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20 Graduate School Questions To Ask Your Potential Grad School Advisors

Reviewed by David Krug David Krug is a seasoned expert with 20 years in educational technology (EdTech). His career spans the pivotal years of technology integration in education, where he has played a key role in advancing student-centric learning solutions. David's expertise lies in marrying technological innovation with pedagogical effectiveness, making him a valuable asset in transforming educational experiences. As an advisor for enrollment startups, David provides strategic guidance, helping these companies navigate the complexities of the education sector. His insights are crucial in developing impactful and sustainable enrollment strategies.

Updated: June 6, 2024 , Reading time: 16 minutes

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Getting admitted into a grad program is only the beginning of your grad school journey. One of the primary considerations you need to keep in mind is to choose the right advisor. Many graduate students tend to overlook the importance of this choice and focus more on graduate school interviews. However, it, too, is a decision that can make or break your graduate education.

When choosing your graduate school advisor, you have to make sure that you are asking the right questions to gauge whether your prospects are the right fit for your exceptional academic experience and can help you achieve your professional goals.

To ensure the smooth sailing process of selecting a research advisor, you must prepare for graduate school questions beforehand . These questions must help you establish a possible relationship with your advisor, who will play a significant role throughout your graduate school journey.

Why is it Crucial to Choose the Right Advisor?

Your graduate school experience is largely shaped and influenced by your graduate school advisor. A qualified and esteemed advisor will be able to guide you throughout graduate education, from helping you complete your research project to ensuring that your research interests align with your career goals.

Many graduate programs require a thesis or a thesis project , but not all do! However, a graduate advisor can help you with other aspects of your grad school journey.

They are often responsible for giving you exceptional mentoring when you need it and pushing you to work towards your academic goals. They will help you identify and magnify your strengths and develop your weaknesses.

The process of choosing a graduate advisor can be daunting for graduate students, but it can get easier if you know what you are looking for in an advisor. You can keep the following things in mind when you are looking for an advisor:

Ensure you have mutual research interests.

This is important if you want to gain a better understanding of your research questions and the contribution you are trying to make in the field and successfully complete your research.

You may start by doing basic research on the research interests of the faculty members in your graduate program’s department. It will be helpful to select an advisor who has an active scholarly agenda in the area of your research.

Look into the faculty’s completion track record.

Some advisors may be scholars and outstanding faculty members, but they may not have an excellent track record when it comes to helping their advisees graduate. You may want to find out about the success rate and average time of completion for graduate students who are doing their capstone projects or dissertations.

Make sure you are compatible with your advisor.

It is essential to see yourself being able to spend the next few years working with your potential advisor. This means you must at least find an advisor whose personality is compatible with yours to some degree. After all, you will be working closely with this individual.

What You Need to Do Before the Grad School Interviews

A campus visit is often given as an opportunity for graduate students to get to know the graduate school before they get admitted. It is also a chance to get the feel of their particular program, faculty members, and potential advisors. You may want to check whether your graduate program has several aligned professors to serve as a safeguard.

An interview with a faculty member may be in order during this visit. It is also possible to set up an appointment beforehand with a faculty member you think might be a good fit as your graduate school advisor. This means you can ask them grad school interview questions to help you make an important decision.

But before you can get into interview day , you must first make sure you conduct initial research on potential advisors’ backgrounds, published work, and other information that you can look up beforehand.

You can also find out how current graduate students have made their decisions, so reaching out to them can also be a good idea. They must have insights into specific schools, graduate programs, labs, projects, and other opportunities that you may not be aware of yet.

Other Sources of Information

A good student not only asks the right questions (and asks them the right way) but also looks for all the sources of information they can find on their potential advisors. After all, not all graduate programs can offer the best options for you.

While a University’s website can offer useful preliminary information like a faculty member’s specialty topics and expertise, they may not necessarily answer all your questions. Some of these sites can be too sparse, after all.

If possible, another potentially good source of information is to ask alumni who have been advisees of the potential advisors you have in mind and present graduate students who are part of research groups you may potentially belong to soon.

By reaching out to them—either formally or in less formal settings—you can potentially get insights about a professor/professors that you may have in mind, such as management styles, their field/s of expertise, the overall culture in their research group, and more.

This may be more research-intensive, but it pays to look at past alumni’s research work and theses/dissertations. This can also give you a big-picture view of the overall intellectual direction, as well as the topics/areas that are discussed or not discussed, giving you an insight into the expertise of a department’s faculty where you’ll be choosing your potential advisor.

Graduate School Interview Questions to Ask Potential Advisors

It might not be possible to cover all the interview questions that are integral when it comes to choosing your potential grad school advisor, but the following lists include general questions that are often asked about and interview questions that go beyond the surface-level information.

Questions to Ask in the Initial Meeting

Do you think we have mutual research interests?

It is crucial to find out whether your potential advisor’s and your research interests are a good match . This ensures your goals fit with their knowledge and expertise, and they can better help you with the direction of your graduate school requirements.

They will understand your challenges and give you the advice and support you need to have a good grad school experience.

What progress do you expect from a student in the course of a semester?

This question isn’t necessarily one of the first ones you’ll be asking, but it is nevertheless important. Your major goals as a graduate student are, of course, tied to the University’s academic calendar, the length of a degree program, and the maximum number of years you are allowed.

However, a potential may also expect you to deliver on specific major milestones in your research.

This can help you plan out your research, especially if your topic requires significant amounts of fieldwork or requires experiments that take specific lengths of time to conduct and accomplish.  

Knowing your advisor’s expected research progress can give you an insight into how they will handle your progress during the evaluation period. How are they going to guide you when you are thriving or struggling? It is vital that you understand specific milestones that you need to work towards.

Are you currently open to taking students in?

This is a no-brainer for most students, but this is one of the most crucial initial questions to ask. It also doesn’t hurt to follow up with why this is the case if the answer is no. For one reason or another, some professors may not be open to taking on a new student.

Are there other faculty you think I’d be a good match for?

At the graduate level, University departments tend to be tight-knit communities. Barring any potential issues of rivalry and internal politics between faculty members (which does happen), a potential advisor who can’t take you in may have someone else in the department in mind whom they feel will be a better fit for you.

What is the advisor’s formal training/background/Ph.D.?

You will have gained an initial picture of this at your pre-interview preparatory research stage, but it is always much better to hear it from the potential advisors themselves. Knowing their academic backgrounds helps you understand the approaches they tend to take to research problems.

Questions to Ask to Ensure the Right Student-Advisor Fit

Do you think you are more of a ‘hands-on’ or ‘hands-off’ advisor?

This question may sound a bit nuanced, but understanding the guiding style of your potential advisor can help you adjust your expectations or reflect on the guidance you may need. It also helps you suss out your potential advisor’s management style.

It’s up to you as a student whether your working style fits their approach, whether they tend to keep a close eye on their advisees or give them a lot of wiggle room. In the extreme, working with a hands-on advisor may feel stuffy, and hands-off advisors may feel too distant and absent.

Ultimately, it is a good time for you to think about how you would want to be guided. You may prefer going away from meetings with a set of tasks that you have decided with your advisor during your meeting. You may also want to be free to work out different methods without that much pressure from your advisor.

Some advisors may have more time to be as hands-on as possible, especially with pre-tenured professors. Students may find themselves working directly with their advisors multiple times a week.

They may also be able to collaborate on funding-related tasks. Students working under tenured professors, on the other hand, may only get to have a weekly or bi-weekly meeting with their advisor.

What qualities do you value most in a graduate student?

To establish a working relationship, you may want to ask your potential advisor this question. They may be particular about timeliness and punctuality.

They may have a very structured way of doing things, so you must be mindful of meeting deadlines and following through with your progress. You may need keen attention to detail and the ability to think for yourself.

What is the best way to get in touch?

Some graduate program faculty may have their preferred channel of communication. It is vital to establish this with your potential choice first, as this will dictate how your communication process will unfold in the long run.

You will want to stick to a particular medium to avoid confusion and ensure you are both on the same page. This will make sure your advisor will be able to get your messages and other questions promptly.

How often do you expect to meet, talk, or email? Is there a way to establish a periodic communication schedule?

Another consideration when it comes to communicating with your graduate program advisor is to set expectations around your meetings.

Establishing a workable periodic communication schedule can help you manage your time properly and effectively. This ensures you won’t miss any communication exchanges with your particular advisor.

How often do you meet individually with your students?

If you wish to negotiate your communication schedule with your advisor, asking them the frequency with which they meet their students and fellows can give you a feel about their preferences and style, prompting you to adjust your own expectations and demands.

It will be easier to compromise if you know what is on their plate and how their routine usually goes.

What is the culture in your research group?

Research groups are collaborative spaces for students and faculty members working on similar, complementary, and/or parallel research areas. A culture of regular communication between its members is de rigueur .

It is important early on to know the level of depth to which you are expected to work with other researchers in the group, any specific practices, protocols, or procedures, as well as any inputs or deliverables that may be expected of you.

Does your research group have regular group meetings? If so, how frequently?

This question eventually ties into knowing the overall management style that your potential advisor prefers, whether they tend to be hands-on with their students or more lenient. It also ties into the question of a particular research group’s culture.

This will help you be better prepared with any required output or create meaningful input for your co-researchers when these meetings are due. That way, you don’t go to meetings empty-handed, and a research group’s members can mutually maximize their time.

If you were doing my intended research topic, what direction would you take ?

This can be a complicated question, and the answer may be nuanced, but it is nevertheless an interesting hypothetical question to ask. You can potentially gain many insights into a professor’s expertise, the areas/subtopics they prefer to dwell on, and more.

This question also connects well with their past research, which you may have already learned about while at the preparatory stage.

What kind of student progress do you expect throughout the semester?

This question isn’t necessarily one of the first ones you’ll be asking, but it is nevertheless important. Your primary goals as a graduate student are, of course, tied to the University’s academic calendar, the length of a degree program, and the maximum number of years you are allowed.

However, a potential may also expect you to deliver on significant milestones in your research.

What conferences/how many conferences are we expected to work towards every year?

This question ties into the overall image of a particular research group’s culture. Graduate student conferences are major highlights of a student’s time in graduate school.

These events provide students with an excellent opportunity to present their work, as well as learn any new advances in their fields of interest (including those that may have direct implications on their research) and potentially network with their fellow scholars.

These conferences need good preparation, and the lead-up to a particular one can be a stressful time. Also, your potential advisor may prefer a particular set of conferences over others.

It is crucial to ask this in advance to anticipate any goals or deliverables, as well as make all the necessary preparations, from your output to registering and submitting in advance, as well as cost considerations.

How do you motivate your students if they are struggling?

This question provides insight into their management style. Graduate-level scholarly work is highly rewarding, but like anything, there will be highs and lows throughout the process. A graduate student may invariably have to go through a rough patch or two.

Knowing your potential advisor’s approach to keeping their advisees motivated helps you see whether they will be an excellent complement to your preferred style of working and handling any struggles.

Mentorship has a bit of a parenting aspect to it, after all, and it is important to gain insight into a potential mentor’s approach to this inevitability.

Questions to Ask to Check if Your Research Interests Fit

Are there projects that you picture me working on and being good at?

Scouting specific projects in a lab is one of the things graduate students usually do. It won’t hurt to ask this directly from your advisor. You can ask about the projects they are working on and whether you might be a good fit to work with them.

Some advisors may tend to give students projects to work on. They might prefer you to work on a funding-related project occasionally.

How much freedom will I have in choosing my own projects?

At times, professors allow graduate students to select projects of their own. This is important if you have something in mind that you are planning to work on. This way, you can determine if they will be willing to support your future ideas in a specific direction.

Do you provide the students with their projects, or can they pick their own?

As a potential incoming member of a professor’s research group under a potential advisor, it is also essential to know this in advance. They may have a pre-existing research area in mind that they want to address and are thinking of assigning to an incoming student, or they may also prefer to work with what you bring to the table.

Knowing this helps you anticipate potentially working on topics that may not entirely align with what you have in mind.

Do you have other students in mind with whom you are interested in working? What would they be working on for their projects?

It’s safe to say that for a specific academic year, you wouldn’t have been the first student to approach the professor you are interested in working with. Other students may have already come to them with research problems that they find interesting or that they deem to fit into the overall direction of their research group.

These ideas may or may not be similar or parallel to yours, and this will help you answer the question of the best-fitting professor who can adequately guide you on your work. This can also give you an idea of other incoming students who may become part of the same research group as you, students whom you will eventually collaborate with.

Would I be able to contribute to an important project through my own line of work?

Some professors may prefer to pair first-year students with senior graduate students. You might need to work with a group as part of a large collaboration. Knowing how much interaction is expected and how much it will determine your research project can help you adapt your thinking accordingly.

It is also worth asking who gets specific responsibilities on a project and what contributions you will be expected to make.

Additional Resources:

• Graduate School Must-Haves for First Time Grad Students
• Free Research Tools for Grad Students
• The Best Apps for Grad Students
• Should You Take A Break from Grad School?

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We’re certain of one thing—your search for more information on picking the best graduate degree or school landed you here. Let our experts help guide your through the decision making process with thoughtful content written by experts.

Questions to Ask a Potential PhD Advisor: Step 1 in Applying to Fully Funded PhD Programs

By ProFellow Founder, Dr. Vicki Johnson

One of the big “unspoken” steps in applying successfully to PhD programs is conducting faculty outreach before applying. This step is necessary to find research alignment with a faculty member or members who might serve as your PhD advisor if you are accepted to the program, and necessary to ensure you’ll receive adequate support! PhD advisors are faculty members who will serve on your dissertation committee and will be officially responsible for advising you throughout your graduate school career. You want to identify potential faculty mentors before applying because your relationship with them will be pivotal to your success as a graduate student. They will meet with you regularly to give you feedback, guidance, and support on your research dissertation, and so it’s important that your PhD advisor has similar academic research interests.

I advise PhD applicants in my Fully Funded Course and Mentorship Program to speak with potential advisors as soon as possible in the graduate school application process. Outreach is step 1. But once you have a meeting set with a potential PhD advisor, you might be thinking – what now?!

Knowing where you start with contacting potential advisors can be daunting and intimidating–especially if you don’t know the questions to ask! Here is a step-by-step guide to get started.

How to Find Potential PhD Advisors

It’s not always obvious which faculty members will be available to serve as your PhD advisor. I provide some tips in this article on how to find your ideal PhD advisor using Google Scholar . But before sending off cold emails to faculty it can be prudent to first ask the Admissions contact (typically the Department Chair) for some guidance. Here are two questions to ask:

• Which faculty members will be advising incoming PhD students?
• Would it be ok if I reached out to faculty in the Department directly to discuss my proposed dissertation topic? 

Next you might be wondering, if I set up these meetings, what questions should I ask potential PhD advisors? Let’s discuss the goals of these meetings and specific questions you can ask.

Goals of Your Meeting with a Potential PhD Advisor

Here are the goals you should have set for your meetings with potential PhD advisors.

#1 Identify dissertation topics of interest to the faculty

You may have many ideas, or one specific idea, for the subject of your future PhD dissertation research. But it’s important that you identify faculty members at PhD programs who would be enthusiastic about supporting your proposed research. You can share your broad ideas for research topics that interest you, but it is in your best interest to ask these scholarly experts what innovative topics interest them. They will know the current research landscape and what topics will be of interest to the discipline and to funding bodies. So first, you’ll want to use this opportunity to learn more about their research interests and recent publications.

#2 Identify sources of funding

Often, faculty are pursuing research in response to funding opportunities from external sources like government, corporate and non-profit grants. Often, faculty will use large grant funding sources to provide full funding packages to their selected PhD students. Therefore, it’s important for you to know what research topics are of interest to funding bodies, so that you can achieve funding from the university as a graduate student! Many PhD programs offer full funding , which provides a stipend and a tuition waiver in exchange for taking on some teaching or research duties. Full funding offered by the university is THE way to fully fund your PhD, as there are very limited sources of external funding that you can apply for to cover your tuition and living expenses.

# 3 Build rapport

These meetings will also help you determine if the faculty member is a good fit for you and will be supportive and inspiring to work with. In addition, they may advocate for your acceptance if you build goodwill and rapport with them.

How to Prepare for a Meeting with a Potential PhD Advisor

Before your meeting, be sure to review their university profile and recent research publications. You can check out the faculty’s university profile as well as their profile on Google Scholar, if they have one. Also r eview which students they currently supervise and their dissertation topics, if possible. Often current PhD students are featured on the university’s website with name of their faculty supevisor. You might also want to investigate the university’s website for any news about major research grants awarded in the last 3 years, which might give you some clues about funding sources for the PhD students there. 

Questions to Ask a Potential PhD Advisor

• What areas of research can I get involved in as a graduate student within this program? OR Does my proposed research subject align with the interest areas of you and other faculty in the program?
• Are there any research topics that I should consider for my dissertation proposal? What research topics would meet an urgent need or would address a timely issue in the discipline?
• What type of methods are your PhD students using in their research? Do any of the current students have a particularly interesting approach to the research that they’re doing?
• Is there anything you recommend I do to ensure I would be eligible to receive funding if am I accepted to the program?
• Are there any students that you recommend that I speak to for insights on the PhD program? 

What if Faculty Don’t Respond to Meeting Requests?

Sometimes faculty to do not respond to initial outreach emails. There are numerous potential reasons for this – including that they are extremely busy with current students, or you did not provide enough information about yourself or did not ask a specific question, or the Department has a blanket policy on communicating with aspiring applicants, or they simply didn’t see your email or forgot to respond. A non-response from any graduate school contact does not equate to rejection. Let me repeat. Non-response does NOT mean rejection!

For those not hearing back , I can tell you with certainty that the lack of a response is NOT the result of someone who doesn’t appreciate your email. Consider with empathy that your email message may be a low priority among a huge list of demands. Politely follow-up in one week’s time, but don’t take it personally if you don’t hear back! Instead, contact the Admissions or Department Chair to find out the best way to connect with faculty in the Department for the next steps, and also be sure to attend program information sessions that may be offer.

Best of luck! The ProFellow community is rooting for you!

Applying to graduate school and seeking full funding opportunities? Get our FREE 73-page Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards listing 1,000+ programs here!

Dr. Vicki Johnson is Founder and CEO of ProFellow, the world’s leading online resource for professional and academic fellowships. She is a four-time fellow, top Ph.D. scholar, Fulbright recipient and an award-winning social entrepreneur. She is the Creator and Director of  Fully Funded , an award-winning online course and mentorship program for graduate school applicants seeking to find and win full funding. 

© Victoria Johnson / ProFellow, LLC 2021, all rights reserved.

Related Posts:

• How To Contact a Potential PhD Advisor
• Questions to Ask Admissions When Applying to Master's and PhD Programs
• How to Find Your Ideal PhD Supervisor Using Google Scholar
• 5 Ways Undergrads Can Prepare for Competitive Fellowships
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/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="questions to ask potential research advisor"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Advising guide for research students.

Success as a graduate student is a shared responsibility between students and faculty. For research students, the relationship with your research advisor, also known as your special committee chair, is extremely important. 

Your responsibility to identify and choose an advisor is one of the most critical tasks you have early in your graduate school career. It’s an opportunity to meet and get to know faculty in your field, to assess your needs for support and supervision, and to collaboratively define your goals, values, and strategic plan for your academic and professional career.

Graduate School Requirement

At Cornell, the faculty advisor in research degree programs is referred to as the special committee chair.

Doctoral students have a special committee of at least three Cornell faculty, which includes the special committee chair and two minor committee members.

Master’s students have a special committee of at least two Cornell faculty, which includes the special committee chair and one minor member.

For both doctoral and master’s degree students, the special committee chair must be a graduate faculty member in the student’s own field.

Definition of an Advisor

Advising  and  mentoring  are often used interchangeably, but understanding the distinctions is important as you choose an advisor.

Advisor Responsibilities

• Guides you in meeting the requirements and expectations for your degree
• Required coursework
• Exams required by the graduate field or the Graduate School
• Research proposal/prospectus
• Research project
• Thesis or dissertation
• Writes informed letters of recommendation for your job applications
• May be a valued colleague or collaborator after you graduate

Mentor Responsibilities

• Provides support and guidance that extends beyond scope of advising
• Demystifies the structure, culture, and unstated expectations of graduate education
• Expands your professional network by introducing you to others
• Provides nominations for awards or other recognitions
• Brings job opportunities to your attention and writes letters of recommendation as you apply for jobs
• Advocates for you within the graduate program and discipline
• May serve as a role model and source of inspiration
• May become a colleague and peer in your discipline and may continue serving a mentoring role

Finding an Advisor

When do i select my first advisor.

At Cornell, the process for obtaining your first advisor varies by field.

Your faculty advisor may be assigned prior to your arrival or you may begin your program with a faculty member you met during the application process.

In some graduate fields, the faculty director of graduate studies (DGS) advises all incoming students. This provides you with time to get to know faculty in your field. By the end of the first semester or year (varying by field), it’s expected that you will have identified your own, long-term advisor. 

In fields where students apply to study with a specific faculty member (rather than do rotations and choose a lab or research group and advisor), you will have chosen an advisor prior to arriving on campus.

You can begin initial conversations about expectations and the advising relationship with your new advisor prior to the start of your program via email.

Start your graduate study and research with clear expectations and thoughtful communication about your plans for an effective advising relationship and success in graduate school.

How do I find an advisor? 

Meet and get to know faculty in your courses and in graduate field seminars and other events.

Talk to advanced students about their experiences and perceptions of the faculty in your programs and ask questions about possible advisors:

• How would you describe their approach to advising?
• What can you tell me about their work style?
• What can you tell me about their research interests?
• How good are their communication skills?
• How clear are their expectations for their graduate students?
• Do they use timeliness in reviewing their students’ writing and their approach to giving feedback?
• How available are they to meet with their graduate students?

After you have gathered information, make an appointment to meet with a potential advisor.

Possible Questions

• Is there a typical timeline you encourage your students to follow in completing their degree programs?
• How often do you meet with your students at different stages of their graduate program? (For example, during coursework, research, and writing stages)
• What are your expectations for students to make conference presentations and submit publications?
• What are your authorship policies? (This is especially relevant in fields where there is collaborative research and publishing involving the student and advisor or a group of students, postdocs, and faculty.)
• How soon should I identify my research project?
• How do you describe the degree of guidance and supervision you provide with regards to your students becoming more independent in their research and scholarship?
• If you are joining a lab or research group: What are the sources of funding for this research? Are there any new or pending research grants?
• How many of your students seek, and secure, external funding? What are your expectations for students to apply for external fellowships?
• Do you have a statement of advising you can share that lists our respective responsibilities and clarifies mutual expectations?
• What’s your advice on how students can manage what they find to be the biggest challenges in their graduate program?

Add other questions to your list based on your own needs and specifics of your program, such as questions about specialized equipment, lab safety, travel to field sites, support and accommodations for special health needs, communication during a faculty member’s sabbatical, funding in fields where there are fewer fellowships and research grants, etc.

Getting Other Mentoring Needs Met

How do i find other mentor(s) .

You may find one faculty member who can serve as both advisor and mentor, but that’s not always the case.

Consider identifying and cultivating additional mentors if that is the case. 

Suggestions on where to look for a mentor:

• The minor members of your special committee
• A faculty member who is not on your committee, and perhaps not even in your graduate field
• Peers and postdoctoral fellows who have knowledge and experience in pertinent issues

No one mentor can meet all your needs.

Good mentors have many protégés and many other demands on their time, such as teaching, research, and university or professional service. They also may not have all the expertise you need, for example, if you decide to search for jobs in multiple employment sectors.

Develop a broad network of mentors whose expertise varies and who provide different functions based on your changing needs as you progress from new student to independent scholar and researcher.

NCFDD offers a webinar, “ Cultivating Your Network of Mentors, Sponsors, and Collaborators “, which students can view after activating a free NCFDD membership through Cornell.

Maximizing the Advising Relationship

A successful relationship with your advisor depends on several different factors and varies with needs and working styles of the individuals. Some of these factors are under your control. But some are not. 

Suggestions for Building a Successful Advising Relationship

• Identify what you need from an advisor.
• Communicate clearly and frequently with your advisor to convey your questions, expectations, goals, challenges, and degree progress. Follow up verbal communication and meetings with an email detailing your understanding of what you both agreed to and next steps.
• Update your written academic plan each semester or whenever major changes or adjustments are needed.
• Consider including your plans to write competitive fellowship applications and co-authored grant proposals.
• Consider including  plans for professional development  that support your skill-building objectives and career goals.
• Recognize that you and your advisor have distinct perspectives, backgrounds, and interests. Share yours. Listen to your advisor’s. There is mutual benefit to sharing and learning from this diversity.
• Work with your advisor to define a regular meeting schedule. Prepare and send written materials in advance of each meeting. These could include: your questions, academic and research plan and timeline, and drafts of current writing projects, such as fellowship applications, manuscripts, or thesis/dissertation chapters.
• Be prepared to negotiate, show flexibility, and compromise, as is important for any successful relationship.
• Be as candid as you are comfortable with about your challenges and concerns. Seek guidance about campus and other resources that can help you manage and address any obstacles.
• Reach out to others for advice. Anticipate challenges and obstacles in your graduate degree program and their impact on the advising relationship.

Be proactive in finding resources and gathering information that can help you and your advisor arrive at solutions to any problems and optimize your time together.

Making Use of Meetings

First meetings.

Your first meeting sets the tone for a productive, satisfying, and enduring relationship with your advisor. Your first meeting is an opportunity to discuss expectations and to review a working draft of your academic plan.

Questions to ask about expectations

• What do your most successful students do to complete their degree on time?
• How often do you want us to meet?
• May I send you questions via email, or do you prefer I just come to your office?
• Would you like weekly (biweekly? monthly?) updates on my research progress?
• Do you prefer reviewing the complete draft of a manuscript or may I send you sections for feedback?
• After each meeting, I’ll make a list of what we each agreed to do before our next meeting, to help me keep moving forward with my research. Would you like a copy of that list, too, via email?

Draft Academic Plan

Prepare and bring a draft plan that outlines your “big picture” plans for your coursework, research, and writing, as well as an anticipated graduation date. (Or, email in advance with a message, such as, “I’m looking forward to meeting with you on [date] at [time], [location]. In advance, I’m sending a copy of my academic plan and proposed schedule for our discussion.”)

Contents of the plan

• Include the requirements and deadlines of your degree program. (This is information you should be able to find online or in your program’s graduate student handbook.)
• Include a general timeline indicating when you plan to meet requirements for courses or seminars, any required papers (such as a second-year paper), exams required by the graduate field (such as the Q exam) or by the Graduate School (the A exam and the B exam for research degree students).
• If your graduate field has a specific set of required courses, indicate the semester you may complete each of them, and be open to suggestions from your advisor.
• If your field does not have required courses, have some idea about the courses you are interested in taking and solicit input and suggestions from your faculty advisor.

Subsequent Meetings

Use each subsequent meeting as an opportunity to update your written academic plan and stay on track to complete your required papers and exams, your research proposal or prospectus, and the chapters or articles that comprise your thesis or dissertation.

In later meetings, you can elaborate on your general initial plan:

• Adding specific coursework or seminars
• Add professional development opportunities that interest you (workshops, dissertation writing boot camp, Summer Success Symposium, Colman Leadership Program, etc.)
• Include intentions to participate in external conferences and travel to research sites
• Identify a semester or summer when you would like to complete an internship.

Your written plan is also important to document what your advisor has agreed to, especially when the deadline to submit a manuscript or your thesis is looming and you are awaiting feedback or approval from your advisor. Use a combination of oral and written communications to stay in touch with your advisor, establish common expectations, and mark your progress toward degree completion.

Meeting Frequency

The frequency of meetings between advisors and advisees varies by field and individual. Assess your own needs and understand your advisor’s expectations for frequency of communication (in person and via email).

• Does your advisor like to provide guidance each step of the way so that he or she is aware of the details of everything you are doing?
• Does your advisor want you to launch your work more independently and report back at pre-determined or regular intervals?
• What do you need to be productive? Are you ready to work more independently?

Be proactive in seeking information. Explicitly ask how often your advisor usually meets with new students and how the advisor prefers to be updated on your progress in between meetings. Ask your peers how frequently they meet with their advisor and whether this has changed over time.

There will be disciplinary differences in meeting frequency.

• In humanities and in some social sciences, where library, archive, and field research take students away from campus, maintaining regular communication is essential, including through scheduled meetings, whether in-person or virtual.
• In life sciences and physical sciences and engineering, students often see their advisors daily in the lab or meet as a research group about externally funded projects; these regular check-ins and conversations may replace formal meetings. Make sure that you are also scheduling one-on-one times to talk about your broader goals and academic and career planning progress, however.

Some of your decisions about meeting frequency will be informed by talking to others, but much of it you learn through experience working together with your advisor. Even this will  change over time  as you become a more independent researcher and scholar. Communicate with your advisor regularly about your changing needs and expectations at each stage of your graduate career.

Resolving Conflict

In any relationship, there can be conflict. And, in the advisor-advisee relationship, the power dynamic created by the supervision, evaluation and, in some cases, funding role of your advisor can make conflicts with your advisor seem especially high.

You have options, however, including:

• Code of Legislation of the Graduate Faculty
• Campus Code of Conduct
• Policy on Academic Misconduct
• Research Misconduct
• Graduate School Grievance Policy
• Intellectual Property policies
• Graduate Student Assistantships (Policy 1.3)
• Talking with your advisor to clarify any miscommunication. Cornell University’s Office of the Ombudsman , one of the offices on campus that offers confidentiality, can also assist you by talking through the issue and helping you gather information you need before you speak directly with your advisor.
• Speaking with someone in the Graduate School, either the associate dean for academics ( [email protected] ) for academic issues, or the associate dean for graduate student life ( [email protected] ) for other issues. These deans will listen, offer advice and support, and coach you through any conversation you might want to have with your advisor. Together, you can brainstorm possible solutions and evaluate alternative plans for resolution.
• Touching base with your director of graduate studies (DGS) – if this person is not also your advisor – to talk to about policies and possible solutions to the conflict.
• Soliciting peer advice. Discuss strategies for managing and resolving conflict with your advisor. “Do you have any suggestions for me?” “Have you ever had an issue like this…?” can be effective questions.
• Identifying a new advisor if the conflict can not be resolved. Your DGS can help with this, and the Graduate School (as above) can help as well.

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity offers a webinar, “ How to Engage in Healthy Conflict “, which students can view after activating a free NCFDD membership through Cornell.

Changing Advisors

On occasion, students find that they need or want to change their advisor. An advisor can resign as the student’s special committee chair/faculty advisor. The  Code  of Legislation of the Graduate Faculty describes the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty in each of these situations.

Typical reasons to seek a new advisor include:

• Research interests that veer from the faculty’s expertise or ability to fund a certain project
• Your advisor retires or resigns from the university or takes an extended leave of absence for personal or professional reasons
• Differences in goals, values, or an approach to work or communication style that can’t be resolved
• Serious issues, involving suspected inappropriate behavior, questionable research conduct, or alleged bias, discrimination, or harassment

If you are considering changing advisors:

• Talk to a member of your committee, your director of graduate studies (DGS), or someone in the Graduate School about the proposed change. Some issues, such as funding, require timely attention.
• Identify other faculty members who could serve as your advisor, then meet with one or more of them. The goal is to decide together if you are a good fit with their program. Tips: Discuss or rehearse this conversation with a trusted person, especially if there were issues with your last advisor. Be transparent about these issues and address them going forward with a new advisor. Often prospective advisors are more willing to take on a new graduate student who conveys genuine enthusiasm for their area of study rather than a student who seems to be looking for a way out of a current advising relationship that has gone sour.
• Consider how and when to inform your advisor if you plan to change advisors. Be professional and respectful. Thank your advisor for past support and guidance. Don’t damage, or further damage, the relationship.
• Your DGS, if appropriate
• Office of the University Ombudsman
• Graduate School’s associate dean for graduate student life ( [email protected] )
• Graduate School’s associate dean for academics ( [email protected] )

Forms: 

• Use Student Center if you are changing your advisor before your A exam (for Ph.D. students).
• Use the Post A Committee Change Petition form for changes after the A exam. More information is available on the Graduate School’s Policy pages .

Challenges and Potential Solutions

All good relationships take work. To navigate an advising relationship successfully over time, you should familiarize yourself with some common challenges and possible actions to take.

Challenge: Mismatch in communication needs or style

One example of a communication challenge in an advising relationship is when you want input along the way during a writing project, but you have an advisor who prefers to wait to comment on a complete written draft.

Some possible steps to address this might be to talk to peers about they have handled this in their relationship with their advisor or to explain to your advisor how his or her input at this earlier stage will help speed you along toward having a complete draft for review. It’s important in communicating with your advisor to show that you understand what alternative they are proposing and why (e.g., “I understand that …”).

Challenge: Advisor unavailable or away

Your advisor might be away from campus for a semester or more to conduct research or take a sabbatical leave. Or when a grant proposal deadline or report is looming, your advisor might be less available. Maybe you’ve emailed your advisor several times with no response.

Planning and stating in advance what you need, such as feedback on a manuscript draft or signatures on a fellowship application, can help your advisor anticipate when you will have time-sensitive requests. Making plans in advance to communicate by email or video conference when either of you will be away from campus for a longer period of time is another useful strategy. Your director of graduate studies (DGS) and other faculty who serve as special committee members can also provide advice when your advisor is unavailable.

Challenge: Misaligned expectations

You are ready to submit a manuscript for publication. Your advisor says it needs much more work. Or you begin your job search, applying to liberal arts colleges with very high reputations, or schools in your preferred geographic location, but your advisor insists that you should apply for positions at top research universities.

Discussing your needs and expectations early, and often, in the advising relationship is essential. Get comfortable, and skilled, advocating for yourself with your advisor. Use the annual  Student Progress Review  as an opportunity to communicate your professional interests and goals with your advisor. Use multiple mentors beyond your advisor to get advice and expertise on topics where you need a different perspective or support.

Sometimes challenges can become opportunities for you to develop and refine new skills in communication, negotiation, self-advocacy, and management of conflict, time, and resources. For example, although you might feel abandoned if your advisor is unavailable for a time, even this potentially negative experience could become an opportunity to learn how to advocate for yourself and communicate about your needs and perceived difficulties in the relationship.

Advising Resources

Graduate School deans and directors  are available to answer academic and non-academic questions and provide referrals to useful resources.

Counseling and Psychological Services  (CAPS) staff offer confidential, professional support for students seeking help with stress, anxiety, depression, grief, adjustment challenges, relationship difficulties, questions about identity, and managing existing mental health conditions.

Let’s Talk Drop-in Consultations  are informal, confidential walk-in consultations at various locations around campus.

External Resources

University of Michigan Rackham, How to Get the Mentoring You Want  

Laura Gail Lunsford & Vicki L. Baker, 2016, Great Mentoring in Graduate School: A Quick Start Guide for Protégés

Michigan State University, Guidelines for Graduate Student Advising and Mentoring Relationships  

Michigan State University, Graduate Student Career and Professional Development  

Template for Meeting Notes

Adapted and expanded from Maria Gardiner, Flinders University © Flinders University 2007; used with permission and published in  The Productive Graduate Student Writer  (Allen, 2019). Used here with permission of the author and publisher.  

Use this template for making notes to help you plan for a productive meeting with your advisor, keep track of plans made, and clearly identify next steps that you’ll need to take to follow up on what you discussed.

Mentoring Resources

Graduate school programs focused on mentoring, building mentoring skills for an academic career.

Develop and enhance effective communication and mentorship skills that are broadly transferrable to all careers. Offered by Future Faculty and Academic Careers.

Graduate and Professional Students International (GPSI) Peer Mentoring Program

Share lessons learned as a new international student at Cornell as a peer mentor with new international student peer mentees. Offered by the GPSI in collaboration with the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement.

Graduate Students Mentoring Undergraduates (GSMU)

Share knowledge with and provide support to undergraduate students interested in pursuing further education. Offered in collaboration with the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives (OADI).

Multicultural Academic Council (MAC) Peer Mentoring Program

Develop strategies to excel academically and personally at Cornell and beyond as a peer mentee or share strategies as a peer mentor. Offered by MAC in collaboration with the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement.

NextGen Professors Program

Learn from faculty in Power Mentoring Sessions and prepare for careers across institutional types. Offered by the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement and Future Faculty and Academic Careers.

Graduate School Programs with a Mentoring Component

Graduate school primer: navigating academia workshop series.

Program for new students on navigating graduate school with sessions on mentoring.

Perspectives: The Complete Graduate Student

Program for continuing students on common issues with some sessions on mentoring.

GPWomeN-PCCW Speaker Series

Series for all students featuring talks by Cornell alumnae with an occasional mentoring focus.

Future Professors Institute

One-day event featuring workshops and guest speakers with occasional mentoring focus.

Intergroup Dialogue Project (IDP)

Peer-led courses blending theory and experiential learning to facilitate meaningful communication with occasional mentoring focus.

Building Allyship Series

Series for the campus community featuring panels designed for productive dialogue with occasional mentoring focus.

Institutional Memberships

Center for the integration of research, teaching, and learning (cirtl) network.

Access to resources on teaching and research mentoring.

Access to career development and mentoring resources.

New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)

Access to resources, including webinars and articles on mentoring.

Mentoring Programs Across Campus

Give and receive advice as part of a peer mentoring program for all College of Engineering students. Offered by Diversity Programs in Engineering.

Mi Comunidad/My Community

Peer mentoring program run by graduate and professional students affiliated with the Latin@ Graduate Student Coalition (LGSC) and supported by the Latina/o Studies Program (LSP) and Latina/o/x Student Success Office (LSSO) at Cornell University.

Additional Resources:

• Mentoring and Leadership Tips from Graduate School Programs
• Cornell University Office of Faculty Development and Diversity – Resources for Mentors and Mentees
• Careers Beyond Academia LibGuide
• National Research Mentoring Network

Graduate School Articles on Mentoring:

• Alumna Addresses Importance of Mentoring
• Becoming Better Mentors Through Workshop Series
• August Offers Mentoring Advice
• ‘A Better Chance of Providing Access’: Future Professors Institute Fosters Inclusivity

Virtual Training and External Resources

• How to Get the Mentoring You Want: A Guide for Graduate Students – University of Michigan, Rackham Graduate School
• The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM – National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine
• Mentor Training: Online Learning Modules – University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute
• Mentor Curricula and Training: Entering Mentoring – Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research

For other resources, view the Advising Guide for Research Students.

If there is anything not included on this list that we should consider, please send the information and a link to [email protected] .

QUESTIONS YOU MAY WANT TO ASK BEFORE CHOOSING A THESIS ADVISOR

(Prepared with graduate and advanced undergraduate students in mind.)

by Dr. Annette Matheny

Questions to ask yourself

• Where do I want to be in five years? In ten years?
• What is most important to me - my work environment or my intellectual interest in a field?
• Do I need direction and motivation from an advisor, or do I prefer to work independently?
• Do I need to feel comfortable talking to my advisor?
• Is the field I choose easily adaptable to other fields?
• Do I prefer to work in a group or on my own?
• Do I want to work primarily with computers?
• Will the project be purely theoretical, experimental, [field-based,] or a combination of both?
• Do I want to start a family in the next five years?

Questions to ask members of the group or the prospective advisor

• How stable is the advisor’s funding?
• Do students help to write grant proposals?
• Do I get to choose my own project or do I work on the principal investigator's (PI) project?
• How involved is the PI in the research?
• Does the PI have favorites? Does the PI neglect or give very little attention to some members of the groups?
• Are students backed by the PI when they run into departmental politics?
• Does the PI treat male and female students with the same respect as far as their intellectual abilities are concerned?
• Does the PI promote your work or claim it as his/her own?
• Does the PI work with you towards your career, or are you on your own?
• Where have previous students gone?
• How long does it typically take to get a PhD in the group?
• What kind of work can I expect to find after graduation if I specialize in this PI's area of research?
• Do students publish and attend conferences all along, or only at the end of their research?
• Does the PI give you tools or am you on your own to develop research capabilities?
• Does the group meet regularly for group meetings or lunches?
• Are the group members competitive or cooperative?
• Does the group collaborate with other groups?
• Will I need to travel to do my research? How will that affect my lifestyle?
• Does the PI have tenure?
• What amount of course work is expected/discouraged after joining the group?

Questions to ask other Professors and senior-level graduate students.

• What is the advisor’s professional reputation?
• Is the advisor close to retiring, or in poor health?

Suggestion: Do a literature search of the prospective advisor's publications.   Do they seem interesting to you? Also find papers from the group’s graduate students.

Created by Dr. Annette Matheny, Center for Naval Analysis, Alexandria, Virginia, in conjunction with the Central Illinois Chapter of Association for Women in Science, 202 Coble Hall, MC-322, 801 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820.

May. 23, 2022

Interviewing with potential ph.d. advisors, by daziyah sullivan: so, you're interviewing with advisors why not try to be yourself daziyah shares her advice to students looking to leave a lasting impression..

So, you’re in the advisor interview stage? Here’s the best advice I received:

Be yourself.

Now how far did I take this advice? Let me set the scene:

• I was literally in my bed, luckily not just "Zoom professional" but fully professional. No judgment, please - my bed was the one place in the house I could have back support and be sure my roommate would not randomly intrude.
• My hair was professionally styled, as in - my curls cascaded down my face in a bang, with the rest tied up into a neat bun. 
• And it was blue . Whole head: blue.

So, yes, maybe I took the advice of “Be Yourself” a bit far. To be fair, though, I required an advisor that would accept such a presentation of myself. Thanks for taking my shenanigans like a champ,  Dr. O’Malley ! 

For those of you who are not as extreme, we can take a step back to understand some general good advice for your interview process.

Note, this interview process may take place before you are admitted or it could take place after a rotational program.

Remember, an interview goes both ways. You are interviewing your potential advisor as much as they are interviewing you. The whole process has three general stages:

The Interview

The aftermath.

A stage defined by preparation. This involves all things pre-interview, so it actually has stages within itself!

Reaching out/Responding - You are looking to have an interview with an advisor. Potentially you are doing a campus visit and you have multiple slots but haven’t thought about who to speak to in those slots.

• Find an advisor with research that interests you. If you are in person, ask the graduate students and faculty helping with the programming! This is how I found out about  Dr. Tahira Reid Smith  when my website searches were lacking in identifying everyone whose research overlapped with my interests. You may also reach out to graduate admissions to ask for recommendations in email format, though this is a bit bolder and they may direct you to the website. This leads me to the OG way to find an advisor with research that interests you - the internet. If more broadly searching with no university in mind, then figure out keywords associated with your field of interest. Speak to professors at your current university to assist in this endeavor or look into publications of interest and figure out their keywords. 
• Reach out for an interview. Did you previously meet through a mutual colleague or at a convention? Mention that, especially if through an introduction. Suggest a few times to meet. Say what you are specifically interested in about their research, and show how excited you are to be interviewing with them.
• Schedule a time. Attach your resume. Make them remember you, boo. Also, allow them to do their research on you too. 

Defining Your Terms - This is internal work done to understand what is important to you in an advisor. 

• Take the time to self-reflect. Why are you going to graduate school? Is there anything you need within a lab and university environment? It is good to recognize your "why" and your needs before going into an interview. 
• Reach out to your network. Your friends, family, and colleagues know you well. See who they believe you may be interested in working with or how they interpret your research interest. You never know; the new perspective could lead you down a road you had not considered before.

Psychological Preparation - Interviews are stressful; don’t let the stress knock you off your game.

• Deep dive into their research . Know what is happening in their lab - at least in general. Look them up. See if they have any talks online. Get used to their mannerisms and what areas of interest spark them. Being able to see them will also take away that initial fear of first impressions with a stranger. You may also be able to find a random thing to connect with. For example, I technically visited the university my advisor got her bachelor’s from! 
• Confidence boost. Breathe. Get into a superwoman, superman, super-nonbinary position and soak in the confidence.

It's time for the interview.

• Dress to impress. Dress in a way that shows who you are but is also customary of the interview process. Remember, my hair was blue. Though, I stuck with a typical updo that is more accepted in the business world as a style for natural hair (my feelings are that all of my styles are professional, but I digress). During my in-person interviews, I was dressed in a full business suit with a very distinct broach. Find a way to stick out - as in, to leave a lasting impression and/or to throw personality into your physical presentation.
• Has the link been sent, and have you downloaded the application needed? 
• Is the time given in their time zone or your time zone?
• Do you know where you will be taking the interview? Do the people who may access that environment know that you’ll be taking an interview and when?
• Do you know how to get to the exact room?
• How early are you expected to arrive?
• Are your meetings scheduled in a manner that may lead to you running behind schedule? (Let the advisor know if this is the case!)
• What are your expectations of {insert degree type} students?
• What is required to graduate from your lab? (ex: paper requirement?)
• How do you prepare students to be a part of your lab?
• What are qualifying exams like? (Ph.D. specific)
• Where do people in your lab go after completing their degree?
• What is your advising style?
• What are some ongoing projects within your lab? Note: you should know some of the projects within the lab, but this is a fair question to ask since ongoing projects may not have papers to be present on the lab website yet.
• Do I get to choose my own research? and/or Here is my interest, is there space for me to do this research within your lab? (Remember, you could start a direction of research not yet introduced to their lab!)
• Why did you choose to work at {insert name of university}?

The interview is over! Breathe! Then get back on the grind, the work is not done yet.

• Send a follow-up email. Use the same email address used for setting up the meeting if applicable. Be gracious, thank the advisor for their time and the interview process. Make sure to mention things specifically mentioned in the interview - what research areas stuck out to you? Mention your potential funding (if you have applied for fellowships), so they can keep that in memory.
• Actually do what you said you would. I am guilty of not doing this. Do not burn bridges even if you do not choose to cross them.
• Keep in touch. Though the advisor may not turn out to be yours, they could be a potential mentor or future collaborator (I mean, you’ve been looking at so many with overlapping research interests - it is very possible!)

Your advisor will likely be the most influential person in your journey through graduate school, in all aspects: academic, professional, personal, mental, etc. Hopefully, this guidance can assist you in your journey to find an advisor match that helps your graduate experience be the best it could be. Be true to yourself and find an advisor who will embrace and elevate you. 

Knowing your wellbeing resources

Making the switch from MSI to PWI

What it means to be a GEM fellow

About the author:  Daziyah Sullivan is a second-year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering. Originally from Florida, Daziyah earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 2020.  Read more .

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What should I ask a potential PhD advisor in an informal interview?

I emailed a professor at a school I am applying to, outlining my research interests, two specific projects proposals, and how they align with his research. I let him know that I am applying and I'd be interested in working together and chatting if he's taking students. He said he is taking students and asked if I'd like to set up some time to talk.

What do I talk about?

Here are the main topics regarding his research I can think of:

• How did you come to your line of research?
• What topics do you feel are under-explored in our sub-area?
• What projects are you most actively working on now?

Should I also ask for feedback on my proposals, or would that sound stupid?

To clarify, I closed my email with something like: If you are looking for graduate students and feel our interests align, I'd like to discuss opportunities for working together.

• graduate-admissions

• 1 These questions are more likely to be asked by the advisor to a potential candidate but I like "What topics do you feel are under-explored in our sub-area?" also as a question to the advisor. (Be sure to have a good answer ready since you will probably will be asked yourself.) I will give some advice which is not quite an answer to the question. Find out who the professors former students were. Look at their publication record. Do they write whatever is considered a sufficient amount of papers in your field (with the professor)? Do they stay in academia? –  Kvothe Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 16:41
• "How many students have you supervised and where are they now?" –  Scott Seidman Commented Nov 20, 2020 at 1:49

10 Answers 10

Actually, your questions sounds like you are trying to hire him for a position, whereas he would be the one taking on an obligation to you and your future. I would probably have a chuckle if a student asked me those in a first interview. The first question would be good over coffee after we'd worked together for a while. For the last question you might first find a couple of his recent papers rather than ask.

But the more important questions are things like

Can you help me find a topic that interests both of us? Follow up on this question if some suggestions are made.

How independent do I need to be (do you expect me to be) and are you available to help if needed?

How successful have other students of yours have been in completion and in their careers?

Is there a seminar in which you and grad students share ideas?

If you already have a topic that you want to work on then:

• Do you think ABC is a fruitful line of enquiry and (if so) can you help me explore it?

But approach such questions cautiously. Some will take offense. Be prepared to be the answerer of questions, not the asker.

• 24 "Would you mind introducing me to one or more of your current/former students? I'd like to ask them some questions as well." –  JeffE Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 15:10
• 1 You say "If you have a topic that you want to work on". I thought that outside of a few select fields such as Mathematics, PhD students are always supposed to come with a topic in hand. Is this not true? –  Blue Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 3:38
• 5 In the US science context, it's much more common for the advisor to propose the topic (often times as part of funded grant proposal) and then find a student to take on the topic. It's relatively rare for an incoming PhD student to propose their own dissertation topic. –  Brian Borchers Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 4:46
• 3 Contra Buffy, I think the questions of in the original post are quite good, and in fact for precisely the reason that when choosing your advisor you are in effect hiring them for a job: the job of guiding you for the next 5 or so years. –  Vivek Shende Commented Nov 18, 2020 at 15:18

One of the questions I asked potential PhD advisors that always provided a lot of insight was "What distinguishes a great grad student from a good one?" It frames things positively and professors will usually tell you exactly what they expect from you.

• 1 That's a great answer. I asked something similar to my advisor once: What do you expect of me? His answer was: To do your best. –  user82663 Commented Nov 19, 2020 at 6:48

I'm surprised no one suggested this yet:

• Read some of the professor's recent papers and ask specific questions about the papers. This can pique their interest in working with you far more than a lot of the other things you're considering to ask.
• Furthermore, if you have ideas on how to extend the work in their recent papers, you could bring that up and ask about the feasibility of working on such extensions of their recent work.
• If you are very keen you might even read some of the literature surrounding the professor's recent work, and ask questions about that. For example if the professor's most recent work compares their own novel method to some benchmark dataset, and you find that others are also comparing to the same benchmark dataset, you might wonder about the differences between the two (possibly competing!) methods that are capable of doing something similar.

PhD supervisors often love it when their student (or potential student) is capable of reading and understanding papers on their own, then drawing their own connections foreseeing their own interesting research avenues.

• 5 From the professor's perspective I've got to say that this smells a bit of sucking up. I could be impressed if the candidate came up with something really good connecting to some of my papers, but chances are if the student has their own independent ideas, thought through for quite some time, they will be better than what they could come up with taking a few hours to read my papers. If the student suggests something related to my work just for the sake of it and it isn't a particularly good idea, I will like this less than a fine independent proposal. –  Christian Hennig Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 12:44
• 6 A student having read and understood my papers, and being able to discuss them, is the single best thing they can do to improve their chances of working with me. If you want to called them "sucking up" for doing that, then so be it. –  Nik Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 14:27
• 1 Fair enough if they do it well. But chances are they need to invest proper time for coming up with something good. It may be hard. It's not an easy recipe for making a good impression. (I have seen one who tried, and really didn't do it well, that's where I'm coming from.) –  Christian Hennig Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 15:35
• 3 I agree that it requires serious time commitment. Though my PhD application (to Oxford) was over a decade ago, arXiv still existed and I'd not only demonstrated that I'd read and understood my potential supervisors' recent papers, but also found typos and a broken citations in a pre-print that was soon to be published, and they appreciated me pointing these out in time for the final publication. I was given an offer, along with the Clarendon scholarship, which goes to the top applicant in each department at Oxford. It wasn't just because of the interview, but the interview did go well. –  Nik Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 16:30
• 2 Yes it can go wrong if the applicant doesn't take it seriously. Such an applicant is in my opinion unlikely to be a strong candidate anyway, and at least they've spent some time reading my papers, rather than none. –  Nik Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 16:31

I'd probably ask how he sees himself as a PhD-supervisor, what his philosophy of supervising is, and what he expects of his students. "Should I also ask for feedback on my proposals, or would that sound stupid?" This question makes sense to me. As the professor I wouldn't have problems with the other questions that you have already posted either. Regarding the second one, however, I'd like to clarify to what extent you mean this as a question for potential topics that I may have for you. And for addressing this, I first will have some questions for you (I agree with Buffy that it may well be that the professor does the entertainment by bombarding you with questions rather than the other way round).

PS: Buffy writes "some may take offense" regarding certain questions, and that may well be, although I wonder how big the "some" set is. Personally I have very little intuitive understanding for people who take offense facing harmless and actually reasonable questions like these.

• I saw updated my question. I guess since I sort of extended the invitation, that's why I thought I'd have more of an impetus to ask questions. Though perhaps most of these 'informal' chats come from a prospective student writing something similar to me, in which case your advice holds. –  asd Commented Nov 16, 2020 at 22:22
• From my perspective, putting myself in the role of the professor (which I am these days) this doesn't make a big difference. I'd be fine with your own questions as well as with the ones I have been suggesting, and I'd probably have more or less informative answers to all of these. Same by the way regarding the questions suggested in the other responses. There are many reasonable questions one could ask... –  Christian Hennig Commented Nov 16, 2020 at 22:26

Interviews with potential advisors will usually include a portion (often at the end) where they ask you if you have any questions for them. It is not necessary to use your own questioning period to try to impress a potential advisor. By now your CV and the other aspects of the interview will have told the advisor whether you are good enough to get into the program. The part of the meeting where you ask questions is purely for your own convenience, in case there is anything you want to know about the program you are applying to. A PhD candidature is usually four or more years of your life, so it is not unreasonable that you might have some questions about what you will be doing during this time, and what help/resources you will have.

For that reason, it would be unusual to use this time to dig into the research interests or career evolution of the professor, and it is also not useful to spend that time on technical questions about the topic (there will be plenty of time for those later!). More useful are questions that tell you what you can expect your life to be like if you are a PhD candidate there --- e.g.:

If I am accepted as a PhD candidate here, what would a normal week look like?

How often do you normally meet with your PhD students? What happens if they need extra help from you?

Do you have any existing research problems that would be suitable for a PhD topic, or do you prefer students to find their own topic? (Only if you don't already have your own topic.)

Do you know if the graduate students here socialise together much? Do they have study groups where they get together to help each other?

When asking questions, it is best to take a light touch and don't overwhelm your potential advisor. However, if there are any aspects of the program that you want to know about (and you can't get the information yourself elsewhere) then you should feel free to ask questions to find out what your upcoming four years will be like.

In addition to the previous comments, starting from the papers that he published, you should also consider his research group. Generally (at least in the UK), you will have a supervisory team, with at least another advisor. It is very important to know if you can have (and trust) someone else's opinion during the project.

I would also ask what kind of support you will receive, starting from the studentship. If the project is computer-based or if you have to do experiments, what kind of facilities you can use and how the access will be managed.

You should also have a look at the University website and have a look at what kind of support they offer for post-graduate students.

Here are a couple more things for you to ponder:

• How long has this prospective advisor been at that school? I had a young rising star for an advisor, and he left for a lesser university after 3 years (biggest fish in the smaller pond sort of scenario). I started new research with an older, established advisor. It extended my grad school experience considerably.
• Where does the funding come from? If you are in engineering, for example, and your funding comes from DARPA or NASA, you might see boom/bust cycles, and end up as a teaching assistant instead of a research assistant. If you want to be a professor, this could be good. If not, the time spent teaching is time you're not doing your own research.
• What is the typical time for this advisor's students to go from start to finish? There is wide variation in some departments, for various reasons, and some are somewhat out of your control.

You don't have to grill him on these sorts of topics... a simple, basic question will probably get him talking, and he'll tell you more that you would have thought to ask.

This is an addition to points mentioned in other answers. Among the other questions do ask or try to find out about past PhD students.

What is now their future as PhD holders. Are they in Academia? Are they hired in a company that you would like to work? Is it a good company? Did their PhD helped them in their career and was it required?

You are about to walk a path that others also walked before you. It makes sense to see where they are now to get some indications on where this path may lead.

Some supervisors will even list past students in their websites.

The research should be extensive and to the level of the specific lab, professor, supervisor. Even within the same school of a university there can be quite a variation.

I had a beyond-wonderful advisor, but I've seen some that have made things horrible for their students. I'm not talking about being demanding of hard work, but regular and seemingly arbitrary "resets" of their projects, bad technical advice that must be followed, treating them as a consumable resource etc.

Find wording that is natural to you, and ask a seemingly innocuous question whose answer may flag a basic lack of empathy, or unusual amount of self-importance.

These are easily (and often) masked by a charming disposition and skilled use of language, so a direct question like "Do you care about your students personally ?" won't work.

Perhaps "If I may be so bold, would it be possible to ask what you think your students might say if asked for what they liked most and liked least about you as an advisor?" or if the style of conversation seems informal, just "What would your students say was the best and worst part about working for you? Can I ask that?"

Most honest people can probably come up with some reasonable answer, but a narcissist will soar on the first half and either struggle with or cleverly avoid the second half.

I agree with the prior answers. Since the advisor gets to choose you so he gets to ask you more questions. What you should focus on is how would he evaluate your work during phd, what he expects from you, what skills you need to learn, what kind of area should you focus on.

I also feel it is very important that you have a very transparent relationship with him. Meaning, if you plan to take breaks (like I did for the birth of my baby) be upfront about it than hiding. A transparent relationship will really help your career.

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A First-Gen's Guide to Grad School: How to Get in, Survive, and Thrive

Helping first-gen students along their PhD journey!

PhD Admissions: Emailing Potential Advisors

A great way to initiate contact with a potential advisor is by introducing yourself through email! If you are applying to programs where you don’t need an advisor lined up, then you don’t necessarily have to do this step. However, if you are applying to programs where you are expected to have an advisor before you start, this step is especially important. Here are some of my tips for emailing potential advisors as well as the email templates I used:

PRO TIP #1: Make sure there are at least TWO professors whose research aligns with yours at each program you apply to! Only having one is risky because you never know what could happen (e.g., they could get a new position at another university and you don’t want to move with them).

PRO TIP #2: DON’T FORGET TO ATTACH YOUR CV!

PRO TIP #3: Read at least one recent article by your POI (professor of interest) so that you can mention their work in your email (e.g., one that was published in 2018 or later).

PRO TIP #4: Check the lab/program website BEFORE emailing POIs to make sure it doesn’t already say whether they are accepting students. Also check a professor’s personal website (if they have one).

PRO TIP #5: I sent out emails mid-late October, which I think is a good time to do so. By this time, professors will probably have a sense of whether they will be able to accept a student into their lab. However, if you want to email earlier, that’s also fine.

PRO TIP #6: Don’t be afraid to send follow-up emails if your POIs don’t respond the first time! I sent a few follow-up emails after 2 weeks and received responses from everyone. Also be sure to send the follow-up email in the same thread that you sent your initial email so your POIs can see your previous attempt to reach out. I had a 17/18 (94.4%) success rate with the following email templates, so I hope they work as well for you all!

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• PhD admissions

Published by enricab7

Fourth-year Communication and Media, and Developmental Psychology PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. Future media/developmental psychologist. Interested in the ways that media help us form our identities. My blog aims to help other first-gen students on their PhD journey! View all posts by enricab7

36 thoughts on “ PhD Admissions: Emailing Potential Advisors ”

Good tips! Especially #3.

Thank you SO MUCH for this. I have not seen a better example.

No problem! I’m glad it’s helpful 🙂

Thank you so much! I hope you know how much this means to me as a first-gen/Latinx student!

No problem! I’m glad I can be of help 🙂

A motivating discussion is worth comment. I do believe that you should publish more about this subject, it may not be a taboo matter but usually people do not speak about such topics. To the next! Kind regards!!

Thank you so much for your help. Your tips are really amazing! I hope you can publish more soon. I have just written my CV and need someone to provide me some valuable feedback on that. Would you please help me with this matter and, if possible, send me your email address? I would be greatly appreciative of your valuable help.

Sure! You can email me here: [email protected] .

Excellent post. I used to be checking constantly this weblog and I am impressed! Very useful information specially the closing section 🙂 I deal with such info much. I used to be looking for this particular info for a very lengthy time. Thanks and good luck.

Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thanks a ton!

Thank you so much! If you want to read more posts about being first-gen or just about grad school life in general, I would definitely recommend Academic Twitter posts (this page would be a good place to start: https://twitter.com/academicchatter ). Also feel free to check out #AcademicTwitter and #firstgen posts!

Thank you for your information! I am an international student and have a question. Is the last sentence of the follow-up email template grammatically correct? I do not see conjunction before “will you?” I would appreciate it if you could help me with English.

Hi! There is a comma before “will you” in the template, which I *believe* is grammatically correct.

Thank you so much for the awesome tip!!

No problem!

Thank you so much for this guide. Sir can you review my statement of purpose

no problem! If you send it to me at [email protected] , I can maybe take a look at it (I may not be the best person to review it if you’re applying for programs outside of the social sciences, but I can try!).

Your tips has risen great confidence in me. I hope to share my success story with you. Thanks

I’m glad my tips have been helpful!

Hello, thank you for this post! I am new to all this. I applied to a Master’s program in January. I thought for my particular program that it was not a requirement to secure a supervisor prior to applying. So I didn’t email any professors. Now people are hearing back and one successful applicant shared that I should’ve talked to a potential supervisor. Is it now too late to do that? or since I didn’t get rejection yet, I should go ahead and try emailing some professors? what would you advise? 🙂 Thank you in advance!

Hi! I don’t think it would hurt to email professors. The worst that could happen is that they don’t respond (which could be the case for several reasons, so I wouldn’t take it personally). Go for it!

You are at a really nice university. Good job! 👍 Who taught you to advocate for yourself? Did you have a mentor?

Thanks! I’ve had several mentors over the years that have believed in me and my abilities even when I didn’t (and still have a hard time doing so now). Their encouragement is why I have been able to slowly but surely advocate for myself and help others do the same!

Hi! Thank you for this post. Regarding pro tip #4, I’m wondering if it would still be a good idea to email potential advisors if they did list whether they are taking students in this application cycle. Should I confirm with them if they are taking students, or would that be redundant? Would it be a good idea to just introduce myself or ask another question? What are some other questions that may be good to ask?

Hi Lisa! If a potential advisor lists that they are taking students for this application cycle, I don’t think it’s necessary to email them (unless it is not clear that they are accepting students for the 2023-2024 school year, then you can maybe email to clarify as this info may be from last year).

However, if you are wondering whether, for example, they are still planning on taking their research in a direction that relates to your interests in the near future, you can maybe ask that? Otherwise, I would say to maybe not send an email. Some professors also say that they don’t chat with students before interview/recruitment weekend so that’s also something to keep in mind. Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for the advice! It is really helpful! I did notice one professor wrote on her faculty page that it is not necessary to contact her ahead of time. Others encourage students to reach out ahead of time. So it sounds like it varies widely.

No problem! Yes, I would definitely say it varies widely.

Thank you!! This was extremely helpful!! I’ve been overthinking these emails for weeks. This helped clarify something’s for me.

this is awesome! will definitely use this

glad it’s helpful!

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Quantum Frontiers

A blog by the institute for quantum information and matter @ caltech.

Top 10 questions for your potential PhD adviser/group

Everyone in grad school has taken on the task of picking the perfect research group at some point.  Then some among us had the dubious distinction of choosing the perfect research group twice.  Luckily for me, a year of grad research taught me a lot and I found myself asking group members and PIs (primary investigators) very different questions.  And luckily for you, I wrote these questions down to share with future generations.  My background as an experimental applied physicist showed through initially, so I got Shaun Maguire and Spiros Michalakis to help make it applicable for theorists too, and most of them should be useful outside physics as well.

Questions to break that silence when your potential advisor asks “So, do you have any questions for me?”

And then for the high bandwidth information transfer.  Grill the group members themselves, and try to ask more than one group member if you can.

1. How much do you prepare for meetings with PI? 2. How long until people lead their own project? – Equivalently, who’s working on what projects. 3. How much do people on different projects communicate? (only group meeting or every day) 4. Is the PI hands on (how often PI wants to meet with you)? 5. Is the PI accessible (how easily can you meet with the PI if you want to)? 6. What is the average time to graduation? (if it’s important to you personally) 7. Does the group/subgroup have any bonding activities? 8. Do you think I should join this group? 9. What are people’s backgrounds? 10. What makes someone a good fit for this group?

Hope that helps.  If you have any other suggested questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.

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8 thoughts on “ top 10 questions for your potential phd adviser/group ”.

11. What happened to previous students? Did they find a postdoc / work easily? Was the advisor helpful in in their efforts to find a job?

Indeed, this is THE most important question. Ignore it at your own risk.

+1 for Eskos suggestion. If the potential advisor has not had many students yet, also ask how successful (junior) postdocs were, especially the ones he/she has directly worked with.

12. Are there any bigger topics the group plans to jointly work on in the near future? How closely do the people collaborate within the group?

13. What is the current interest in the given research topic? Are there other groups working on related problems? Are they possible collaborators/competition?

14. Is funding available for grad students to attend schools or conferences? To what extent?

Duh, how about asking some physics questions?

Students can answer some of these questions for themselves, as follows. Most graduate departments annual give one or more (often several) awards to “students who show great promise of a distinguished research career”, and typically these names are prominently listed on plaques in public places.

EXERCISE: Perform a literature search on a score (or more) of your institution’s “students of great promise.” How many are still publishing research a decade after graduation? Two decades? What fraction can reasonably be regarded as “distinguished” researchers? Did your own estimate of these numbers change in consequence of your literature search?

These are thought-provoking questions for students and faculty alike!

Pingback: 5/30/14 | elwinbloggingstuff

I majored in molecular biology. Anyway, thanks for these 10 questions.

Sir I am studying MSW (psychiatric social work) and I wanted to do PhD in oncology or family medicine is the any chance that I can study?

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Kshitij Tiwari Ph.D.

10 Questions to ask your PhD advisor

When applying for a Doctoral aka PhD program, you not only need to ensure that PhD is the right choice for you , but also, that you have synergies with your potential PhD advisor. You both will be working together for the years to come should you choose to accept the PhD offer, if one were to be extended to you so it is crucial to know that you will get along. This article will guide you through 10 questions to ask your PhD advisor towards the end of your PhD interview.

Please note that these prompts do not form an exhaustive list, are in no particular order and nor do they guarantee that you would gauge synergies 100% accurately, if any. They would likely give you a good idea of what to expect from your life in the group if you were there pursuing your PhD even before you actually apply for the PhD with the group. If you still don’t find synergies, you can always gracefully decline the PhD offer .

Table of Contents

What have previous lab members done after getting their PhD?

• What is the lab structure?

What does the lab culture look like?

What is the publication culture like, where does the funding primarily come from, does the advisor consider themselves a ‘hands-on’ or ‘hands-off’ advisor, how does the advisor give feedback on manuscripts in preparation, how often does the advisor meet with their students, will there be opportunities to write external research grant proposals, how would the scope of work change if you were to transition to industry, key takeaways.

If you know about the harsh realities of PhD , you would know that not every PhD graduate manages to find a position in academia and some venture out to industry in search of better and more stable job prospects. As a PhD candidate, one day you would graduate too and will be in the market for a job- academic or industrial so it helps to understand what have the previous lab members done after successfully defending their PhDs. This would give you a lay of the land and what kind of job prospects you are most likely to find upon graduation with a PhD in hand. Also, take this opportunity to learn more about some of the most successful (and unsuccessful) PhD candidates from the group.

What is the PhD advisor's lab structure?

A lab or a research group typically would comprise of your potential PhD supervisor among other members. These members could include fellow PhD candidates, Bachelors and Masters students and some temporary students such as interns. Additionally, there might be other senior members in the groups such as Postdoctoral Associates and some junior faculty members who work in tandem with your potential advisor. It helps to know what the lab structure is like and how many members are in each category. Eventually, you might end up working with some of these members in varying capacities and some of the seniors might even serve as your co-advisors. Additionally, you might also want to understand the demographics for the lab members to see where do these members come from and you might find some comfort knowing people from your own country of origin. On a similar note, you could ask for permission to connect with some of the existing members to learn more about the lab structure and a typical day in their life. 

Some professors have multiple labs (including satellite labs), and this opens up good travel opportunities when they fly you around.

 Knowing that there might be other seniors present even when your primary PhD advisor is away might give you some solace in their absence. Also, be sure to check your PhD advisors plans in the near future- 

are they coming up for tenure / promotion / retirement as this might affect their availability and/or lab resources?

As a PhD candidate, one of the many ways for you to gain visibility in your field and grow your network will be to attend conferences. You should try and understand what are some top tier conferences in your domain and how often do the lab members get to attend such conferences. For the case of robotics, these would be IEEE IROS, ICRA, RSS, CASE among a few others. Also on a related note, you could inquire about any preset requirements for number of conference and journal submissions that are mandatory for graduation so you can understand how many conferences would you have to target per year to maximize your chances of meeting the threshold of publications.

Inquire about the external responsibilities of your PhD advisor to understand their prior commitments. Are they doing a partial secondment at an industry? Would you be able to do an industrial internship? How about research visits overseas? Typically, PhD students try to maximize their exposure with a mix of industrial work and some overseas research visits thereby growing their network and also credentials.

On a more academic side of the lab culture you should inquire about the paper publication frequency. Generally speaking, in the early days of your PhD journey you would have slightly more free time as opposed to the end when you are working hard to write your dissertation, getting feedback and iteratively revising it. Try and inquire what the publication culture is like- do papers get published during the PhD thesis, or towards the end or after defending? This will help you get some sense of the expected work load and how it would grow as time passes assuming no dynamic requirements are suddenly imposed by your funding source . Be vary of the publish or perish culture in academia because if you cannot maintain a healthy work-like balance , you will likely burnout.

One of the external aspects that might affect the topic you will work on, the scope of work and planned deliverables is the funding source. As mentioned earlier, if your PhD advisor has already secured some funding to sponsor your PhD, there might be implications stemming from the funding source. Some funding sources might require additional responsibilities like prepare progress reports, traveling for administrative meetings, preparing presentations or have citizenship restrictions in case of defense funding. So, be sure to clearly understand where the funding is coming from and what is covered in the funding- tuition, living allowances, stiped, travel allowance, publication allowance, etc.

It is also at this time you should prepare for the tougher days- not necessarily worst case scenario but in case you need to extend your PhD timeline but your funding will run out after a fixed term, are there possibilities for additional funding? Will your PhD advisor support you in this process? If not, what options would you have if the situation arises?

Some PhD candidates are also interested in serving as Teaching or Research Assistants also known as TA or RA, respectively. Sometimes there might be a possibility of earning some extra financial support for such services or at other times there might be some intangible gains such as the chance to work with other faculty members, learning to interact with students, problem solving etc. So, try and understand if you are required to be a TA/RA by the funding source, is it optional, and how does it work if you were to opt for it.

As every human is different and have their own working styles, so would your potential PhD advisor. So, you should try to understand if the advisor considers themselves as a more “hands-on” or “hands-off” advisor. This working style should ideally be complementing your own approach. For instance, if you are someone who would be looking for some hand holding and you end up with an advisor who is completely “hands-on” you are likely going to struggle a lot especially in the early days. So, try and understand if the advisor tends to assign projects and tentative topics to the PhD candidates or do they instead have the students select their own. On a similar note, you could also ask them if they already have a particular topic in mind for you or are you going to start with a blank canvas and write your own PhD research proposal . In case of the former, you could also ask about the level of flexibility with respect to the direction/scope of the project. Sometimes, the project scope and deliverables are already set carefully while at other times, there might be ample room for adjustment and refinement within a vague scope.

Another crucial aspect to keep in mind is that, for a PhD, there is no preset syllabus or a list of milestones. So, measuring the performance could be tricky and either you or your PhD advisor would need to set some sort of milestones. So, you could try ask them about some key milestones that they expect the PhD candidates to achieve. 

Feedback is the breakfast of the champions

As an early stage researcher with little to no experience with writing scientific and technical manuscripts in your niche, you will likely need help. This could come not only in the form of support while conducting the research but also in the form of feedback when a manuscript is being prepared for potential submission. The more reputable the submission venue, the higher would be their quality standards so you would benefit if the manuscript undergoes revisions to match their expectations. Again depending on whether the PhD advisor is hands-on or hands-off the level of detail of their feedback will vary.

On the topic of feedback and progress review , different research groups have different internal policies and agenda for group meetings. For instance, some PhD advisors do a round robin presentation with each candidate getting a slot to present their current findings, challenges and results. This helps everyone to stay abreast with what the others in the group are working on, explore synergies and get comfortable with presenting their ideas to a crowd. Additionally, some groups may even have a policy for dedicated 1-on-1 check-ins with advisor for personalized feedback while others might keep this flexible in the sense that the PhD candidate needs to take the initiative to book such 1-on-1 meetings as and when needed. During the pandemic most of such meetings went online via tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc. so if you wish, you could inquire how are such meetings being conducted at the time of your application- face-to-face, remote or hybrid. 

While not every PhD student may be required to write external grant proposals, but for your future career, such experience can come in really handy. Winning a grant, that too a prestigious grant will help you get a taste of what life is like being a Principal Investigator (PI), leading your own research work and supporting yourself. This experience will go a long way for your career ahead as eventually you would need to win grants to support yourself and your group in the years to come. During your PhD, you may not be able to independently write such research grant proposals but you might be given opportunities to help out other senior members writing grants or contribute to some sections of a grant that your PhD advisor is working on. So, it pays to know about such opportunities ahead of time.

Never shut a door of opportunity on yourself for you never know when the next door will open

There is a difference between stepping on two boats (industry and academia) simultaneously versus not covering all your basis for securing your future. By this I mean looking at all possible options and keeping the doors open. Say somewhere along your PhD, either owing to life’s circumstances or your interaction with peers you decide to move to industry upon completion of your PhD. In such a case, how would the scope of your PhD and the work you do change, if at all? It helps to know the cost of such a transition to evaluate if it is even a feasible option or should you prepare an alternative Plan B instead.

So, when it comes to applying for PhD positions, remember that as much as the PhD advisor is screening you for a potential fit, you also need to screen them to explore synergies. There is no harm in asking polite questions that might help you understand them better as a person, as an advisor and as a potential mentor to help you learn and grow in your career ahead. After all, you are going to dedicate the coming years towards your PhD should you choose to go forward with it so it is imperative that your environment, the people, the topic and everything else that comes with up are synergistically working with you and not against you.

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Independent Educational Consultants Association

Questions to ask of potential graduate school advisors.

By Lucia D. Tyler, PhD, IECA (NY)

Graduate school is a big commitment. Students who are undertaking graduate study should interview their advisors or mentors to make sure it is a good fit. These questions can help prepare you for an interview with a potential advisor.

1 . How many graduate students are you currently advising? International students? Ratio of men to women?

This question addresses the social dynamic of the advising group. It helps if there is at least one other English-speaking student in the mix. In typically male disciplines such as engineering (or vice versa), a mix of women and men often makes a more collegial group atmosphere. Students often learn from each other so having at least one other student in the group is helpful. However, grad students are expensive to support, so a professor of interest to you may not have funding for many students.

2 . How many graduate students have graduated under your advisement in the last five years?

If this number is zero, you need to ask more questions about the professor’s experience as a mentor.

3 . How long does a graduate student usually take to finish?

This is an important question. Some advisors have extra requirements for publishing or experimental work that may take a very long time to fulfill. You should also ask other graduate students in the department about this.

4 . How much funding is available for your students? Are there teaching or research fellowships available? Are they competitive? Will the funding last as long as the graduate program?

Financial support is important to the successful completion of graduate school. For budgeting purposes you should obtain specific answers to these questions. It is horrible to be part way through a program and realize that you don’t have enough money to finish.

5 . Are there funds available for students to travel to professional conferences?

Conferences provide valuable opportunities for students to network with possible future employers or collaborators. Some programs have rules about travel support that are tied to presenting research.

6 . Do your students share authorship on papers that you publish? Are they ever senior authors?

This can be an area of contention because research ideas come to fruition. It is extremely frustrating to have a major advisor take all of the credit for student work. It is best to be clear about these boundaries from the beginning.

7 . What are your research interests? Do you have specific topics in mind for a potential PhD student?

Prior to the interview, you should have looked up some of the professor’s publications to get an idea of the types of things he or she is working on. The research should spark an interest in you. After all, you will spend years digging into the topic so if you are not excited about the research, it will be a hard journey in graduate school.

Lucia Tyler can be reached at [email protected]

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Aneesa Sonawalla: Interviewing for grad school is a two-way street

Aneesa Sonawalla (ACL) shared her list of questions and strategy for interviewing potential PhD advisors on the MIT GradBlog . One of the most intimidating parts of the PhD application process is choosing a research group to join. It’s a daunting commitment–this group will be your home of sorts for the next five or more years. It’s important to think about this choice as finding a good match, rather than picking the name you think will look best on your papers. When I was making this decision last year, I created a list of questions to ask potential advisors. While the primary goal was obviously to hear how the advisor answered each question, an equally important part of the process was asking myself what  my  ideal answer was for each one. This was pretty tough–it’s hard to know yourself! At the core, I was trying to answer the most critical question: what do  I  want to get out of graduate school? Particularly coming from a stable industry career that did not require me to get a PhD to advance, I wanted to ensure that I was setting myself up to get the most out of my experience. Forcing myself to think about the mentorship style I value in an advisor, the type of working environment I function best in, how social I wanted to be with my labmates, and so on, led me to a choice that I could feel confident in.

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Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research.

What are some important questions to ask a potential supervisor?

So I have a research component as part of my Masters course and I’m beginning to reach out to supervisors who have interesting projects on offer.

I’ve heard a supervisor can make or break your research experience, so what are some essential questions I should be asking when I’m interviewing? It would be a bit difficult right now to get a “feel” of the lab/their group as I can’t physically go see them (given the current state of the world)