Choosing graduate schools to apply to can be a difficult but important challenge. It isn’t easy to try to understand what your life at a particular institution will be like. This is also a very personal decision. As a result, the goal of this page is not to be a comprehensive list of considerations and questions to ask when looking at graduate schools as that set will vary widely from person to person. Rather, this page tries to raise some points that you may not have considered yet, and aims to help get you started thinking about how to make this decision.
There are generally two stages to the process of selecting a graduate school to attend. First, you must select which schools to submit applications to. Second, from the schools that you are accepted to, you must then select which is right for you.
Common Considerations
Below is a list of the items which commonly factor into the decision of which graduate schools to
- Professor to work with
- Degree requirements
- Location
- Where people from the school/lab you are considering generally go upon graduation
Questions You Might Want to Ask
- What do people do on weekends?
- How does qualification work (phd programs)
- What is the coursework requirements
- Are students typically supported as TA or RA
- How long do you have to find an advisor? How do people usually go about finding an advisor? Do people normally enter the PhD program with an advisor already in mind, or is there a search process after joining the university?
- Where can I find more about the degree requirements and timeline?
[box]Read more in the FAQs for Selecting a Program[/box]
