Questions That You Want to Ask Your Potential Advisor

As I mentioned in the post WWWWWH: Graduate School, here are some questions that you can add to your list:

1. What is your experience thus far in this field of [ex. Engineering]?

2. What motivates you the most to complete your work/projects? Why do you do what you do?

3. Do you spend more time alone or with others given your discipline? Why/why not?

4. How do you feel about your discipline’s involvement with people or the local community? Does that work feel like a great service to others?

5. How do you deal with conflict or differing perspectives?

6. What are your expectations of your graduate students? Do you make that clear to them?

7. How do you support students publishing their own work for the first time?

8. Do you have any grand vision that you have been imaging or cultivating as a researcher? For example, rebranding the discipline, getting undergraduate students engaged in research, or working more on the way the discipline disseminates research to the public?

9. What does you presence and engagement look like as a mentor/advisor? Are you hands-on or do you encourage more independence?

10. Do you feel like your students can count on you for support? What are common problems, or any problems, that your graduate students experienced that you have helped facilitate a solution for?

11. What are three of your best qualities do you think?

12. What do you think is included in a quality graduate student experience?