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Questions to ask when visiting graduate schools.

Grad Life

By kroth
Posted Thu Feb 12, 2004 at 12:27:47 PM PDT

I am interested in coming up with a list of for propective grad students to ask when visiting grad schools, both for my own students and for a post for the Undergrad Life section. What did you ask? What should have you asked?

I didn't get to visit my prospective grad schools, becuase I was studying at the Budapest Semesters in Mahematics the year I applied to grad school.

[editor's note, by jvano] As you read the coments, each posting can be "rated" for how useful you find it. Maybe from this we could generate a "top 10" list of questions to ask!

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Questions to ask when visiting graduate schools. | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] Find out about teaching (TAing) load (none / 0) (#1)
by jvano on Fri Feb 13, 2004 at 03:24:43 PM PDT

Some questions you might want to ask about TAing:

Will you be a teaching assistant (running discussion sections for a professor) or will you be teaching your own class?
For upper level graduate students, is there an opportunity for them to teach their own class?
How many "contact hours" with the students will you have (or be expected to have)?
How many students will you be TAing for (how many different discussion sections and how many students in each discussion section)?
How much grading are you expected to do as a TA?
Does the department have at TA training session (or more generally what, if anything, do they do for TA training)?
Is there a TA union on campus?

Another related question to ask:

How many students get research assistant (RA) positions where they can work on their dissertation without worrying about teaching?

I'm sure there are other important questions about TAing that I've forgotten here so please reply to this comment to flesh out what I've forgoten...

[new] Find out about attrition and time to PhD (none / 0) (#2)
by jvano on Fri Feb 13, 2004 at 04:04:40 PM PDT

Two useful things to know:

What is the attrition rate for students in the program (see a related story on Ph.D. attrition rates)?
It might be hard to get a straight answer from people in the department on this, but one way to find out is ask current grad students (when they are not on the record).
What is the average time for students to earn their PhD?
This is something you are more likely able to directly ask the graduate advisor (or whoever is your contact person in the department).

[new] Even more questions (none / 0) (#3)
by jvano on Fri Feb 13, 2004 at 04:15:48 PM PDT

What is the structure of exams that students need to pass as they work toward their degree (e.g. preliminary exams, subject exams, oral exams, qualifiers, etc)?
Do students automaticaly get a masters after passing so many exams on the way to their PhD or do they need to write a seperate masters report or thesis? (I know at UT-Austin you do have to do this, so I didn't get a masters, just my PhD. This is also useful to know on the off chance you decide at some point to either simply get a masters or change to a different PhD program [in which case you will probably want to try and leave with a masters if possible].)
You also want to be thinking about choosing an advisor at some point (see a related story on Choosing an Advisor). I know this seems really premature, but I think its a good idea to look into how many "active" PhD advisors there are and how many students they have recently graduated. For that matter look into what fields recent PhD students are in and try to determine if you would be interested in working in this field. (I know from experience that this is difficult for students who are at smaller liberal arts institutions and don't have access to advanced classes in a broad range of subjects.)

[new] A website about applying to math grad school. (none / 0) (#4)
by kroth on Mon Mar 01, 2004 at 12:44:56 PM PDT

This website was suggested by one of my students. It is by Rachel Esselstein who is a math grad student at Dartmouth.
Here is the link.

[new] funding/level of first year courses/ (none / 0) (#5)
by sormani on Thu May 13, 2004 at 05:44:09 PM PDT

Ask the students by email or in person: How does funding compare to cost of living? What summer jobs are available nearby? Are there other students like me here? Ask the department: How many years of funding do I have? How quickly do I need to progress to keep the funding? How well do students with American Bachelor's do in this program? Students from small colleges? Are there real first year level courses here? Get a copy of the written quals and see how far beyond your current knowledge they are. Ask about the textbooks used and look at them. See how well you follow the first chapter. Keep in mind some departments consider grad students to be cheap labor. This is more common in the sciences. You want to make sure you'll be progressing towards a PhD and they haven't just admitted you to be a good TA.

Questions to ask when visiting graduate schools. | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

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