Ask the graduate department

• What are the academic regulations/requirements for graduating?
• What percentage of the students pass the qualifying exams the first time? How many chances are there?
• Are a large percentage of the students graduating with only a terminal masters degree?
• What is the average time to obtain a Ph.D.?
• When (and how) do you choose your advisor? How difficult is it to switch advisors after, say, a year?
• Who selects the dissertation committee?
• Is the support offered as a teaching or as a research assistantship? How much is the stipend?
• How many working hours per week is expected for a TA or RA?
• Are you guaranteed support for the entire time, or is it on a year by year basis?
• If it is year by year, what would disqualify you?
• Is there a teaching requirement? How are teaching assignments made (lottery or choice)?
• What sort of computing facilities do they have?
• What are their provisions for housing, day care, health insurance, etc.?

Ask the current graduate students

• Do different research groups interact? Is there collaboration within the department or across departments?
• What is the actual time commitment for a TA/RA? Is the TA/RA stipend enough to live on in that area?
• Do the students have enough time for a social life? Is the type of social life you desire available?
• What are the environs like? Do you like them?
• Do graduate students have access to athletic and other university facilities?
• Is there a graduate student organization?
• Are the provisions for housing, health insurance, etc. adequate?

Talk to the current graduate students before you choose an advisor to learn

• Do most of the students like working with this research advisor?
• What is the average time for a Ph.D. in her/his lab?
• How much monetary support is there for research?
• Is the prospective advisor sensitive to women's issues?
• How independent is the research of the students?
• Do the students work together (with other students and/or the advisor)?
• Is the advisor personally involved in the research?
• How frequently is the advisor available?
• Do the students present their work at national conferences? Who pays for attending such conferences?
• Does the advisor take an active role in placing her/his students? Do students go into industry or academia?
• How quickly does the advisor publish completed work?

Specific issues for women

• It has been said: “do not go to a place where there are no female faculty.”
• Talk to female graduate students in the department!
• Do they have women’s support groups?
• What do they do? Do they have one specific to your field?
• Is there a women’s center?

Helpful hints

• Choose a research area that you are interested in.
• However, still choose an advisor with whom you get along!
• Choose an advisor with broad research interests.
• Your advisor should be willing to help you get through in a timely manner, i.e. assist you with meeting the deadlines for preliminary exams, proposal preparation, and dissertation.
• Your advisor should give you some research freedom; do not let yourself be a laboratory technician for five years.
• Attend research seminars offered at your university and annual meetings of professional organizations.
• If possible, participate in drafting grant proposals so you will know how to write successful ones.
• Try to cultivate your “third recommender;” most post-doc positions will require three letters of recommendation.
• Make an effort to present your work at departmental and professional meetings.

This was written from a draft of Graduate School in Science and Engineering: Tips for Students and Faculty by Marsha Lakes Matayas, from statements at the Recruiting and Retaining Women in Physics Conference, held November 2-3, 1990, in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and from a discussion within Women in Math and Science at Haverford College. Prepared by Liese van Zee, HC ’91.