  • Are there classes that I should take to work with you? **
• Student-advisor relationship
  • Publication expectations (quantity) **
  • Time to graduation? **
  • Describe your mentorship style & philosophy **
  • What does a typical week look like for one of your students, and do you have specific demands about when and how they come in, do lab work, do field work?
  • How do you train your students to be progressively more and more independent throughout the course of the PhD? *
  • I talked to a graduate student a while back who said they were feeling unmotivated because they were being funded for a project they were not interested in. The student wanted to do research on something else, if possible. They sought the opinion of two professors. One said they would help the student find funding for that passion project and encouraged them to find funding to do this, even if their graduation would be delayed. The other said that they should just do the funded project, get their publications, and graduate. What kind of professor would you be in this situation and why?
  • What do you think you would consider a “successful” graduate student? *
  • Can you talk about your expectations for students overall? **
  • What were some of the issues you had with students in the past?
  • How have you handled your students failing at something or not making as much progress in their work as you expected?
  • Have your students failed quals before? Why? What have you done to support them? Did any of your students quit because of it?
  • How do you think your relationship with your students changes from the early stages of the PhD to later stages? *
  • For your students who dropped out of the program, what were the reasons?
• Financial
  • What do you expect your funding situation to look like for the next 5 years? What are the typical funding sources for your lab and research? What does the grant submission process look like for you? **
  • How does funding work if I got something like the GRFP, since the stipend for the fellowship is lower than the typical fellowship?
  • What does funding look like for you if students want to TA?
  • What does Year 6 funding look like? **
• Post-grad/Career Development
  • What are the typical conferences your students attend and how often do they go? What is your financial situation for students attending these conferences? **
  • Do you occasionally send along opportunities that you hear about to your students?
  • Have any of your students done internships over the summer? **
  • Have any of your students won the NSF GRFP? Other fellowships?
  • Do you keep in contact with former students?
  • Would you prefer your students go into academia?
  • Did you always want to be a professor and why?
  • What do you like best about being a professor? What do you dislike the most?
  • Do you like teaching? How have you pushed yourself to become a better educator over the years?
  • For your students that want to go into academia, how have you guided them into learning what it takes to secure employment?
• Opinions
  • How do you feel about DEI work in STEM? What do you participate in?
  • How do you feel about science communication?
  • How do you feel about your students doing DEI work in STEM and science communication?
• Why did you decide to study [discipline] in the first place? What convinced you to continue to graduate school?
• Why did you decide to become a researcher?
• What do you do outside of your work? [to get a sense of who they are as a person, if they have a life outside of their research]*

Questions for Professors (non-advisor)

• How do the women faculty feel about being the gender minority in the department?
• Any women of color faculty?
• What changes do you expect in the department over the next 5-10 years? This can be about anything you think will happen

Questions for program

• What happens regarding funding if students take longer than 5 years to graduate? **
• Program attrition rate & the common reasons why people leave **
• Do people fail qualifying exams? **
  • What support system is in place to help those who fail them? *
• DEI Initiatives
  • What are your plans for increasing both recruitment & retention of underrepresented minority students
  • What are some changes you have implemented in the last year?
• What changes do you expect in the department over the next 5-10 years? This can be about anything you think will happen *
• Do grad students go through any training for being a better TA?
• What kind of support do first years have for succeeding academically/transitioning into graduate school? *
• How big are the class sizes?
• What classes do students usually TA for?
• What are the typical jobs that alumni go into? **
• What kinds of seminars, outreach events, social events, etc. are there for students to get involved in? **
• Are there opportunities to engage with schools nearby? [if relevant]

Questions for Advisor’s Graduate (and Former Graduate) Students

• Research/Career
  • How often do you meet with your advisor? **
  • Class selection process?
  • Tell me about the projects you worked on and if they’ve been motivated by your interests or mostly by your advisor?
  • When things were mostly remote this pandemic, what did you work on?
  • Have you done any internships/summer programs? Do you know students who have? Did your advisor encourage this? **
  • How has your advisor been supportive of your career goals?
  • Conferences attended?
  • What was the origin story of your thesis project? What was the advisor’s role in you doing this project?
  • Has it been difficult to deal with the pressure from your advisor? In terms of publishing expectations? *
• Student-AdvisorRelationship
  • How did the advisor help you find a job?
  • What does feedback from your advisor look like? *
  • Best/worst things about advisor
  • What have you liked/disliked about working the advisor?
  • I saw a tweet that said to consider how your advisor would support you on your worst day. What did your worst day look like in the lab or during your PhD and how did your advisor support you? *
  • Does your advisor check in with you if you’ve been a bit out of touch? How do they express concern for your wellbeing?
  • Top 3 adjectives to describe your advisor?
  • How do you think your relationship with the advisor has changed over the course of the PhD?**
  • For post-grads: Does your advisor still mentor you? What is your relationship like once you’ve graduated?
• How long did it take you to graduate and why? How did your advisor play a role in that? **
• How do you like the size of your group? **
• Have you been de-motivated working on a project you’re not that interested in? If so, what did you do? *
  • How did your advisor feel about you feeling de-motivated on a project?

Questions for General Grad Students/Postdocs/Research Scientists

• If one or more of the schools you applied to is an elite school: *
  • Has it been difficult to deal with the pressure of going to this school?
  • Do you think the School X name opens doors that you wouldn’t have elsewhere?
• Life
  • Can you tell me about the graduate student union?
  • What do you do outside of your research? Do you participate in clubs? **
  • Where do you live? How do you feel about your living situation? **
  • How is the health insurance? How are the mental health services? **
  • Do you ever have to work weekends? Tell me about the work/life balance. **
  • How do you feel about [location of school]?
• Career
  • How has/did the department help you find an internship/job/opportunities? **
  • Have students done any internships? **
  • What do summers look like? **
  • If you wanted to start an activity, such as starting a seminar, what is that process like? Do people support you in doing those things? Is there money? *
  • Have you had opportunities to mentor undergraduate students? What did that look like?
  • What classes did you TA/teach?
  • What are your career goals (professor, industry, government, etc.)? Has that changed since you started the PhD? *
• Relationship/Culture
  • Have you experienced any sexism, harassment, discrimination from professors or other graduate students? **
  • Do you know of any instances of harassment in the department? If so, how was it handled?
  • Did you get imposter syndrome and how did you deal with it? **
  • Do you feel like you can be honest with your cohort when you’re struggling?
  • Do you think the department is diverse and what is the department doing to make it more diverse?
  • Best and worst interactions you’ve had with professors in the department
  • Is there anyone I shouldn’t trust/shouldn’t have in my committee? *
  • Classes you didn’t like, classes you liked
  • Who in the department supports you besides your advisor and how? **
  • Are your friends mostly in the program or are they friends you made elsewhere? **
  • Are you happy?
  • What is your relationship like with your advisor?
• If you could do your PhD over again, what would you do differently? *
• Why did you choose this school over your other options? *
• Why did you want to do a PhD and did that change over time? *
• On the days you wanted to quit, what were the reasons why? And what made you stay? **
• How would you describe [advisor], if you know them?
• If you could change one thing about the department, what would it be?
• What is your relationship like with your office mates?
• For students who came from other disciplines [only if relevant **]:
  • Why did you choose your sub-discipline?
  • What did you do to catch up?
  • How did you get past feeling overwhelmed by how new everything is?
  • Did you feel like your background made you better at some things than your peers?
• DEI Initiatives:
  • What contributions have you made?
  • What do you think the department can improve on?
  • What has the department been actively working to improve on?
• Science Communication:
  • What contributions have you made?
  • Do you know anyone who is particularly excited about SciComm in the department?
• For BIPOC: **
  • What microaggressions have you experienced from your classmates? Anything more serious than that?
  • What microaggressions have you experienced from faculty? Anything more serious than that?
  • Do you feel generally safe in the department?
  • Do you feel safe on campus?
  • Do you feel safe off-campus?
  • Have you joined any student groups to feel more connected with your community?
• General PhD advice? **

Visit Weekend Advice

• Pay attention to how the other students make you feel