what must I ask a potential PhD supervisor

mommaoftrips

I have two meetings, and want to ensure I am asking the right questions. They are both first time supervisors so I cannot ask to speak with any of their current graduate students (or at least first time with a PhD student). However, I had a great meeting with the professor who will be co-supervising but as she is retiring prior to my finishing, that is why there will be a new prof as my advisor.

I am thinking I will discuss their area of research along with my preliminary ideas around what I would like to focus on.

I will ask about what they feel their supervisory style is, how often they would like to meet?

How should I bring up the subject of funding?

Anything else you asked or in retrospect you wished you had asked?

Thanks

mamom0103

I was my advisors first PhD student. The questions you mentioned are good, in terms of funding I just honestly asked my advisor how long he had funding for me for and what his plans were for obtaining more. For me, I also discussed what his plans/expectations/hopes for the lab were for the duration of the time I would be there. My advisor was brand new and there were rumors he might not stay so I wanted to know what his plans were (he assured me this wasn't the case). In my program we got to spend short rotations trying out different advisors before choosing one so that helped. I think the most important thing is to feel you can communicate openly with your advisor and be clear about their expectations for you (and vice versa) from the start. Good luck!

brachysira

Visit the department.  Meet with students and other professors in addition to yours.  You must ask for the employment/position status of all graduates within the last 10 years.  Don't even be shy at all about funding.  If this is a research-based PhD where you will be looking for research or teaching jobs after, then you must ask about health insurance (even if you have it now through your DH--what might happen during those 5 years), what type of funding is guaranteed, what will you be expected to do for it (teach a certain class?  How many hours of teaching?  Is it a lab, how big are the classes, etc. Who decides what you teach? Or would you do research for your advisor--do you get nay credit for this work?  Work on your own research?)  Are there fellowships in the department or at the university level?  How can you apply and how likely is it you'll get one? Do they expect you to have external funding or apply for it?  How much money is available for your research?  Will any conference travel be covered?  How long does it take the average person to graduate?  How many post docs do they usually do before they get a job?  How many publications are expected?  What exactly must you do to graduate?  Is there funding in the summer? Do many graduate students have families?  

Being someone's first student can be nice because they care about your success.  But if they don't get tenure, what happens to you?  How much time do they need to set up and will you have to help?  Etc.  

Take this as you will, but you can be the smartest, most driven person in the world, and a PhD may get you nowhere you wouldn't be with a MS/MA or even BS/BA degree.  The expectation that you are single mindedly focused on your research, which must be the most important thing in the world to you does not seem compatible with family life for many people.  Moreover, you may find that when your LO(s) are in school, you aren't enjoying the idea of doing one-year teaching post docs all over the country, with one move/year while you bulk up your CV for a permanent job (or even 3 year research post docs).  You may be independently wealthy and/or have a DH that works from home with an incredibly lucrative and flexible position, but if not, you may find it dissatisfying to be well into your 30's and only making 17K/year as you think about college savings and other needs of your LO(s).  If your DH doesn't have a super flexible position, you have to be aware of what you can do with a PhD in your city and whether you are certain your degree will qualify you to get those positions without moving around a lot first.  If your DH has agreed to focus on your career, you want to make sure you have the savings intact such that you can afford to live on very little and/or maybe not have income for a semester or two when you write or when you are applying for jobs, and that you have done the math and can save for retirement and college or whatever while making a student salary.   

Obviously much of this may not apply to your particular situation, but I think many graduate students believe they are the exception to the rule when it comes to jobs and how flexible they must be with the other parts of their lives.  Students are so focused on getting in and getting ahead that they forget that they need to ask the hard questions about how this fits into their long term goals.  Overall, my view is that graduate school (non-professional program) is about the journey, and you should only do it if you enjoy it, can afford to do something for yourself, and have no expectations about what will come next.

brachysira

Oh, also, if you are having more LOs, ask how that is handled.  There is sometimes no rule and it is not easy to get an idea how much leave you have, esp with teaching.  I once interviewed at a place that said, "it was only fair to require everyone to teach.  But don't worry!  You can teach double when you are pregnant so you don't have to teach the semester your baby is due."  Luckily, I did not go there, because the amount I throw up when pregnant makes it hard to teach at all, let alone double.